In this talk Peter Hambrook described a bird watching tour to Chile he had recently made with Limosa Holidays. It was well illustrated with excellent photographs, but he emphasised that they were not all his own, some of the pictures having been taken by Mike Crewe, their very knowledgeable tour leader. He first described the geography of the country: long and narrow, backed by the high Andes, a narrow coastal plain, a coastal range and a high intermontane plateau. The cold, nutrient-rich Humboldt Current runs just offshore and has had a significant influence on the natural history of the country. In the north there is the hot, very dry Atacama Desert, and in the south the cold, bleak lands of Tierra del Fuego, specialised habitats each with their specialised fauna and flora.
The group landed at Santiago and drove to their first resort at Quintero on the Pacific coast, but en route stopped at Cachagua, a nature reserve. They had to unpack their luggage rapidly to find binoculars before walking to the beach, where they observed many new species of birds with exotic sounding names: chimango caracaras, rufous-tailed plant cutters, tufted-tit tyrants, rufous crowned sparrow, Humboldt penguins and many others. They also saw a marine otter and noted some introduced flora such as fennel, wild radish, hoary mustard, and field bindweed.
They next made a pelagic trip from Valparaiso on a small boat called the Vaca Loca (Mad Cow!). From the pictures it looked quite rough but the birds seen were worth it: these included royal and Salvin's albatross, Peruvian pelicans, Buller's shearwater, white-chinned petrels and many others.
They then drove to Lake El Peral, a wetland reserve, where they saw the Austral negrito, white-backed stilts, Inca and elegant terns, black skimmers and plumbeous rail among many others. They also saw coypu. They then drove inland to the La Campana Nature Reserve, an area well wooded with indigenous trees and shrubs. Here they added Austral pygmy owls, and giant hummingbirds to their ever-growing list of species seen.
From Santiago they went inland to the mountains, first to Fallorones, a ski resort, where they saw their first condors and black-chinned siskins, and then they went to the remote high valley of El Yeso hoping to see the diademed sandpiper-plover. They had a rough trek across a marsh, wading and scrambling over boulders but were rewarded by seeing and photographing both the male and the female. An added bonus was seeing a grey-breasted seedsnipe. The group next flew down to Puerto Montt and the Chilean Lake District en route to the Puyehue National Park, an area of volcanic cones, craters and ash fields where they saw black-faced ibis. They then crossed by ferry to Chiloe Island, known for its clapboard houses, with damp moist vegetation and trees covered in lichens. They saw many more species of birds including flightless steamer ducks.
They then flew to Punta Arenas and took the ferry to Tierra del Fuego, the 'Land of Fire'. Although cold and bleak it supports many species of geese, gulls, cormorants and waders. On the ferry crossings they saw sei whales, Commerson's dolphins and a whole school of Peale's dolphins playing in the wake. On the northern shore at Paliake National Park they saw tawny-throated dotterel, upland and ashy-headed geese and Chilean flamingos. There were also sightings of southern grey fox and lesser rheas and a lake with over 1000 Wilson's phalaropes. They travelled on to the Paine Massif National Park with its incredible granite domes and towers and glacial lakes. Here they had their best views of the magnificent Andean condors and also saw their first guanacos.
They then flew north the whole length of the country to Arica on the Peruvian border. Arica is in the Atacama Desert, which is one of the driest places on the planet. Here some of the species were very different. They drove up the Azapa and Lluta valleys from Arica at sea level to Putre on the altiplano at 11,482 feet, seeing on the way Hudsonian whimbrels, Peruvian sheartail, oasis hummingbirds, blue and yellow tanagers, Sierra finches and black-billed shrike-tyrant. On the Altiplano they saw southern vizcachas, vicunas and alpacas. Their final destination was Lake Chungara in the Lauca National Park at 14,763 feet above sea level. Here were giant coots, Andean flamingos and avocets and a pair of magnificent aplomado falcons.
Peter admitted that it was an exhausting whistle-stop tour, but their guide was excellent and knew his birds and knew where to find them, and in consequence they saw over 200 different species, most of them new to Peter. It was a privilege to share the experience with him.
Chris Brading