Backcountry Birding

The shadow of the hill had retreated to shade a smaller portion of the valley; crickets trilled softly in the grass nearby. A Great Shrike-Tyrant mercilessly chased a Pygmy-Owl back and forth in the scrubby vegetation. A peaceful scene.“Ay, boludo! Que caliente!” Exclaimed Gero as he burned his tongue on the tea he had just poured.

We sat in the grass just across the river from El Chalten, listening for Plain-capped Tit-Spinetails and discussing what makes a good bird book. We had just eaten the last Chipaa, or cheese-bread, that he had brought with him, so he broke out the tea and thermos. Unfortunately the water was too hot even for an Argentinian… I have been consistently amazed at many Yerba Mate drinkers’ ability to gulp down just-boiled water without flinching.

Though the Tit-Spinetails didn’t want to cooperate, the Pygmy-Owl couldn’t have cared less about us: it came and perched on the top of a Calafate bush just a few feet from where we stood.

Gero and I walked back to the town, and he explained some of the migratory bird research he’d been reading about, how a Barn Swallows are changing their routes to avoid crossing large swaths of ocean, taking advantage of habitat changes due to human disturbance. They’ve actually started breeding in Argentina and wintering in Ecuador!

I said my goodbyes, both to Gero and a couple of travelers I’d run into in a couple of different towns (see selfie below). What a wonderful town! It’s a very special place and I very much hope to come back. I am extremely stoked to see what’s next for Gero and Cris; it also is great to know I’ve got some friends to meet up with if I drift back down this direction at some later date. Here’s the town from above, where you can really see how tiny it actually is:

I walked to the station and caught the bus back to El Calafate for a final time, where I stayed just one night at a hostel before catching a plane up to Buenos Aires (Thank you Cris for the early-morning ride to the airport!). A 3-hour flight to cover 70 hours’ worth of bus travel. (That didn’t include the 35 hours to Ushuaia and back, which brings my total bus time in Argentina to 105 hours)

From Buenos Aires I met up with a naturalist tour group led by Guillermo Spajic, a guy I met a month ago during the Costanera del Sur big day. We were headed up to Misiones, the subtropical, forested northeast province of Argentina. Home of Toucans, Waterfalls and a remarkable mix of Portuguese and Spanish that took a little getting used to before I could understand it. Stay tuned to hear about my time in the Atlantic Forest!