{"id":1871,"date":"2015-12-19T21:44:14","date_gmt":"2015-12-20T00:44:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.eayrs.com\/blog\/?p=1871"},"modified":"2015-12-19T21:44:14","modified_gmt":"2015-12-20T00:44:14","slug":"around-neuquen-airport-15-16-october-2015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eayrs.com\/blog\/archives\/1871","title":{"rendered":"Around Neuquen airport, 15-16 October 2015"},"content":{"rendered":"

I found myself at Neuqu\u00e9n with a few hours to kill before my flight left, so I rented a car from Hertz and checked what was in the vicinity.<\/p>\n

My first stop was a small and rather sad private conservation centre, the Parque Luan<\/em>, situated within walking distance of the airport, had I known.\"DSC07220-e1409148241975\"\u00a0This place was started and run with the best of intentions as a rescue centre but over time funding for the basics (maintenance, food, animal care) has been much reduced and the place is a little run down. The people running it were very friendly and obviously caring insofar as resources permitted, but (one feels) way out of their depth in their efforts.<\/p>\n

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Puma (Puma concolor), one of three in Parque Luan, all in excellent condition<\/p><\/div>\n

So sad to see a majestic animal like the Puma<\/strong> cooped up in a cage (there were three of them), though I should state that the three big cats were all in beautiful condition.<\/p>\n

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Aguilucho com\u00fan o variado hembra, Variable or Red-backed Hawk (Geranoaetus polyosoma)<\/p><\/div>\n

And sad too to see large\u00a0raptors like\u00a0the [female here] \u00a0Variable<\/strong> or Red-backed Hawk,\u00a0<\/strong>Aguilucho com\u00fan o variado (Geranoaetus polyosoma<\/em>) and (below) the Black-chested Buzzard-Eagle,\u00a0<\/strong>Aguila Mora (Geranoaetus melanoleucus<\/em>) all caged up was just heart breaking …<\/p>\n

\"Aguila

Aguila mora (Black-chested Buzzard-Eagle), Geranoaetus melanoleucus<\/p><\/div>\n

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Jote cabeza colorada (Turkey Vulture), Cathartes aura<\/p><\/div>\n

… as it was to see vultures caged up, in this case [above] the Turkey Vulture<\/strong>\u00a0or\u00a0jote cabeza colorada (Catharses aura<\/em>). You can see the sadness in their faces.<\/p>\n

There were many species of birds, mammals and reptiles in Parque Luan, and I as I am not overfond of photos of wildlife\u00a0in captivity I restrained myself. But\u00a0I did allow myself a couple of exceptions.<\/p>\n

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Cotorras (Monk Parakeets), Myiopsitta monachus<\/p><\/div>\n

These Monk Parakeets <\/strong>or Cotorras (Myiopsitta monachus<\/em>), abundant in the region, \u00a0were not strictly speaking in the collection, so to speak, \u00a0but had clearly found it a useful source of food put out for the Cockatiels<\/strong> below, Spanish Cacat\u00faa ninfa, Cocotilla o Carolina,\u00a0(Nymphicus hollandicus<\/em>).<\/p>\n

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Cockatiel, Sp. cacat\u00faa ninfa, cocotilla o carolina,(Nymphicus hollandicus)<\/p><\/div>\n

One can only speculate how a large flock of Cockatiels<\/strong> had left their native Australia for Neuqu\u00e9n, but my best guess is escapees from a private collection somewhere. They are beautiful birds; the male of the species is on the left, the female to his right.<\/p>\n

Near to the Parque Luan is the river Limay, accessible at La Herradura. I spent some time here birding, but took few photos. One I did take was this brilliant yellow\u00a0Saffron Finch<\/strong>,\u00a0jilguero dorado (Scales flaveola).<\/p>\n

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Saffron Finch, jilguero dorado (Scales flaveola)<\/p><\/div>\n

Down by the riverside there was not a huge amount of activity but I did see a few \u00a0Flying steamer-ducks<\/strong> or\u00a0quetros\u00a0voladores, (Tachyeres patachonicus<\/em>) …<\/p>\n

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Quetro volador (Flying steamer-duck), Tachyeres patachonicus<\/p><\/div>\n

.. and the unchallenged ‘bird of the day’, a\u00a0Collared Plover<\/strong> or chorlito de collar (Charadrius collaris<\/em>), a new bird for my life list.<\/p>\n

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Chorlito de collar (Collared Plover), Charadrius collaris<\/p><\/div>\n

All in all a good if short outing – the whole thing completed in about four\u00a0hours on a specially arranged half-day car rental (you have to ask!).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I found myself at Neuqu\u00e9n with a few hours to kill before my flight left, so I rented a car from Hertz and checked what was in the vicinity. My first stop was a small and rather sad private conservation … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-birds","category-for-fb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eayrs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eayrs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eayrs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eayrs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eayrs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1871"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.eayrs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1871\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1891,"href":"https:\/\/www.eayrs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1871\/revisions\/1891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eayrs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eayrs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eayrs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}