This trip was planned pre-Covid and was originally designed to be a big 3-month tour to include Antarctica, Argentina, Chile and Brazil but Covid whittled that down to Antarctica and Argentina. We headed to the airport on December 28th to stay overnight and have our PCR tests done before we flew out the following morning to board a boat in Ushuaia for Antarctica when Carol tested positive for Covid! The following morning, we had to return home! 2 days later I tested positive as well and we were both quite sick ¨C Carol had the Delta variant and I had the Man-Covid variant which was MUCH worse! (lol)
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Not to be completely defeated, we decided we could still pick up the Argentina leg of the trip and left on January 16th for Buenos Aires.
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Our 5-week trip took us from BA to southern Patagonia, we then flew to Cordoba and drove down to San Luis to bird central Argentina, flew back to BA for a couple of days R&R from all the early morning birding before heading to the Atlantic coast and then back to BA to bird Ceibas and Otamendi north of the city, before flying to Posadas in Misiones Province in northeast Argentina, on the border with Paraguay and Brazil ¨C the itinerary allowing us to cover all of the different habitats we needed in the country. Our guide was ´³³Ü±ô¾±¨¢²Ô Vidoz who co-authored the field guide to the birds of Bolivia; he was recommended to us by my friend Andy Whittaker, a senior bird guide for VENT (Victor Emmanuel Nature Tours). It¡¯s aways a privilege to bird with the world¡¯s best guides, their knowledge and skill is truly impressive and ´³³Ü±ô¾±¨¢²Ô fue fenomenal!
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We managed 481 species, of which 308 (64%) were new for us, and had fantastic views of everything thanks to the expertise of ´³³Ü±ô¾±¨¢²Ô who not only had super local knowledge of the micro-habitats where the birds are but an unbelievable knowledge of bird vocalizations, having personally recorded calls and songs of more than 2,000 species in south America, and without which we would never have seen half of the species we did ¨C- much¨ªsimas gracias amigo!
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Among the many highlights was searching for the critically endangered Hooded Grebe in the high plateau of the Patagonia steppe ¨C it was a marathon 3.5-hour 4x4 drive up barely a mountain track to a high plateau lagoon where Hooded Grebes are found and where the wind can reach speeds up to 120 kph ¨C it was brutally cold and windy but such an experience to be in such a remote and wild place!
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Killer views of Austral Rail, a highly sought species by world listers and a bird often heard but hardly ever seen, and it walked out in to the open for us!
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Spot-lighting nightjars in Rincon Santa Maria was a magical experience with spectacular views of Sickle-winged Nightjar (wow!), Scissor-tailed Nightjar (wow!) and Little Nightjar (wow!)
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16 species of woodpecker including the rare and threatened Helmeted Woodpecker, and 5 species of Tinamou!
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We loved Argentina ¨C incredible birding with fantastic views of everything, great hotels and roads, good food and lovely people ¨C our guide was awesome so other than an insane amount of driving for the species we wanted, Argentina is a 10 experience and a superhigh recommend; and we have never been able to say that for any of the other south American countries (Ecuador, Colombia and Peru) we have birded in!
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We will post a full trip report on our birding website () shortly with full details of the trip itinerary along with the bird list, guide and accommodations information and, as always, happy to help and provide information for anyone thinking of planning a trip there.
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Derek
| Derek J. Matthews
Chairman, ?Director Communication
NABC Certified Trainer
Vancouver?Avian Research Centre
Registered Canadian Charity #82118 2656 RR0001
4115, East Braemar Road, North Vancouver, BC, V7K 3C9
T: (604) 218-1191
E: Derek@...
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