Paraguay Chaco Expedition Chaco Lodge Part 4

2^nd July

Today the team would venture away from Laguna Capitan and make its way to Chaco Lodge. The purpose of the trip was to count the Chilean Flamingos on the salt pans along the route. A grand total of 1324 birds would make it into my notebook the majority being present on the pans of Riacho Yacare Sur.

Before departure a Rufous browed Peppershrike found the net and was in no mood to be handled taking every opportunity to bite down on my hand with its powerful bill.  left a few scars as it was processed before release. A second bird was caught and a pencil was used to distract this birds attention until it bit that and demanded that it filled in its own data!

En route to Chaco lodge a juvenile Great Black Hawk was observed making a swooping dive having been disturbed by the truck but did not stick around for long as it sailed away into the horizon. A Brushland Tinamou made a roadside appearance allowing some record shots to be taken from the guys in the back of the truck. A Chaco Earthcreeper was to be my only other lifer of the day. 

The group arrived at Chaco Lodge around 1600hrs which gave us enough time to take a walk to the salt pan and watch the sunset.A group of Nanday Parakeets flew over as we walked towards the pan. The viewing tower provided excellent views of the sunset prior to our night drive back to Laguna Capitan.

A few road kill snakes were collected en route to Laguna Capitan. A Chaco Owl watched our every move as it moved from a fence post to higher ground and the safety of a telegraph pole. I am slowly chipping away at the Paraguayan bird list which stands at 381 species to cement 6th place on the Surfbirds list!