Overnight the thunderstorms and heavy rains really hit the Ibera hard, so when we got ready to go out on Monday morning the 8th of August, the roads were really muddy. Our objective was to bird the roads south of Pellegrini, but frankly the roads were throwing us around in the trucks like crazy, so we had limited success. That said, limited is a relative term as the following pictures will show.
Raptors were common along the road. This first one was especially interesting to me. I am still not 100% sure, but I think it is a juvenile Long-Winged Harrier. At nearly 2' tall, it was one of the biggest raptors we saw.
I really love the flight shots. The Roadside Hawk, (aptly named as this is where you consistently see them) is not very large, at a little over a foot tall, but I was able to get this series from one fence post to the nest as we drove along next to the bird.
We saw many more raptors at the roadside. They included the Yellow-Headed Caracara
And the Chimango Caracara
A couple of mammals seen along the road included the Crab Eating Fox
And a young male Marsh Deer individual
Other roadside birds included the Plain Breasted Ground Dove
The Brown and Yellow Marshbird
I am pretty sure that the following bird is a Warbling Doradito. This english name is not even found in some field guides, but Narosky and Yzurieta has this as one of two Doradito's. In the flycatcher family, this bird definitely displayed the behavior of it's tyrant-flycatcher cousins.
This last roadside example is clearly a Yellow-Browed Tyrant.
Great Pampa Finch
On the way back to the lodge for lunch/siesta, we stopped at the ranger station on the south side of the bridge crossing. Lot's of wildlife can be found within a few hundred yards of the ranger station. One creature however was right among the people. This was very unusual, as this animal is generally very shy. What is this mystery creature. First grandchild to get it right is $10 richer.
As mentioned earlier in this series, the siesta was a required break in our birding day throughout Argentina. At the lodge on the shores of the Ibera however, Nate Chappel, our guide had set up a bench with limbs and feeders to attract the garden birds. So on this Monday, instead of taking a nap, I decided to set up my tripod, sit in a chair and take some more bird pictures.
Nice to get them up close, but this presents it's own challenges in not cutting off parts. Here are a few keepers.
Red-Crested Cardinal
Epaulet Oriole (for the brown "epaulet" on it's shoulder)
The very beautiful Golden Winged Cacique
And the Solitary Cacique, which is essentially all black.
The Shiny Cowbird is similar to the Solitary Cacique, but has a bit different bill and a more iridescent look in the sun.
The Green Winged Saltator is another of the heavy finch/grosbeak species that is pretty tame in this area.
The Spot Winged Pigeon
And the very much smaller Ruddy Ground Dove
The Eared Dove
And of course the ubiquitous Saffron Finch
After "Siesta" we went back out on the boat and the lake. Again, as it had been yesterday, the diversity was incredible.
The mamma Southern Screamer with her chicks.
A number of beautiful shore birds like this Snowy Egret
And this close up Limpkin
And of course the White Necked Heron
A lot of Marsh Deer
Some very close Brazilian Ducks
The very cute White-Headed Marshbird
Yet another Screamer on a nest.
Several sleepy Capybara, this one with it's buddy the Cattle Tyrant,
A bunch of sinister looking Yellow-Headed Vultures
A very proud Rosy Pochard
Both a Yellow-Billed Tern and a Yellow-Headed Vulture circling overhead.
A good view of the very yellow underside of the Wattled Jacana's wings.
My last picture really does describe this experience. All this wildlife existing together is really quite inspiring. I feel very lucky to be able to experience these things.
