Dermot Breen's Blog: Argentina 15th December 2019.

I thought I might fire up the old blog to detail a mega trip that I and five other Irish birders undertook over the course of around a month over December 2019/January 2020. We visited an incredible range of locations and habitats from Atlantic Rainforest in northern Argentina to Pampas grassland in central Argentina to the Andes mountains in central Chile and lots in between. The highlight of the trip was probably a sixteen day cruise from Buenos Aires, Argentina to the Antarctic Peninsula and around back up to San Antonio, Chile with day trips onto the Falkland Islands, Ushuaia and Punta Arenas. We decided to arrive a few days early before the cruise started to do a bit of birding in Argentina and after the cruise finished in Chile to make the best of the trip.
This was my first trip to South America so it's safe to say it was a very productive trip!

One of our party Billy Clarke had arrived a week before the rest of us. Jim Dowdall would only be joining us for the cruise. I had an hour and a half wait for Aidan Kelly, Tom Shevlin and Joe Adamson at the arrival gate of the airport as the lads got caught up in some serious queues to go through immigration. I had a relatively easier time of it.
After dropping off our bags at a baggage storage place we heading off to a very conveniently placed Costanera Sur Reserve right in the middle of the city. There was some very light and brief drizzle and much to our disappointment the whole reserve was closed to visitors due to "rainy days" - bizarre! If only we could use that excuse in Connemara National Park, it would probably be open for a total of 20 days annually. We managed to bird the eastern lagoon which can be viewed from a public promenade even when the rest of the reserve is closed. The water bodies are suffering from very serious problem with the near total infestation of an invasive water plant. I'm not 100% sure but I think it's Water Lettuce?
After spending a few productive hours here we took a internal flight up to the north of Argentina. Fair to say it was a long day or two having flown from Dublin via Madrid and onto Buenos Aires and then onto northern Argentina.
A full checklist for the site can be seen here. https://ebird.org/checklist/S62342286