High and Dry...

No, not the lovely Radiohead song from years gone by, though speaking of which, I encourage all my readers to listen to "In Rainbows" because it is quite simply the best. No, this is about the high and dry Andes of NW Argentina. North of Jujuy one travels through some dramatic rain-shadow scenery, certainly some of the best I've encountered on my travels. The colours in the rock formations are incredible in the clear early morning light - wonderful golds and reds, like nothing else. Vegetation is sparse but there are some nice birds to be had in the shrubbery - and lets face it everyone loves a bit of shrubbery early in the morning - don't they? Well, whatever, we found a number of Giant Hummers, Puna Yellow-Finches, Black-billed Shrike-Tyrants and an assortment of Sierra-Finches here. I was initially confused by the Shrike-Tyrants because this form has a very different tail pattern from those farther north. Hmmm, all very interesting for the tyrant freaks out there and the MM is certainly to found firmly within that pigeonhole...please don't ask why!


Cast yer eyes on the beautiful colours in this barren and inhospitable terrain. All rufescent and ochraceous! Sorry, but for someone who makes a megre living out of painting the likes of furnariids these are key words! This photo was taken along the track that heads west from La Quiaca towards Laguna de Porzuelos. Not many birds can live here, though we did see the occasional Rufous-banded Miner, Golden-spotted Ground-Dove and, further along the road where there were some suitable rocky outcrops, the local Rock Earthcreeper. It was a memorable drive through some stark and surreal landscapes.


A couple of days later we travelled the road that heads west out of Salta and cuts though Parque Nacional Los Cordones. Our main birding stop was a (yes, you guessed it) shrubbery-choked quebrada just as one enters the reserve. Lovely scenery enlivened by circling Andean Condors and Puna Hawks. We saw some nice birds here including the highly local Maquis Canastero and Zimmer's Tapaculo. We had fun with the tapaculo as it played hide-and-seek amongst the huge boulders higher up on the slopes. We also had nice looks at Brown-capped Tit-Spinetails and some lovely Black Siskins. No luck with Rufous-bellied Saltator though. Is okay, I'll save that one for the grand Bolivia bash.

As one travels through the park you enter a veritable forest of large cacti - after which the park is named. It is quite impressive. Again, a bit sparse on bird life, but there is one very local endemic here - the attractive Steinbach's Canastero. As luck would have it one flew across the road in front of the van and we were able to leap out, after we had untangled ourselves that is - the van was quite small, and grab some epic views of this much-wanted furnariid.


A closer view of some prime canastero habitat. Any bird that lives here would have to be rather specialized in my mind. A good way to find canasteros, and many other members of the furnariidae, or ovenbirds, is to look for their nests. Many ovenbirds build large stick nests in the middle of bare shrubs and trees or attached to large cacti. They are easy to spot. A few days after this we were looking the the endemic White-throated Cachalote and were getting more and more frustrated because we couldn't actually find one! We found several nests but they all appeared to be inactive. We heard a couple but could never see the bird in the dense thorny brush. Anyway, after several hours of this persistence eventually paid off when "The Brewer" flushed one out of a head-high nest - what a wave of relief that was! It was interesting because the bird very cleverly lead us away from its nest before flying way away across the road. We pursued it quite a way but couldn't find it again. However, when, some minutes later we approached the nest again, there was the bird! It had looped around us - a fairly common diversion tactic. We departed to leave the bird to go about its business. A somewhat drably attired bird but, as always with endemics, very highly-prized.


As we travelled south along a torturously slow and winding track heading for the very pleasant town of Cafayate we passed through some truly beautiful weathered sandstone scenery. There were Burrowing Parrots all over the place, often in large noisy flocks, sometimes feeding right outside the van windows on roadside fruits - amazing! We spent some time looking in vain for Subtropical Doraditos wherever we felt they should be but that one will just have to wait. We passed some sand dune habitat where we felt the endemic Sandy Gallito should live but we were pushed for time and had other sites for this highly sought-after tapaculo. Is a terrible thing to have to drive past nice habitat without stopping! As we neared Cafayate we noticed that the road was badly washed-out in many places and were thankful to actually get there at all! And yes, the wine tasted good. And yes again - the flan was terrific...


Ever wondered what high Andean cemeteries look like? Well wonder no more.