Last day at Costanera Sur 9/24/23

I would have liked another day at beautiful El Calafate but as my departing flight from Buenos Aires to the US was approaching and as that's almost 2000 miles away and I was flying on the not always reliable Aerolinas Argentinas, I decided it would be prudent to have an extra day in the schedule just in case.  The flight to BA went well so my extra day was spent at the birdy Reserva Ecologia Costanera Sur close to my Air B&B.  There were still plenty of birds there being reported on eBird that I had failed to see but as it turned out I saw pretty much the same stuff I had seen before.

As I walked past the lagoon by the entrance the Red-fronted Coots were still abundant.

White-winged Coot is one of those birds that is poorly named.  The white is just a few pale spots on the tips of the secondries.

The Southern Screamers were still screaming near their nest.  I have to say the Horned Screamers I saw on the Amazon are better looking birds.

The same lagoon still held Spot-flanked Gallinules

Black-necked Swans

and Silver Teal.

Brown-chested Martin was new for my park list.

And I finally got a shot of the White-rumped Swallow where you can kind of see the pale forehead.  The similar less likely Chilean Swallow has a dark forehead.  There were a lot more swallows this time as the spring has progressed since my last visit.

I was hoping for some early spring migrant flycatchers but it was still the same stuff.  Here's the Yellow-browed Tyrant.

I got a little better look at Snowy-crowned Terns but still not great photos.  They are pretty freaky looking for a Sterna.

Rufescent Tiger-Herons were out.

I called this a White-crested Tyrannuet with the white streak visble on the crown.  Sure looks like that Straneck's I saw last time.

I finally found my lifer Southern Yellowthroat.

I had another major photography hiccup.  Not sure what happened this time but I had a Sooty-fronted Spinetail right in front of my face and many of my photos were focused off the bird and onto the tree.  Not sure if it was the camera of the photographer.  I got a few shots but missed the best ones.

A Narrow-billed Woodcreeper was also cooperative as it searched holes in this tree for good stuff to eat.

The blooming Aloe patch still held hummers with a new species being a pair of Glittering-bellied Emeralds.

Guilded Sapphire was still present.  Sure doesn't look like the illustration in the guide.

One of my favorite birds were the friendly Black-and-rufous Warbling-Finches.  It also has my favorite genus name "Poospiza."

My last new bird for the trip was this Yellow-throated Spintetail.  This one popped up out of the cattails.  I saw my lifer in Venezuela in a marsy wetland.

Despite the accident in Ushuaia it was still a fascinating and enjoyable trip.  I totalled a paltry 145 species with 85 lifers.  I would have gotten more if I had stayed in the warmer north but I had to see Tierra del Fuego.  Just a few days after I left, an independent globe trotting world birder tallied 589 species in three weeks.  But he gets up at 4am, goes to bed at midnight and thinks nothing of walking ten to tweny miles in a day.  Don't think I want to do that.

Reserva Ecológica Costanera Sur, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, AR

Sep 24, 2023 8:54 AM - 1:29 PM

Protocol: Traveling

3.275 mile(s)

65 species

Southern Screamer  2

Black-necked Swan  2

Silver Teal  12

Yellow-billed Teal  1

Rosy-billed Pochard  30

Masked Duck  2

Lake Duck  9

White-tufted Grebe  40

Pied-billed Grebe  2

Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon)  5

Picazuro Pigeon  10

Glittering-bellied Emerald  1

Gilded Hummingbird  3

Spot-flanked Gallinule  4

Common Gallinule  5

Red-fronted Coot  40

Red-gartered Coot  5

White-winged Coot  8

Limpkin  3

Southern Lapwing  2

Wattled Jacana  20

Snowy-crowned Tern  2

Neotropic Cormorant  40

Rufescent Tiger-Heron  1

Black-crowned Night Heron  1

Snowy Egret  1

Great Egret  6

Cocoi Heron  1

Harris's Hawk  3

Checkered Woodpecker  2

Crested Caracara  5

Chimango Caracara  1

Monk Parakeet  2

Nanday Parakeet  5

Narrow-billed Woodcreeper  2

Rufous Hornero  6

Buff-winged Cinclodes  1

Yellow-chinned Spinetail  1

Sooty-fronted Spinetail  2

White-crested Tyrannulet  3

Vermilion Flycatcher  1

Yellow-browed Tyrant  2

Great Kiskadee  15

White-rumped Swallow  2

Brown-chested Martin  1

Barn Swallow  3

Masked Gnatcatcher  5

House Wren  15

European Starling  50

Chalk-browed Mockingbird  2

Rufous-bellied Thrush  6

Creamy-bellied Thrush  5

Hooded Siskin  4

Rufous-collared Sparrow  15

Variable Oriole  4

Shiny Cowbird  1

Grayish Baywing  2

Southern Yellowthroat  3

Golden-crowned Warbler  4

Yellow-billed Cardinal  1

Black-capped Warbling Finch  1

Blue-and-yellow Tanager  4

Sayaca Tanager  2

Black-and-rufous Warbling Finch  6

Golden-billed Saltator  8

Reserva Laguna Nimez, El Calafate 9-22-23

Woke upto a fantastic view from my Air B&B on the mudflats of Lago Argentina just outside El Calafate.

I figured there was still more to see at Reserva Laguna Nimez so I ran over there and got to work.  What a beautiful day!  The morning temperature was in the 30s but I can live with that when the sun is out.  I actually had good luck with the wind here below the roaring forties where it is normally howling.

The Long-tailed Meadowlark greeted me just like last time.

Brown-headed Gulls were cruising the lake and looking for stuff to eat.

Got a better view of the Scale-throated Earthcreeper.  Parallel evolution has guided this suboscine furnariid species to fill the niche of the oscine thrashers.

I wish our Sprague's Pipits were as cooperative as these Correndera Pipits.

My first Buff-winged Cinclodes for the reserve.  This is another member of the Furnariidae.

The Coscoroba Swans were busy.

I finally got my lifer Chiloe Wigeons.

At this point my brain and my photography skills failed me.  I had been trying to photograph a Black-faced Ibis obscured by cattails and had switched the lens to manual mode.  Then a pair of lifer Cinereous Harriers approached, acrobatically chasing each other with loops and stunts.  I started firing photos as they passed overhead several times.  Unbeknownst to me, I was still in manual mode so the camera was not focusing.  I was a magical experience and I was lucky to get anything in focus.

  

To add insult to injury the Black-faced Ibis strutted into the open.

Red Gartered Coot, Yellow-billed Pintail and Upland Geese on the water.

A skulking rail proved to be the common Plumbeous Rail.  I saw one many years ago at Lagunas Mejias on the south Peruvian coast.  Love that psychedelic bill!

Rufous-collared Sparrow should be the national bird of Argentina.  The photogenic little devils seem to be everywhere.

By this time I had reached the boundary fence that separates the reserve from the mudflats of  Lago Argentina.  A gate beckoned and I could see locals wandering the flats and they weren't sinking into the mud too badly so I left the reserve and explored the flats.  Magellanic Plovers have been found here.

There were plenty of Southern Lapwings.

Then I saw several little black and rufous flycatchers...... uhm...... catching flies.  My lifer Austral Negritos!  Decades ago I stepped off a bus in the lonely predawn darkness at a wetland at about 13k feet on the Peruvian altiplando and my first bird was the almost identical Andean Negrito flitting along a partially frozen stream.

Plenty of Chilean Flamingos.

Then I spied shorebirds.  First were Baird's Sandpipers thousands of miles from where I had seen them just a few short weeks ago.

And then the striking Two-banded Plover.  I was glad to get some decent photos.  They are reminiscent of the Three-banded Plovers I saw in South Africa.

There was nothing looking like a Magellanic Plover.  But I was happy to finally see a couple of South American Terns.

I trudged through the mud back to the reserve and continued my way on the trail.  Not much different.  I'm not sure what this Chimango Caracara is doing with this stuff in it's mouth.  They eat anything but this may be nesting material on the sunny early spring day.

The Long-tailed Meadowlark bid me Adios.

Back in El Calafate I returned to the Wanaco Bar which was one of the few places open in the afternoon and tried the guanaco stew.  It was good but I couldn't tell it was any different from the sheep stew.

Tomorrow back to Buenos Aires.