Southern Argentina finding the Hooded Grebe

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1 Southern Argentina finding the Hooded Grebe Following is a very brief summary of a 5 day trip to Santa Cruz, as well as notes on Costanera del Sur, and Otamendi in Argentina. Background I have been fascinated by grebes since childhood and had long dreamt about a trip to look for the Hooded Grebe. This December I went for a month long vacation (between jobs!) to Argentina and connected with Sudamérica Expediciones for a 5 day quest for the grebe in Santa Cruz. Logistics and accomodation These Andean Condors gave quite the performance Diego and Ulises from Sudamérica Expediciones ran the tour very smoothly with just a few annoynces in terms of late departures, payment and information. Diegos 80s nostalgia hitlist made the long drives quite hilarious.they met me at the airport in El Calafate. There are several daily flights from the domestic airport in Buenos Aires and I flew Latam Airlines which was fine despite a 2 hour delay spent at the airport pub.

2 We stayed at the well known Estancia Angostura and I loved it. Great location and view over a nice wetland with Crested ducks mating Cinerous Harrier and much more. The food was home-made from their own growths and livestock and very tasty unlike a lot of the food I had in Argentina (too often disappointing). It is 5 hours away from Calafate and there is no internet or cellphone signal. Nice rooms which I shared with 4 very nice Argentinians. The noise during the night was imprezzzzzive! Chocolate-vented tyrant Finding the grebe: Strobel plateau has become increasingly difficult when it comes to finding the dwindling grebe and indeed after 1,5 day checking as many lagoons as possible we had only seen the lovely Silvery Grebe. The guides had done their homework well however and had several more lakes to check with GPS coordinates being invaluable. Our lake of victory was a strenous 4 km walk in firece headwinds, but when I finnaly put up my scope on lake, I immediately found 2 Hooded grebe! The next hours were pure magic. 12 of these exclusive and beautiful grebes were on this remote lake and we could easliy observe them as they foraged, displayed (even saw that famous dive) and called. Amazing experience, but the lake lacked the flowers they need to breed. Hopefuully they found a better lake in this truly vast area. The grebe is still possible at Strobel plataeu, but it would be very very hard to find on your own. Aves Argentina is doing amazing work on the conservation of the grebe.

3 Flock of Hooded and Silvery Grebe Two of the Grebes luckily came closer for my camera to get some sort of photo at least!

4 The Fitz Roy peak in Los Glaciares! Cinerous Harrier and Plain-mantled Tit-Spinetail

5 Other birds Otther personal highlights was seing Silvery Grebe, Great Grebe and White-tufted grebe. Chocolatevented ground tyrant, Tawny-throated dotterel, Least Seedsnipe, Andean Condor and Blackchested Buzzard-Eagle. There are not too many species in this part of patagonia but every bird is special Close to El Calafate I managed to find the Magellanic plover, just one with some Bairds Sandpipers off Lago Nimez. I also went to El Chalten after the Grebe-trip and found Magellanic Woodpecker on the trail to Lago Capri (thank you Rodolphe!), the Raydito and White-throated woodcreeper. Checked so many spots but failed to find Spectackled Duck..maybe easier on the Chilean side? Tawny-throated dottererel was common on the plataeu, and Silvery Grebe showed well several lakes

6 Costanera del Sur Buenos Aires is huge and it is almost surreal that there exists a reserve of such quality still to this day. I loved it, and a telescope was very useful. Strolling for a an hour or two I found Ringed Teal, Rufuscent Tiger Heron (easy here), Whistling Heron (what a bird), black-headed duck, and best of all 4 Masked Duck. All this with skyscrapers just behind. Otamendi A few favourites from the pampas were Long-winged Harrier, White Woodpecker, Gilded Hummingbird, Green Kingfisher, Scarlet-headed blackbird, Pampas Finch and more. Long-winged Harriers are stunning creatures!

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8 if you have any questions. Full species list from my time in Argentina. Seen only. Lesser Rhea Spotted Nothura Southern Screamer Fulvous Whistling-Duck White-faced Whistling-Duck Black-necked Swan Coscoroba Swan Upland Goose Flying Steamer-Duck Crested Duck Ringed Teal Brazilian Teal Chiloe Wigeon Yellow-billed Teal Yellow-billed Pintail White-cheeked Pintail Silver Teal Red Shoveler Rosy-billed Pochard Black-headed Duck Masked Duck Lake Duck Pied-billed Grebe White-tufted Grebe Great Grebe Silvery Grebe Hooded Grebe Chilean Flamingo Wood Stork Maguari Stork Neotropic Cormorant Whistling Heron Cocoi Heron Great Egret Snowy Egret Cattle Egret Striated Heron Black-crowned Night-Heron Rufescent Tiger-Heron Buff-necked Ibis White-faced Ibis Roseate Spoonbill Black Vulture Andean Condor Snail Kite Long-winged Harrier Cinereous Harrier

9 Black-chested Buzzard-Eagle Swainson's Hawk Giant Wood-Rail Plumbeous Rail Eurasian Moorhen Common Gallinule Spot-flanked Gallinule White-winged Coot Red-gartered Coot Limpkin Southern Lapwing Two-banded Plover Tawny-throated Dotterel Magellanic Plover Magellanic Oystercatcher Wattled Jacana South American Snipe Lesser Yellowlegs Baird's Sandpiper Wilson's Phalarope Least Seedsnipe Brown-hooded Gull Kelp Gull Snowy-crowned Tern Picazuro Pigeon Eared Dove Dark-billed Cuckoo Ash-colored Cuckoo Guira Cuckoo Glittering-bellied Emerald Gilded Hummingbird Green Kingfisher White Woodpecker Checkered Woodpecker Green-barred Woodpecker Chilean Flicker Magellanic Woodpecker White-throated Caracara Southern Caracara Chimango Caracara Aplomado Falcon Austral Parakeet Monk Parakeet Common Miner Rufous-banded Miner White-throated Treerunner Band-tailed Earthcreeper Rufous Hornero Curve-billed Reedhaunter Scale-throated Earthcreeper Thorn-tailed Rayadito Plain-mantled Tit-Spinetail

10 Freckle-breasted Thornbird Spix's Spinetail White-crested Elaenia Small-billed Elaenia Tufted Tit-Tyrant Vermilion Flycatcher Spectacled Tyrant Black-backed Water-Tyrant Chocolate-vented Tyrant Black-billed Shrike-Tyrant Cinnamon-bellied Ground-Tyrant Great Kiskadee Tropical Kingbird Fork-tailed Flycatcher Swainson's Flycatcher Rufous-browed Peppershrike Blue-and-white Swallow Brown-chested Martin Gray-breasted Martin White-rumped Swallow House Wren Sedge Wren Masked Gnatcatcher Austral Thrush Rufous-bellied Thrush Creamy-bellied Thrush Chalk-browed Mockingbird Patagonian Mockingbird Masked Yellowthroat Tropical Parula Red-crested Cardinal Sayaca Tanager Diademed Tanager Patagonian Sierra-Finch Mourning Sierra-Finch Black-and-rufous Warbling-Finch Saffron Finch Grassland Yellow-Finch Patagonian Yellow-Finch Great Pampa-Finch Double-collared Seedeater Rufous-collared Sparrow Yellow-winged Blackbird Scarlet-headed Blackbird Long-tailed Meadowlark Variable Oriole Solitary Black Cacique Grayish Baywing Shiny Cowbird Hooded Siskin House Sparrow

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