What’s Up in Ushuaia, Argentina « Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART

What's Up in Ushuaia, Argentina

What’s Up in Ushuaia, Argentina

I have had a pretty relaxing stay in Ushuaia since departing the Sea Spirit. And I’ve done lots of photography; Dolphin Gull, Kelp Gull, and Upland Goose have been the easy subjects. It took two visits to Tierra del Fuego National Park to get some really good stuff on Ashy-headed Goose. I will be sharing images of all of those species with you here on the blog after I get home. On Wednesday afternoon, November 9, there was a big gathering of Southern Giant Petrels feeding in a raft of kelp close to shore in the harbor.

The weather in Ushuaia is amazing. In a single day you can enjoy snow, rain, sleet, hail, dense clouds, and blue skies with sun in a very few hours.

I fly from Ushuaia to Buenos Aries, Argentina tomorrow, change airports during my 4-hour layover, and get in to Lima, Peru at about 9pm. I meet my guide at 6:30am on Saturday morning to photograph south of Lima for two days. The target species there are Inca Tern, Peruvian Pelican, and Red-legged Cormorant. After that the great adventure begins with some long drives and a few flights, hopefully to see and photograph some amazing birds in the jungles of Peru.

I fly up to Santiago, Chile on Wednesday, November 30 to meet the sold-out Land-based Falklands IPT group. We fly to Stanley for two weeks on Saturday December 3. I will be staying an additional week on Bleaker and Saunders. I fly back to Santiago on Saturday December 24th, overnight there, and fly home on X-mas day. I am scheduled to arrive in Orlando at 11pm. Only 6 1/2 weeks to go!

My number one priority once I get home will be to finish up work on the draft of the FocusTune/LensAlign Micro-adjusting tutorial and get it to all of those who requested a copy.

E-mail and Internet

I will have decent internet for the next three days. After that it will be spotty at best from here on out but for my time in Santiago. If you have sold an item via the Used Gear Page recently please let me know asap via e-mail. Many tanks.

My third cold in a month is just about over and I am feeling pretty good again. That said, the congestion that I developed on my 2016 Southern Ocean trip that began in October lasted until mid-January 🙂

The Streak

The streak is alive and well. I currently have 45 new, educational blog posts prepared and scheduled. Those get me through to December 25, 2016. I think that I can find the time in the next six plus weeks to do one additional post to cover DEC 26th. Then it will be back to business as usual till they nail the coffin shut.

later and love to all, artie

This Just In!

On my last afternoon, with help from expert local birding guide Esteban Daniels and the hotel concierge, I ventured out into an icy rain to try for Southern Lapwing. I found a cooperative pair, made 244 images, and headed back to the hotel in less than an hour to pack up. You can reach Esteban via e-mail. He’s the guy who put a large group of folks on a family of Magellanic Woodpeckers on a Cheeseman’s day trip to Tierra del Fuego National Park a few years back. Several of us got some great images that day.

17 comments to What’s Up in Ushuaia, Argentina

  • Hi Artie,

    I too have had two spells of nasty colds (with congestion as a free bonus) since my return from a wonderful birding/bird photography trip to South Africa in early October. I had meant to request the FocusTune/LensAlign micro adjustment Tutorial much earlier but virus had addled my brain….. yes, it was the virus. Would you please let me have a copy of the Tutorial when you and it are ready.

    Best Wishes,

    Tom

  • avatar Elizabeth M

    Hi Artie,

    I’m glad to hear your trip is going well and I can’t wait to see your images from your trip!

    I am also so glad to hear that you will be putting together a LensAlign/FocusTune tutorial. As you well know, I had many focusing issues and this product helped me resolve them. However, the information on how to properly use it is currently scattered over multiple pages of the LensAlign/Michael Tapes Design website and TWO DIFFERENT YouTube channels, making the microadjusting process very frustrating (more than it is as process by itself!). And I saw you demonstrate it TWICE, so I can only imagine how much more I would have struggled had I gone into it without seeing you do it. I believe the product itself is the best tool to do the job by far, but I cannot recommend it to people without proper instructions. With your tutorial, I would recommend it in a heartbeat! 🙂

  • avatar Phil Kelly

    I would like a copy of your Focus Tune or Lens align Micro adjusting tutorial. How do I obtain one?

  • avatar David Peake

    thanks artie for help to lens align my 1-4 mk2 with 1.4tc while away on the Cheesemans Faulkland tour.. It would be cool if Michael Tapes could produce a good set of written instructions for the product he sells . He would sell a ton more of them if he did.
    It took me ages to find some of the youtube videos to find out how to use it but all the info is fragmented and disjointed. Your guide will be a very welcome help. I simply did not have enough time to persist untill I succeeded doing the job. Yet a few minutes instruction and a demo from you got me sorted within about ten minutes.
    Remember to tell folks to point the camera at the target and then sight through the target from the back to line up the target square to the camera body like we did together in the ‘Right way, wrong way’ intelligence test..
    Ushuaia on Sunday morning was snowing and just 3 hrs later it was 29 deg C in Buenos Aries. I was dressed wrong for both places. Nice to home in my own bed now.
    David.

  • Hi Artie,

    Please add me to the focus tune list also.

    Thanks

  • Good evening Artie

    Its looks like you having a having a ball with lots of new birds species under your belt, I look forward to see them on your blog

    I have had problems with my old iMac it was 6 years old so I have bought a new retina display model the resolution is amazing, thank you America for producing the best computer
    in the world, god bless America.
    Best wishes and love

    Kel UK

  • avatar Krishna prasad

    Please add me to your list for lens align tutorial.

    I was having some issue getting it right.

  • avatar Ron Gates

    Artie, Ushuaia is misspelled in your headline. It’s correct in the blog.

  • avatar Mike Ross

    Please add me to the list for the Focus Tune tutorial. Glad to hear you are feeling better. Traveling with a bad cold is not fun.

  • avatar joan Robinson

    Yes, Artie I would like a copy of your Focus Tune/Lens align Micro adjusting tutorial please tell me what I have to do to get one. zfocus55@aol.com
    And I have written before with no response if there are any pages after 98 of the Digital Basics that I bought and if you have added anything to it you would send it on ???
    And I enjoy reading your blog everyday. Thank you
    Joan Robinson

  • avatar David Policansky

    Enjoy and be safe. If you take the bus transfer from AEP airport to EZE airport in Buenos Aires, they offer a 50% discount if you show them an Aerolineas Argentinas boarding pass. It took us more than an hour once we got on the bus.