Farellones

We said goodbye to Nick last night and also to our big Sprinter and downsized to a perfectly adequate SUV.  Today we drove up to the Valle Nevada ski centre following the Mapocho River.

Our first stop was on the outskirts of Santiago where Chilean tinamous were known to live.  While we heard them, we were unable to coax them out.

This interesting house was perched on the hill across from the road. Squatters?

We were, however able to call out the very agreeable mustached turca, the most sociable of the generally unsolvable tapaculos.

We also saw the very cute plain-mantled tit-spinetail, and a bunch of typical Chilean birds like the eared dove.

Further up the road

we stopped for a white-sided hillstar feeding on a flowering bush

Lifer!

And an Austral pigmy-owl, a distinct species from the Peruvian pygmy-owl we saw up north and our North American pygmy owl.

Not the greatest photo but another Lifer!

Higher up yet we reached the vegas grasslands.  

Here we got a good view of an immature Andean condor flying overhead.

We saw three birders standing under a tree and stopped to find:

Lesser horned owl, lifer!

Then finally up to the ski area where sometimes Andean Condors hang out on the condominium balconies.  Not today though.

But we did see condors flying, the rufous-banded miner, a black-fronted ground-tyrant building its nest,

Black-fronted ground-tyrant

a variable hawk,

and gray-hooded sierra finches.

We stopped again further down the mountainside for a scale-throated earthcreeper 

Scale-throated earthcreeper

and a white-browed ground-tyrant.

White-browed ground-tyrant

Lastly we stopped here:

and spotted the Bird of the Day, a bird Leo and I have long wanted to find, an aplomado falcon, extirpated in the southern US (but now reintroduced in Texas).  

Back in Santiago we headed for supper.

The barbecue place we meant to go to was closed so we went to a traditional Chilean restaurant where we both had pastel de chocle, which is like shepherd's pie but with a cornbread topping.  We really liked it, and it wasn't a huge portion!

Total species:  44  Lifers: 8

Valparaiso Pelagic Trip

We were up early and walked from our hotel to the Wharf where our pelagic trip was to begin. I took my Gravol and steeled myself for the trip. Apparently this trip is usually much rougher than our first trip.

Guide Nelson Contardo on the right with some of our co-birders

We met a group of seven Chileans and their guide Nelson.  The plan was that Nelson would be the Spanish speaking guide and Lalo would be the English guide.  In the event, Lalo got pretty excited about the birds and would forget what language he was speaking, and Nelson would step in with the English.

Heading out the harbour we passed the tall ship Esmeralda, a training ship for the Chilean navy that has travelled the world.

Note the Esmeralda's figurehead:

The closest look we got of an Andean condor.

I just now read of the Esmeralda's dark past. She was a torture ship during the Pinochet years.

I did much better on this trip, hardly felt seasick at all and spent most of the trip on my feet looking at the birds.

Also they attracted the birds by chumming, throwing fish guts over the side of the boat.

(Apparently chumming doesn't work in the north).

The pelicans and gulls come flying in on a feeding frenzy.

It was fun to watch. The albatrosses are then attracted by other birds and fly in.

We saw 5 kinds of albatrosses. I can't honestly say I could distinguish them in the frenzy. But they are impressively large and magnificent.

 

Think this is a black-browed albatross with a sooty shearwater in the background.

Although this was a much better trip for me, 6 hours is still a long time on a boat.

Peruvian pelican landing

Salvin's albatross?

Pelicans at rest

Below is a royal albatross, one of the really big ones with a giant wingspan:

Gulls, pelicans and an albatross in front:

We also saw a large school of dolphins following a fishing boat. Too far away for a photo.

A highlight was seeing Humboldt's penguins in the water.

Cruising back into harbour:

Afterwards we had lunch at a seafood restaurant right on the wharf.

Nick enjoys caldillo de congrio and a last pisco sour before he flies home.

I had fried congrio (conger eel). Unlike the eel they smoke for unagi the flesh is not oily at all.  It's a delicious, meaty white fish.

Nick and Lalo had caldillo de congrio, a traditional fish stew, that Pablo Neruda wrote an ode to!  Had I only known!  In his home city!  But I was getting a little od'ed on seafood at this point. 

With an avocado and heart of palm salad on the side.

We then drove back to Santiago, stopping at the Parque Bicentenario to nab this guy:

The spot-flanked gallenule

This was a really beautifully landscaped park with ponds and planted marshlands.

They introduced some black-necked swans, native to Chile, but we were strongly cautioned by our guide not to count them on our species list!

Leo snuck a picture anyway!

The rest of the birds came here naturally, so counted:

Chiloe widgeon

Shiny cowbird

Monk parakeets are not native but have an established population so we could count them.

Monk parakeet feeding on jacaranda seedpods

Couldn't count the coi either!

Dinner was at Le Due Torri, an Italian restaurant.  Leo had gnocchi (fun fact, Chilean for gnocchi is ñoquis).

I had seafood canneloni, very good, but quite salty and the portion was enormous especially after having a large lunch.

And very pretty!

Total species seen: 41, Lifers:  10

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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.