CHILE DAY 3: Mirador Del Toro and Spectacled Ducklings

On our third day we visited Mirador Del Toro as our first expedition. Before we went on the expedition I watched the lake and surrounds for birds, and saw two upland geese, a great grebe and some eared doves flying around. During breakfast a brown-hooded gull flew past our hotel.
As we walked along the track we quickly arrived at a marshy area where many plumbeous rails were feeding. The calls of distant southern lapwings could be heard as well.

Roughly 4 of these plumbeous rails were feeding in the marsh

Continuing onward, many birds were calling from the rocks to our right: a single chilean flicker, Patagonian sierra finches, many house wrens and a few rufous-collared sparrows. The trees to our left also held a few birds: eared doves, Austral thrushes and one extremely quick tufted tit-tyrant.

Despite its name, the Chilean flicker is not endemic to Chile

We started to ascend a hill, where Austral negritos started appearing and Patagonian sierra-finches were much commoner. The view from the top of the hill was amazing, showing the Paine River flowing into the large Toro Lake. The descent was not really noteworthy, apart from many close sierra-finches showing up.

The Patagonian sierra-finches on this track were rather tame

A view of the Toro Lake

In the afternoon we went horseriding, but saw not much else of note, apart from a large flock of upland geese and two spectacled ducks with ducklings on the way back.

These adorable spectacled ducks with ducklings were quite unbothered by us

CHILE DAY 2: Pumas but no woodpeckers

The day began extremely well. While having breakfast, we saw a puma walk right in front of the hotel! Apparently this has never happened before, and provided for some great photo opportunities. More than 50 pumas make their homes in Torres Del Paine, feeding off the guanacos and introduced rabbits.

The puma can be found all the way from Patagonia to Canada

I also did a short walk around the hotel, but saw nothing new apart from two Austral blackbirds.

This photo of an Austral blackbird was taken later on in Santiago.

Soon we had to leave for Grey Lagoon. I chose this walk because the start of it went through Southern Beech forest, and our guide from the previous day, Ana, had reported a chance of seeing Magellanic woodpeckers. The forty-minute drive to the site provided several birds, including buff-necked ibises, a chimango caracara and a Magellanic oystercatcher, though we only stopped for the first two.

Buff-necked ibises are fairly easy to see on the Patagonian grasslands

The chimango caracara is probably Chile's commonest raptor, found even in Santiago 

The start of the walk, though beautiful, provided few birds, just Patagonian sierra finches. When we got to the beach of Grey Lagoon, it was very windy but also amazing to look at.

These icebergs had broken off the Grey Glacier and drifted into the lake

There were several Austral negritos flying around the beach, as well as a single dark-faced ground tyrant.

This male Austral negrito dealt very well with the icy cold winds

Later on I saw some of these dark-faced ground tyrants hopping on an iceberg!

As we continued on we walked around a peninsula to get views of the Grey Glacier. There were few new birds on the peninsula, apart from an Austral parakeet. However, when we reached the end of the walk I saw several birds on the icebergs: two dark-faced ground tyrants and a bar-winged cinclodes.

The Austral parakeet is the only parrot that can brave Patagonia's harsh climate

A view of the Grey Glacier from the top of the peninsula

Nobody knows why this bar-winged cinclodes decided to fly onto an iceberg, but it did

As we returned back towards the beech forest, a small mixed flock of thorn-tailed rayaditos, white-throated treerunners and Patagonian sierra finches greeted us, and I could see some upland geese in a nearby river.

This white-throated treerunner is, oddly enough, running up a tree

Upland geese pair for life and males are always seen with a female. 

After this we headed back through the forest, looking out for woodpeckers. We saw a large, black bird the size of a woodpecker, but it flew off before we could be certain of its identity. 

These marks in the tree were made by feeding woodpeckers

We headed back to the Explora lodge, and soon spotted an Andean condor perched on a cliff in front of the restaurant! While having lunch we watched the condor with the aid of the hotel's telescope.

You can get an idea of the Andean condor's size in this photo

Then we headed off to Sacrimento Lagoon, a place good for guanaco watching and home to a large deposit of stromatolites, rocks formed around dead colonies of ancient bacteria that gave off the oxygen in our atmosphere today. There are stromatolites only in 3 places in the world, including Shark Bay in Australia, and here. 

While driving to the lagoon we stopped at a small pond where there were spectacled ducks, a Southern lapwing and two white-tufted grebes. We also stopped to see guanacos.

Spectacled ducks are common throughout Torres Del Paine

The beautiful white-tufted grebe puts Australia's grebes to shame

Southern lapwings have sharp bones on their wings which they use in combat

Many guanacos were present in the area, apparently this area is known as a Puma hunting ground

We walked along a trail towards the stromatolites. There were many Andean condors flying above the trail, and I also saw two great grebes in one of the area's lagoons. The reason for the condors being so prevalent was shown when we stumbled across several guanaco corpses, from previous puma killings.

The great grebe is rather common on Patagonia's larger lakes

Note the white collar on this Andean condor, used to keep its head and neck warm at high altitude

There were many strombolites around the lagoon, and the walking trail went through a large cluster of them. As we continued walking we saw few other birds, apart from some more Austral negritos. The end of the walk was near a lagoon, here I saw two red-gartered coots, and a cinerous harrier flew past before I could take any photos of it.

It was amazing to see these strombolites, once creatures that started life on Earth

Two of these red-gartered coots were swimming around in the lagoon

Then we headed back, planned for the next day and had dinner.

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.

HEALESVILLE AND TOOLANGI

I recently visited Healesville Sanctuary and part of Toolangi State Forest during a stay in the Yarra Valley. I managed to see quite a few birds, including a lifer.
Healesville surprisingly turned out to be the most productive site. The emu exhibit's feeders were attracting many galahs and common bronzewings, while Australian white ibis rested in trees overhead, a few satin bowerbirds hopped around in the undergrowth and a single yellow-faced honeyeater was extremely high up in a tall eucalypt. Finally, a eastern spinebill sipped nectar from some nearby flowers.

The area around the emu exhibit is a reliable site for common bronzewing

A nearby flowering plant was this eastern spinebill's lunch

Both male and female satin bowerbirds were in the trees at the beginning of the exhibit

The birds were similar until we got to the Spirits of the Sky Flight Arena (an area where there is a birds of prey show). While waiting for the show to start, I saw many birds in the trees on the edges of Badger Creek (which flows through the sanctuary). There were quite a few yellow-faced honeyeaters, some brown thornbills, an eastern yellow robin and a single lifer white-naped honeyeater that allowed only quick views and a barely decent photo before leaving.

The white-naped honeyeater flew in for a quick drink before leaving

In the arena itself there were many grey fantails in a nearby tree, as well as sulphur-crested cockatoos and galahs flying over. The show itself was really nice and I almost got hit in the shoulder by a wedge-tailed eagle!
We walked along a few more trails, but saw more of the same: however some ponds held a few chestnut teals and Pacific black ducks, as well as 3 purple swamphens.
After going to Healesville we arrived at our accommodation. We did a walk through woodland to a bird hide overlooking a wetland, however the woodlands were fairly quiet (brown thornbills, eastern spinebills, superb fairy-wrens, noisy miners, Indian mynas, common starlings, Australian ravens, little ravens and a single pied currawong), though the hide was overlooking a large roost of about 30-40 eastern great egrets and greater cormorants. The walk also went past the Yarra River and there were Pacific black ducks, dusky moorhens, Eurasian coots and purple swamphens in the river. Finally a grassy lawn at the start of the walk held grazing Australian wood ducks, a single masked lapwing and some white-faced herons.

This grey currawong was rather shy for his species

For a site near Melbourne this is a very large number of eastern great egrets

The next morning we visited the Wirrawilla Rainforest Walk. This walk is roughly half-an-hour's drive from Healesville. The walk itself wasn't very productive, however there were many birds around the carpark and entrance: we saw grey fantails, brown thornbills, flame robins, white-browed scrubwrens and a golden whistler.

Both a male and female flame robin were at the carpark, the male is shown here

Finally, on the way back home we visited one of the area's many vineyards: though the vineyard was fully booked for lunch there were many goldfinches in the carpark, one of Victoria's less common introductions.

The goldfinch is one of several birds introduced by the European colonists of Australia

SPECIES SEEN:
1. Pacific Black Duck
2. Chestnut Teal
3. Australian Wood Duck
4. White-Faced Heron
5. Eastern Great Egret
6. Greater Cormorant
7. Dusky Moorhen
8. Purple Swamphen
9. Eurasian Coot
10. Masked Lapwing
11. Spotted Dove
12. Common Bronzewing
13. Sulphur-Crested Cockatoo
14. Galah
15. Rainbow Lorikeet
16. Crimson Rosella
17. Superb Fairy-Wren
18. White-Browed Scrubwren
19. Brown Thornbill
20. Golden Whistler
21. Red Wattlebird
22. Eastern Spinebill
23. New Holland Honeyeater
24. White-Naped Honeyeater
25. Noisy Miner
26. Grey Fantail
27. Willie Wagtail
28. Australian Magpie
29. Pied Currawong
30. Little Raven
31. Australian Raven
32. Welcome Swallow
33. Blackbird
34. Indian Myna
35. Common Starling
36. Goldfinch
TOTAL: 36
LIFERS: 1

WILSON'S PROM: COTTERS BEACH TRACK

To try and find southern emu-wrens, we walked the Cotters Beach Track. Reports had said the middle area of this 2 kilometre track was good for emu-wrens, and that flowering trees near the carpark held crescent honeyeaters. Though we didn't see evidence of the first part, the second part was proven true.

The track turned out to be pretty good for seeing these emus

The first main bird was seen before even hitting the track, walking across the road: one of the emus that  was descended from the birds that had been re-introduced to the park in the 1900s. In the carpark and first section of the track there was little activity, with just superb fairy-wrens, grey fantails, white-browed scrubwrens, New Holland honeyeaters, brown thornbills and red-browed finches. As the forested section of the track lead into a more grassy area, birds became a little better, with the appearance of many white-fronted chats, a single grey shrike-thrush and a few more emus. A pond near the track held some chestnut teals, and at the beach some silvergulls and a Pacific gull were present, but nothing else was to be seen.

I managed to get several good shots of these white-fronted chats

A distant emu walking on a sand dune

However the birds didn't really change until we returned to the carpark, where we found several crescent honeyeaters in flowering trees. A bit of a disappointment in terms of seeing the wren, but good in that I managed an OK picture of a crescent honeyeater.

As hard as it may be to tell, the bird is in fact a crescent honeyeater

SPECIES SEEN:
1. Emu
2. Chestnut Teal
3. Silvergull
4. Pacific Gull
5. Superb Fairy-Wren
6. White-Browed Scrubwren
7. Brown Thornbill
8. Red Wattlebird
9. Crescent Honeyeater
10. White-Fronted Chat
11. Grey Shrike-Thrush
12. Forest Raven
13. Australian Magpie
14. Magpie-Lark
15. Grey Fantail
16. Red-Browed Finch
TOTAL: 16
LIFERS: None