Shorebirder

Oct 30 Today's weather was forecast to be dreadful from a birder's perspective and somehow managed to be even worse than predicted. Sustained 30-35mph winds meant that whale watch boats would be canceled, and finding passerines would be like pulling teeth. So we decided to not set an alarm for the morning and recuperated a bit. The afternoon would be spent on the Valdes Peninsula.  The skies were mostly clear until we reached the base of the peninsula where we hit some precipitation. For the next several hours we dealt with squalls that brought rain, sleet, and truly impressive wind gusts. Standing upright became difficult when these weather waves rolled through. Between the squalls were sunny skies but still difficult wind. To be honest, searching for wildlife of any kind seemed entirely futile. Not even the large mammals like guanacos were visible; they too must have been hunkered down in the lee. Through the car windows we managed to spot a grounded RUSTY-BACKED MONJITA and ...

Oct 28 We completed the entire drive to Bahia Blanca the day before, so all we had was a short ride northwest of town to the pastures that PAMPAS MEADOWLARKS call home. Just a bit past the turnoff for Chasico we parked the car and focused on fields looking west. It didn't take long for a skylarking meadowlark with dark underwings to declare itself as a Pampas, though we had to take great care to separate these birds from the numerous LONG-TAILED MEADOWLARKS and scattered WHITE-BROWED MEADOWLARKS that also reside here. We spent a while soaking in this rare species that the three of us are unlikely to ever see again. Most of the time the Pampas kept their distance from the road, unlike the Long-taileds which had no such aversion. Pampas Meadowlarks Long-tailed Meadowlark, for comparison Our second and final BEARDED TACHURI made a brief appearance along the fence line here. A pair of BURROWING PARAKEETS was a sign of many more to come over the next two days. GRASSLAND SPARROWS sang fr...