River of the Birds

tero

I don´t know how many people remember the meaning of Uruguay, but in guaraní, or quechua, I forget which, it´s supposed to mean River of the Birds. Well, you can say that again.

I may have mentioned that I had never noticed the birds until my first trip to Uruguay with my now husband. He developed a crazy habit of slamming on the breaks and getting out of the car to look at whatever unusual bird was around. He has since toned it down a bit, now he doesn´t get off the car. I say we will be victims of death by birdwatching. Anyay, since moving into Arrancopelito, we have been basically living communally with a loooot of birds. There are four nests that I know of in the house itself. Every outside surface is seen by them as either a neighborhood, a good perch, a good drinking pond (including the pool, very popular) or a fun track for flying around and around and around.

carancho

The swallows are the funniest, the have two of the 4 nests, and especially in the late afternoons they start swooping in a flock of about 10, alternatively going around the house, or doing these weird approaches to the nest, with sharp turn away at the last second. They fly very fast too.

The falcons also spend all day overflying and doing their very elegant hunting dives, and a couple of days ago I even saw one of them being chased mid-air by a tero that was half it´s size and kept on attacking it.

garza blanca

The others just hang out more sedately, feed on the grass, perch on the terrace railing and sing at their heart´s content, etc. etc. Literally, there are dozens of birds hanging out at any given time around the house.



I have compiled a list of the birds we have seen either in our land, or in the neighborhood in the past, and it surprised me to see how many there are. Also surprising, as a recent British visitor living in Spain noticed, is how un-scared they are by humans in general. Except the teros I guess, which attach us every time we go to the beach, almost grazing us and then turning back, to come at us again... One of them makes a racket every day, then lands a few yards ahead of us, and proceeds to walk up the middle of the road, as if guiding us, while still screaming on... he thinks he´s a dog...


scissortail

So the list of what we´ve seen in the past 10 days is more or less the following, although our ignorance means that we have seen other varieties not identified and thus not listed...

parrots, scissortail, thrush, sparrow, pink heron, white heron, black heron, caracara plancus, falcon, swallow, duck (several kinds), tero, seagull, rail, guira cuckoo (venteveos), wood pidgeon, partridge (with two chicks crossing the road in tow), owls, and other unidentified winged critters.