LAS GRUTAS & LIST
ARGENTINA
SAN ANTONIO OESTE (Compass)
00o00´S/00o00´W ha topography msl
Protected/registered status
Best Time for visit (12th May, 2005)
Birding Site Guide
Las Grutas is easily accesible from San Antonia Oeste where there are several places to stay and eat. We stayed at the Hotel Iberia on Sarmiento (40 pesos for a double). Buses leave for Las Grutas from the Las Grutas bus terminal (as locally). It takes less than 30 minutes and costs 2 pesos. Get off the bus at the end of the promenade where the bus turns and goes back the other way. After here is a small dry canyon. Along there is good birding especially where a thin, black, leaky pipe crosses. Lesser Canastero was seen in this area. Walking further along the road towards el Salto, Golden-billed Saltator and Chalk-browed Mockingbird were seen in roadside scrub. A couple of km further along, the 3rd canyon along (almost wide enough to drive a car down) seemed to have good habitat and some interesting birds had been seen there before. All I saw of interest though was Patagonian Canastero. I saw 32 species including 4 lifers.
Species seen
- Snowy Egret ? Egretta thula
- Black-crowned Night-Heron Nycticorax nycticorax
- Upland Goose Chloephaga picta
- Turkey Vulture Cathartes aura
- Black-chested Buzzard-Eagle Geranoaetus melanoleucus
- Rufous-tailed Hawk Buteo ventralis
- Chimango Caracara Milvago chimango
- American Kestrel Falco sparverius
- American Oystercatcher Haematopus palliatus
- Southern Lapwing Vanellus chilensis
- Kelp Gull Larus dominicanus
- Brown-hooded Gull Larus maculipennis
- Picui Ground-Dove Columbina picui
- Burrowing Parrot Cyanoliseus patagonus
- Burrowing Owl ? Athene cunicularia
- Scale-throated Earthcreeper Upucerthia dumetaria
- Plain-mantled Tit-Spinetail Leptasthenura aegithaloides
- Lesser Canastero Asthenes pyrrholeuca
- Patagonian Canastero Asthenes patagonica Endemic
- Greater Wagtail-Tyrant Stigmatura budytoides
- Tufted Tit-Tyrant ? Anairetes parulus
- Gray-bellied Shrike-Tyrant Agriornis microptera
- Dark-faced Ground-Tyrant Muscisaxicola macloviana
- House Wren Troglodytes aedon
- Chalk-browed Mockingbird Mimus saturninus
- Patagonian Mockingbird Mimus patagonicus
- Gray-hooded Sierra-Finch Phrygilus gayi
- Mourning Sierra-Finch Phrygilus fruticeti
- Rufous-collared Sparrow Zonotrichia capensis
- Golden-billed Saltator Saltator aurantiirostris
- Long-tailed Meadowlark Sturnella loyca
- Black-chinned Siskin Carduelis barbata
- House Sparrow Passer domesticus Introduced
Other Fauna
A total of -- species of mammals.
There are -- recorded species of amphibians and reptiles.
Flora
Author: Charles Hesse
www.birdingsiteguide.com