Batuco Wetland and on to the Maule River and Vilches

 

In the morning we drove to Batuco wetlands north of Santiago.  On the search for coots. We found the white-winged coot but not the red-fronted coot.

White-winged coot, lifer

We saw some black-necked swans that counted, and some new ducks 

Black-headed duck, lifer

we hadn't seen before.

Red shoveler, lifer

the big beautiful Cocoi heron,

Cocoi heron, lifer

The ubiquitous southern lapwing,

Southern lapwing

and black-necked stilts,

Not a lifer, we have the same species in North America

Then we headed south for a long day of driving down the Pan-American Highway.

We stopped at a farmers field where we successfully called out Chilean tinamous and a big flock of grassland yellow-finches.

We stopped for lunch at Teno Sandwich on the highway, 

where Leo and I shared a giant sandwich, so large we had to ditch the bread and concentrate on the fillings.

 

Photo stolen off the internets to show the size of the sandwiches

We also had a giant glass of jugo natural (fresh squeezed juice) and we were coaxed into sharin an old-fashioned dessert, leche nevado (milk snow), a dollop of merengue floating in a vanilla sauce, known in English as floating island.  So much for eating less at lunch.

We continued  driving for a few hours till we got to the Maule River valley.  This is a major orchard and wine producing area.   

We stopped here looking for a screaming cowbird, but had no luck and never did see one.

From there we continued up the Maule River where we saw spectacled ducks (lifer).

We stopped at a riverbank where burrowing parrots live and eventually we got great views of the parrots.

Burrowing parrots

The flock always has 1 to 4 parrots up in a tree (or in this case on a power pole) keeping watch while the flock feeds on the ground.

Lots of black-faced ibis here as well,

Black-faced ibis

The everpresent chimango caracara, 

And a big flock of upland goose at Colbun Lake.

Apologies for the blurry photo but lifers

Apparently we were pretty tired by the time we reached Lago Colbun  because neither of us took a picture.

Banks of Maule River with lovely blue flowers (Pasithea caerulea)

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Then we still had to drive to our hotel in Vilches, where we were the only guests.   We went out after dark to call up a rufous-legged owl but were not successful.

Species seen today; 40   Lifers: 12