Las Macanas Marsh
On our way back from the PAS fieldtip to Santa Fe, we made a short detour to check out Las Macanas Marsh, near Santa María, and had a number of pretty good sightings. Orquídea found a juvenile Great Blue Heron, and Snail Kites were everywhere, as were Glossy Ibis. A Limpkin flushed from the vegetation near the small dock and flew to the other side of the marsh and Delicia had an even briefer look at what had to be a Masked Duck, small, brown and with white wingpatches, which flew up from the vegetation and dove down almost immediately.
Among the thousands of Wattled Jacanas which were all over the place was a weird individual with what appeared to be an all-brown back (which stayed in the vegetation, ducking out of sight frequently). The red rictal lappets (the wattles) were visible thrugh the scope, but the top part of its red frontal plate was bluish white, which made this bird look even weirder.
But the birds of the day were without a doubt the Fulvous Whistling-Ducks. The first sighting was of a lone bird flying low against a dark background; like a good Fulvous should, it had a white stripe across the tail and no white on its wings. Later on, two birds were seen flying in the same general direction, landing in the vegetation to join a group of four (one of which flew off before the crappy pic above was taken). They were almost on the other side of the marsh, but their fieldmarks could be checked through the Kaufmanns' scope.
Among the thousands of Wattled Jacanas which were all over the place was a weird individual with what appeared to be an all-brown back (which stayed in the vegetation, ducking out of sight frequently). The red rictal lappets (the wattles) were visible thrugh the scope, but the top part of its red frontal plate was bluish white, which made this bird look even weirder.
But the birds of the day were without a doubt the Fulvous Whistling-Ducks. The first sighting was of a lone bird flying low against a dark background; like a good Fulvous should, it had a white stripe across the tail and no white on its wings. Later on, two birds were seen flying in the same general direction, landing in the vegetation to join a group of four (one of which flew off before the crappy pic above was taken). They were almost on the other side of the marsh, but their fieldmarks could be checked through the Kaufmanns' scope.