Costanera del Sur

One of the best things about Buenos Aires is a small nature reserve on the bank of the Rio de la Plata, called Costanera del Sur. It's one of those sites that were meant for development, but it didn't quite work out, and the natural world took over while the developers weren't looking. Now it is officially a Ramsar site and it is protected. They say there are some 200 species of birds there, plus the local guinea pigs, amphibians, insects. It is only a walk of a few kilometres, walking all the way round the reserve is 7 kilometres, but you can see a lot on your way so you can easily spend a day there.


The good thing is that you can see a lot of birds throughout the day. Even before you are actually in the reserve you see the first birds, and it may take you some time to get past the information centre. Right next to the small centre is a tree that attracts hummingbirds, or picaflores. You can stand at a couple of metres from the tree and observe the birds without disturbing them, they are just too busy feeding. Then, as you walk further into the reserve, it feels like you have to stop every 20 metres or so, to work out what it is you are hearing or seeing. The local woodpeckers show themselves, a tortoise by the side of the path, Monarch butterflies, lizards quickly crossing from one side of the road to the other. Sometimes we were the ones being observed, for example when a Red-crested Cardinal decided to come up and have a good look at us from among the leaves up in a tree. I was lying in the grass just then, so we had a chance to take a good look at each other. He was very pretty.


We took a walk through the reserve on our first day in the city, in the blazing sunshine, but on the second it was closed in the morning because of the rain. The rain... There was the slightest drizzle, not enough to get anyone wet, but the men at the gate were afraid the paths might get muddy and slippery. We walked along the main road next to the reserve to the other entrance, watching quite a few interesting birds along the way. The Guira Cuckoo was sitting on the wall enclosing the reserve, a Snowy Egret and Wattled Jacana were foraging side by side in a shallow pool just a little further on.


When we got to the other side the guards had probably decided that it wasn't going to rain any harder than it was and we were allowed into the reserve. The paths were perfectly alright, and it turned out to be another good walk. We saw the Pampas Cavy again, always a favourite for any Guinea Pig lover, and the Golden-breasted Flicker. Once again there was the same mix of the familiar and the unfamiliar. The Flicker is obviously a woodpecker, but it doesn't look like our woodpeckers. You can more or less classify the birds you see everywhere, work out what family they belong to, but many are just a little different. The Egrets look like our Egrets though... And then there are the more tropical birds like the Parakeets, the Cardinals, the Hummingbirds and the Kiskadee that make it all very different. Then again, we recognise the sounds the Parakeets make because of the introduced Ring-necked Parakeets we have here in the park. It's all familiar yet confusing.