November 12: Luke Seitz on his and Fabrice Schmitt's ongoing tour, Chile: Tierra del Fuego to the Atacama Desert
Fabrice and I are just over halfway finished with our Chile tour, and we’re having a great time. Birding started out hot on our first afternoon in Punta Arenas when this male Magellanic Woodpecker dazzled us with stunning views just along the roadside.
We then spent a couple days exploring the windswept Patagonian grasslands, seeing nearly all of our target birds in the process: Chocolate-vented Tyrant, Rufous-chested and Tawny-throated Dotterels, Magellanic Plover, and of course, the now-famous colony of King Penguins south of Porvenir. This unexpected Spectacled Duck was particularly photogenic…
…but we were also thrilled to find a trio of Patagonian Tinamous along a dirt road near Punta Arenas, one of which crouched down and allowed us to soak in its intricate pattern at leisure. This was the first time Fabrice had seen this species in Chile!
Flying north to Puerto Montt, we headed up into the rainy hills for some forest birding. Chile is well-known for its spectacular tapaculos (atypical of the family!), and our time searching for these skulky birds paid off. Chucao Tapaculo in particular performed brilliantly, zipping around nearly at our feet! Pardon the blurry photo, it’s dark in the bamboo-choked forest…
Heading further north, we had two days to check various spots along the coast. Highlights including White-throated Tapaculo, Great Shrike-Tyrant, and close Inca Terns kept us busy, but today was arguably one of the best days of the entire tour. We boarded a boat and headed into the cool waters of the Humboldt Current, where we were treated to a spectacular show of dozens of albatross (among other seabirds), including the rare Chatham Albatross pictured here. Check out that big yellow bill! We’re back in Santiago now, excited to head up into the Andes for more specialties in the coming days…
Posted: November 12, 2018