Journal 500 m N of Farmhouse, Estancia Midland, 35 Km S of Juancho by road Pcia de Buenos Aires, Argentina 5 December contd There - well over 100. It was on this site where most of the birds were concentrated, though other areas also had surprisingly spread birds. But I was struck by the question as to why so many of the ponds - apparently identical - lacked any birds. It may have been related to the wind: bugs were floating on the surface, and being blown downwind. The smaller ponds may not have had enough surface area to "catch" sufficient numbers of bugs in order to make the downwind side show high enough densities (or at least to reach the deficient/unsatisfied densities reached on this, the largest, stretch of pond.) to make foraging acquisitively feasible (or whatever). After seeing the effect of the recent rain on the habitat here, we decided to put up a grid quickly, hopefully to be used tomorrow. We returned to camp, picked up stakes and within the hour had a 4-unit x 4-unit grid up and painted. I remained in the vicinity to watch the bird flock until 6pm. (see ap accent) Drizzle continued through the afternoon, as did the wind. One notable thing about the behavior of all of the shorebirds was their fearlessness. Even the goldens to created my presence, and the WR almost ignored me completely. This was much less skittish than before, but spoonbills were normal (fleemed). This grid is 3a. 6 December Walked from camp in Eucalyptus to newly placed grid at 0600. One 5 min drizzle, but otherwise the storm appears to be breaking. Clouds higher, wind activity decreased and shifted more to S. Temp 59° at 0700. Birds within the grove much more moved this dawn than yesterday. Out in the field, the birds are considerably spookier. This was especially apparent with goldens and WR. A flock of shorebirds was feeding in almost exactly the same location as yesterday afternoon. Appeared to be fewer, perhaps 50, WR. Nothing on the grid. G+L flocks spread along most of the pond before. Grid 3 and Farmhouse Road, when I walked to from Grid 3. WR's in patches along the ponds, no big concentrations as yesterday. 8 BN stills. Then were WR along the edges of Grid 1, but the flow before I got within 50 yds. A few pectorals along the edges of the ponds. At 0630 I saw the first patch of blue sky that had appeared since Monday dawn (3 December). However, by 0730, back at camp, the weather turned again, and producing drizzle. We went out at 0800 to place two more grids near Grid 3, spaced along a U-line from Grid 3a.