TomKal foto

Argentina – introductory text - Toco toucan
I have spent a long time considering the range and the way the images taken in Argentina should be arranged. In this country I took photographs in three places: Buenos Aires, Ushuaia in Patagonia and Iguazú Falls with the surrounding area. How various and different from each other are those areas, especially comparing Patagonia with Iguazú. Therefore, at first I thought that it would be reasonable to separate them on my site. There is a distance of several thousand kilometers between Ushuaia with its harsh climate and the tropical rainforest of Iguazú. It would look like I would put the flora and fauna of Sweden and, for example, Tunisia in Africa next to each other in one study. There are great differences in terms of temperature or landscape. Finally I remained the conventional, as for my site, order. However,  to highlight the differences relating to the size and diversity of the country, I put two galleries of fauna and two galleries of flora in the “TRAVEL” part. I hope it does not interfere with the proper reception of the charm and beauty of Argentina, which I wanted to show in the full complexity, although doing this during my several days’ visit was not easy. Travelling across such long distances takes time. The number of bird species that can be found there is so great that I had always too little time to take photos of this natural wealth without rushing. All we can watch there is so exotic, so different from what we can see here in Europe. The pictures were taken without any camouflaging or lookouts. The hours I have spent in the field with local "bird" guides let me observe approximately 100 species of birds in less than a week. Here on my site you can find many fully developed galleries, but there are also smaller ones, documentary like. As it is said in an introduction to my site, I always strive to show the diversity of wildlife, and do my best to do that at the highest possible level of quality. A little luck, and a little bit of time is needed for that. And the time is what I am short of always during my trips. While in South America, it is obvious that one plans to shoot  toucans, hummingbirds, parrots or the andean condor. I could say that I was able to complete my plans at a 100%, although in the case of a condor I succeeded only to some extend because I have just few documentary pictures. Proper organization and contacts with local ornithologists, their expertise and knowledge of places to visit, allowed me to make galleries of toucans, hummingbirds and caracaras with a wide variety of shots of the birds. Other galleries are much more modest. It has become a tradition with my international trips, that each photographed species has linked information including a complete list of the news. They are listed relatively to the degree of gallery’s attractiveness (according to my personal assessment). Some, but few galleries, have sound recordings.
So this time I start from the Toco toucan...
Unusual and beautiful bird with scrutinizing gaze and powerful beak distinguishing it from the other birds. I took their photos at sunrise, near the Iguazu Falls. The roar of falling water was heard everywhere. Toucans appeared for tens of minutes. There were about 10 of them. They were slowly coming closer and closer, and after a while flew to the feeding grounds located in the rainforest. They probably had spent the night in the woods near the waterfall, and we stood on their migration route, and actually on their way to have breakfast. Toucans slowly penetrated treetops searching for food,  leaping from one branch to another, or flying a short distance between the trees. Only because of their so calm behavior I could take so many photos. In the rainforest , where I was in the afternoon I could see toco toucans and the other large species of toucan, which I was able to photograph – the chestnut-eared aracari. Unfortunately, the latter was almost always seen against the sky and from much greater distance. Well, this not so long period of time, several tens of minutes I have spent with toucans has resulted in the presented pictures. And my impressions and emotions were so strong that the description linked to this bird becomes introductory text to the Argentina gallery on my website. The toco toucan is the largest among those occurring in South America. Its body weight is less than a kilogram (about 800-900 grams). Females are much smaller, weighing about 0.5 kg. Its outstanding,  powerful beak  is long about 20 centimeters. Toucans belong to the family picidae and feed mainly on fruit.