ECOTOUR: Argentina!

The trip begins in Buenos Aires where we board an internal flight to the southern most city in the world, Ushuaia.  There we’ll bird the historic Beagle Channel for seabirds including the Black-browed Albatross, Northern Giant Petrel, Magellanic Penguin and, with luck, the sub-Antarctic Gentoo Penguin. In the nearby Southern Beech forest of Tierra del Fuego National Park we’ll search for the spectacular Magellanic Woodpecker and the diminutive Austral Parakeet.

From our base in the Patagonian town of El Calafate we’ll travel high into the Andes to Los Glaciares National Park where the famous Perito Moreno Glacier calves off huge icebergs into Lake Argentino creating a roar of white thunder with a tremendous splash.  We may see the giant Andean Condor soaring overhead among the dramatic mountain peaks and find Magellanic Plover along the lake shore.  Other highlights of the area include Lesser Rhea, Chilean Flamingoes and the endangered Hooded Grebe, which we will make a special excursion to find. 

On the wild Valdez Peninsula along the South Atlantic coast we’ll visit a breeding colony of Magellanic Penguins at home in their odd subterranean burrows.  Out to sea, we’ll have the opportunity to see the endangered Southern Right Whale, Southern Elephant Seals and we may even encounter a pod of Orcas hunting in the shallow coastal waters.  Strange land mammals also abound in Argentina including the Guanaco, Patagonian Hare and the Hairy Armadillo.

We end our trip in Buenos Aires where we will have two days to bird and explore some of the coastal wetlands and nearby pampas, as well a day to explore this fascinating global city.

Tentative Fee:  $4845  members / $5145 non-members

Group Size: 14 participants

Fee includes: all ground transportation, all lodging based on double occupancy, all
breakfasts, lunches, entrance fees, and excursions, and the services of your experienced leaders.  (Dinners and flights within Argentina not included)

Contact Dan van den Broek at 971-222-6105 or dvandenbroek@audubonportland.org.

Iguazu Falls extension
November 17-20

World famous Iguazu Falls, where the Iguazu River plunges over the eroded edge of a high plateau in hundreds of separate waterfalls, many over two hundred feet in height.  We’ll view the falls up close and bird the surrounding lush, tropical jungle – home to colorful tropical birds such as the Toco Toucan, Saffron Toucanet and many manakins, flycatchers and tanagers that your head will spin!  More than four hundred bird species have been recorded in the area including the Great Dusky Swift that flies through the falls to its roost. 

Tentative Fee: $1195
Fee includes all ground transportation, 3 nights lodging based on double occupancy, all
breakfasts, lunches, entrance fees, and excursions, and the services of your experienced leaders.           (Dinners and Buenos Aires to Iguazu r/t air not included).
Contact Dan van den Broek at 971-222-6105 or dvandenbroek@audubonportland.org.