Date: Friday 2 September 2022

Trajectory:  Las Lomitas – Fortín Soledad – Las Lomitas

Distance covered: 330 km

An exceptional day’s birding today. After breakfast in the hotel we drove slowly to Fortín Soledad. Little traffic except a couple of cattle trucks.

We birded our way slowly along a dirt road for some 70 kms until we reached the township of Fortín Soledad …

… where we met Chilo at his restaurant and tour centre. 

First lunch, where we met a number of birders and photographers. The company was great …

… and so was the food

After lunch Chilo took us out on a punted canoe for four hours in the Bañado la Estrella, the second largest wetlands in Argentina.

With low waters there was an exceptional number of birds to see, but our specific interest was to help Chilo in a count of Jabiru nests.

Chilo punted us through some twenty kilometres of shallow water and we saw every variety of bird – this is really a stunning site to visit, especially at this time of the year with low water. The weather was good too, and we were spared the hot sun Formosa can provide.

It was a wonderful experience, with so many birds and absolute silence (the punting was noiseless).

Bird of the day is the roseate spoonbill, of which we saw many.

Tomorrow we head still further west.