I wanted to show some pictures of our trip to the Ibera' estuary, a few weeks ago. Martha, her friend from the states, Erika, and I drove to an enormous protected estuary called Esteros de Ibera to see the wildlife. Erika met Martha playing soccer in Oregon, and later married an Argintinean and move to Concordia, a city north of Buenos Aires. Lucky for us, she is a biologist and a bird watcher. Lucky for my blog. she is a photographer as well. Enjoy the photos!
We took a boat tour. The guide had to pole through the marshes because of all the floating plant matter. Here is the roseate spoonbill we saw. Look at the spoon shaped beak! It was a brilliant pink color.
Here is a South American Alligator, or Yacare´ sunning himself on one of the floating islands of the estuary. I have some more photos I will upload later. Large teeth, but supposedly didn´t eat anything bigger than baby capybaras. See below.
Cocoi Heron or called here a Garza Mora. Animals didn´t mind our presence in the estuary and came very close without minding us. This is what let us get some of these photos. My friend Erika had a standard zoom, nothing special. It is just that wildlife was everywhere, almost like a garden of Eden.
Cocoi heron again.
These are capybaras - the largest rodent in the world. Known as carpinchos here, they meander around slowly grazing on what ever is available. About the size of a pig, they are very endearing and reminded me of A.A. Milne´s Eeyore. At one point everyone was taking pictures of the monkeys and a capybara lumbered past -- he seemed to be saying ¨don`t mind me...I am just the largest rodent in the world...nothing exciting here...¨
More capybaras grazing, with a cierbo or small deer in the distance. They don´t generally have deer in Argentina, so the cierbos were one of the greatest attractions for the Argentinians on our boat.
Capybara running. Very cute! They are pig sized.
Great egret, or garza blanca.
These are screamers, a type of South American duck. This is their nest, and they are changing guard of the eggs in this photo. They are bigger than our normal ducks, and they do scream.
This is an adult male howler monkey. He did a nice job posing for us on some branches in a little clearing. The floating islands in the estuary stablize enough occassionally to have islands of forested areas. This is where we found the monkeys.
A juvenile howler monkey.
Martha and I walking towards the ranger station. The ranger station kept track of how many people visited. In general the estuary seemed well protected, although there is trouble from a large reservoir north of the province.
This Great Rhea is for my mother, Molly Frost, who is called Rhea by her grandchildren.
Epiphyte or airplant.
Ciao! Stay tuned for more.
Eli
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