On Sunday 01st, December a team of three –led by Juan Pablo Seco Pon- set out around mid-afternoon aimed at continuing a conservation project focused on obtaining estimates of the abundance and productivity of ducks in Las Flores, western Buenos Aires province. As austral summer starts to appear, the weather was quite hot throughout that afternoon. We visited 12 new lagoons in the search of ducks, sometimes aided with waders, also checking for nests around associated vegetation, shrubs and trees; this time at least two ducklings were spotted: one young Yellow-billed Pintail along with one adult and one young Silver Teal along with two adults. Six out of the seven species of ducks of interested were sighted that day, these included the Yellow-billed Pintail, the Southern Wigeon, the Rossy-billed Pochard, and the Silver, Cinnamon and Ringed teals.
On Monday 02th, the team started very early in the morning, expecting to encounter some mild temperatures than the previous day. With the driving skills of Javier, one of our local guides, we managed to visit another 11 lagoons. We continued our search for ducks of interest, also checking for nest or ducklings; but none was found this time. Except for the Southern Wigeon, the same species of ducks were spotted that day when compared to the previous one.
During lunch time, it was time to wrap up the list of bird species sighted during our outing. Apart from the ducks latter referred, other bird species included several species of waterfowl (Southern Lapwing, White-necked Heron, Great Egret, Snowy Egret, Cattle Egret, Black-crowned Night-Heron, Maguari Stork, Bare-faced Ibis, White-faced Ibis, Roseate Spoonbill, Southern Screamer, Neotropic Cormorant, Coscoroba Swan, Black-necked Swan, and Plumbeous Rail), several species of raptors (White-tailed Kite, Snail Kite, Long- winged Harrier, Sharp-shinned Hawk, Southern Caracara, Chimango Caracara, Aplomado Falcon, and American Kestrel), three species of coots (Red-gartered, White-winged and Red- fronted coot), the Brown-hooded Gull, the Snowy-crowned Tern, the Monk Parakeet, the Guira Cuckoo, the Burrowing Owl, the Field Flicker, the Rufous Hornero, the Spectacled Tyrant, the Fork-tailed Flycatcher, the Barn Swallow, the White-rumped Swallow, the White-banded Mockingbird, the Rufous-collared Sparrow, the Brown-and-Yellow Marshbird, the Long-tailed Meadowlark, the House Sparrow, the European Starling, the Picazuro Pigeon, the Eared Dove, the Picui Ground-Dove, the Shiny Cowbird, the Bay-winged Cowbird, and the Great Kiskadee.
