Day 21: 7 September 2017

Iguazú Falls – unbelievable, even when you see them.

Met Guy early in the morning, and we started by going out to the Iguazu falls area, where there are a number of trails that can be walked. Some are better than others for birding.

Black-throated Trogon (Trogon rufus)

We birded the Macuco trail, where we saw many birds, including the Black-throated and Surucua Trogons.

Surucua trogon (Trogon surrucura)

 We then walked along the some of trails around the falls on the Argentine side, specifically the Devil’s Throat and Lower Trail. We didn’t fail to see the obligatory Guinness Toucan in the tree tops.

First sighting of a Toco Toucan (Ramphastos toco)

We also saw the great dusky swifts, not so many of them, but like all insect hunters their flightpath made them too hard to photograph today. Maybe later. 

No specialist, me, but I think this is a William’s South American side-necked or toad-necked turtle (Phrynops williamsi)

From the walkways over the falls we saw turtles, and at the refreshment stops lost of coatis.

Coatimundi (Nasua nasua ), member of the racoon family. Scavengers, and a bit of a pest at Iguazú.

A fairly relaxed if hot day, with quite a lot of walking, and I had an early evening meal in town with Guy and went back to my motel.

Restaurante La Rueda 75, Puerto Iguazú

Back in the motel was beer and a wifi connection, all I needed.

5 September 2017: San Sebastian de la Selva lodge

Yellow-fronted Woodpecker (Melanerpes flavifrons)

Slept really well, and up for an early breakfast before hitting the trails by about 07.15. Did a mix of forest and more open trails and covered a fair distance before coming back to the lodge for a 12.00 lunch.

Slaty-breasted Wood-Rail (Aramides saracura)

Lunch was a leisurely affair (feijoada with rice and cassava root) and I decided today to sit out the early afternoon sun so rested up till about 16.00 and did some leisurely ambling on new trails near the lodge. 

Termite nest in tree

Got back to the lodge around 18.00 to find that miraculously there was a wifi connection (first time for several days) so could speak to F. Spent the rest of the evening chatting, catching up with photos, and generally winding down.

Oven bird in nest-building mode

Just a few more more of today’s birds below.

Masked Water-Tyrant (Fluvicola nengeta)

Swallow Tanager (Tersina viridis)

Yellow-headed Caracara (Milvago chimachima)

4 September 2017: Karadya BioReserve – San Sebastian de la Selva lodge

Spent the morning in and around the balcony and observation tower at Karadya before an early lunch and a move up the road of a kilometre or so to another lodge. Saw lots of lIfers: far too many to detail here.

Violet-capped woodnymph (Thalurania glaucopis)

A humming bird that I saw – the violet- capped wood nymph – was a first for me; a beautiful little bird darting round the base of the Karadya viewing balcony.

White-lined Tanager (Tachyphonus rufus)

And from up on the balcony at Karadya I had a splendid view of some higher canopy birds such as the eared pygmy tyrant, not easily seen from ground level.

Eared pygmy tyrant (Myiornis auricularis), a top canopy bird

One on my wish list was the long-tailed tyrant – the third of the three yetapas I had hoped to see. 

Long-tailed tyrant (Colonia colonus)

We got to the new lodge at San Sebastian de la Selva about midday. Lovely place, with open park and a lawn manicured (or denticured) by the capybara that come in in the evening. Superb organic lawnmowers.

Capybara in the lake by the lodge

Iguana also ramble the grounds freely.

What the locals call ‘iguana’ – actually a black and white tegu (Tupinambis merianae)

There are several trails on the site, some forest, some more open grassland, with the sound of birds everywhere but not easy to see them. In particular, the forest is very dense and although you can sometimes make out a black or brown shape rustling deep in the impenetrable undergrowth it is very hard to see a complete bird, let alone photograph one.

White-spotted woodpecker (Veniliornis spilogaster)

That said, the trails were great to walk down, so far from the civilisation that I usually live in, and I felt very privileged to share this wonderful place with its inhabitants. 

Colourful Scaly-headed Parrots (Pionus maximiliani) were screeching all around the lodge.

Another great (both huge and satisfying) supper, and as the evening drew on it got quite chilly – a welcome change from the hot afternoon sun, which I have been finding somewhat debilitating. I walked back to my cabin, some 200 metres from the dining area, through an ocean of barking and shuffling capybaras – a very unusual yet strangely satisfying experience.

This blog is continued from day 13 – see link here. 

2 September 2017: Posadas to San Pedro

If you are wondering what happened to days 14 and 15, these were spent at an English Teacher’s conference in Posadas, where I gave a workshop, details not germane to this blog. So we resume on Day 16. Up early to sort out problems with double payment taken for car rental (which was potentially very expensive) and a misunderstanding over a UK client’s deadline (both frustrating and time-consuming) and back on the road by lunchtime.

Reducción de Santa Ana, one of the Jesuit missions in Argentina

Uneventful 300 km up to San Pedro, stopping twice: once to visit the Santa Ana Jesuit Mission and once for lunch (chef’s choice of boiled meat and boiled cassava). No birding, just foot to floor.

Boiled meat and manioc – tastier than it looks!

Got to cabin in San Pedro (Cabañas Suizas) by 18.00 for a quick and welcome shower (pretty hot in Misiones, especially inside a moving steel box) and then to Guy Cox’s house for a splendid home-cooked supper. Guy helped with a few IDs and we talked a little about tomorrow: an early start, and my introduction to birding in the selva.

We arranged to set off tomorrow at 06.30, so an early night was in order.

28 August 2017 – Ituzaingó – A slow day …

Anó Chico, a new bird for me.

It rained heavily all night, and was still pouring when I got up for breakfast. Rubén, the owner of Cabañas Tío Lucas (where I am staying) took me on a wet drive along some tarmac roads to see the beaches on the river Paraná, and to a couple of birding spots: a heronry and a bit of woodland known as Zanjón Loreto (the second looked very promising if it ever dries out here). Then back to the cabaña, where I made some coffee and worked on my talk for the FAAPI Conference at the weekend.

Lesser yellow-headed vulture – common in these parts

This concentration was broken by a huge lunch cooked by Rubén, who cooks the main dishes while his wife makes the deserts.  By about 15.00 it had stopped raining, and I first tried to get to the Isla Apiré, in the river Paraná and a short distance away where there is said to be extensive wild life. As there may well be, but I had no way of finding out; the lancha was full and there was no other way to get there until too late in the afternoon to make it worthwhile.

Gray monjita

So, I got in the car and drove out of town till I found the Reserva Santa María, with walkways and an observation tower looking onto the a mixture of grassland and wetlands. The sun was out by then, and I did manage to get an hour’s birding in, on what has been an otherwise wasted day. Plenty of big birds, but it was very windy and I think most of the smaller ones had hunkered down for the day.

well camouflaged, a red-winged tinamou

Back to review the day’s photos and type up these notes, until Rubén arrived with another huge meal – I can’t go on like this. I do have a programme for tomorrow, visiting Cambyretá (back in the Esteros de Iberá), so an early night’s sleep is called for, with fingers crossed for a full day’s birding tomorrow.

Giant wood rail

26 August 2017 – Mercedes – Mburucuyá – And the heavens opened …

Woken in the middle of the night by phone call from reception asking me to please register the woman in my room. Explain there is no woman in my room. A couple of minutes later a soft knocking at the door and a slinky, expensively dressed female is there smiling at me. I explain to her as I had to the receptionist that there must be some mistake, and closed the door on her. About ten minutes later the phone rings again, this being reception telling me what I already knew, that there must have been a mistake. Finally, I get to sleep; strange dreams we need not go into here.

Back to the birding.

Well, if this is a cow and the white birds are egrets, my money is on them being cattle egrets

Got up early and loaded the car, which was on the other side of the Plaza. As I walked back a large bird crapped on my head – not too worried, as this is said to bring good luck. We’ll see.  Stomach and then petrol tank filled, I set off for the Mburucuyá National Park, to the west of the Iberá Reserve.

Roadside hawk, unsurprisingly a frequent sight by the roadside

I set off to torrential rain, with lightning crashing frighteningly all around the car, but after an hour or so it began to clear as I made my way around the bottom and then the left of the Iberá wetlands. Another glorious road for birding, with wetlands on either side full of birds, and I did stop for a couple of easy shots, but I wanted to get on to Mburucuyá National Park.

Female snail kite: lots of these flying low across the hedgerows and ditches

Which I did, entering the park on a difficult road, mostly loose sand but heavily rutted where service vehicles had passed in wet weather. It was a tough and very slow 30 km as I was in my rented Chevy Corsa, and as I was arriving at the park it began to rain. I couldn’t turn round as it was too narrow and rutted so I had no choice to go to the end where a ranger told me to get out quick as the granddaddy of storms was about to break.

Crab eating fox, shot through windscreen. Sadly going in the wrong direction

I did see two crab-eating foxes (yes, really) and a female pampas deer in all the rush but didn’t manage to get photos as they all disappeared before I could get a lens on them except this fox trotting away from me which I shot through the windscreen. Another reason for returning.

A yellow-headed caracara (Milvago chimachima) – a lifer for me

Discretion being the better half of valour and all that I turned the car round and started back. Hightailing it was out of the question, and in about ten minutes the storm broke: an electrical storm, even more frightening than earlier in the morning. Same road, except now the loose sand had turned to slippery mud. For once I had a reserve plan as I knew the ranger would be returning in a few hours but using all my skills and savvy (I wish!) I slid and slithered the 30 km or so back to the safety of the gravel road (ripio). Never have I been happier to see gravel road!

At which point, as if to make a point, the rain stopped and the sun came out so I spent a couple of hours driving and walking around the town‘s different entry and exit roads. Plenty to see there birdwise, and the National Park (which looked great, what I saw of it) can wait till a second visit.

Comical looking guaira cuckoos – they seem to be very sociable birds

My accommodation for tonight is a cabaña with room for five so looks like I screwed up on the booking but it’s very comfortable to rattle around in, with some acceptable beer in the fridge. Food can be phoned in, which I did because I was tired and didn’t feel like going out again. Lovely river fish with boiled cassava and potato in a herby sauce – vary tasty, followed by some unidentifiable crystalised tropical fruit.

Tomorrow to Ituzaingó, where I re-enter the Iberá Reserve at Cambyretá. Fingers crossed for better weather.