Today was a bird birthday extravaganza.
With many firsts: My first birthday with 36°C temperature (luckily we spent most of the day above 2000m) and my first birthday with 18 lifers (birds new on your life list, who doesn’t count?).
This result does not come for free, we were picked up early (6am) by Lalo, our guide, and started driving towards Yeso Valley, east of Santiago towards the Argentinian border.
Leaving the Santiago urban area we followed the Maipo River upstream and stopped here and there at special birding spots. The valley quickly gained altitude and widened from a narrow gorge to a pleasant wider space.
After leaving the tarmac for a dirt road and some more turns it opened even wider to make room for a turquoise reservoir held back by a dam. This reservoir is the main source of drinking water for Santiago which houses close to 50% of the Chilean population.
Beyond the lake the valley floor became flat with the Yeso river beautifully meandering through green grass. And all encircled by 5000+m peaks of the Andes
Julian was the best birding partner, not as freaky as others but sufficiently excited and even without birds he is such a nature guy and finds fulfillment in enjoying the splashing of a stream.
That stream was ice cold but at the end of the valley at 3000m altitude there was a hot spring waiting for him to do a skinny dip. Already warned him that in Patagonia washing yourself is either freaking cold or optional.
And now to the important part, the birding.
So much to write about, so many pictures to show (I took around 300 today), but not all stories are interesting to everyone and not all pictures are worth presenting, but even the 295 good ones would drive away the most dedicated blog recipient. So I selected four.
The bird at the end of the valley was the main target of the day. Which is sort of silly (Chris, I am self aware) to say because for me basically all birds in Chile are new, independent of their rarity status.
But the Diademed Sandpiper-Plover is extra special. Not only is it very rare and endemic to the high Andes, it’s name gives the appropriate splendour to its beauty. People come to Yeso valley just to see this bird and we were lucky enough to stumble across it, five minutes after we left the car.
And even more, we (Lalo, to be exact) found a breeding female and as you can see, this is not an easy feat. By the way, the males breed 50%, a bit more progressive than humans.
We stayed at a safe distance from the nest, although the male showed little to no flight distance. When Lalo sat down at the stream to take a picture, the bird passed by him with less than a meter’s distance.
We are very lucky to have Lalo with us. He is very knowledgeable about birds and places, explains a lot, answers all questions and is a pleasure to travel with.
The next “interesting” bird is a Seedsnipe. Like the Sandpiper-Plover it belongs to a family not known in Europe. For my Orni friends: The Diademed Sandpiper-Plover reminded me a lot of the European Dotterel (Mornellregenpfeifer) because of general appearance and habitat, and the Seedsnipe comes close to a Sandgrouse (Flughuhn).
The Seedsnipe is abundant (the first 20 pictures or so I took from 2km away not knowing this)
There are lots of different Pygmy Owls in the world, 16 alone in the Americas, and today I have seen my third one – my first was the Eurasian in Germany, my second the Ferrugenous in Costa Rica, and today the Austral Pygmy Owl.
All of them have a super high cuteness factor and all have the same slightly disapproving look and it has nothing to do with you disturbing their daytime sleep, they are day active as well.
I have not a lot to say about the Crag Chilia, except that I like the bird and its name.
What a day and Julian and I closed it out with a vegan dinner that left nothing more to wish for.
Finally, many, many thanks for all the good wishes that you’ve sent for my birthday. It will take some time to read through all of them and respond. Fun side story, when I ordered tickets to a national park here in Chile, there were options for adults (18-59 years) and seniors (60+ years), I don’t know what to say here.
O. k., then, not to finish on this harrowing note, the ultimate end of the day belongs to the crowned king.
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