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.