Birds of Argentina 2011 Post 4 - An Absolutely Unforgettable Day!

No question about it, I am awfully lucky to get the chance to travel and bird and photograph.  Not every day in this business is the same as every other, and frankly some are just boring and slow.  Then there are those days where you just can't believe how many different birds there are in the world and how much fun it is to watch them in their habitat.  Sunday August 7, 2011 was one of those days!  Frankly, I woke up before dawn feeling the spirit of the day.  The beauty of the lodge we were staying at next to Laguna Ibera (Ibera Lake), was part of it, but the light, the wildlife and just the feeling of being part of so much not altered by man was incredible.


We began our adventure just as the sun was coming up. 


Looking back at our accommodations from our boat as the sun came up.  We were about to see more than 100 species of birds, deer, Cayman, armadillo, etc., etc.,  over the next two days.  Here are just a few from this incredible day.

The morning was spent in a boat on the lake. Cruising the shores and approaching the islands we saw many cayman and deer, and a huge number of birds.

Crakes are a family of birds related to the rails, and somewhat like the Sora here in North America.  This Rufous Sided Crake was shy but really interesting to watch.





Several different Blackbirds were seen on the islands we approached.

The Chestnut Capped Blackbird



And the absolutely stunning Scarlet Headed Blackbird





Of course we saw a lot of Wattled Jacana, some very close.




A couple of Kingfishers.




Green


And Ringed




Masked Gnatcatcher


The Southern Screamer



With the spurs that it, the Jacana and the Lapwing all have.



Cattle and both male and Female (shown here) Tyrants



A couple of raptors were particularly interesting.   Both were seen on the islands out in the lake itself.  First was the Snail Kite.  This bird is endangered in the US where it is not limited to a very small habitat in Florida.  I don't know it's status in South America, but I was pretty thrilled to see it.



The next bird was probably my favorite of the day (although that is hard to call with so many amazing birds).  The Great Black Hawk is huge, and very intimidating looking.  I am sure that the only reason we got close to this one was because of the giant snake that it had in its talons and was reluctant to leg go of even though it was too heavy for it to pick up and fly away with.



It did make a valiant try to get away with the snake however.



At this point it was still only about 9 am.  In the distance we saw a Marsh Deer (quite large) in the distance on another of the floating islands.



As we approached, we saw a very nice White-Headed Marsh Tyrant.



An then off in the distance, we saw something quite incredible.  Our first Jaibiru and a very beautiful White-Necked Heron feeding together.


The only thing that I can conclude is that these birds have either never developed a fear of humans, or have become used to seeing the boats that bring us.  They allowed us to get quite close.





We saw a lot of the Giant Wood Rail




 g
Morning is not yet over however.  Great Kiskadee's were plentiful.



Even the reeds near our lodge were very productive.



As we were returning from the morning out on the lake, we saw this very nice Black Capped Donocobius.



But perhaps the most unexpected surprise of the morning came as we were pulling the boat up to the dock.  In the reeds not more that a few feet from us, a juvenile Ruferous Tiger Heron was hunting and as well arrived, grabbed a big fish and ate it whole.






As an adult, (perhaps it's parent?), flew overhead!



OK  IF YOU ARE A GRANDCHILD AND YOU MADE IT THIS FAR YOU SHOULD GET A PRIZE WHETHER YOU GET THE MYSTERY CRITTER OR NOT, SO THROW A GUESS UP EVEN IF YOU ARE NOT SURE.  THIS NEXT BIRD IS THE MYSTERY CRITTER AND IS A VERY IMPORTANT BIRD TO THE ARGENTINE PEOPLE.


As of course is the tradition in Argentina, we returned in time for a great lunch, and then a siesta.  I was pretty keyed up after that morning however and couldn't sleep.  Whether you are taking pictures or just checking off birds, it is always more fun when there are lots of "targets".  Hardly ever does it get this rich, and in this case it was almost overwhelming.  I really feel lucky to have been on the Ibera on this particular morning.  I prefer to be in church on Sunday mornings, and am lucky to have been given the chance to serve, but this particularly Sunday morning was certainly an inspiring experience as we had the chance to observe the beauty of a world virtually unspoiled by the mistakes of men and full of life. 

The birds were not taking a siesta , so I sat out on the lawn and was soon rewarded with some great looks at the Guira Cuckoo.





At 3 pm, we loaded up and went north of the village birding along the road and in some marshy areas among the cattle ranches. Among the birds seen in a couple of hours from the road included the following:





Both the Male (above) and Female (below) of the White Headed Marsh Tyrant


The American Kestrel.  This falcon is seen frequently in our neighborhood in Oregon, but this was the only one I saw in Argentina.









The White (above) and the Grey (below) Mojita.







The storks are very easy to see, but not real easy to get close to.  The Maguri Stork is not quite as large as the Jaibiru, but was very shy and therefore hard to photograph.  Here are a couple.




Besides the Roadside Hawk seen in the morning as well, we saw a number of Savannah Hawk










And one Apomaldo Falcon.  I once looked for this bird all day in south Texas, and was really happy to finally see it.  It was pretty cooperative, sitting on a fence pole about 50 feet from the truck we were in.  We all got good looks and shots.



A couple of Woodpecker's were common.


Yellow-Fronted (above) and the Field Flicker (below).



Some BIF's (birds in flight) included the Kiskadee


This pair of Southern Screamers


A solitary Jaibiru


And a Yellow Headed Vulture



Two species of Ibis were found in the marsh.


The Plumbeous Ibis (above) and the White Faced Ibis (below)

A large number of the tyrant flycatcher family were all over the place.  Just a few.


Vermillion Flycatcher (above) and the Tropical Parula (below)


A little Masked Gnatcatcher showed up just a few feet from us in a bush and worked it over for a long time.  This was a rare chance to get some really close shots.




To illustrate just how crazy this day was, we saw a Burrowing Owl on a fence post, watched for a minute and suddenly saw a Spotted Nothura running around below it.  Soon there were two Owls flying around, and a couple of Nothura chasing each other around.  Crazy.



The Spotted Nothura is of the Tinamou family which is a South American specialty.  This pair was obviously getting frisky and it was fun to watch the antics.




And the end was as beautiful as the beginning.  What an incredible day!

End of Summer - Maybe

Memorial Day provided the virtually only opportunity to get a bit of family pool time in before the summer ended (which it seems to have done!).  The lodge really has proven to be the great family gathering place that we hoped it could be. 

 

 Cuong is one guy who is not afraid of mechanical things.  A bunch of kids were pretty confident in his driving skills!


Kayla didn't have to be swimming to be joining in the fun.


Another baby recently born was to Mike and Christine, a little boy to match Moose, meet T Rex, being held by Liyan.  Ok let's look at this family relationship.  Maybe someone can help me with what it is.  My brother Mike has a baby.  It is being held by my daughter in law.  So what is the relationship of T Rex and Liyan?


Sarah is really getting comfortable in the water.



Talk about comfortable in the water, Weston at 1 year old is swimming!  Alicia pushes him under the water, and he literally swims to his dad underwater.  Amazing.




Regan is deadly with the squirt gun!  And deadly in other ways too!!!


Meanwhile, Sammy and Felix were playing in the deep end!



Probably the luckiest kid in the world is Weston with a grandma who will get down and dirty with him!




Summer, I hope we get a bit more.

Newest Cousin! Its a DOT!!

The latest cousin is here.  Dot Vial was born today and came in at a whopping 9 lbs.  Another real serious cutie, and a decent pair of lungs to boot.



She is actually a very content little one.



Usually I am just the photographer at these events, but Grandma is off in Hawaii and I actually got about a 30 minute hold session all to myself. 


Aunt Alicia was actually the star support for this one.  She showed up with food just as the baby was being born and provided the sideline support that we have come to expect from this great family.


And little Weston seems to be a bit overwhelmed by the whole thing..


Dad is of course a natural.



And we have a new family that just keeps growing!



Yeah, they are as goofy as they look, but this is one great little family.  Oh and by the way, Dot comes from Dorothy, the name of Great, Great, Great Grandma's on both sides.  I am not sure of where Dot was in Kenni's family, but Dot Shepherd was the Grandmother of my dad on his mom's side.   Yeah, and one more thing, Kenni is a rock star when it comes to this stuff.  She was great!

Birds of Argentina 2011 Post 3

On August 6 we left the Hilton Hotel early for the domestic airport in Buenos Aries to board a regional jet for the very small airport at Corrientes, Argentina.  After waiting nearly an hour for our luggage, we were met by our drivers, a couple of brothers from Pellegrini, our eventual destination about 5 hours away.



We weren't very far out of town before the true cow country of Argentina appeared.  Huge, wide open country.  Not particularly well developed, and as we traveled we realized that there was a fuel shortage going on in the area.  We tried a number of different filling stations before we finally got some diesel.  The rigs we were traveling in were not much to look at, and were crowded, but tough. 


Brig, Chelle, Paula and I were in the Red pickup, with our luggage under the tarp in back.  The rest of our group was in the Nissan SUV.  3 across the back in these rigs over very rough roads was a trip. Michelle made it a bit more hilarious by making Brig translate for her while she interrogated our driver about everything from religion to politics and everything in between.  She was totally doing her 20 question thing the whole way.  Turns out our driver was a pretty bright and well read individual, so this was interesting.


After a brutally long wait, we finally got fuel.


We drove the dirt roads on the way up about 35 to 40 MPH.  We didn't stop for any bird photography, so I had to try for some shots out the window.  It was fascinating to see the civilization diminish more and more, and we did begin to see some birds.


The ubiquitous Southern Crested Caracara were there, including this one next to a Rufous Hornero.



We also saw a number of other raptors.


The Roadside Hawks were abundant.


After several hours heading southeast, we came to a little ranching community named Mercedes.  Here, after a couple of tries we found a filling station that still had some diesel, and filled up.




After leaving Mercedes, the roads got considerably worse.


Occasionally we would see trucks that were "maintaining" the roads.  There were a number of long haul trucks working the roads, supplying the villages that serviced the ranches.  This was a huge area, probably about the size of the state of Oregon!  

The area we were ultimately headed for, the Ibera Marsh, is in the middle of cattle country.  It was once the site of some very large rice plantations, but because the Giant Anteater was hunted nearly into extinction, the anthills and termite mounds have virtually ruined the landscape.  Restoration of the wetlands has been the fortunate byproduct however, and the Marsh is now one of the premier birding spots in the world.  As we approached, we began to see more and more of the wetland fauna.


Great Egret


It got to the point where we saw virtually no traffic, and only the occasional horseback rider.

Signs that there had once been more people in the area were around however.


Let's throw in the mystery critter before we finish up.   By the way, Kayla won $30 this morning by solving the last 3 mystery critters!  We began to see a bunch of these critters, and by the time we got to the lake at Pelligrini, they were crossing the road in front of us regularly.  What is it?


As we got closer to Laguna Ibera, we began to see more and more birds.  It was getting dusk, but we still got a few shots off.


A tree full of Guira Cuckoo's.


Another tree full of our friend the Red-Crested Cardinal.


Wattled Jacana


And White Monjita


We finally saw a sign and knew we were actually going to get there.


At this point we were about 60 miles away, but decided to slow down.  I was really glad we did, as one of the birds I had really wanted to see in Argentina was flitting along the side of the road.


The Strange Tailed Tyrant is only found in a small area where a particular reed is growing along the road.  Even though it was almost dark, we worked on getting this bird.  This picture was taken at only 1/40th of a second so I was really lucky to stop the windy swaying movement to get at least a reasonably decent shot.


Actually enchanting country.  The village of Pellegrini mostly exist's for birder and wildlife travelers.  I will show pictures of the place we stayed in a future post.




A true adventure...