Rest and Recuperation

 

Our plan had been to pick up our rental car and drive to Huerqueque National Park to the east and then head south to Chiloe Island the next day but I was clearly not in any shape to travel or hike.  So I cancelled our reservations at a lodge just outside the park and extended our stay at the Holiday Inn in Temuco.  I spent the next day and a half in bed.  

But that didn't mean the birdwatching was over. Our room overlooked the hotel pool and a nicely planted garden.  Twice we heard birds banging into our window.  It turned out that an Austral thrush and this white-crested elaenia were attracted to their reflections in our window.

This photo gives a good view of his very cute crest.

By the end of the second day, I was feeling better to the point of getting bored in the hotel room so we went for a short walk down the street.  The hotel was built on the edge of town so we soon came to a field.

We saw some of the usual urban birds: house sparrow, Chilean pigeon, rock pigeon, white-crested elaenia, southern lapwing, slender-billed pelican, chimango caracara, Austral thrush.

Mushrooms in a pile of hog fuel

We hopped a fence and headed up the road but didn't get far before we encountered a herd of cattle and turned back.

I was feeling better but Leo was feeling poorer. Still he tested negative.