Buenos Aires - Day 4 - Costanera and Culture

With my birding appetite well and truly whetted I negotiated with Mrs L to spend a few hours birding ostanera Sur in the morning. She would spend the morning browsing The price was that I had to spend the afternoon going to museums and galleries. Fine.

Laguna de los Coipos

I arrived at the reserve just as it opened. For those unfamiliar with it, it is a vast wetland reserve immediately that sits between the very centre of Buenos Aires and the estuary. One minute you are walking around the Presidential Palace, the next you are on a boardwalk. When you first arrive initially all you see is a long rectangular canal called the Laguna de los Coipos that looks a bit unexciting, and somewhat choked with Water Hyacinth. But look more closely and there are birds all over the place and this is actually a really productive area. Wattled Jacanas follow the Hyacinth clearing boat, and there are tons of White-tufted Grebes, Rosy-billed Pochard. Red-gartered and White-winged Coots in the clearer patches of water. With luck you see a few White-faced Whistling Duck and perhaps a Great Grebe, and Great Kiskadees and Tropical Kingbirds are everywhere. In the more vegetated clumps you may find Southern Screamer and various Egrets. Yet again I have no photos of the birds. As I have made abudantly clear this was definitely not a birding trip and thus I did not bring a birding camera. Understood? Good.

Anyway, back to the birding. I started at the southern end and walked north alongside this piece of water on a shaded path on the estuary side called the Camino de los Lagartos. Every now and again there are lookout points where you can get a clear view of the water. There are also viewpoints that enable you to see into the main lagoons. At the time of my visit only the southern one, the Laguna de Los Patos, seemed to have any water in it, and in here I found Black-necked Swan, Rufescent Tiger-Heron and some White-faced Ibis amongst other things. About half way along there is a boardwalk through the floating vegatation that takes you back across to the City side, but I decided I would save that for later and took a boardwalk that crossed the Camino del medio and went through some of the habitat towards the sea. I walked the whole northern loop, the Camino de los Alisos, back to the central boardwalk. The last bit of los Alisos, at the northern edge of the reserve, seemes particularly productive as the tall trees overhang a small stream of sorts and there is a lot of bird activity. I found that phishing really worked along here. 

I then walked back south along Lagatros. The Laguna de los Coipos is considerably more vegetated at this end, and also pretty birdy although it's harder to view. Once back at the centre point I took the aforementioned boardwalk across to the City side and exited the reserve for some culture.

I walked 4.6 miles over the course of three and a half hours, fairly slowly it must be said, and recorded 71 species which I thought was pretty good going. The full list is here, but there were so many birds albeit that you had to be quite persistent to see them well. The reserve is also a busy place, with loads of joggers, cyclists, school parties and maintenance people. I am not sure I saw another birder, that seems not to be the main focus of the reserve from what I could see even though it is well set up for it. The only real disappointment was the sea which had nothing on it. I was hoping for flyby Gulls and Terns and so on, but it was a bird-free zone. I had visited Costanera Sur back in 2008 but really struggled, but this time around it was great. I think the difference is simply experience.

Here's what happens when I am faced with culture

Back on the culture trail I met up with Mrs L for a light lunch in town and then we went to the Museum of Latin American Art for the afternoon. This is a great museum and comes highly recommended even by a philistine such as myself. Definitely worth a few hours of your time if you have a few days in BA. We spent the rest of the day wandering the streets, it seems that different areas of the city have a really different feel from one another, some feeling more neo-colonial and others downright European. 

In the evening we went back to the rooftop bar to join the Instagram generation on the actual roof. Lovely cocktails and a lot of people watching, albeit that this mostly involved vacuous pouting and then checking of phones for a level of perfection that never seemed to be achieved. This in respect of the people being watched of course rather than the watchers. I think there was a marriage proposal somewhere in the mix as well. Again, not involving me and Mrs L for obvious reasons.

Autumn has arrived

It felt much much fresher than of late, and with temperatures dropping to single digits I did my usual running around to try and protect more sensitive plants. So my medium and small tropical Araucaria are back inside, as are a couple of the Aloe. The bigger ones will have to take their chances, at 14ft tall the largest Norfolk Island Pine simply has nowhere to go. It did survive last year, but I don't think it's very happy. Likewise a number of the central African plants have been moved in and cleaned ready for winter, and seem to be enjoying the much more constant warmth indoors. There is a lot more to do but I've made a good start. The conservatory is already looking a little bit full is the main problem, but at the same time as I've been bringing plants in I've been cleaning it a little, getting rid of dust, mould, dead leaves. In fact it all looks rather nice.

Birding-wise I'm back in London and have been enjoying Wanstead Flats. Autumn of course has been in full swing for birds for at least a month now, and is a time for lingering birds whereas in the Spring they are often straight through. So for example yesterday there were five Whinchat and a Tree Pipit on the Flats, and they're all still here today. It's difficult to say exactly how long they've been here but the Tree Pipit I think arrived in the week, and there were definitely a few Whinchat earlier as well, though whether the same birds or not who can say. It's nice to have at least something of interest going on (even if it isn't Wrynecks, Nightjars and Barn Owls - yes, I missed all three!), but the clear skies mean we're likely missing out on birds sailing straight over the top. It is lovely though, cool mornings with low mist. I rolled out my red hat for the first time since March or so on Saturday. I hadn't seen it for months but it was in the first place I looked, the pocket of my winter coat. With the gloves, which also saw their first outing, and which at six degrees at 6am proved very worthwhile.

Any other news? Not really. Chablis disappointment, does that count? I hadn't had a bottle for a long while and was quite excited by the thought, but opened one to find an oxidised yellow mess. What a bummer. The reserve bottle of Bourgogne Blanc was fine in terms of condition, and whilst nice in its own way clearly couldn't deliver the same experience. Here's a photo to demonstrate the colour difference, although the nose was the obvious giveaway. Tonight there is the first stew of the Autumn, and a bottle of 2012 Chateauneuf-du-Pape from Domaine Giraud awaits, the final bottle from a case of six. The first three were sensational in 2021 and early 2022, numbers four and five a little later in 2022 rather grim and I've been reticent about opening the last one. I'm hoping for one last hurrah, but in case it too is a hot pruney mess then I already have an alternative on standby from Chapoutier.

Wot no ticks?

It is approaching the anniversary of the magnificent and munificent fall of American songbirds on the west coast in 2023. On September 23rd I got in the car and drove to Wales for a Magnolia Warbler and jammed a Canada Warbler at the same time for a two tick day. Earlier in the year I'd had another two tick day, again a somewhat spur of the moment decision to just go for it. A long drive to Northumberland for the Grey-headed Lapwing before continuing to Fife for Stejneger's Scoter (and a whole lot more besides).

Not so 2024. It is early days as far as the autumn is concerned but this year could not be more different. I saw no new birds in the Spring. I have no idea if there was anything gettable but I am nothing if not totally hopeless when it comes to remembering to stay focussed on rare birds. So the Spring just passed me by. Not sure what I was doing really, probably just birding locally and going on a few trips. Anyhow, there is the distinct possibility that unless I up my game in the next six weeks or so that 2024 could end up being a blank year. Now I will be the first to say that having a big UK list is pretty meaningless in the grand scheme of things, and the fact I'm marooned on 450ish says nothing about my birding ability, versus say, someone who has seen 500. Nor indeed versus someone who has seen 300, which is important to also consider. 

Those were the days!

I don't think I want to have a blank year. I remember the only reason I went off to Wales was essentially a fear of missing out. I just didn't want to look back at the most amazing nearctic passerine year in living memory and regret that I saw none of it, and so I went. It was only a day and it was fantastic. The same may well happen this year. I've got no Shetland trip booked, but I do have a few more days in Fife at a decent time of year, so maybe that will provide the missing bird. That said, when I'm up there I'm generally far more focussed on seeing things locally as I explained in a recent post. So this means I will probably have to take the plunge at some point and drive a few miles. Can't remember the last time I drove my car, but it did just pass its MOT so it's primed so to speak. Bring on those easterlies.

Shiny shiny

Look what just arrived! New bins! Well, they might as well be new, look at them! Ooof. Amazing what they can do. I only wish that I'd remembered to take a photo of what they looked like in late July before I sent them off. Talking of which, isn't that really rather good after-sales service? £95 quid and a turnaround of about six weeks. 

I got a message yesterday morning to say that they were being shipped. From Austria. Fine fine, I'll get them next week probably. Maybe the one after that. No hurry. Yesterday evening I got another message saying they were arriving today, between 10am and 1pm. What about Brexit?  I bought a sprinkler for £26 the other day off Amazon, not realising it was in fact getting shipped from France, and that ended up getting stuck in a customs warehouse for a while. Apparently this is not a problem for expensive binoculars. Their progress across Europe has been lightning fast (insert inappropriate joke here). 

11th, 5am. Shipping label generated by Swarovski in Austria.

11th, 5.30pm. Left UPS facility in Innsbruck bound for Munich, arrived at 8pm.

11th, 10pm. Departed Munich for Cologne, arrived 11.15pm.

12th, 2.45am. Departed Cologne for UK, arrived Stansted 3.34am.

12th, 5.48am. Left Stansted for Barking, arrived at 6.31am.

12th, 8.58am - Out for Delivery.

They arrived at Chateau L at 12.58pm, with two minutes to go until the end of the stated three hour window. Amazing! To say I am delighted is an understatement. Although my venerable Leica Trinovids have been a superb stand-in, from an optical point of view they're not as good and I'm pleased to have them back. I saw a lot of good birds with the Leicas that I won't forget in a while, my first Scottish Wryneck for starters, and pretty much all of the autumn migrants in Wanstead. But I'm now reunited with my first love and the house bins will go back to being house bins. Mrs L has apparently been missing them, and had cause several times in the last few weeks to reach for them - to look at the moon she says but I reckon it was a bird as she has always been super keen to grip me off with something decent in the garden. 

Buenos Aires - Day 3 - A birding excursion

Whenever we go on a trip a deux, Mrs L concedes to one morning or a full day of birding. It is a tax of sorts. As Buenos Aires was primarily a city break and we didn't have a car, I decided to hire a local guide to take us a bit further afield. Not cheap by any means, but you get to see more than you would by yourself and you can deduct the price of hiring a car, fuel, lunch - all the things you would have had to pay for anyway. Most people head north to Otamendi or Ceibas but I'd been to those areas before, albeit a long time ago, so I decided that we would go south, to Samborombon, as there were more potential lifers in that area.

I'm not saying this was our taxi, but our one made this one look good.

At the appointed time on the morning of our third day we met Andrés outside our hotel and jumped in a taxi he had hired for the day. Not just any taxi either, a particularly knackered and clapped-out black and yellow taxi that ran on LPG, the first such engine I'd ever encountered.  It made a very peculiar noise and was a bit juddery. We headed south out of Buenos Aires almost exactly 50 miles before making our first birding stop on a side road near the village of Veiytes at around 8am. There were birds everywhere. Huge flocks of White-faced Ibis overhead, Southern Lapwing all about, a Maguari Stork, and a small pool with Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs. I got my first views of Spotted Nothura (with many more heard), and Great Pampa-Finch, Grassland Yellow Sparrow, Pale-breasted Spinetail and Firewood-gatherer were seen well. Sadly there are no photos of this day at all, which I am a bit surprised by as usually I will take a few landscape photos on my phone along the way - that's what all good bloggers do. Oh, wait.

After an hour here we drove another 20 miles to another side road near the small town of Veronica. This was a two hour stop, driving slowly down the road and parking up when we encountered something of interest. The real target here was Bearded Tachuri which proved very hard to nail down but did eventually give excellent views on a fenceline. I remember Fork-tailed Flycatchers being everywhere, a real South American bird to remind you of where you were. We also managed views of Short-billed and Correndera Pipit, and Grassland Sparrow - another new bird even if not much of a looker. That said nothing was going to come close to the Many-coloured Rush-Tyrant really.

A further 20 miles to the south we finally hit the coast, the start of Samborombon Bay, and drove down the coast stopping a various locations that seemed promising, although birdy progress was rather diminished by a very stiff breeze that seemed to be keeping the small stuff low. At the mouth of the Samborombon river we added a load of waders to list, along with Coscoroba Swan and Chilean Flamingo. A bit further on at the niftily named Rio 15 we stopped by the bridge for a quick look about, but by now it was blowing a gale and barring a few Swallows and Neotropic Cormorants we didn't really pick up very much. This this was the furthest south we went.

Retracing our route alongside the bay we carried on and around the top alongside the Plate Estuary, almost exactly opposite Montevideo in Uruguay. Our final stop was at Punta Indio, a small settlement on the coast with a bit of low level agiculture. This was a decent stop, adding a lifer in the form of b, Chotoy and Spix's Spinetail, Yellow-browed Tyrant, Chivi Vireo and Rufous-capped Antshrike. Checkered and Green-barred Woodpeckers were in the trees, and we got nice views of both Glittering-bellied Emerald and Gilded Hummingbirds.

We probably headed for home at around 4.30pm, but by now our clapped-out gas-fired taxi was beginning to have real issues with the fuel lines or some other critical part. The driver swore it was the ignition, and kept stopping to take the key in and out, but even as a non-mechanic I could tell that this wasn't the root of the problem. We literally bounced back to Buenos Aires, the car stuttering all the way, giving out just when you reached a sensible speed and nearly shuddering to a halt before picking up again. For a while Mrs L and I wondered whether we would in fact make our dinner reservation that evening, or indeed Buenos Aires at all, but the car just about hung on to get us there. I don't fancy its chances in the long run though.

We had seen 91 species, less than I thought we might get, and only a small number of the targets that I had hoped for - just seven, whereas I'd seen 11 by myself the previous day in a couple of hours before breakfast. The wind had really hampered our chances I suspect, but sometimes birding days just don't go according to plan. I could tell that Andrés was a bit frustrated also, but it had been good to see a bit of the countryside around Buenos Aires and add a bit of diversity to the trip. Certainly a good number of the species we had seen wouldn't have been possible in the city, even in Costanera Sur.

We made our dinner reservation in good time. Steak night again at La Parilla Brigada, and this time with wine! The restaurant's signature move is being able to cut the meat with a spoon which they duly did. Looking back, whilst it was a good meal, the place really was rather a tourist trap, with an absurd amount of football memorabilia covering every available surface. Yes, even the ceiling.

Plotting with eBird

I am sure I must have mentioned this before but I am obsessed with eBird. Or at least, obsessed with the data that is able to spit out at every conceivable level. I've previously used it to manage what I would term 'big area' lists such as countries, states and counties, as well as years, but it has only been relatively recently that I've been using it for site-specific data. Whereas within big areas you can run out of targets relatively quickly, especially during quiet times of the year, I find that if you move down a level to site lists a whole new spectrum of possibilities opens up.

When I was in Fife in August and noted a fall of Wheatears at Fife Ness, including a bird coming in off the sea, I realised that I would probably be in with a decent chance of adding Wheatear to a number of other sites in the county that I visit regularly, and so it proved. I.e. rather than mooch about not being bothered about Wheatears in Fife, I used the data as a spur to go and visit a number of sites. And I did so with a spring in my step, and will all my sense straining for that particular species, homing in on areas of habitat I felt most likely to be concealing Wheatears. And the joy I experienced when I did was equal to the joy and excitement befitting of much grander birding moments. That and a few similar experiences recently have been a bit of a light-bulb moment, and it has given a new lease of life to local birding, at least in Scotland. Somehow I need to try and transfer this enthusiasm to London where I spend most of my time, even though it is somehow different. I think the biggest barrier would be having to cover multiple patches, yet I know of several London birders who do this, rotating sites over the course of each week.

This past weekend in Fife the mostly grim weather forced a change of plan. I had been planning to spend the majority of the time looking at the sea, but instead I found myself thinking about sites I visited reasonably frequently and the possibility of being able to add species to those lists. The 'targets' functionality on eBird is excellent, albeit that it is only as good as the data of those who have come before you. I was able to see, for example, that I had never managed to record Blue Tit or Goldfinch at Angle Park. And so when I was checking out whether the Egret was still there on Monday morning (it was) I was also on alert for these much commoner species. In the event I found both with relative ease, and in fact added five new birds, including Sparrowhawk and Water Rail which must have been far enough down the list of possibles not to have registered, but the point is that it gave me purpose. Despite being what other birders might regard as slim pickings, for me it was exciting enough to get me out and about and enthused. 

So now I have a mental hit list of what I need for where, and if the birding is slack, or the weather uncooperative, I have options that will nonetheless get me up and out. This isn't a massive list by any means, after all if you run this to its logical conclusion you need to see everything everywhere (but not all at once) which is clearly a) impossible and b) very stupid. But if you can limit yourself to a handful of sites I think you will find it to be very beneficial to your desire to go birding. Of course not everyone is the same, some people just want to go birding for the pleasure of birding (bloody purists...) but personally I need the extra incentive that numbers bring. 

Where the target functionality doesn't work is with personal hotspots where there are no other data contributors, which includes the garden here in Fife. This is of course harder but no less rewarding, and I've spent a bit of time analysing what might be likely here. Remarkably I added Mallard (#68) as I was writing this post. Literally five minutes ago. I'd got up from the computer to have a look a distant Gull and three Mallards flew through. Unbelievable, as I'd not long looked up the list to try and come up with the obvious targets. Redwing is now the obvious miss, I have no idea how I've not managed to get one here and it's something I aim to put right later this year. Curlew and Lapwing, being both large and vocal and present in some numbers in the local area are also top targets. And there are large numbers of Coot nearby, and stacks of Little Grebe, so if I were to engage in a little noc-mig those would be quite high up on the list of possibles. And finally, there are also lots of Gannets in the Forth and so earlier today I went up to the highest room in the house and scoped the Bass Rock. Nothing. Nada. I was convinced I could pick up a Gannet at 21 miles but apparently I can't. Pah.

Another weekend in Fife

Inevitably the Wryneck I missed during the week ended up staying until the weekend. I say inevitably because on Friday evening I left London and came up to Scotland again to enjoy some autumn birding in Fife. On Saturday morning I woke up to two things.

1) An impenetrable haar covering the entire Kingdom of Fife.

2) Innumerable WhatsApp messages from Wanstead telling of Pied Flycatchers, Tree Pipits, Wheatears, Whinchats, Redstarts, and of course a long-staying Wryneck.

Excellent. It is an oft-encountered phenomenon whereby birders want to be in several places simultaneously. One permutation of this is wanting to be everywhere on the patch at first light, being able to see all the ponds in those crucial first few moments before all the waders fly off. Another is wanting to be at several sites first thing but instead having to choose just one. And for me it’s countries…. Not really. But at the beginning of this year I made the conscious decision to ensure I would be in Fife for some of the best dates in the autumn calendar. Obviously this would ideally mean spending the whole of August, September and October up here, but I was limited to a handful of long weekends. The first, over the August Bank Holiday, coincided with what I hoped would be peak sea-watching conditions. Naturally it was sunny westerlies and I saw very little. This past weekend was for more seawatching and the possibility of the first autumn rarities. For most of the weekend I couldn’t even see the sea and the fog was as far inland as my parents’ village. I also knew when I booked that I might miss out on some good local patch birding, and of course this is exactly what happened – this trip to Fife coincided almost perfectly with a Wanstead Wryneck, a bird we get perhaps every two years. I wondered briefly about the involvement of the Birding Gods. Then again I am glad I am not so terrified of missing a Wanstead year tick that I never go anywhere, but I admit to being a bit peeved. It could be worse though, just imagine if someone found, oh I don’t know, a roosting Nightjar or something.

Letham

Despite the crappy weather I ended up having a decent weekend. On Saturday afternoon the fog finally lifted at about 4pm to leave the Eden Estuary bathed in simply beautiful sunlight, a rising tide pushing hundreds of waders towards the hide. Mostly these were Lapwing and Redshank, but amongst the throng were five Curlew Sandpipers and a Ruff, whilst two Ospreys sat on posts a little further out. Earlier on I’d seen two juvenile Spotted Redshanks and also obliterated my previous high count of Little Egret with 31. As the afternoon progressed to evening I tried Fife Ness in the hope that if St Andrews was clear then maybe Crail would be as well. Crail was indeed clear, but just down the road at Fife Ness you still couldn’t see in front of your face. Instead I spent the final hour of light at Cameron Reservoir, a nice site that I don’t often get to. From the dam and in the same lovely light as Guardbridge I picked up a Short-eared Owl quartering and a group of three Spotted Flycatchers – presumably local breeders as this species is scarce in Fife and I’ve had them here before. A nice way to finish what had been a largely frustrating day.

Fife Ness

The following day was still fogged in but it seemed to be patchier. I initially thought about heading to Pettycur to see if I could see into the Forth, but at the crucial roundabout turned the opposite way and headed for Letham again, easily my favourite local site even though the water levels are useless this year. As I drove through Freuchie I emerged from the haar into a clear landscape and for an unknown reason decided to go and check out Angle Park GP, a site I only rarely visit. Perhaps the Birding Gods were somehow involved once more as the first bird I set eyes upon was a Great White Egret having a preen in the middle of the shallow part. Bingo! This was a Fife tick, and whilst it can’t be said to be an especially rare bird anywhere these days it was probably the best bird I’ve ever found in Fife. Except for that Ring-necked Parakeet over the garden a couple of years ago obviously. I put the news out quickly but the bird managed to do a runner without me noticing before the first person had even managed to get there. Just as Simon arrived it flew black in, talk about timing, but in the seconds between him getting out of his car and walking to where you could view from it disappeared into an invisible and inaccessible part of the lake. All’s well that ends well though, as about half an hour later it popped up again in some trees before flopping down into exactly the same place in the lake that it had been when I arrived.

Angle Park

I birded a couple of other local sites – Letham and Lindores – before a message about a Wryneck at Fife Ness lured me over to the east coast. Fife Ness was still in a cloud of sorts and the Wryneck had disappeared by the time I got there, so after a short and unsuccessful stake-out I had a mooch around nearby Kilminning for a bit in the hope that I might find another nice migrant or the Wryneck might pop up again. The former did not happen but the latter duly did, and this time I got it. Another Fife tick, and apparently the first away from Isle of May for a decade or so. So yeah I missed the Wanstead bird but seeing one in Fife is definitely far better from my perspective. And a Scottish tick for good measure.

Phone-scoping is one of my specialist disciplines

The weekend had one more gift to give, and this time it was from the sea, which had become visible for the first time in two days. This was a Roseate Tern for my third Fife tick of the day. To my great fortune I had been joined in the hide by Ken S, a Fife birding legend and finder of a silly numbers of rarities over the years, including the earlier Wryneck just up the track. You know how some sea-watchers have been doing it for so long that where you see dots they see specific features that enable them not only to ID a bird but age it as well? Well it was like that, just phenomenal. Better than that though, with only he and in the hide I got a one-on-one sea-watching lesson as to why these dots were adult Little Gulls, why the one behind it was a juv, that these ones were Common Terns, and why this one in with them was an adult Roseate Tern. And it did actually make sense, and whilst the range was at times really quite extreme, with time you could zone in on the black underwings of the Little Gulls, and you could see that one Tern was clearly much lighter than the others as it dipped over and under the horizon. Get in! I can only hope that some of this kindly imparted knowledge sticks as I do really enjoy sea-watching and wish I was better at it. And that I had more opportunities to do it - a self-fulfilling prophecy as the only way to get good at sea-watching is to go sea-watching.

So that was my weekend, during which I also managed to top 150 species in Fife for the year which I've never done before. I am as you know a big fan of round numbers. Of course come Monday morning the haar had vanished and various Fife birders had a nice session at Fife Ness with Poms and so on, but I can’t get over there and be back in time for work to make it worthwhile as it’s a 1h20 round trip. Instead I went back to Angle Park where the GWE was still present, and then spent half an hour at Letham not seeing a great deal of interest and getting quite cold in the process. The foggy weekend seemed to mark the progression of the seasons as it is distinctly chillier this morning, as also foretold by an influx of southbound Pink-footed Geese. I have one more autumn trip up here lined up, and then it will be back to winter birding, which in Fife is good to excellent.

The Wryneck streak ends

This is the 2013 bird

It had to happen some day, and Tuesday was that day. A Wryneck was found on the patch and I didn't see it. My record up until this sad event was unimpeachable, I'd managed to see all six to have graced the patch. 

17th September 2010

26th August 2012

6th September 2013

2nd September 2015

4th September 2021

2nd September 2022

Putting aside the fact that I was staring at a screen in Canary Wharf and had no chance with this latest bird, I think this is (was) a pretty great run. Perhaps more amazing is the fact these birds graced the patch at all, quite how many there have been, and how consistent the dates are - with this week's bird on 3rd September that means the bulk have arrived in a five day period. I tried after work, as did a few others, hoping that the last rays of the evening light might result in a quick sunning before roost but it wasn't to be. The final hope was the following morning. Previous birds have often sat up in a bush to warm up before dropping to feed, so I was up and out early. No joy, and so my 100% record has come to an end. 

It was a good morning nonetheless, possibly one of our best migrant falls ever in terms of diversity. 10 Wheatear, 2 Whinchat, Redstart, Pied Flycatcher, Spotted Flycatcher, 5 Tree Pipit, Common Sandpiper, Green Sandpiper, Swallow and Yellow Wagtail. Had you been able to stay out all morning you could have nearly completed autumn in just a few hours. I had to go to work again so missed out on quite a few of the birds - well, almost all of them in fact - but before I headed off to the office I did get all 10 of the Wheatear together on Centre Path which was very pleasing. In one sense the pressure is now off. Not that the possibility I might miss a patch Wryneck weighed heavily on my mind, caused me sleepless nights etc, but you know how it is.

And this is the 2021 bird.

The Fife/Wanstead dilemma

I've got quite a few trips to Fife planned this autumn, a bit of family, a lot of birding, or at least that is the plan. This has been very deliberate, I wanted to try and experience a bit of autumn passage up there, something I have never really managed to do, and so booked a series of visits for August, September and October. My first trip was over the recent Bank Holiday weekend - seawatching! To cut a long story short I bombed horribly. The wind direction was west west west, and weather was distinctly nice. Three mornings at Fife Ness netted a few Skuas, about 100 Manxies, a couple of Sooty Shearwater and little else. On the third morning there was a decent fall of Wheatear, and a Whinchat at my favourite site Letham Pools, but I contrived to miss all the good seabirds at the perfect time of year. 

I probably spent about three hours there the first morning seeing not a great deal, perhaps 50 Manx and three Sooty. In the afternoon a Balearic Shearwater went past. Nice. The following morning I tried again and saw virtually nothing bar Manx. The birder I was with in the hide went to Pettycur Harbour later that day and picked up two Cory's Shearwater together within half an hour of arriving. Excellent. On Monday I hadn't intended to go but a Balearic was seen early doors so I popped over. Nothing, though the Wheatears were nice. For a last roll of the dice I squeezed in an hour and a half between 7am and half eight at Pettycur before work. Nothing better than a couple of Arctic Skuas. An hour later there was a.... You get the picture. And of course once back in London the following week there were good seabirds almost every single day, and as I type the coast at Kilminning has had a substantial fall including Red-breasted Flycatcher, Red-backed Shrike, multiple Pied Flycatchers and a Wood Warbler. This is what you have to deal with when you don't live somewhere that you keep a list for. Grrrrr.

Ideal seawatching conditions

It wasn't all bad. I got a garden tick in the form of a Stock Dove in a stubble field above my parents' house. At Letham I added Great Tit and Great Spotted Woodpecker to take my site list to 91, not bad for a small flooded corner of a field. And thanks to the fall on the Bank Holiday Monday I added Wheatear to nearly every site list I keep in Fife. Ultimately though four days at a prime time of year were disappointing. This is just the way the cookie crumbles, but if I keep at it I will get there. I am back there this weekend and am hoping for a change in fortunes, and fingers crossed that at this stage the weather seems a little more promising. It seems a long time ago that I cracked the 200 mark for Fife. Then again, I live in London...

Talking of which all this has meant that the pressure has really been on here in Wanstead. Trying to split my time between here and Scotland means that every day is important. Thankfully I have had a lot more luck locally than in Fife. Before I left for Scotland I had Tree Pipit over the Brooms, and on my first day back I had an absolutely stellar morning on the Flats, scooping both Spotted and Pied Flycatchers. This past weekend a Skylark survey flushed an early Woodcock, and the following day Richard found a Common Sandpiper on Jubilee as well as another Pied Flycatcher. My autumn targets thus fell in just a few days. Apart from Wryneck, more on which later when I have recovered. I am above my average score somehow and have been really enjoying it.

House bins show their class

I am quite restrained in so far as I have only two pairs of binoculars. I think I peaked at four or five, but reason prevailed and I ditched two or three of them to leave myself with just two. My main bins and then some 'house' bins. I'd imagine house bins are a fairly common phenomenon for birders, indeed some birders may have more than one pair, each placed strategically near a window with a bit of a view. That's what I did, the house bins lived in the conservatory within easy reach so that I could easily disturb family meal times by grabbing them and jumping out of my seat to focus on some dot in the sky. 

More recently my house bins have become my only bins as the main bins are in for repair. Again. They're only 12 years old, yet for the second time the rubber armouring has fallen to bits to leave gaping bare metal holes. In all other respect they are fabulous binoculars, a few models behind perhaps, but I have been hugely pleased with them and they have travelled all over the world with me. And that may have been their undoing it seems as Swarovski green rubber appears to be particularly susceptible to being melted by insect repellent. Before I went to Brazil earlier this year the first signs of rot were just about visible, and to try and delay the inevitable I had put a bits of gaffer tape here and there - on the thumb indents on the underside, and on the ends of the barrels. By the time I came back from Brazil it would have required more tape than there was rubber remaining, and so I sent them in. The process is very easy, and the after-sales care is extremely good. Sure enough they acknowleged receipt very promptly and said that they would now assess what work was needed. As if that wasn't obvious... Anyway, they got back to me a couple of days ago with a quote of £95. Whilst part of me had been secretly hoping for a gratis repair, as had happened the previous time when they were about seven or eight years old, I kind of knew that was unlikely a further five years down the line. Sure enough, out of warranty. That said, £95 is extremely reasonable. The labour and the shipping to and from Austria is free, the cost comes entirely from parts and tax. The rubber armour itself is a mere £5.83 per barrel (here-in may lie the reason why it falls to bits so readily....) and in fact most of the cost is for two new eye-cups which I didn't know I needed. I also seem to be getting a nice new hawk logo thing for the front for £2.42 - the original may have fallen off, I can't remember as I only really ever look through them rather than at them. The rest is small parts and tax. Anyway, I am perfectly happy to pay £95 for my bins to come back looking all new and shiny, and would have paid that for the re-armouring alone. It certainly beats paying £1965 for Swarovski's latest iteration of 8x32s - I mean seriously? And 8x42s are £2300! I am so glad I am not one of those people who must have the latest and greatest of everything, it would be ruinous. No, 12 year old binoculars suit me just fine.

My Swaros are mere pups compared to my house bins though, a pair of 32 year old Leica Trinovid 8x32 BAs. Manufactured in 1992 they more or less look as if they came out of the factory last year. I've not owned them since new but I've had them a very long time, longer than the Swaros. The photo at the top of this post is of my son using them when he was about eight years old, and he's about to turn 21. They are easily the most indestructible item of any description that I have ever owned, optical or otherwise. You could bang nails in with them. In a contest vs a brick the bins would likely win. Some might say they are a brick. They just ooze rugged reliability and longevity, and look as if they will cope with anything you throw at them and come out unscathed. They will easily outlive me. And despite being somewhat ancient the image is still superb, which is kind of the point with binoculars. I've never really used them for any length of time, just the occasional grab or a skywatch from the balcony for a bit, but this autumn they are getting a proper work out and I can scarcely believe how good they still are. They are not as bright at the Swaros, nor perhaps quite as sharp, and the focussing is definitely a little less accurate, but really I'm splitting hairs here. They are easily good enough for a demanding birder and they're clearly better made than a lot of modern bins as well. When the Swaros do eventually come back it could be that it's the Leicas that come on holiday with me instead, I doubt that deet will concern them very much, nor rainforests, salt water, mud, sand, hurricanes, earthquakes....  If I was forced to choose just one pair it might very well be the the Leicas as I know they'll never let me down whereas in another five years the Swaros will probably be peeling again. I am half tempted to buy another pair... 

Buenos Aires - Day 2 - Birding before Breakfast

I had establised via eBird that a good number of ticks were available at a park back out towards the airport, Reservio Lago Soldati. I got up early and took an Uber out there for a couple of hours. The park consists of a lake on one side, and then a shallow marshy area on the other, along with some low trees and scrub. It's very urban, surrounded on all sides by houses, a sports complex and some kind of water-works. The taxi dropped me at what looked like a building site, but I was a able to wiggle through from the blue dot in the photo below.

This is the marshy area

In short it was fantastic, Ducks everywhere. White-faced Whistling-Duck, Ringed Teal, Red Shoveler, Lake Duck, Black-headed Duck and Red-fronted Coot were all new birds for me but these were merely appetisers for the main course. The real target was much much smaller, and much much more mega. What is astonishly beautiful, tiny, and lives in reedbeds in South America? One of the best birds I've seen anywhere is what. Many-coloured Rush-Tyrant. There are no words to describe how fabulous this little bird is, and I didn't have a camera. But rather than leave you empty-handed here's a screenprint of the eBird page, with a photo by Pio Marshall, whoever that is.

I had a brilliant couple of hours wandering around the site - the blue line above is my exact track as it happens, anout two miles and recording 61 species. I started with the main lake, but the best birds were in the marshy bit, including the Rush-Tyrant and all of the waders - Black-necked Stilt, Southern Lapwing, 2 Wilson's Phalarope and a handful of Lesser Yellowlegs. The full list is here. Other than a water plant worker I had the entire place to myself for the duration of my visit, quite astonishing.

I returned to the hotel in time for the end of breakfast and rejoined Mrs L, promising that all birding was now finished. I love breakfast on holiday. Rather than the rushed affair at home, often stood up as you multitask around the house, on holiday you can sit and have a second cup of coffee, another little pastry. One of the great pleasures. And best of all the day had barely started yet I had two hours of birding under my belt and 10 lifers under my belt.

A lot of interesting reading here!

As we had explored San Telmo the day before, today we caught a bus from right outside the hotel which took us further north into the city. Another day of wandering beckoned, and we visited a famous bookshop based in an old theatre, and then had a guided tour of the Teatro Colon, Buenos Aires' famour Opera House. Early evening we found a funky cocktail bar called the Floreria Atlantico, which bizarelly enough but true to its name is situated underneath a florists. You have to knock on the window of the flower shop and then they let you in and you go downstairs to a long curved bar. I would describe the drinks as interesting but a long way from the classics. Lots of strange ingredients. 

For the classics we went to the Trade Sky Bar later on, and sat at the bar for some truly lovely drinks. And as we were enjoying it so much and did want to leave, also had some small plates as the sun set. 

I think it was about this point in our trip that we had discovered a bizarre quirk of how the exchange rates worked. Or rather, don't work. There is an official rate and an actual rate, and if you pay by credit card you are charged at the official rate which is about 40% poorer than the actual rate. However a few days later your credit card company will refund you the difference back to your card. At the start of our trip this was the great unknown, would we get these refunds or not? Sure enough, they began to drip through which was really much more fun that just paying the original lower amount. And as everything was already pretty cheap, even better.