Arica

We were up early to catch our flight to Areca, a coastal city just south of the Peruvian border in the Atacama desert. 

Once off the plane we headed for the Lluta Estuary, home to several pet cemeteries.  

Here we saw burrowing owls (same species as North America) and eventually found two Peruvian Thickknees (lifer!).  We have seen the Australian version of thickknees before.  With its erect posture and giant eyes, this is one weird bird.  They just stand still and stare at you. 

We then followed the Pan-American highway through the Atacama desert. The Atacama is the driest desert in the world and it is pretty barren but the lush river valleys,  fed by runoff from the Andes Mountains far in the distance, are perfect havens for birdlife. Unfortunately, they are also perfect for agriculture so are cleared for alfalfa fields and massive greenhouse complexes. Not so good for the birds.

On our way we were stopped for a half hour of construction at a slump caused by a recent earthquake.  In Cupa we stopped for a giant sandwich in a local diner. I also had a giant and delicious glass of fresh guava juice. 

After lunch we drove up the Camarones Valley to find the endemic and endangered Chilean Woodstar. Bird of the Day! There are only 350 of them left and we saw at least five of them today.!.8!  The male is quite striking with its long forked tail.  Our fellow birder Nick from Los Angeles is a recent convert to birding. He took it up during the pandemic when he started spending more time outdoors.  He's now on a quest to see every hummingbird in the world and is well on his way with over 100 species. He was pretty thrilled to see this species.  Our guide Eduardo says they almost always only see females here so we were lucky to see two males chasing each other around.

Leo was having g trouble with his camera today so this is the best we got

Lest you think we were in some pristine tropical paradise, we were actually wandering around a junky abandoned industrial site with derelict homes surrounded with piles of rusted old cans.  Birding takes you to all the best places!

 Another exciting bird we saw was the adorable pied-crested tit-tyrant, which we would be inclined to name the BOD, except there are more than 350 of them left in the world.

On our way back to Areca we stopped in the desert to check out some holes in the ground.

We were at the recently discovered nesting grounds of the Markham storm petrol.  Leo had studied nesting leaches and fork-tailed storm petrels long ago on Haida Gwai so we were very intrigued.  For years noone knew where these birds nested. Now they have found the nesting grounds of several other storm petrel in the Atacama desert.

Our guide Lalo played a recording of the storm petrel. If there's a bird in there they might answer back.

Not this time.  But we could see the storm petrel tracks.

Back in Areca we checked into Areca to our nifty beachside boutique ecohotel, the Apacheta. 

It's right next to a popular beach and we have a sea view from our balcony. 

And a canopy bed

Before dinner we walked the shore and spotted a few more lifers:  Belcher's and gray gulls and Peruvian booby, as well as black skimmers and neotropic cormorants we've seen before in North America, and familiar North American surfbirds, ruddy turnstones and willets. 

And some American avocets

We had dinner on the patio facing the surf and it was delicious!  

Total species seen: 9  Total lifers:  8