Wordless Wednesday: Mission San Miguel Arcangel
Sarah, her folks, and I are now in Punta Arenas, Chile, the southernmost city in continental Chile (Tierra del Fuego, which we unfortunately don´t have time to visit, is a large island just south of here).
Since my last post a few days ago, we´ve:
– gone for two short day hikes under the shadows of the Cuernos del Paine in Torres del Paine Parque Nacional, and experienced even stronger winds than before
– Sarah found an Austral Pgymy-Owl, which is about the size of a backbird (but rounder), and is as cute as you might think. More so, in fact!
– We spent a night at the wonderful Posada Rio Verde, and had a fantastic home-cooked meal of Chilean Shepherd´s Pie
– Enjoyed close fly-by´s by Andean Condors en route from Rio Verde to Punta Arenas
– Took a boat ride to Isla Magdalena in the Straits of Magellan and visited a Magellanic Penguin Colony. Thousands and thousands of these cute little burrowing, braying (they sound much like a donkey!) birdies have dens in this windswept and desolate island. Had pretty good seabirding on the trip too, but it was very slow at 2 hours each way, and on a slow and old auto ferry.
Updates to the bird life list include:
– Austral Parakeet
– Patagonian Tyrant
– Austral Pygmy-Owl
– White-tufted Grebe
– Great Grebe
– Silvery Grebe
– Flying Steamer-Duck
– Flightless Steamer-Duck
– Speckled Teal
– Magellanic Penguin
– Black-browed(?) Albatross
– Brown(?) Skua
– South American(?) Tern
– Giant Petrel (not sure if Nortern or Southern)
– King Cormorant (may be subspecies of the already-seen Imperial Cormorant now)
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Glad you’re enjoying your trip! Stay safe!
Look at that bird list! I’m hoping you come back with some photos of some of them…. I’m glad your having such a great time. I cannot think of any people who deserve it more!
Wonderful list and can’t wait to see all your photos when you return! Thanks for keeping us updated on your trip!
Montucky: Thanks – we´re in Buenos Aires, Argentina now, and it´s a wonderful city so far. Lots to do, many parks, etc.
Aullori: Yes, I have photos (not all good, but identifiable anyways) of most of the birds I have seen. It´ll be fun to process them, finalize the IDs, and post about them all! We saw a Red-crested Cardinal yesterday here in BsAs, which was one of the coolest birds so far
Monarch: Thank you! After I´ve seen more birds, I´ll post another update. Just 4 or 5 more lifers since this post, bringing the total to 50ísh. We still have yet to hit the large urban wildlife refuge in Buenos Aires, and have at least one trip out of the city planned for next week.
Wow! Great blog. I’ve always wanted to visit this area. I’ll be back again to look some more.
Thanks, Sandpiper! I’ll be sure to check out your blog as well.