Fabrice Schmitt on the second half of his cruise-tour, Valparaiso to Buenos Aires
The second leg of our trip has been absolutely great too! On the Falklands islands, we visited Volunteer Point where hundreds of King, Gentoo and Magellanic Penguins gather.
As the breeding season of King Penguin is extremely long (three years to raise two chicks), it was possible to watch at the same time recently hatched babies, and older ones of almost adult size.
Off course, we also took advantage of our visit to see the endemic Falkland Steamer Duck.
Another landing took in the Valdes Peninsula, where we saw a few Burrowing Parakeets feeding on a fruitful bush, a few Snowy Sheathbill near a South American Sea Lion colony, tens of Elegant Crested Tinamou crossing the road, and a couple of White-headed Steamer-Duck (we've now seen all the world's Steamer Ducks during our cruise!). It was a great day for mammals too, with Guanacos, a Big Hairy Armadillo crossing the road (and captured by our bus driver), a Humboldt’s Hog-nosed Skunk, and a few Maras (an ‘Antelope like’ Guinea Pig).
Seabirding in the Atlantic has been completely different than the Pacific side, with several new species: Yellow-nosed Albatross (the 10th species of Albatross seen on the trip), Great Shearwater, a few Atlantic and Soft-plumaged Petrels, lots of Manx Shearwater, and good numbers of White-chinned Petrels.
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Our two last days, birding in tropical atmosphere at Montevideo (Uruguay) and Buenos Aires (Argentina), have been a amazing contrast with the recent days spent in sub-Antarctic conditions. After albatrosses and penguins, what a change to be watching Giant Wood-rail, Curve-billed Reedhaunter, Gilded Hummingbird, Narrow-billed Woodcreeper, or Long-tailed Reed-Finch!