{"id":1893,"date":"2015-12-22T21:15:06","date_gmt":"2015-12-23T00:15:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.eayrs.com\/blog\/?p=1893"},"modified":"2015-12-22T21:18:08","modified_gmt":"2015-12-23T00:18:08","slug":"atlantic-coast-part-1-mar-del-plata-18-october-2015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eayrs.com\/blog\/archives\/1893","title":{"rendered":"Atlantic coast, Part 1 – Mar del Plata, 18 October, 2015"},"content":{"rendered":"

This was not the trip it was meant to be. I had got myself to Mar del Plata, on the eastern coast of Argentina, with a pocketful of Dramamine and all intent on doing a pelagic trip – 50km into open sea, with dreams of albatrosses and other exotics. But as the day dawned the harbour master decided that the weather was too unreliable, and the trip was cancelled.<\/p>\n

So with time to kill, I wandered around the nearby\u00a0Natural Reserve Mar del Plata Port.<\/em> It was\u00a0a couple of kms from the port area and quite hard to find the entrance; it was also in a very isolated area and several of the people I asked for directions cautioned me about entering the Reserve alone for\u00a0fear of muggings or worse. So I stayed on the edges and peered in, feeling safe but silly.<\/p>\n

\"151018

A male pico de plata (Spectacled Tyrant), Hymenops perspicillatus<\/p><\/div>\n

First up, as I entered, I saw this pair of Spectacled Tyrants<\/strong>, male above and female below.<\/p>\n

\"151018

And the female pico de plata (Spectacled Tyrant), Hymenops perspicillatus<\/p><\/div>\n

In fact, I didn’t really see much in the way of birds at this Reserve, but then again I didn’t really penetrate it either. I find from the photos I took I saw mainly common species such as the\u00a0Chimango\u00a0Caracara <\/strong>(chimango), Milvago chimango<\/em>; the\u00a0Rufous-collared Sparrow<\/strong> (chingolo), Zonotrichia capensis<\/em> and the\u00a0House Wren <\/strong>(ratonera com\u00fan), Troglodytes aedon<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"151018

House Wren (ratonera com\u00fan), Troglodytes aedon.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Rufous-collared Sparrow (chingolo), Zonotrichia capensis<\/p><\/div>\n

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Chimango Caracara (chimango), Milvago chimango<\/p><\/div>\n

I returned to the Port area to see what might\u00a0be on the water front. Here I saw many gulls, including an Olrog’s Gull<\/strong> (gaviota cangrejera) Larus atlanticus<\/em>;\u00a0Snowy Sheathbill<\/strong> (paloma antartica) Chionis albus<\/em>; and\u00a0Southern Giant Petrel<\/strong> (Petrel Gigante Comun) Macronectes giantess<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"151018

Olrog’s Gull (gaviota cangrejera) Larus atlanticus<\/p><\/div>\n

The Olrog’s Gull is known in Spanish as the crab gull, and this is what they eat:<\/p>\n

\"Neohelice

Neohelice granulata, staple for the Olrog’s Gull<\/p><\/div>\n

\"151018

Snowy Sheathbill (paloma antartica (Chionis albus<\/p><\/div>\n

\"151018

Southern Giant Petrel (Petrel Gigante Comun) Macronectes giantess.<\/p><\/div>\n

Marine mammals were in evidence too; here are a few sea lions.<\/p>\n

\"151018

Male sea lion in Mar del Plata harbour<\/p><\/div>\n

\"151018

Part of a small colony of sea lions in Mar del Plata harbour<\/p><\/div>\n

As I started by saying, this was not the day it was intended to be but it was a pleasant enough day all the same, even if a little light on wildlife sightings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This was not the trip it was meant to be. I had got myself to Mar del Plata, on the eastern coast of Argentina, with a pocketful of Dramamine and all intent on doing a pelagic trip – 50km into … 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":[5,32,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-birds","category-for-fb","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eayrs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1893","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=1893"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.eayrs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1893\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1921,"href":"https:\/\/www.eayrs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1893\/revisions\/1921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eayrs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eayrs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eayrs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}