Bird Watching Vacation - Bahia de San AntonioBird Watching Vacation - Travel Argentina beaches in Bahia San Antonio Bahia de San Antonio is the perfect combination of sun beaches and vird watching vacation with observation of wild life natural habitat. Kilometers of white beaches rest side by side with natural untouched maritime ambience. Variety of activities are available, such as camping, diving, coast or boat fishingand guided excursions. The harbor with its special characteristics of deep waters attracts yachts and ships from all over the world. San Antonio Este is the nearby picturesque small village inviting you to visit the small private museum owned by Mr. Constantino Vicci. The place exhibits a private collection of elements found in the Patagonian region throughout more than 30 years, revealing historical as well as demographic details about the inhabitants of the area through the centureies. Bahia de San Antonio is a protected bay located in the northwest extreme of the San Matias Gulf, in the north of the Patagonia, Argentina. The regional shrubs (resistant to water scarcity) constitute the predominant vegetation of the semi desert zones of the Province of Rio Negro. The domineering characteristic of these coasts is the distances of the tides, with high tides of more than 9,3 meters. The tides are an ecological engine that reveals two times a day variety of sea habitats, ideal for beach birds. During the low tide, the water moves back from the coastal dunes as far as 7 km, leaving rich areas exposed for the feeding of birds. The richness and diversity of areas of food and rest, make this Bay a migratory station for the beach birds in their routes to the north and to the south, and a special scenery for a bird watching vacation. It is estimated that 50 % of the hemispherical population of Red Knots, Calidris canutus, which spend the winter in Tierra del Fuego, stop here in their migration to their breeding places in the north. The Bay of San Antonio is the preferred nesting place of the Two Banded Plover, the, Charadrius falklandicus and the Common Oystercatcher, Haematopus palliatus. In this area also breed other sea and aquatic birds such as Kelp Gull, Larus dominicanus and South American Tern. Terrestrial endemic birds as the Sandy Gallito, Teledromas fuscus and the Yellow Cardinal, Gubernatrix cristata, also make use of the nearby areas. Bahia de San Antonio is a center of intensive reproduction of mollusks and fish, what makes it most attractive for sea birds and especially for bird watchers. The average rain in San Antonio is approximately 310 mm a year. The annual average temperature is 11.7 °C. At the beginning of October, the beach birds that arrive from the Arctic, share the scenery with the Southern Right Whale. In March, during the peak of the migration of the beach birds, the climate is very pleasant, with temperatures that during the day range between a maximum of 26°C and minimum of 13°C. San Antonio is very pleasant in this season of the year, being a favorite destination for a bird watching vacation and for lovers of the seaside and nature who appreciate the richness of marine life: dolphins and seals, spectacular flocks of beach birds flying on the beaches during the low tide, and hundreds of parrots, Cyanoliseus patagonus, which fly over the city and the cliffs where they nest. The area is known as the "bluest gulf of the continent” due to the deep blue color of the sea and the sky. In Bahia de San Antonio operates a Municipal beach resort.
Natural Reserve
The natural reserve established by the province of Rio Negro in June, 1993, is an area that includes the Bay of San Antonio, from the Lighthouse of San Matías (in the zone of Port San Antonio East, 60 km from Las Grutas), up to El Sotano (12 km. west of Las Grutas), including almost 45 km of beaches. The natural reserve includes the sea zone, up to 50 meters from the line of the coast during the low tide. The coasts of the bay are excellent to sepend a bird watching vacation as they are visited by the beach migratory Sandpipers (Calidris) in groups of hundreds of thousands, which every year cover the route from Tierra del Fuego up to the North Pole where they nest. For such long voyage the birds need to load up with the necessary "fuel" in the form of fat, to be able to reach the following stop at 1000 km, 3000 km and 5000 km, distance that they cover without stopping. However, there are only few places where they are able to find the right quality of food to supply their needs. These are the wetlands. The wetlands are flooded ambiences covered by water of little depth and constitute the most productive ecosystems of the planet. These areas contain small earthworms, crustaceans and mollusks, which proliferate at the right time and allow these animals to feed and accumulate fats in their organism (they duplicate and they even tipple their own weight), which will be used as fuel on their migratory flight. Seventeen different species of beach migratory birds sustain on these areas, among them the Red Knot and another nine species that nest and reproduce in the North Pole and the Antarctic Pigeon among those who reproduce in Antarctica. The conservation of Red Knots and Sandpipers depend on many factors in many countries; "when one of the links breaks, the chain is cut ". That's why the province of Rio Negro decided to create the natural protected area of " Bahia de San Antonio". Later on it joined the international efforts of conservation requesting the recognition of the area by the "Hemispherical Network of Reserves for Beach Birds ", this way becoming a place of global scale importance. The Hemispherical Network was created in 1985 in response to the alarming decrease of the populations of several beach migratory birds of the Americas. Dozens and up to hundreds of thousands of these birds - often constituting 70-80 % of the entire population of a species - sometimes depend completely on a particular place during part of the year. These places then receive special attention and value of conservation. The goal of the Network is to identify and to protect the critical places used by the beach birds during their annual migration. At present the Network is integrated by approximately 35 natural reserves distributed in 7 countries of the continent. Three of them exist in Argentina: Bay of San Antonio Reserve (Rio Negro), the Hemispherical reservation Lagoon Mar Chiquita (Cordoba) and the Hemispherical Reserve of the Atlantic Coast of Tierra del Fuego. Bahia San Antonio is a extraordinary spot to spend a bird watching vacation.
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