Over the next little while I will be making a few photo-heavy blog posts, highlighting a few of my favourite memories from 2023. Laura and I finished our extending traveling in Latin America, but the first four months of 2023 saw us visiting Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil to close things out. We were based out of Canada for the rest of the year and most of my naturalizing took place in Ontario, though I left the country to lead tours this autumn in Indonesia and Ecuador.
January
As has become a tradition, I began 2023 with a day of birding around Halifax. Laura and I visit family in Nova Scotia around Christmas time and most years see us remain in the province until the new year. I didn't take any photos this time and the rain was steadily falling, but a nice walk at Hartlen Point produced a few birding highlights including Pomarine Jaeger, Razorbill and Black-legged Kittiwake.
On January 9, Laura and I landed in Buenos Aires, Argentina and picked up a rental car for a six-week loop around the northwest and northeast parts of Argentina. January saw us swing over to the Córdoba mountains to find several endemic species. The next few weeks were spent in the far northwest. We watched Horned Coots and three species of flamingos on salt lakes, found Red-backed Sierra-Finches and Wedge-tailed Hillstars near the Bolivia border, discovered a huge diversity of species along the altitudinal gradient of the eastern Andes, and visited the vast expanses of the surprisingly biodiverse Chaco ecoregion. We seemed to be on a hot streak with our birding, and we left the northwest of Argentina having seen (or heard) every single one of our target birds, as well as a nice selection of mammals, insects and herps.
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| Southern Screamer and various coots |
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| Monk Parakeet |
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| Cattle Tyrant |
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| Straight-billed Reedhaunter |
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| Dinelli's Doradito |
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| South American Painted-Snipe |
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| Hiking at PN Quebrada del Condorito, Córdoba, Argentina |
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| Olrog's Cinclodes |
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| Long-tailed Meadowlark |
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| Puna (Córdoba) Cinclodes |
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| Spectacled Tyrant |
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| Diponthus puelchus |
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| Brown-capped Tit-Spinetail |
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| Golden-billed Saltator |
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| Brown-capped Redstart |
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| White-tipped Plantcutter |
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| Salinas Monjita |
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| Black-crested Finch |
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| Spot-winged Falconet |
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| Birding at Quebrada Los Sosa, Tucumán, Argentina |
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| Yellow-striped Brushfinch |
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| Sayaca Tanager |
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| Torrent Duck |
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| Dinner of champions |
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| Chilla (Lycalopex grisea) |
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| Túcuman Mountain-Finch |
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| Variable Hawk |
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| Black Siskin |
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| Bare-eyed Ground-Dove |
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| Andean Condors |
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| Quebrada De Las Conchas, Tucumán, Argentina |
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| Quebrada De Las Conchas, Tucumán, Argentina |
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| Anomiopsoides sp. |
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| Liolaemus sp. |
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| Cereus aethiops |
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| El Valle Encantado, Salta, Argentina |
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| Bit more than a patch job... |
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| Andean Tinamou |
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| Red-tailed Comet |
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| Dot-fronted Woodpecker |
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| Rufous-bellied Mountain-Tanager |
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| Guanaco (Lama guanicoe) |
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| El Ucumar Road |
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| Red-legged Seriema |
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| Moss-backed Sparrow |
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| Birding at Potrero de Yala, Jujuy, Argentina |
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| Red-faced Guan |
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| Rufous-throated Dipper |
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| Cream-backed Woodpecker |
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| Quebrada de Humahuaca, Jujuy, Argentina |
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| Mountain Parakeets |
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| James's Flamingo |
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| Highland Tuco-tuco (Ctenomys opimus) |
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| Lesser Rhea |
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| Abra de Lizoite, Salta, Argentina |
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| Mountain Viscacha (Lagidium viscacia) |
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| Citron-headed Yellow-Finches |
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| Mountain Degu (Octodontomys gliroides) |
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| Red-backed Sierra-Finch |
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| Yellow-collared Macaw |
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| Acanthoscurria sp. |
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| Giant Antshrike |
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| Toco Toucan |
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| Painted Lancehead (Bothrops diporus) |
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| Montane Forest Screech-Owl |
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| Rufous Four-eyed Frog (Pleurodema borellii) |
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| Brown Musurana (Paraphimophis rusticus) |
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| Yungas Red-bellied Toad (Melanophryniscus rubriventris) |
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| Solitary Eagle |
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| Tucumán Parrot |
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| Cercosaura sp. |
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| Cybdelis petronita |
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| Epinome Cracker (Hamadryas epinome) |
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| Ochre-cheeked Spinetail |
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| Budgett's Frog (Lepidobatrachus laevis) |
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| Waxy Monkey Leaf Frog (Phyllomedusa sauvagii) |
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| Cranwell's Horned Frog (Ceratophrys cranwelli) |
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| Chaco Horned Frog (Chacophrys pierottii) |
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| Black-and-gold Howler Monkey |
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| Black-bodied Woodpecker |
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| Chaco Owl |
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| Fasciolated Graphic (Melipotis fasciolaris) |
February
We finished crossing the endless miles of the Chaco, trading in the low scrub for the lush forests of the Atlantic rainforest. The birdlife was completely different in northeastern Argentina, overlapping little with the northwest. One of the highlights was experiencing Iguazú Falls, but the wildlife in this area was pretty incredible as well. We took our time so that we could visit many different areas and car-camped at several sites that were a little bit out of the way, giving us a chance to night-hike and set up the moth light.
The Iberá wetland complex is the second-largest wetland in South America (after the Amazon basin!) and Laura and I spent a few days here. With temperatures reaching the 40s, it was not the most comfortable birding that we had done, but at least the rain held off (muddy roads are impassible here) and we found many of the specialties of the area.
For our final week in Argentina, we worked south beyond Buenos Aires, cleaning up several of the last birds we "needed" in the marshes and grasslands several hours south of the city. We took a ferry across to Uruguay on February 23 after a very successful Argentina trip.
Our time in Uruguay was mainly spent getting ready for the next leg of our trip (Brazil, of which we had done no research up to this point). However, we also put in time to find one of the rarest blackbirds of South America, the rapidly declining Saffron-cowled Blackbird. We loved the laid-back pace of Uruguay and its friendly people, though we were also glad that we only had a week here since the prices were about three times that of Argentina. By the end of February we took a flight to São Paulo, Brazil, which I will cover in my next blog post.
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| Red-billed Scythebill |
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| False Water Cobra (Hydrodynastes gigas) |
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| Pale-crested Woodpecker |
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| Argentine Black-and-white Tegu (Salvator merianae) |
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| Pampas Lancehead (Bothrops pubescens) |
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| Sickle-winged Nightjar |
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| Southern Screamer |
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| Yacare Caiman (Caiman yacare) |
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| Gray Monjita |
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| Iberá Seedeaters |
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| Campo Flicker |
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| Bromelia balansae |
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| Royal Firetip (Mysoria barcastus) |
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| Long-winged Harrier |
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| Spix's Spinetail |
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| Streamer-tailed Tyrants |
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| Diastatops intensa |
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| Caria marsyas |
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| Birding along Highway 101, Misiones, Argentina |
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| Chestnut-bellied Seed-Finch |
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| Common Potoos |
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| Harmonia Tigerwing (Tithorea harmonia) |
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| Williams' Side-necked Turtle (Phrynops williamsi) |
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| Iguazú Falls |
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| Burritos in Puerto Iguazú |
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| Barred Forest-Falcon |
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| Widespread Myscelus (Myscelus amystis) |
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| Butterflying along Highway 101 |
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| Ochre-collared Piculet |
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| Black-fronted Piping-Guan |
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| Common Red Brocket (Mazama americana) |
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| Ocellated Tree Frog (Itapotihyla langsdorffii) |
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| Phaloe cruenta |
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| Giant Imperious Sawyer (Enoplocerus armillatus) |
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| Agathodes designalis |
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| Rufous Gnateater |
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| Blackish-blue Seedeater |
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| Conflua Skipper (Tirynthia conflua) |
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| Araucaria Tit-Spinetail |
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| Vinaceous-breasted Parrots |
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| Common Potoo |
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| Stalaeochlora arcuata iguazuensis |
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| Euphobetron moorei |
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| Colla rhodope |
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| Incarcha aporalis |
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| Long-tufted Screech-Owl |
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| Argyroeides sanguinea |
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| Saffron Toucanet |
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| Two-barred Flasher (Astraptes fulgerator) |
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| Giant Wood-Rail |
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| Black-and-gold Howler Monkey (Alouatta caraya) |
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| Capybara (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris) |
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| Marsh Deer (Blastocerus dichotomus) |
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| Pampas Fox (Lycalopex gymnocerca) |
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| Laura making friends |
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| Yellow Cardinal |
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| Black-and-white Monjita |
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| Scarlet-headed Blackbird |
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| Strange-tailed Tyrant |
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| Marsh Seedeater |
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| Yellow Anaconda (Eunectes notaeus) causing pandemonium |
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| Tawny-bellied Seedeater |
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| Wild Boar (Sus scrofa) |
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| Chestnut Seedeater |
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| Plumbeous Ibis |
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| Parque Nacional El Palmar |
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| Pampas Fox (Lycalopex gymnocercus) |
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| Swainson's Hawk |
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| Glaucous-blue Grosbeak |
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| Ortilia velica |
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| Bicolored Hawk |
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| Plains Viscacha (Lagostomus maximus) |
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| Banded Sphinx (Eumorpha fasciatus) |
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| Dawn at Parque Nacional El Palmar |
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| Ringed Teal |
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| Gunther's Striped Snake (Lygophis anomalus) |
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| Many-colored Rush-Tyrant |
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| Granulated Crabs (Neohelice granulata) |
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| Hudson's Canastero |
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| Snowy-crowned Tern |
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| Parasitic Jaeger |
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| Chiloe Wigeon |
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| Conognatha klugii |
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| Glittering-bellied Emerald |
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| Horseback riding near Trienta y Tres, Uruguay |
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| Yellow-bellied Liophis (Erythrolamprus poecilogyrus) |
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| Firewood-gatherer |
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| Mottled Piculet |
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| Blue-billed Black-Tyrant |
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| Red-winged Tinamou |
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| Greater Rhea |
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| Chestnut-backed Tanager |
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| Great Horned Owl |
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| Curve-billed Reedhaunter |
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| Saffron-cowled Blackbird |
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| Hilaire's Side-necked Turtle (Phrynops hilarii) |
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| Correndera Pipit |
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| Black-necked Swans |
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| White-rumped Sandpiper |
2 comments:
Fantastic post! You found so many interesting plants and animals!
Thanks!
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