On Saturday 6 October we drove north from Tafi del Valle along routes 307 and 40 towards the town of Cafayate, which sits in the wine-growing area of the Calchaquies valley. Along the way we made a number of stops to see birds and find various specialities of the dry environment of the Monte desert. Early in the day we stopped near Amaicha del Valle with the goal of finding one of our main target birds, the Argentine endemic White-throated Chachalote, which duly appeared soon after we got out of our vehicle. At this stop we also saw the more common Ringed Warbling-Finch and Greater Wagtail-Tyrant.
After the successes at our first location we dove further north, stopping close to the junction with route 40. Here he had the impressive site of the Aconquija mountains in the distance, which form the boundary between the Tucaman and Catamarca provinces.
Close to the road junction there was scrub with hardy trees and cacti, which proved productive for birding and we saw a Hepatic Tanager, which we were familiar with from trips to Arizona. We also had appearances from Spot-backed Puffbird, Cliff Flycatcher, Spectacled Tyrant and Great Pampas-Finch.
We had lunch at the excellent restaurant of the Altalaluna Hotel, which is located in a beautifully preserved 1892 Spanish mansion surrounded by the vinyards of the Bodega Tukma winery. The meal turned out to be one of the best of the trip and the food and the location made for a very memorable break in the middle of our long day of birding.
After lunch we continued towards Cafayate, which is at the heart of one of the most important wine producing areas of Argentina. On the way we stopped a couple of time to do more birding.
We couldn’t stay in Cafayaye without visiting a winery, so before checking in at our hotel we visited the impressive Bodega Vasija Secreta just to the north of the town. We had an insightful tour of their wine making facility and the group bought a couple of bottles of their wine to enjoy at dinner.
After our tour of the winery we drove to the Vinas de Cafeyate Wine Resort, which is located a couple of kilometres from the centre of town. The resort is based in a number of colonial-style buidings around a central square, with the whole property being surrounded by vinyards. We ate in the resort’s excellent restaurant where we enjoyed gourmet food and the wines we’d bought earlier.
During the late afternoon we bumped into a fellow birder who told us about a site in a nearby village where a Chaco Owl was being seen regularly. This was too good an opportunity to miss, so after dinner we set off in the hope of seeing this owl, which is only found in a limited area of South America from Bolivia to north-central Argentina. Luckily, we quickly found the owl in the village square and got good photographs with the owl lit only by a torch.
