We spent 4 days in Buenos Aires en route to Ushuaia and then Antarctica. In the planning stage this seemed to be a necessary evil as I have no real fondness for cities but, having been, I am glad to have experienced it. The highlight for me was the morning of birding we had at Costanera Sur Ecological Reserve with Marcelo Gavensky,  founder and guide of Birding Buenos Aires. My pre-travel research on Buenos Aires had mainly been around organising accommodation, how to get safely from the airport and the more typical tourist attractions. Our hotel/apartment (Ayres de Recoleta Plaza), arranged online months in advance, was very close to Recoleta Cemetery and we were pleased to arrive to their warm welcome after a long flight from Auckland via Santiago. The free WiFi was excellent and we managed to Skype home to let them know we had arrived safely. A combination of jet lag and good WiFi saw me researching birding options in Buenos Aires, something I should have done before leaving home. I had read of the Costanera Sur Ecological Reserve and thought it may be worth catching a taxi there but decided to look into the option of a guided tour. I found 2 sites with links to contact but one had a problem with their online form so was not contactable. The other option was Birding Buenos Aires and within a very short time I had a reply in perfect English from Marcelo advising that he could take us on a tour the next morning and even outlining a Plan B in case of rain closing the reserve.

As arranged, Marcelo was waiting for us in the hotel lobby at 7:30am, with a bottle of cold water for each of us as a very hot day was anticipated. A taxi was ordered and we were soon amidst the early morning Buenos Aires traffic arriving after a little while at the entry to Costanera Sur which opened soon after we had assembled our gear. We proceeded slowly along the paths with Marcelo pointing out a variety of birds, many of which he located by their call before we managed to find them in the foliage. This has always seemed an almost magical skill to me, as being extremely visually orientated, I have trouble associating calls with birds and remembering them adequately for identification. Edin has an excellent musical ear and always amazes me with her ability to locate and identify birds by their calls.

The first part of the track was covered by trees, so sheltered from the sun, but after we turned down toward the shore of the Rio de la Plata (River Plate) we had less cover and the heat off the day really kicked in. The discomfort was more than worth it with many birds, including a Glittering-bellied Emerald Hummingbird, making an appearance. I had never seen hummingbirds before and didn’t anticipate seeing any so it was a real thrill, especially as we managed to get a couple of photos.  Marcelo was well supplied with snacks but we just could not face anything other than the water in our jet lagged and heat stressed state.We stopped off at the shore and got a few more photos before heading back toward the city side of the reserve where we continued to come across new species including another hummingbird, this time a Gilded Sapphire.

We left the reserve via another entrance at the opposite end of the ponds and walked along the esplanade back toward our starting point seeing a number of aquatic birds including Wattled Jacana, Limpkin, Fulvous and White-faced Whistling Ducks and Coscoroba Swan which is interestingly more closely related to Whistling Ducks than swans. Edin also found a Hornero nest up in one of the trees on the esplanade. The Rufus Hornero is the national bird of Argentina and is named for the nest which resembles an wood-fired oven, horno being the Spanish word for oven.

We had a fabulous morning with Marcelo and I recommend him highly as a guide. He is very knowledgable and interesting to talk with about a variety of topics having also worked with turtles and fish in Patagonia. If we are ever again in Buenos Aires I will be more organised and arrange a trip with him in advance – a multi-day birding trip out of the city would be fantastic. See this report on a 100+ bird day that Marcelo guided just prior to our morning with him.

See my South American Birds Gallery for photos I got here.

See Edin’s blog for her photos from the day