Southern Cone: ChAr 2016, Part 4 - Patagonia (Chile)

Jan 18

Our flight from Puerto Montt to Punta Arenas arrived at 00:45. After collecting our bags, we went and waited for the bus to town, which we were assured would arrive 'soon'. Eventually it became clear to us that 'soon' meant 'never', and we resigned ourselves to sleeping at the airport. We felt a whole lot better about this decision when we rounded a corner and discovered pretty much everyone else on our flight had already set up camp in the airport, with various camping mats, sleeping bags and the like strewn across the floors. We chose a relatively quiet spot and laid out on the tile floors, using our backpacks for pillows (at least Josh had his thermarest and sleeping bag!).

Bummin' it on the airport floor in Punta Arenas

By 05:30 we were all awake, and went once again to wait for the bus to town. Once again, it didn't show up, and by 08:00 we had lost patience and managed to get a taxi after a bit of a wait. Getting into town, we discovered that all the car rental agencies were closed, so we went to a cafe to grab breakfast and wait. Using the WiFi, we looked at car prices, and eventually the companies were open. We decided to go to Recasur, where they had one car left, a Renault Fluence. The price was about the same as anywhere else (~$130 Canadian/day), so we bit the bullet and got the car, hitting the road shortly after 10:30. With limited time, we wanted to maximize our daylight hours in Patagonia, which is why we went for the extra expense of the rental car rather than trying to rely on the sparse public transit system down there (our experience at the airport hadn't helped with this!). Once we were on the road, we were immediately impressed. Chilean Skuas and Black-browed Albatrosses flew right alongside the road, and our first lifer (Dolphin Gull) was right on the waterfront in town (https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S27024198). On the north side of town, we made a stop at the Humedal Tres Puentes, where eBird had shown us some goodies could be found (https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S27024240). Coscoroba Swan and Upland Goose were new for all of us, and we also had our first White-rumped Sandpipers of the trip foraging on the mud. On our drive north, we stopped occasionally at roadside lakes that looked birdy, and to look at some of the many Lesser Rheas that dotted the wide-open landscape (https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S27024237). Along this stretch we added Ashy-headed Goose, Magellanic Oystercatcher and Wilson's Phalarope for the trip. Making it to Puerto Natales, the jumping-off point for Torres del Paine, we birded the waterfront for a few minutes (https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S27024288) before heading into town to get groceries for the upcoming days, and to find some cold medicine for me, as my fever had receded but was replaced by heavy congestion and a migraine, and it looked like Josh and/or Adam was/were coming down with whatever I had. Thankfully whatever the sickness was, it was quite intense, but only lasted three days!

Puerto Natales waterfront

Landscape just outside Puerto Natales

On our way out of town, we stopped at a scrubby field near the airport, picking up an Austral Canastero (https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S27024323). Continuing north, we made a few stops along the road to check out a small lake (https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S27024353) and to take some photos of the many roadside Lesser Rheas (https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S27024392). A bit after 18:00, we reached our destination at Sierra Baguales, a small mountain range east of Torres del Paine on the border with Argentina. This looked like it would be our best bet at a few austral specialty birds, but we couldn't find much information online about it, so we basically just drove up the road and hoped for the best (https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S27024418). It didn't take us long to add Barn Swallow to the trip list, and a bit farther up the road we found a group of Cinnamon-bellied Ground-Tyrants and a Humboldt's Skunk. We made it up to where the road appeared to end at someone's property before turning around and slowly birding our way back, occasionally getting out to wander the hillsides in search of our target. Late in the evening, I flushed a group of Yellow-bridled Finches from beside a rock cut, but they disappeared before any of us could get good looks at them.

Lesser Rheas and the Sierra Baguales

Humboldt's Skunk

Calceolaria uniflora

End of the road in Sierra Baguales

Around 21:30 the bird activity was dying off in anticipation of sunset, and so we found a decent pulloff at km 372.1 to set up camp. We stayed up until it got fully dark at 23:30 (the days were long in midsummer!), talking over a few beers before turning in for the night. Adam and I slept in the car (I folded the back seats down and slept half in the trunk, while he slept in the front passenger seat) - neither of us had a sleeping bag so we just put on all our clothes and I wrapped myself in my sleeping bag liner I'd brought. Josh slept outside on his thermarest once more, despite our joking about Pumas being common in the hills here.

Austral Beer with the austral sunset at our camp spot

Running trip list: 216

Jan 19

The temperatures dropped pretty significantly overnight, hovering just above freezing for the later hours. As a result, none of us slept very well, however at one point I looked outside to see what looked almost like daylight. There was no moon or sun, however, the stars were just that bright due to a complete lack of cloud or light pollution! Josh got the full show as he was outside, and luckily no Pumas paid him a visit in the night. By 05:30 we were up and breaking camp, eager to warm up and see some new birds. The birds, however, had other ideas, and almost nothing stirred in the calm of dawn. It wasn't until the sun was fully up and the landscape warmed up that the birds finally became active - sometime around 06:30. We spent about four hours working our way up and down the road between our campsite at km 372.1 and the entrance to the valley at km 360, as this had seemed like the most productive stretch the evening before (https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S27024444). The bird activity was much higher this morning than it had been the night previous, and we added Least Seedsnipe, Common Miner, Dark-faced Ground-Tyrant and a heard-only Band-tailed Earthcreeper, along with higher numbers of Cinnamon-bellied Ground-Tyrant and some other species we'd seen earlier. Two female Yellow-bridled Finches gave Josh and I a decent look at one point, although Adam didn't get enough on them.

Least Seedsnipe

At 09:00, Josh and Adam took a nap in the car, as Josh was coming down with the cold I had just gotten over and Adam had slept even worse than I had. As we still had at least one target bird here, I decided to fight the drowsiness and carried on down the road. About a kilometre farther on, I spotted a group of three White-throated Caracaras hanging out around a fenceline. Snapping a few quick photos, I ran back up the road to get Josh and Adam - they were a bit annoyed that I had disturbed their beauty rest until I told them the reason. We zoomed down the road, where one of the birds was luckily still present, giving the two of them good looks.

White-throated Caracara

After that adrenaline rush, the other two were wide awake, and we made our way over to the Torres del Paine entrance (https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S27024460). The lake here is home to a highly localized species - the Austral Rail. Ideally, one would have a few days to check out the park, as the scenery is beyond spectacular, but on this occasion we were pressed for time, and so we walked down to the edge of the lake and waited for the rails. We ended up hearing several individuals, and eventually saw one briefly. Heading back to the car, we got in a bit of trouble for skipping the entrance gate, but after explaining we just went to the lake and were leaving anyway, they let us go.

Torres del Paine

On the way into Torres del Paine

Leaving the park behind, we made the long drive toward Tierra del Fuego, stopping occasionally at roadside wetlands but mostly trying to make time. It became obvious along this stretch that our car had a major issue. At the rental place, they had instructed us to always drive with the windows up and the vents set on 'recirculate' rather than 'intake', so as to keep the dust out. Following their instructions to the T, our car was still intaking dust at a rather alarming rate. After some time of this with the dust getting thicker (forcing us to wear our bandanas over our faces), we figured out it was leaking in through the pedals and the sound system somehow. We eventually gave up on their instructions and drove with the windows down, figuring the laws of diffusion would take some of the dust out of the car! By the end of our time in Patagonia, everything we owned was coated in a fine layer of dust. After a few hours of dust-bathing, we made it to San Gregorio, where a pair of Ruddy-headed Geese had recently been reported from a roadside wetland (https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S27024482). Sure enough, the birds were there as we pulled up, and after a few minutes of admiration in the heat haze, we continued on our way. Our next stop was the entrance road to Pali Aike, at Pampa Larga (https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S27025697). This was another place that we didn't really know where to go, so we worked our way up the road, stopping occasionally to walk around and scan/listen for birds, and checking out the few watering holes. One such watering hole held our target Rufous-chested Dotterel, and farther up the road we eventually spotted some Tawny-throated Dotterels out in a field. They allowed us to get close enough for a few photos before we headed back to the road. I eventually turned up a White-bridled Finch in a little wash, but it didn't stick around long! This was in my top 5 most-wanted Patagonian birds, so I was pretty ecstatic to have seen one during our limited time here. All of these target birds were between km 8-12 from the main highway.

Tawny-throated Dotterel

White-bridled Finch

Heading back, we stumbled across a family of Patagonian Mockingbirds on a hillside - at the time they were quite an uncommon bird in Chile although they seem to be expanding their range in recent years. From Pampa, we headed for the ferry to Tierra del Fuego, making a quick stop at the Buque wetland near the ferry terminal, as we were a bit early for the 20:50 ferry (https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S27026001). The ferry crossing itself held no excitement for us in terms of pelagic birds (the northern crossing is a bit too short to regularly hold true pelagic species), however a few spectacular Commerson's Dolphins kept us entertained during the crossing (https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S27026019). Officially on Tierra del Fuego, we made our way south as the sun fell lower in the sky, and we stopped to take a few sunset photos over the barren landscape.

Sunset on Tierra del Fuego

Along the way, we kept our eyes peeled for Short-billed Miners - despite flushing many miners from the road, we didn't conclusively identify any in the fading light. At 22:00, a Black-crowned Night-Heron flew by, and just as it was getting dark at 22:30, Adam spotted a Short-eared Owl. We rolled into Porvenir around 23:00 with our gas tank on empty, and quickly found a hostel that was still open and didn't seem too exorbitantly priced (accommodations on TdF are expensive!). We managed to talk them down from 90000p for a room with three beds to 70000p, as the place was pretty empty (and $140 for a hostel still seemed crazy to us). After almost 18h straight of birding/driving, and 700 km on the road, we all passed out almost instantly when we finally got to bed.

Running trip list: 228

Jan 20

Despite our long day yesterday, we were up early and heading north of Porvenir to try for a very special bird. En route, we picked up Short-billed Miner (https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S27026092) and Two-banded Plover (https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S27026110) roadside, both of which we would see more of during the course of the day. Our main stop was at Laguna de los Cisnes, north of the Porvenir airport, where we hoped to find a Magellanic Plover or two. Luck was on our side, and the famous Patagonian winds had died down this morning, giving us a glass-calm lake to search.

The lake where we searched for Magellanic Plovers

As we didn't know where exactly the plovers hung out, we decided to split up and call if one party found the birds. I took the south end of the lake while Adam and Josh took the north side. As I wandered along, a few smaller birds flushed up ahead of me - our first Patagonian Yellow-Finches of the trip. Looking back, the others were too far away and the birds disappeared over a hill before I could even shout to them. Rounding the southernmost part of the lake, I spotted some shorebirds on a bar up ahead. As I got closer, I could make out some Rufous-chested Dotterels, Two-banded Plovers, both White-rumped and Baird's Sandpipers, and... Magellanic Plovers! Waving at the other guys and trying my best to get their attention without spooking the birds proved useless, as the wide-open landscapes made the distance across the lake seem smaller than it really was - they were almost 1.5 km away from me at this point. I just hoped they had found some birds on their side, and enjoyed my time with the plovers - 7 of them were in with the shorebird flock. These birds are in their own family, and are often described as looking like a cross between a plover and a dove - an apt description.

Magellanic Plovers

Rufous-chested Dotterel

After a little while, I realized we were getting short on time, so I started heading back to the car, and saw that the others were doing the same. Meeting up, we swapped stories - it turned out the others had seen the same shorebird mix as I had, although with lower numbers. They had but a single Magellanic Plover, however it was much more confiding than the south-side birds had been, and Josh got some great photos (https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S27026141)! Happy with our views, we headed back to the hostel to take advantage of the included breakfast buffet. Checking google maps on the hostel WiFi, we debated our options. The ferry to the mainland was at 14:00, and if we missed it, we would have a long drive around the north route. There was a King Penguin colony that we really wanted to visit, however the map said it was a 2h15 drive one-way, and it was 09:45 at this point, meaning we would miss the ferry by 15-20 minutes, and not have any time to actually look at the penguins. Deciding to risk it (we really wanted those penguins), we quickly packed, checked out, and hit the road. I won't say exactly what speeds Josh attained on that gravel road, but our predicted drive was cut almost in half (although it was quite an overestimate to begin with). We saw a few birds along the way (https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S27026173), before pulling in at the penguin colony with almost an hour to spend with these elegant creatures (https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S27026202). Most of our time was spent admiring the King Penguins, and making a careful count as our numbers were the highest recorded at this site (and still are, per eBird, as of the time of writing). Some occasional scans of the bay gave us good numbers of Sooty Shearwaters and our first Southern Giant-Petrel, with two Great Shearwaters among them - quite a rare species in Chile. Land birds were few, however the guys got their Patagonian Yellow-Finch with a confiding bird near the parking lot, and we all enjoyed the antics of the Austral Negritos.

Obligatory King Penguin selfie

King Penguin colony

King Penguin with classic Tierra del Fuego landscape

Austral Negrito

Before long, it was time for us to go, and we made the drive back a little more slowly, spotting a Fire-eyed Diucon and some Rufous-chested Dotterels on the way. Along this stretch, it became obvious that our car was suffering more than just a dust problem, as the windshield first chipped and then cracked from gravel flying off passing cars, one of the tires started going flat, and worst of all, the latch on Josh's door had somehow lost all of its screws and fallen out, meaning his door was no longer able to close. He drove the last few kilometres to the Porvenir ferry with one hand holding the door closed and the other alternating between the steering wheel and the stick shift (our car was a manual, as most rentals in Chile and Argentina were), using his knee to fill the gaps in steering. We made it to the ferry terminal at 13:59, and I ran inside to get tickets while Josh zoomed over to the ferry lineup. With seconds to spare, I ran over and jumped in the car, handing the tickets to the ferry attendant, and the ferry pulled away just after we got on. Phew! On our way out of the harbour, some Peale's Dolphins performed acrobatics, jumping out of the water and spinning around, while good numbers of Chilean Skuas cruised by. With light winds on the east side of the strait, we didn't have much else in the way of pelagic birds until we passed the halfway point, and the wind picked up. From there we had flock after flock of seabirds, and by the end we estimated we'd seen around 500 Black-browed Albatrosses (https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S27026323)! Good numbers of White-chinned Petrels also kept us entertained, while a few Magellanic Penguins and Diving-Petrels rounded out the list.

Peale's Dolphins playing

Chilean Skua

In Punta Arenas, we birded the waterfront for a little while, finding a locally-rare Red-legged Cormorant before heading off to find a hostel. We eventually settled on a (tiny) three-bed room at Hostel Torres del Paine (12500p each), and spent the rest of the day relaxing, getting dinner, and making a plan of attack for our next few days.

Running trip list: 235

Jan 21

This day was a bit of a turning point in our trip, and not for the better. Up until this point, our loosely-planned trip had been quite successful, with almost all of our target birds in the bag and only a few minor mishaps and hours wasted looking for accommodations or due to missed buses.

It started with our rental car. It was due back around 10:00, so after eating a nice breakfast and packing our stuff, we checked out of our hostel and headed to the rental agency, to be there when they opened in order to make our bus. They quickly noticed the thick layer of dust coating the entire car, and were quite angry with us for 'not following their instructions'. After explaining that particular issue, they let it go, and didn't notice the leaky tire. They did notice the door latch, but we were off the hook for that as it was a manufacturing defect. The cracked windshield, however, was another story. Luckily, Josh's credit card insurance covered that, but he had to fill out a lot of forms and spend some time on the phone with his credit card company, and the rental agent had a lot of paperwork to do as well. A few days earlier, we had realized that Josh had thrown out his PDI form (the tourist 'receipt' you get when entering Chile), a necessary piece of paper in order to leave the country. As they can only be replaced at a major police station (which only exist in the capital city of each province in Chile), we left the rental agent to his paperwork and slipped out to find the police station where we could replace Josh's form. That task complete, it was back to the rental agency where we waited around for a while before eventually everything was sorted and we could go on our way. We made it to the bus station, only to discover that the bus to Argentina had departed 15 minutes earlier, and there wouldn't be another one until the next day at the same time! With that, there was nothing we could do, as no other buses even went that direction, so after booking our tickets for the next day, we went off to find a hostel, hoping for one a little less pricey than the night before. We ended up at Hostel Ayelen near the bus terminal (10000p each). After looking for a laundromat with little success (we did find some, but they all said it would take 24h to wash our clothes), we spent the bulk of the day at the hostel. We did make a brief foray to the waterfront in the afternoon, not adding any new birds, but seeing the Red-legged Cormorant again and getting some decent photos of Dolphin Gulls (https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S27037553).

Dolphin  Gull

Running trip list: 235