WHILE WE HADN’T PLANNED IT THAT WAY, our time in South America is turning into another birding expedition. Diego, our guide in the Iberá wetlands, hooked us up with a fellow guide in Salta. Carlos is more than just a guide. He spends most of his time managing the family’s Eco-Portal de Piedra Natural Reserve in northwest Jujuy Province. He is an active conservationist, has handled the logistics for a film crew in Argentina and even published a book—in Español, of course.
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Carlos on the prowl
That’s not to say Carlos doesn’t know his birds and he works hard to find them—as he should with Connie as a client. We just returned from six days birding from Salta to Abra Pampa near the Bolivian border. Altogether we saw 117 different species and fifty-four of Connie’s sixty-six target birds.
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Brown-Capped Tit-Spinetail
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Plush-Crested Jay
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Tufted Tit-Tyrant
We spent the first couple of days birding in the yungas forest near Chicoana. Even Carlos was perplexed by the slow birding—only fifteen species in the first two days. The highlights were the aptly-named Red-Tailed Comet hummingbird, Brown-Capped Tit- Spinetail and the Tufted Tit-Tyrant.
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Carlos and Connie, Cardones National Park
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Ruta 33 to Cardones
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Cardon Cacti, taller than Saguaro
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Piedra del Molina, 11,000 feet above sea level
We finished the first part of the trip birding our way up to Parque Nacional los Cardones, named for the Cardon cactus. Cardon are the tallest species, sometimes reaching over sixty feet—even taller than their Saguaro cousins. Though most of the roads are paved, hardly any are straight. We followed Ruta 33 up and around into the Andean foothills, entering the Park near Piedra del Molina, the highest point in the park at 11,000 feet above sea level.