Ornifolks just returned from a great three-week survey visit to Patagonia, which we hope will presage more and similar visits by members in the next few years (our first trip to NW Argentina is scheduled for next autumn, see the last newsletter for details). Few trips can boast the excitement of unparalleled looks at a species only described in 1974 and another thought extinct, until its rediscovery a couple of years ago, in one day, but as Hooded Grebe and Austral Rail were both seen on 7 December we achieved just that.

Our trip commenced in earnest with an early morning flight to Trelew on 29 November, and was completed on our arrival back in Buenos Aires in the early afternoon of 16 December. Between times we spent almost a week in each of three areas: Trelew and San Antonio de Oeste, Rio Gallegos and Ushuaia. Most people also chose to take the pre- and post-trip extensions around Buenos Aires (which produced Dot-winged Crake, Saffron-cowled Blackbird, Black-and-white Monjita and Straight-billed Reedhaunter) and Bahia Blanca. Almost throughout we were treated to unusually fine weather conditions (where did all the famed Patagonian winds go to?), although I did notice a distinct temperature difference between Rio and Buenos Aires, never mind BA and Ushuaia!

Some personal highlights from my notebook included:

all those great looks at Southern Right Whales and, more particularly, the five Orcas we were able to view in the Questars at the Valdes Peninsula; Sandy Gallitos almost cavorting on the track, and a pair of Magellanic Horned Owls presumably close to a nest, in the early morning south Las Grutas;several family parties of Magellanic Woodpeckers in the Ushuaia and El Calafate regions; great views of a host of seabirds during our Beagle Channel boat trip; that great and unexpected save on White-throated Cachalote, during one of the few windy days we experienced, when we thought it (and Howie's binoculars) were lost; two family parties of that most bizarre wader, the Magellanic Plover, and splendid looks at the super-attractive Tawny-throated Dotterel; a host of smart waterfowl, including the rare Ruddy-headed Goose, appreciated by the entire group, not just the duck guru himself (he knows who he is); two stunningly attractive finches, Black-throated and Yellow-bridled; that most stunning of tyrant flycatchers (there had to be one, didn't there), the Chocolate-vented Tyrant; and the Hooded Grebes and Austral Rails were not bad either!

Most of us also enjoyed, perhaps too much, all the splendid food, wine, beer and Freddo's ice-cream (the best in the world according to some biased souls). The group (of heavy diners) comprised: Louise Augustine, Bruce Bartrug, Ken Cole, Mark Elwonger, Mike Flieg, Paul Keller, Howie Nielsen, Don Rathbun, and Peter Roxburgh. Louise and Howie deserve all our thanks for lugging their Questars round the circuit. Thanks to Santiago Imberti, Juan Mazar Barnett, German Pugnali, and Mark Pearman for making a great trip come off smoothly; nonetheless some of us have an urgent appointment with a White-bellied Seedsnipe!

Guy Kirwan

To download the entire 56-pp report as a pdf file, click here and allow a minute or so to download.