Nothing else like it.

Last Thursday was our first attempt at capturing Upland Sandpipers here in Uruguay. We began by visiting a site where we previously saw birds. When UPSA were still present, we began the task of finding the owner of the estancia. Luckily for us, two of the estancia employees lived in a small shack nearby and they were friendly and talkative. They directed us to the brother of the landowner where we wanted to trap; he lived a mere 5km (more or less) away. We drove to his house, introduced ourselves and Mati set about explaining who we are and what we were doing. After sharing some pleasantries, we were on our way with no problem. The owner was interested in birds and more than willing to allow us access to the land. The night was clear and moonless (until 1AM at least) and there was a slight breeze; perfect conditions. I can not describe to you the sky. There are no words to describe the sky here with all of the stars, the Milky Way, shooting stars and get this, nebuli. It is so dark here you can see nebuli. Amazing. Under this amazing and sometimes distracting blanket of the universe, we captured the first Upland Sandpiper here in Uruguay. For me, there is great satisfaction in tromping around in an overgrazed pasture in the middle of the night carrying a big circular net while another person in front of me searches the ground for sandpipers using a million candle power spotlight. All that is illuminated is the area within the range of the spotlight and everything else is night. quiet and peaceful.