View over Temuco from Ciero Ñielol
The day started with us walking into Altos de Lircay from our hotel.
We spent a fair bit of time trying to coax a chucao out of the bushes. We could hear its very loud call and could see the bushes move as it moved about in the underbrush but we never did see it.
We did not see any new birds this morning but we did see:
Mortar holes
Its always fun to think of the original people sitting here long ago socializing and preparing food.
Then we packed up and started the long drive down Ruta 5, the Pan-American Highway to the city of Temuco. The highway runs through the Central Valley, a rich agricultural region.
We stopped at the side of the road about an hour into our drive when Lalo spotted some white-faced ibis, a new species for this trip but not a lifer as we have seen these in the southern US.
White-faced ibis with bonus snowy egret
We stopped for lunch at a truckstop. I had a breakfast sandwich thinking it might be egg Mcmuffin sized; of course it was enormous and I had to ditch the bread.
Driving past a canola field
Then more driving until we turned off on a side road where the grass wren was known to hang out.
Success, lifer!
We arrived at Temocu and headed up to the Cerro Ñielol natural Monument, an island of natural vegetation surrounded by the rather " charmless service centre"* of Temuco and the general agricultural area.
Home to a lot of bamboo habitat
Bamboo
Where as we know, the elusive tapaculos like to hang out. You should know by now I was a few days into what felt like a head cold so I was rather lacking in the patience required to coax a tapaculo into the open. In fact I was worried that I might fall asleep standing up and topple over.
More bamboo
Nevertheless, our patience was rewarded:
Black-throated tapaculo! Lifer, Bird of the Day!
View of Temocu from Cerro Ñielol, note the monkey puzzle tree next to the church
This was the last supper of our tour, which Lalo described as at a gas station restaurant. We knew something was up and it fact it was a fancy restaurant with many professional waiters and fine wines on display, oddly located right next to a gas station.
Also odd for a fancy restaurant the restaurant logo is this cartoon lobster:
Especially since Don Camaron means Mr. Shrimp
Since it was our last meal, I had both my last pisco sour and shared a bottle of wine with Lalo, needless to say I got pretty jolly. Lalo was trying to teach me wine appreciation. Yes, I said, I get the hints of blackberry and leather, but I'm not getting the chocolate. It was a very good wine and it came from the Rio Maule so we may have gone by the very grapes in the last few days.
Not just a bit jolly but a bit fuzzy too
Total species seen: 34 Lifers: 3
*A joke, this is how the Lonely Planet Guide once described Williams Lake.
No comments:
Post a Comment