February 9, Day 6:

We had settled in to the beautiful Salentein Lodge and Winery. We had for us an early morning start birding around the winery at 7:00 a.m. picking up 7 lifers in around 2 hours. The Crested Gallito and Brown Cachalote were seen briefly or heard only but I would get good looks and photos of them later. Then there were the two “Creamy Birds”, Creamy-breasted Canastero and Creamy-bellied Thrush– I thought I had a photo of each but cannot find them possibly confused with other “brown bird” photos. The other lifers were White-banded Mockingbird, Screaming Cowbird, and Ringed Warbling Finch. Here are their photos.

No surprise the breakfast at Salentein was wonderful and then we continued bird on the extensive Salentein holdings adding one more lifer before lunch – a White-tipped Plantcutter, in addition to new birds for the trip like Blue and Yellow Tanager, Banded Seedeater and Mourning Sierra-finch.

It was great that we had such good birding in the morning because the next many hours would be all about wine. The Salentein Winery was founded in 1997 by a Dutch businessman, Myndert Pon, with the vision of creating a world class winery. One of its vineyards, San Pablo, however, dates back to the 17th Century. Everything we saw and experienced at Salentein was impressive with beautiful buildings, vineyards, facilities and of course food and wines. In 2019 at Mundus Vini, a top European Wine Competition, Salentein was named the best “overseas winery”. Where to start…

The Salentein property is over 5,000 acres with 1200 acres currently planted in vineyards. The winery produces red, white, rose and sparkling wines and is probably best known for its Malbec’s. Every architectural detail is beautiful and impressive. We had wonderful food and of course wine including several bottles with the meals in addition to the many wines at a tasting in their exquisite tasing room. I could add dozens of photos taken during our visit but include here just a sampling.

After the wine at lunch and the tastings but before the wine at dinner, we actually continued birding – all on or near the Salentein property. I added another 3 world lifers: Darwin’s Nothura (unfortunately heard only), White Throated Cachalote and Hudson’s Black Tyrant (a female)- finally photographed after much work. This last photo, despite the poor quality, is noteworthy only because it is a very skulking bird and photos are hard to come by. I also finally got a photo of a Brown Cachalote – a lifer heard only and seen without photo before.

You never know when a bird will appear and just beg to have its photo taken. Such was the case with a Burrowing Owl and a Guira’s Cuckoo near the winery. They were new for the trip but seen by me previously. Both were spied as we drove the access roads to the winery and were seen and photographed from the van. I don’t think I have ever seen any cuckoo so much in the open before.

I also got my best of the trip so far photos of Long-tailed Mockingbird and Chiguanco Thrush and a lovely photo of a Fork-tailed Flycatcher and a posing Chimango Caracara. Lastly I also got a decent shot of a Double Collared Seedeater.

It had been a great day for wine, food, birds and photos probably as representative of why we chose this tour as any. We had seen 42 species that day with 11 being new lifers and 19 new for my Argentina list. There would be more to come the next day. Dinner this night was another extravaganza at the Gaia Restaurant at the Domaine Bousquet Winery.

February 10, Day 7:

Our first birding on the morning of February 10 added another lifer and a photo of a lifer missed earlier. The new species was a Chaco Earthcreeper and the new photo was of a Crested Gallito, both were again LBJ’s – “little brown jobs” but the crest on the Gallito made that ID a lot easier. Another life photo, but of a bird seen many years ago on that Argentina fishing trip in 1989, was the Red-gartered Coot.

We were headed to Malargue for the night with lunch along the way at Villa Bonita de Mayo. As was usually the case when we entered the restaurant, Marcelo was embraced by the proprietor – old friends. I wish I had taken notes on all of the meals. Nothing specific on this one except remembering it was very good and the atmosphere was really fun.

After again too much food and wine, it was back to the birds around San Rafael. In fairly short order birding in the scrub habitat, I added 5 more lifers: Short-billed Canastero, Sooty-fronted and Stripe-crowned Spinetails, Greater Wagtail-tyrant and Southern Scrub-flycatcher.

There were not many mammals on this tour but on the road we did see a wild Guanaco.

New for the trip but a nice photo of a species I had seen and photographed in Peru in 2012 was a Golden-billed Saltator.

The early afternoon had been great for lifers and photos. Late afternoon added 4 more lifers but I only got a photo of one and not a great photo at that. The photo was of a White-winged Black-tyrant. Lifers added without photos were Carbonated Sierra-finch, Patagonian Canastero, and Band-tailed Earthcreeper. The Sierra-finch was a quick drive-by view and the Canastero never unburied itself. I thought I had a photo of the Earthcreeper but it has not been found if it ever existed.

Fortunately we were staying at the Hotel Malargue only one night – pretty low quality and I have already repressed details and took no photos. I do not even have notes or photos of dinner that night. Maybe just as well.

We were now half way into our trip (although not quite half way through the tour). Only 32 species were seen that day but,10 more species had been added to my growing life list (64 added so far). Our group trip list was at 120 species. We would not add that many new ones in the second half of the trip, but there were a lot more to come.