CHILE DAY 1: Punta Arenas to Torres Del Paine

Recently my family and I went on a trip to Chile for two weeks. For the first week we travelled to Patagonia, and the second week we spent around Santiago due to my father's conference there.
Our first full day was spent in Punta Arenas. We had arrived late in the afternoon of the previous day and didn't really do much then.
Early in the morning we went out to a nearby pier which I had seen covered in cormorants while travelling to the hotel. As I approached the pier I saw that most of the birds on it were blue-eyed cormorants, with a few rock cormorants further away. Both kelp gulls and dolphin gulls were flying around the area, and two buff-necked ibis were seen overhead.

A view of the pier. Note the rock cormorants at the back.

This group of blue-eyed cormorants was particularly close to the shore

Can you spot the dolphin gull?

After that we walked to a nearby park. The park was fairly birdy, providing my first looks at Austral thrushes, black-chinned siskins, Patagonian sierra finches and rufous-collared sparrows. 

A puddle provided a nice drinking spot for this male rufous-collared sparrow

Austral thrushes were common throughout the park

A male black-chinned siskin was singing on one of the park's shorter trees

Patagonian sierra finches proved common throughout our stay in Patagonia

After eating breakfast we then took our transport (a van sent by the hotel we were staying in, Explora Patagonia) to Torres Del Paine. The drive provided many birds, however we couldn't stop for most of them. Birds we saw included Chilean flamingoes, upland geese, crested ducks, striated caracaras, southern caracaras, chimango caracaras, long-tailed meadowlarks and lesser rheas. We also saw a Patagonian Fox walking near the road. I won't provide images of the birds we did stop for, as we saw them later at much better distances on the drive back.

This Patagonian fox quickly crossed the road and ran into a ditch near the car

On reaching Torres Del Paine we were immediately stunned by the sheer beauty of the landscape. It was easy to see why some called Patagonia one of the most beautiful places on Earth.

This was the view from our hotel of the Paine Massif

When we arrived at the hotel (in the middle of Torres Del Paine), we immediately checked out our rooms and ate lunch. The hotel we were staying at, Explora Patagonia, provides explorations which are short hikes to the park's best points. I walked around the grounds and saw a few birds including a rufous-tailed plantcutter, several house wrens, a rufous-collared sparrow and two flying steamer-ducks and some spectacled ducks in a nearby lagoon.

Rufous-tailed plantcutters are the southernmost birds in their family

Over our stay in Patagonia house wrens were always abundant

The exploration we decided to do was a walk up the nearby hill, Mirador Condor, as it was a nesting ground for condors. The hiking was tough but the views from the hill were amazing, and I also saw my first Andean condor, as well as many black-chested buzzard eagles.

Mirador Condor provides a good 360 degree view of the park

This Andean condor was quite a sight flying towards Mirador Condor

Towards the end of the walk many black-chested buzzard eagles were soaring overhead

Then we did another short walk around the hotel grounds, but found nothing new.