Paraguay was a country I had long wanted to visit, and was extremely excited to be spending a month birding and mammal watching with my good friend Max Baumgarten from Germany. We had arranged our flights so that we met in Madrid and flew into Asuncion together, but alas that is not how it transpired, as our trip commenced with a level of chaos I had not experienced in my travels to that point.
Sadly Max
outbound flight from Germany to Madrid was cancelled, and although they were
able to arrange a suitable replacement that would mean we would loose only one
day of our trip, it did leave me in Asuncion at 06:25, and taking care of our
massive Toyota Hilux from 08:00, whilst finding an activity to do.
With such a
large car, I did not want to linger around the city, so drove an hour north to
an area of grassland just north of the town of Arroyos e Esteros. Although
there is a well trodden birding site in this area, I decided to visit that with
Max and as such spent the time between 09:30 and 11:00 birding another road.
Fortunately, the driving was pleasantly straightforward, meaning it was not as
stressful as I had feared.
The birding
was good considering that the morning was already getting hot. I had hoped to
find some Seedeaters here, nad they did not disappoint. The most abundant were
Tawny-bellied Seedeater, a species I have seen only once before, but there was
also a nice male Rusty-collared Seedeater and two new species for me with a
distant Rufous-rumped Seedeater, and a rather oddly plumaged immature male
Ibera Seedeater, one of the main targets for the trip. In addition, it was good
to get reacquainted with several species I had seen before, such as Long-winged
Harrier, Pampas Finch and Grassland Finch.
With time
still to kill before I could check in to the hotel, I decided to chance my arm
at driving within the city to the Botanical Gardens. This went remarkably well
and I arrived at 13:00 in the heat of the day. Despite this, over the next two hours
I enjoyed some brilliant birding. All common species, but many I had not seen
for some time. Highlights included Pale-crested Woodpecker, Plush-crested Jay
and a Crowned-Slaty Flycatcher.
The main target
for the botanical gardens was the Hooded Capuchin which can be found here. It
initially looked like I might miss them with no sign for two hours, but on my
way back to the car I encountered a troop of 21 individuals, and they were not
shy! Shortly after another group of seven individuals, which were a bit more
timid but had a very impressive male in tow. The garden pond was home to
several turtles and about 10 Caiman, but how natural these are I do not know.
Once 15:00 rolled around I headed to the hotel, and settled in to recover from an exhausting 24 hours, and wait for Max to arrive so the real fun can begin!
