January 8, 2016 - Santiago area, Chile
January 9 and 10, 2016 - Quintero pelagic, Parque Nacional La Campana, Chile
January 10, 2016 - Farellones, Chile
January 10-11, 2016 - Embalse El Yeso, Chile
January 12-13, 2016 - Nothofagus forests in Talca, Chile
January 14-15, 2016- Chiloé Island, Chile
January 16-17, 2016 - Chiloé Island penguins, Puerto Montt, Chile
January 18, 2016 - Patagonia: Puerto Montt to Sierra Baguales, Chile
January 19, 2016 - Patagonia: Sierra Baguales to Tierra del Fuego, Chile
January 20, 2016 - Patagonia: Tierra del Fuego, Chile
January 20-24, 2016 - Punta Arenas, Chile to Puerto Deseato, Argentina
January 25-26, 2016 - Valdes Peninsula and Las Grutas, Argentina
January 27-28, 2016 - San Antonio Oeste, Punta Tombo, and Bahía Blanca, Argentina
January 29-30, 2016 - Buenos Aires, Argentina
January 9, 2016
In the pre-dawn darkness we made our way along empty streets towards the town of Quintero where we were scheduled to be on a morning pelagic boat trip. Dawn broke as we drove past coastal scrub, dotted with fields and farms as well as occasional houses. Not far to our west, the bright blue Pacific disappeared below steep cliffs.
We rolled into Quintero and made our way over to the designated part of the harbour where we quickly found our boat. It was on schedule, in no small part because of the gorgeous calm weather that was forecast. While the lack of wind would make things easier on our stomachs, it would also mean that fewer birds were likely to be seen. Shearwaters, petrels and albatrosses love a good windy day for flying around and foraging.
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| Quintero pelagic, Chile |
After meeting the captain and some of the other birders on the trip, including a Swede named Gustav who was visiting his girlfriend here in Chile, we set off and slowly puttered through the harbour. Neotropic Cormorants and Kelp Gulls perched on buoys and docks within the harbour area, while a pair of Blackish Oystercatchers stood like sentries on boulders at the entrance to the harbour. We also spotted this South American Sea Lion, enjoyed the warm morning sun.
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| South American Sea Lion - off the Quintero coast, Chile |
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| South American Sea Lion - Quintero pelagic, Chile |
Peruvian Pelicans and Peruvian Boobies were frequently seen as we exited the harbour, and sporadically throughout the rest of the morning.
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| Peruvian Pelican - Quintero pelagic, Chile |
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| Peruvian Booby - Quintero pelagic, Chile |
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| Peruvian Pelican - Quintero pelagic, Chile |
One of our main target birds for this trip was conquered quickly. A small, black and white seabird flying past the boat revealed its identity as a Peruvian Diving-Petrel. Like the booby, pelican, Humboldt Penguin and a few other seabirds, the Peruvian Diving-Petrel is a species associated with the Humboldt Current, a cold upwelling that is considered one of the most productive marine systems in the world. An extraordinary amount of fish and other marine life flourish in the current, and as a result, copious numbers of seabirds make use of this plentiful food source. Diving-petrels are a southern hemisphere species that, although closely related to petrels, shearwaters and other "tubenoses", they appear very similar to northern hemisphere alcids, such as puffins, dovekies and murres. They likely fill a similar ecological niche as their northern counterparts, despite not being closely related to them.
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| Peruvian Diving-Petrel - Quintero pelagic, Chile |
During the austral spring and summer the Humboldt Current drifts closer to the Chilean coast, meaning that it is relatively easy to take a short boat trip to access the productive waters. Only an hour or so after leaving the coast we were visited by our first albatross of the trip - a Salvin's. It was a sight I will never forget, watching the distant seabird as it drifted closer, its massive wings effortlessly slicing through the air as it dwarfed the nearby Kelp Gulls. We were pretty excited!
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| Salvin's Albatross - Quintero pelagic, Chile |
Salvin's Albatross ended up being one of the most common seabirds we observed, and our final tally was 21 individuals. Some of them were interested in the swarm of gulls that had congregated due to the regular "chumming" of fish parts overboard, approaching quite close and often landing in the water next to the boat. It was incredible...
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| Salvin's Albatross - Quintero pelagic, Chile |
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| Salvin's Albatross - Quintero pelagic, Chile |
The winds picked up ever so slightly but they were never anything more than just a light breeze. However we kept chumming and scanning the horizon continuously and slowly but surely new species were observed. Westland Petrel and White-chinned Petrel are similar looking Procellaria petrels that both frequent the waters of the Humboldt current at this time of year. White-chinned is a more common species that we would have more chances at further south, while Westland is a rarer species that breeds on South Island, New Zealand. Less than 20,000 Westland Petrels remain in the world, while White-chinned number about 1.2 million. Both species are on the decline like many other petrels. One way to tell these two species apart is by the coloration of the top portion of the bill - it is dark in Westland Petrel, and white in White-chinned. The two species also appear a little different when they fly due to differences in proportions and flight style.
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| Westland Petrel - Quintero pelagic, Chile |
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| Westland Petrel - Quintero pelagic, Chile |
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| Westland Petrel - Quintero pelagic, Chile |
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| White-chinned Petrel - Quintero pelagic, Chile |
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| White-chinned Petrel - Quintero pelagic, Chile |
Occasional Chilean Skuas were seen, often at a distance as they cruised past our boat.
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| Chilean Skua - Quintero pelagic, Chile |
Wilson's Storm-Petrel is ubiquitous throughout many of the world's oceans. Prior to this trip this was the only storm-petrel I had ever seen. A few individuals were observed throughout the pelagic trip, skimming over the sea while stopping to hover and patter their feet on the water's surface.
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| Wilson's Storm-Petrel - Quintero pelagic, Chile |
Salvin's were not the only albatrosses of the day - we were also treated to two Black-browed Albatrosses with one of them hanging around the boat for a few minutes.
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| Black-browed Albatross - Quintero pelagic, Chile |
The poor flying conditions didn't help our cause, but we eventually managed to find a handful of shearwaters. Throughout the course of the trip we tallied 17 Pink-footed and 3 Sooty. I was particularly happy to study the Pink-footed Shearwaters up close, as it was a new species for me.
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| Pink-footed Shearwater - Quintero pelagic, Chile |
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| Pink-footed Shearwater - Quintero pelagic, Chile |
Eventually we had to turn around and make the short trip back to the harbour in Quintero, as it was getting on in the morning. It had been a relatively slow day out on the water by typical standards, but it was hard to be disappointed with laying our eyes on our first Humboldt specialties as well as diving-petrels, shearwaters, petrels and two species of albatrosses. As a final bonus on the day, we spotted a few distant Inca Terns flying past before we entered the harbour. This distinctive species can not be fully appreciated with the views afforded by these fly-bys, but it was better than nothing!
Shortly after noon we were back on dry land and on our wayup into the foothills; our destination being Parque Nacional La Campana. The park protects a large area of dry scrub and matorral and is home to one of the last forests of Chilean Wine Palm. We were here for the birds, such as Giant Hummingbird, the world's largest hummingbird, and a few endemics including White-throated Tapaculo and Moustached Turca.
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| Parque Nacional La Campana, Chile |
While stopping along the entrance road in the hot mid-afternoon sun we located our first Giant Hummingbird. It really was an impressive bird, in flight almost looking like a martin due to its large size. While in this area we also found our first Chilean Pigeons and Striped Woodpeckers, localized species but common in appropriate habitat throughout this part of Chile.
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| Giant Hummingbird - Parque Nacional La Campana, Chile |
Lizards were a common sight here including these, which are the local flavor of Liolaemus.
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| Wreath Tree Iguana (Liolaemus lemniscatus) - Parque Nacional La Campana, Chile |
We hiked up from the parking lot to spend the evening searching the matorral for the avian gems hidden within. Moustached Turcas were soon heard and we were treated with great views of this Chilean endemic around a bend of the trail. Moustached Turca is one of the more distinctive members of the tapaculo family, a group of birds that are mostly small, dark balls of fluff with short, cocked tails that are far more frequently heard than seen, as they skulk about in the shadows of the understorey. In Chile there are eight species of tapaculos, possibly nine if Magellanic Tapaculo gets split. Several of these are quite distinctive in their own right, such as Chucao Tapaculo, Moustached Turca, and two species of Huet-Huets. Another endemic is the White-throated Tapaculo which also can be found at La Campana. While we heard many White-throated throughout the evening, only Adam managed a brief look at one.
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| Moustached Turca - Parque Nacional La Campana, Chile |
At one point I noticed several Thorn-tailed Rayaditos making a racket down the hillside and after a few seconds realized why they were agitated - there was an Austral Pygmy-Owl sitting quietly in the branches!
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| Austral Pygmy-Owl - Parque Nacional La Campana, Chile |
We enjoyed some of the characteristic bird species found in the matorral, including Tufted Tit-Tyrants (a great name), Fire-eyed Duicons (also a great name), and Dusky-tailed Canasteros.
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| Dusky-tailed Canastero - Parque Nacional La Campana, Chile |
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| Tufted Tit-Tyrant - Parque Nacional La Campana, Chile |
As the sun crept towards the horizon we made our way over to a nearby creek, hoping to hear a Rufous-banded Owl which is sometimes seen or heard in the area. The heat of the day had dissipated and it was actually relatively cool as we waited for nightfall. A Dusky Tapaculo played hide and seek with us along the creek before we devoted our efforts to the owl. We almost gave up on finding the owl, when finally we heard one calling in the distance. A great finish to an excellent day.
We returned to the hotel that we had found earlier in the afternoon for a well-deserved rest. Our plan for the following day was to return to La Campana for a few more hours, followed by a drive towards Santiago and into the Andes. Our plan was to explore the Farellones, where Andean Condors soared, ground-tyrants flitted and viscachas roamed.
January 10, 2016
We returned to La Campana before dawn to try to find the few remaining target birds we had left to see here, as well as to hopefully obtain better views of White-throated Tapaculo.
The dawn chorus was a little stronger than the occasional vocalizations we had heard the previous evening, and soon most of our target species were accounted for. It was a relief when we finally locked eyes on a White-throated Tapaculo, and I even managed a poor "record" photo.
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| White-throated Tapaculo - Parque Nacional La Campana |
It was getting on close to 9:00 AM and we had some ground to cover if we wanted to visit all of our proposed stops for the day, so we quickly made it back down to the entrance where our car was parked.
We had a three hour drive to get to Farellones, a ski resort town high in the Andes above Santiago that just so happens to be a great birding location during the summer. We stopped several times during the drive, including once to observe and photograph a Black-chested Buzzard-Eagle, a uniquely shaped raptor that I had wanted to see for some time.
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| Black-chested Buzzard-Eagle - near Tiltil, Chile |
We wasted some time trying to find an access spot for Laguna Betuca, a relatively large lake that can be very productive for waterbirds. Eventually we found our way to the shores of the lake where the water level was very low, concentrating the birds.
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| Dave and Adam at Laguna Batuco, Chile |
As it was early afternoon, very few birds were vocalizing making it difficult to pick out new species. We did add a handful of new birds however, including Cinereous Harrier, Lake Duck, Black-headed Duck and a lost-looking Andean Goose. Black-necked Stilts were abundant, and Red-gartered was the local coot flavour here.
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| Black-necked Stilt - Laguna Batuco, Chile |
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| skipper sp. - Laguna Batuco, Chile |
