What a difference a day makes.
Woke up at 6am to meet Alec in front of the building for our trip to Otamendi National Wildlife Preserve. Though a bit exhausted, I was glad to see him again and very excited to do more birding in Argentina.
After an hour’s drive, we arrived at Otamendi just as the sun was rising. The trees and irrigation ditches were covered in an ethereal mist that limited visibility to about 30 meters. Though not great for spotting birds, it was a great way to see the countryside.
Birding was slow, and though Alec was disappointed in our lack of progress, I was just happy to be able to bird in a real ecosystem, something that wasn’t completely sculpted by man. We saw several kingfishers, great kiskadees, horneros and spinetails. We drove up and down the main access road, eating media lunas and drinking coffee to keep out the morning chill.
For lunch, we drove into the main area at Otamendi, staffed by young men and women who served as guides and park rangers. Over turkey sandwiches, Alec told me about his work with Aves Argentinas and how he had recently given a talk about the genetic makeup of furnarids, a bird family unique to South America. He had recently led a group from the Max Planck Institute who had done genetic testing and discovered that some of the previous notions about species were incorrect, which led to the reclassification of an entire genus of creepers.
After lunch, Esteban led us and a small group of Argentinians on a 5k walk to the lagoon at the center of Otamendi. One of the people recognized Alec from his work with Aves Argentinas, and it began to dawn on me how pivotal his role might be in the Argentine environmental movement.
When we first arrived at the park, all of the rangers and guides greeted him by name, and though I understood very little of what was said, I could tell that they all shared the same concerns about diminishing habitat. These young people were doing a job they loved and thought was important, and Alec was regularly taking people through this area on tours. He explained to me during the walk, while pointing at a distant fire, that farmers here regularly use fire to clear land, and there is almost no environmental regulation. People can do whatever they want with their own land, even when it adjoins a wildlife sanctuary.
The walk we were taking was marked as “high difficulty” though it was mostly through flat grass and wetlands. Alec said this is because most Argentines see vacations as a time to go to the beach, and there is very little interest in the outdoors. Alec, and the people working at Otamendi, were trying to change this. At the end of the walk, Esteban asked everyone to make sure to recommend Otamendi to their friends, which Alec said was important, for if people stopped coming, it could lead officials to question the need for such a place.
In the car on the way home, while sitting in some really badly designed traffic patterns, I saw Alec as a modern day John Muir type, photographing and painting what he finds in the places no one else goes, and evangelizing the natural world through his work with Aves Argentinas. I was witnessing the birth of a movement, and I was quite humbled.
Now is the time when science and sensibilities can finally meet, and the result can take hold all over the world simultaneously. Unfortunately, I also saw at Otamendi major impediments to such a movement. In the ranger station’s office was an old television, locked behind wrought iron bars. Apparently, the same people who work hard to save these places don’t trust each other enough to work together to achieve their common goals. Alec confirmed this, and said that everyone, though they all see the same end, can only see their own way of getting there.