24 August 2017 – Colonia Carlos Pelligrini to Mercedes – second mission achieved

Always plenty to look at on the roadside

Left C. Pelligrini after breakfast, spending ten minutes snapping some of the birds on the Lodge’s feeders. Typically the less common ones I had seen on previous mornings when they put out crumbs didn’t turn up this morning, but you see what you see.

A young howler monkey. The black fur is the adult male, whi was too concealed for me to get a shot.

Stopped off on the way out of C. Pelligrini at the trail where I had seen Mummy howler monkey yesterday, hoping I might see the (black) Daddy monkey today. In fact I did – he was with two younger monkeys – but almost impossible to photograph as he was so deeply embedded in the treetops. I did manage however to pick out a partial shot of one of the young ones with directed flash – not ideal, but recognisably a monkey.

The crazy tail of the very appropriately named strange-tailed tyrant

I drove very slowly for the first thirty km or so, as I was looking for a bird called the strange-tailed tyrant. I had a photo from a couple of days ago, but I wanted one that showed the tail a little better. Anyway, I was lucky enough to find another – or who knows, the same one (?) – and got a better shot. This is a rather special bird and people come here just to see it, also quite hard to see so I was doubly lucky. Very odd flight pattern – I first saw it flying really low across the road with its long, flapping tail making it look more like a weasel or mink than a bird, and then flitting around at ground level until finally settling for a while on a fence post where I was able to take a few shots.

Unusual shot of a chimango …

Further along the road saw lots of caranchos (which I’m not very fond of) and another couple of larger  birds that looked like raptors, and turned out to be.

… and what turned out to be a Savannah Hawk

Drove on to Mercedes, taking a few more shots along the way and arrived back at the same hotel about 15.30 where I managed to get F on Skype (I had been without any phone or internet for four days). Today – or what’s left of it – is a rest day, and hopefully a chance to post a few days’ worth of blog; tomorrow an early start for the Mburucuyá National Park.