Yeso Valley, Central Chile

Another great day in the Andes Mountains.  We got picked by our new driver, Henry,  in a big new Mercedes Sprinter, so travelled in style.

It's a Mediterranean climate ( similar to coastal California) andmuch greener than the Atacama desert.

We drove up the Meipo River, hotspot for kayaking. The hills and meadows were full of . . . . California poppies!  Yep, invasive weed but a pretty one.

We had just turned off towards the Yeso River when we spotted a mustached turca.  The turca unlike the other more furtive tapaculos, doesn't mind perching on top of a shrub, calling loudly.

Moustached turca showing off

Stopping for turcas, fancy van behind

Also seen here:

Chilean mockingbird

At the next stop we saw our first Andean condor (no picture, alas)!  The largest raptor in the world!

And on another scale, this little guy:

Crag chilia

Our next stop was high above the Yeso River searching for torrent ducks.

Bingo!

Male torrent duck sits on rock in Yeso River

This was a very special moment.  We got to watch the male, female and their duckling ferry across the rapid one by one and slip into an eddy before disappearing downstream.

Male and female torrent ducks are both pretty flashy

Pretty special viewing for two (former) whitewater kayakers.

The wetland meadows at this elevation are called vegas.  They are used for posturing cattle.  We stopped at this one too look for birds.

This is seedsnipe.  Look at its beautiful scalloped feathers.

Gray-breasted seedsnipe

We saw our first Magellanic tapaculo here.

Ebird describes it as moving through bamboo like a mouse.  That accurately describes what we observed here ( Except in rushes).

We also saw a good assortment of the brownish/grayishbirds that kept me pretty confused:

Buff-winged cinclodes

Gray-flanked cinclodes

But also these colourful guys!

Gray-hooded Sierra finches

There's actually a bunch of these sierra finches to confuse a person too.

At the end of the road is the Yeso reservoir.

On the way back we stopped at the "facilities," where I was dismayed to find the 500  peso ($.50) charge did not include a toilet seat!  However, all the toilet paper you needed.  Actually, I thought it was a pretty entrepreneurial way to supplement a pretty hardscrabble homestead.  

Leo caught me napping on the drive back.

Xx

Selfie with reclining napper

I woke up to

A giant bumblebee on my hand!  Initially a little freaked out (allergies), but the bee was pretty chill, and I made Leo take a picture before escorting it out.

Supper was at a Basque/Spanish restaurant near our hotel in Las Condes neighbourhood od Santiago, Pinpilinpausha.  Nick and I both had garbanzo stew with shrimp, and we both agreed it was the best tasting chickpeas we'd ever eaten.  The serving was enormous so I left half behind but Nick had his for breakfast the next day

Count: 35 species, 21 lifers.

Birding around Arica

In the morning we drove out to the outlet of the Lluta River.  Here we saw lots of seabirds, including gulls and terns.

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Scouting

Some cool birds:

American oystercatcher on its nest

Common gallinule

Snowy egret and puna ibis

The estuary is within sight of the city.

Lots of turkey vultures hanging around.

Many of the birds are the same species as in North America.

Greater yellowlegs

Wilson's phalarope

Immature black-crowned night heron

Little blue heron

We also saw this Peruvian meadowlark:

With a bright red breast

Also this lizard:

We spent a very long time at the Estuary looking at sandpipers, especially long if you were female and there were no shrubs to hide behind.

But eventually we drove to a rest station only to find it was a pay station.  Very embarrassing for me as I did not have small change to pay and Lalo had to jump in and pay for me.  

We then drove up the Camarones River valley and higher  higher into the Atacama along a narrow windy road littered with rockfalls.  We passed some geoglyphs but I was on the wrong side of the vehicle.

Eventually we reached a settlement where we strolled through someone's farm, with a dog following along till we reached an alfalfa field.

Here we spotted Raimundi's yellow-finches at the very southern tip of their range.

Male and female Raimundi's:

We drove back to Arica, had a late lunch, said goodbye to our driver Christian and caught the 10:30 flight to Santiago.  Into our hotel after midnight and grateful to be staying in one place for 2 nights.

Count:  61 species, 9 lifers

From Putre back to Arica

Putre Creek.  Not sure if the pampas grass is native or invasive but it sure looks pretty in the morning sun.

In the morning we walked from our hotel into the Putre Creek valley.

¼.

Creamy-breasted Castenero

That doesn't mean they aren't beautiful

Buff-breasted earthcreeper

 or adorable though.

White-browed chat-tyrant

We saw two kinds of ground Doves.

Bare-faced ground dove

We saw the variable hawk perched

And flying.

We found the giant hummingbird and it was really giant.  They don't buzz like other smaller hummingbirds; instead they flap their wings and fly like a swallow.

It is the largest hummingbird in the world at 20-23 cm.

We heard a Peruvian pygmy owl but we could not spot it.

Our driver Christian was waiting for us at the hotel.

Our next stop was the pueblo of Socoroma

Where they grow a famously prized oregano the traditional way in terraced fields.

Here we saw an Andean hillstar, a new hummingbird for our cobirder Nick (and us of course).

Lalo was bound and determined to find us a Peruvian pygmy owl.  Eventually he narrowed it down to one tree and Leo spotted it hiding g in the foliage so we all got a good look at it.

Don't know what this attractive bush is.

Other highlights:  a black chested buzzard eagle and 8 mountain parakeets.

Checking for more birds further down the Lluta Valley.

We stopped for lunch in a traditional diner.  Leo and I just ordered soup as we were feeling quite stuffed with 3 full meals per day.

It was a full meal in itself, but it was very good.

We arrived back in Arica for another night at the  Hotel Apacheta.  We had an excellent dinner and I tried a pisco sour, the national drink.  Unfortunately after that we drove out to the Lluta River Estuary where I stumbled over river rocks in the dark.  We were successful in finding a Tschudi's nightjar, and using a flashlight we id'd it by the amber reflection of its eye.  But we couldn't coax it out of its bush.  And I lived to drink another pisco sour another day.

Total species today:  36  Lifers:  14