October 29-November 14, 2024 with Dave Stejskal & Doug Gochfeld
Argentina is a huge country, and the scale of the landscapes in the southern section of the country is truly grand. This part of Argentina does not match the more tropical north in terms of bird diversity, but what it lacks in number of species, it makes up for in sheer spectacle. We ran the gamut from the vast Patagonia desert and steppe, to an Andean glacier, to colonies of multiple species of penguin, to the rich pampas, bubbling with birds around every corner.
We started our tour in the nation’s capital of Buenos Aires, with those of us newly arrived to the country meeting the folks who had been one part one, up-country, with Willy Perez. We met to bird Costanera Sur reserve on our first afternoon, and racked up a nice total of 85 species – good for an introductory afternoon! The waterfowl action was particularly impressive, with hundreds of Fulvous Whistling-Ducks, our only Ringed Teal of the tour, and some White-faced Whistling-Ducks and Masked Ducks. Other highlights here were Dark-billed Cuckoo, three species of coot, a migrant flock of Snail Kites, Sooty-fronted Spinetail, and Black-and-rufous and Gray-throated Warbling Finches. After this bird banquet, we celebrated with a different kind of banquet at a Parrilla within walking distance of the hotel.
The next morning was the first of our four internal flights, and we headed down to Trelew, a few hours to the south. Upon landing, we made the drive down to Punta Tombo to see the entertaining Magellanic Penguin colony, and it lived up to expectations. We also encountered some really nice White-headed Steamer-Ducks here, and started seeing some Patagonian landbirds here, from Elegant Crested-Tinamous to Plain-mantled Tit-Spinetails and Sharp-billed Canasteros. The next day, we headed out to get into some more of the Patagonian specialty birds in the open lands around Trelew. New birds here included Least Seedsnipe, a pair of Lesser Horned Owls on territory, Scale-throated Earthcreeper, a Short-billed Pipit which nearly walked up to us, several Carbonated Sierra-Finches, and Chiguanco Thrush, a more Andean species which has only relatively recently arrived as a regular in this region. A midday visit to the lagoon in Trelew held thousands of ducks (over 4,000 Red Shoveler alone), notable Lake and Black-headed ducks, over 600 Chilean Flamingos, and, despite the windy conditions, a couple of Straneck's Tyrannulets and a White Monjita. We closed the day with a visit to a very windy Punta Loma, which featured some Snowy Sheathbills, Southern Giant-Petrels, and a nice view of a Magellanic Cormorant colony (in addition to the Sea Lions down below).
Our next day was devoted to the huge Península Valdés. Bird highlights today included White-winged Black-Tyrant, Common Miner, Lesser Rhea, Darwin’s Nothura, Burrowing Owl, Baird’s Sandpiper, Lesser Shrike-Tyrant, Rusty-backed Monjita, and a truly phenomenal roadside Tawny-throated Dotterel. Despite these bird highlights, however, the real stars of the day were mammalian. On our way out the Peninsula we saw a couple of Southern Right Whales, including one close to shore, and on a normal day, this would’ve been a contender for mammal highlight of the day. But as it turned out, this wouldn’t be a normal day. After we stopped for lunch, we were treated to a couple of excellent mammal experiences, both involving Killer Whales! First, we saw a couple of Orcas swimming around in the surf, mere feet from shore, beaching themselves a couple of times, before writhing their way back into the ocean. This was apparently practice/play, since there were only a few Elephant Seals present, but you can see that they like to keep their beach-hunting skills sharp. Then, the same whales (dolphins, really) swam off to the south. We also headed this way, intending to leave on a high note, since that encounter had been so unique. But then, as we approached the parking lot, we saw that the Killer Whales had encountered a mother Southern Right Whale and her large calf, and we watched them try to separate mother from calf for 15 minutes or so. The Right Whales successfully warded them off, and the Orcas swam away. This was a totally awesome experience, and with the addition of Guanacos, Patagonian Mara, Big Hairy Armadillo, and Southern Cavys, this was clearly the banner mammal day of the tour!
The next two days were spent heading up to, and spending a couple of days around, Las Grutas, and this produced some more memorable experiences. Bird highlights as we roved around the open lands included Burrowing Parakeets (there is an impressive colony on the seaside cliffs of the town itself!), Fork-tailed Flycatcher, Band-tailed Earthcreeper, Yellow Cardinal, Sandy Gallito, Hudson’s Black-Tyrant, Cinnamon Warbling-Finch, Ringed Warbling-Finch, Stripe-crowned Spinetail, White-tipped Plantcutter, White-banded Mockingbird, Austral Pale-breasted Spinetail, abundant Straneck’s Tyrannulets, Greater Wagtail-Tyrant, White-throated Cachalote, Blue-and-Yellow Tanager, Short-billed Canastero, and a last second Patagonian Canastero. This was all against the backdrop of an incredible spectacle of Manx Shearwaters, with our daily counts ranging between 4,000 and 8,000 individuals, usually milling around in huge beehive-like masses, but sometimes even rafting on the water. A couple of lovely dinners at an excellent restaurant punctuated the ever-so-eventful birding days here.
Thence, we made our way back to Trelew for a flight to Argentina’s land’s-end: Ushuaia. During our 72 hours here, we would set out on a boat to ply the waters of the famous Beagle Channel, explore the breathtakingly scenic Tierra del Fuego National Park, and some of us would even make the climb up to Glacier Martial (though there is little left of the glacier itself), all based from our cozy waterside hotel with plenty of fun birds right out the dining room windows and front door! It was a late spring down in Tierra del Fuego, so there was much more snow around than usual for the date, and the character of the birds on the boat trip were very wintery too, with more Southern Fulmars than Dave had ever seen in this stretch, along with relatively small numbers of Black-browed Albatross (though we did see this species nicely). We went as far as Isla Martillo (colloquially known as Penguin Island), where scores of Magellanic, and nearly 80 Gentoo penguins were launching into their breeding season. In addition, we got views of the difficult-to-see from land Blackish Cinclodes, a lifetime’s worth of shags, and even a single wayward Southern Elephant Seal trying to blend in to the South American Sea Lions. After the boat trip, because no birding tour is complete without a trip to the landfill, we headed up to the Ushuaia dump. We saw a great many raptors and gulls (and nearby, dozens of Chilean Skuas), but we had one specific bird in mind here, and we converted wonderfully on it: White-throated Caracara. The National Park offered up its bountiful mountain views as a backdrop for a huge, and cooperative, Magellanic Woodpecker, charming Thorn-tailed Rayaditos, raucous Austral Parakeets, and an amazingly inquisitive Crested Caracara, while our afternoon hike up the mountain provided Buff-winged Cinclodes, Black-faced Ground-Tyrant, and at the last possible moment, the high elevation denizens: Yellow-bridled Finch, and Ochre-naped Ground-Tyrant!
Before departing, we filled in a couple more gaps in our bird list: Ashy-headed Goose, Magellanic Snipe, and Dark-bellied Cinclodes, and then headed to the airport for another internal flight, this time up to El Calafate, at the feet of the southern Andes and on the edge of southern Patagonia. There was some good birding to be had, with Spot-billed and Cinnamon-bellied ground-tyrants, Lesser (Darwin’s) Rhea, Cinereous Harriers displaying, Lesser Horned Owl, Gray-bellied Shrike-Tyrant, and Andean Condors! The road and paths towards the spectacular glacier in Los Glaciares had Austral Blackbird, Chilean Flicker, and Magellanic Tapaculo, and the wetlands near town featured Two-banded Plover, and the real headliner: the monotypic Magellanic Plover!
For our final act of the tour, we would need yet one more internal flight, and a dramatic change of scenery: it was time to leave the far south, and Patagonia, behind, and head to the Pampas. We overnighted in Buenos Aires, and did some birding on our way south. As we got into the Pampas proper, we were surrounded by lush green fields and water a-plenty, quite the contrast from the dry scenery and mountains of the south. Our morning birding stop, before a huge parrilla lunch, gave us a modest flock of migrating Swainson’s Hawks in addition to some more sedentary and region-specific species (Spix’s Spinetail, Narrow-billed Woodcreeper). Little did we know that it would be a prelude to a migration spectacle. The winds were ripping from the WSW as we drove south with most folks in a post-prandial slumber, and all of a sudden Swainson’s Hawks were everywhere. In a stretch of a couple of miles, we counted a thousand Swainson’s Hawks. Our brief afternoon birding stop had us sheltering in the lee of the vehicle, and watching nearly a hundred Buff-breasted Sandpipers, and larger numbers of American Golden-Plovers and White-rumped Sandpipers and dozens of other waterbirds, before we headed down to San Clemente del Tuyu, our home for the next two nights.
Our penultimate morning was devoted to the rich tidal wetlands of Punta Rasa, and we started out birding the rich reedbed habitat, where a whole suite of special birds live. In quick succession we picked up Freckle-breasted Thornbird, Warbling Doradito, Bay-capped Wren-Spinetail, Sulphur-bearded Reedhaunter, Long-tailed Reed Finch, the Pampas subspecies of Grass Wren, and of course the more conspicuous Great Pampa Finch. At one point, I scanned inland, and there was incredible spectacle – swarms of birds over the mainland on the distant western horizon. They looks like gnats, but they were actually Swainson’s Hawks, which had been pushed to the coast yesterday, waking up for the day to continue their migration. With the wind more favorable for going in the direction they wanted, they headed inland, and within a few minutes, the sky over there was clear, as if they’d never actually been there. We continued out towards the point, in search of one more big (well, major is a better word, they’re not actually all that big) specialty. After a couple of attempts, we finally heard a Dot-winged Crake, and eventually, it revealed itself, giving all of us excellent views – some of Dave’s best ever! The rest of this day involved other fun birds, like White-throated Hummingbird, Yellow-browed Tyrant, huge Maguari Storks, Chilean Flamingos, and dozens of Hudsonian Godwits. We couldn’t track down any Olrog’s Gulls (they were presumably all out at the point itself, which is not currently accessible by vehicle), but we did track down the range-restricted Hudson’s Canastero. In the afternoon, we returned to the place we had been the prior afternoon, with more time at our disposal, and less wind to fight (though it was still breezy). It was great again - the congregation of shorebirds proved to still be excellent, with over a hundred each of Buff-breasted Sandpipers and American Golden-Plover, and good numbers of a couple of other long-distance migrants that breed on the arctic tundra: Pectoral and White-rumped sandpipers, as well as over a dozen Wilson’s Phalarope. We also found Greater Rhea and Lake Duck, and had excellent repeated views of Snowy-crowned Tern and a beautiful dark-morph Long-winged Harrier. The reedbed was also our friend, with stupendous views of Wren-like Rushbird and that iconic Argentine bird, Many-colored Rush-Tyrant, called Siete Colores in Spanish. Then, sadly, it was time to head back north for flights home, but on the way, we made a couple of stops and found some extras. Scarlet-headed Blackbird and Campo Flicker were seen from a brief roadside stop, and then we went to Canal Dos, where we had a lovely final excursion in some reedbeds, with Plumbeous and Spotted rails, several dozen of Snail Kites (which, aside from the few minutes of Swainson’s Hawk migration, were the most abundant raptor species during our time in the Pampas), loads of Spectacled Tyrants and Bay-capped Wren-Spinetails, and a particularly memorable encounter with a normally-skulky Stripe-backed Bittern!!
This was a great couple of weeks in one of the most scenic parts of the world. I feel very fortunate that Dave stepped into a void to co-guide this tour with me and show me the ropes, and we were both ever-so grateful to Hector, our indispensable in-country guide, whose knowledge of ecology, laid back attitude, and good humor helped to make the trip a true delight. Dave and I really enjoyed guiding such an interested and engaged group of folks through these lovely landscapes, and sharing some truly special experiences with you. Be well, and bird on, until we meet again somewhere on this birdy planet of ours.
Here is a list of the mammals and some select other non-bird critters we encountered and identified during the tour:
Large Hairy Armadillo (Chaetophractus villosus) European Hare (Lepus europaeus) North American Beaver (Castor canadensis) Southern Mountain Cavy (Microcavia australis) Brazilian Guinea Pig (Cavia aperea) Patagonian Mara (Dolichotis patagonum) Coypu (Myocastor coypus) - Also known as Nutria Killer Whale (Orcinus orca) Southern Right Whale (Eubalaena australis) South American Gray Fox (Lycalopex grisea) Culpeo Fox (Lycalopex culpaeus) South American Sea Lion (Otaria byronia) Southern Elephant Seal (Mirounga leonina) Guanaco (Lama guanicoe)
Patagonian Racer (Philodryas patagoniensis) - Our only snake of the tour, this was along the roadside north of Las Grutas
Hilaire's Side-necked Turtle (Phrynops hilarii) - A couple of encounters in the Pampas
Black-faced Smooth-throated Lizard (Liolaemus melanops) - The flashy black, yellow, and turquoise lizard along the seaside trail on the Valdes Peninsula
Bahia Blanca Smooth-throated Lizard (liolaemus darwinii) - Along the coastal wash south of Las Grutas
Southern Smooth-tailed Iguana (Leiosaurus bellii) - Being carried in the bill of a Chimango Caracara!
Grammostola doeringi - At the wash in Las Grutas - A tarantula with no English common name that I could fine, and apparently endemic to arid central Argentina
Argentine Fossor Tarantula (Grammostola vachoni) - Crossing the road north of Las Grutas
You can see my complete trip report on eBird at this link: https://ebird.org/tripreport/292213
You can download a combined PDF of this page and the eBird report at this link: https://fieldguides.com/triplists/sar24TRIPLIST.pdf
Doug Gochfeld (Treeswift)