13 Mar 18 - Chile: Off To See Some Diamond Geysers

My trip to Chile had got off to a good start with seeing the Horned Coots & a couple of bonus Ticks on the first afternoon to the South East of San Pedro de Atacama. The other key site I wanted to visit were the touristy geysers at El Tatio at around 4300 metres. I wasn't worried about the need to acclimatise slowly to altitude, having spent over three weeks in Colombia visiting many High Andes sites. However, this is something other Birders following this route might need to be more careful about. One of the tips we were given in Colombia, was to drink at least a pint of water before ascending high & to keep drinking at regular intervals. Getting the fluids in before you ascend can help. However, not drinking enough or not drinking until after you have ascended, will not easy any problems with altitude.

A local church

The vast majority of the Altiplano is dry & arid

Anyway, back to El Tatio. This is a good site for Red-backed Sierra-finch which was another species with a limited range in Chile & which we didn't see in Argentina in 1998. As with the Horned Coots, I believe it is possible to see them in Bolivia, if or when I ever get the chance to get there. The geysers are shown on google maps as being about an hour & a half drive North of San Pedro de Atacama. The reality is it took me about three hours to get there. If I had taken a tourist bus, I would have been there in half my time & soon after dawn. But driving myself took much longer as there were so many great spots to stop en route. It was over two hours for the return journey. Initially, the road heads across relatively similar Altiplano habitat to what I had been driving through on the previous day & with little obvious birdlife. But after climbing onto the higher Altiplano, it followed a winding water course with occasional small Altiplano lakes & areas of bogs. All these areas were rich with Birds & I stopped on many occasions. I didn't see any bonus Ticks on the way there, but did better on the way back.

Chilean Flamingo: Adult. These are the easiest of the three Chilean species to identify. The pink of the wings covers or nearly covers the black in the wings. The bill is pale pink with a black terminal half. They have pale eyes, grey legs & pink knees

Chilean Flamingo: Adult

Andean Flamingos & Puna Flamingo (facing left): Adults. The extensive black in the wings indicates these are either adult Andean Flamingos or Puna Flamingos. They both have black eyes & yellow-based bills with red on the top of the upper mandible. The majority of the bill is black in Andean Flamingo, but the black is restricted to the terminal third of the bill in Puna Flamingo. The individual facing left has a much smaller black terminal marking on the bill & is the Puna Flamingo

Andean Flamingos & Puna Flamingo (facing left): Adults. The extent of the black on the bills of these three individuals is obvious

Andean Flamingo & Puna Flamingo (facing left): A close crop of the last photo to show the differences in bill markings. Note, near adult Puna Flamingos do not show red on the top of the bill, so perhaps this one is not fully adult

Andean Flamingo & Puna Flamingo (facing left): Adults. Andean Flamingos have yellow legs, whereas Puna Flamingos have pink legs. The books say Andean Flamingos is the largest of the three species, but has noticeably shorter legs. Personally, while I can see the Andean Flamingo is a little bit bulkier & shorter legged, I think the bare part colouration is more useful in identifying them (especially in water)

Andean Flamingos & Puna Flamingo (facing left): Adults. This photo was taken first compared to the photos above, but I like it as it shows the size with the open wings. It is just possible to see the Puna Flamingo has a more compact body compared to the left-hand Andean Flamingo

Andean Flamingo: Adult. Leg colouration doesn't help when they wade in wader this deep & it's even worse when they stick their heads underwater. This is clearly an Andean Flamingo despite facing left

Andean Flamingo: Adult. However, identification is easy when they behave like this

Soon after getting onto the higher Altiplano, there are some roadside salt lakes which are about 100 metres from the road. I pulled over to look at the lake from the car. Frustratingly, within a few minutes another car pulled over at the next pull in & the occupants jumped straight out & started walking towards the lakes. I decided I might as well walk over to the lake as well. I got closer, but not too close to disturb everything there & started getting some photos. At this point, one of the tourist buses appeared & told us to go back to the road. This was probably a good thing, as while I stopped at a safe distance, the other people would have continued until they disturbed everything & my Spanish wasn't good enough to ask them to stop. After another few minutes of driving, I discovered there were some more salt lakes which were right next to the road which were also worth a stop.

Andean Avocet: They occur from Southern Peru to Northern Chile & Northern Argentina

There were a couple of Andean Avocets feeding in the salt lakes: Note, the impact of the wind on its feathers

Puna Plover: Immature. The dull breast band & pectoral patches to the sides of the breast indicates this is an immature. This is another species that occurs in the high Altiplano from Southern Peru to Northern Chile & Northern Argentina

I still had a fair drive to El Tatio so reluctantly I decided I needed to get back in the car. After another few miles of driving I came to the first of two good areas on boggy marshes next to the road. Both areas were well worth the time to stop & scan. Further on there was another larger marshy area, which was visible from a higher viewpoint.

Andean Goose

Andean Goose

Crested Duck: This is the alticola subspecies which occurs in the Andes of Peru, Bolivia, Northern Argentina & Chile

Puna Teal: With a nice habitat background. The drier background shows how narrow this habitat is

Puna Teal: As the name suggests this is an Altiplano species. The blue bill & slightly larger size separates it from Silver Teal which has a wider & more lowland range in South America

Speckled Teal: This is the oxyptera subspecies which occurs in Altiplano in Southern Peru, Argentina & Chile, as well as, the Falkland Islands & South Georgia. The flavirostris subspecies occurs at lower elevations within the same range

Giant Coot: They are the largest Coot in the world & have these two distinctive bumps on their head

Giant Coot: They are my favourite Coot species

Giant Coot: The bumps are clearly visible from behind

Giant Coot: They occur in the Andes of Southern Peru, Northern Chile & NW Argentina

Giant Coot: The nest is a mass of piled up vegetation like many Coot & Moorhen species

Giant Coot: Feeding the next generation

Grey-breasted Seedsnipe: Male: They occur in the Andes of Southern Peru as far South as Tierra del Fuego

Grey-breasted Seedsnipe: Female

Lesser Yellowlegs & Puna Teal

Lesser Yellowlegs: The bill is a uniform dark colouration, straight & a similar length to the head. Greater Yellowlegs have a longer, slightly upturned bill with a paler base to the bill. In the field, identification is more obvious as Lesser Yellowlegs are the size of Redshanks, whereas Greater Yellowlegs are the size of Greenshanks

There were at least twenty five Vicunas along the route.

Vicuna: They are the smallest of the Vicuna & Guanaco group (including their domestic counterparts of Alpaca & Llama). The whitish tufts at the base of the breast help to separate them from the larger, longer-legged Guanaco

Vicuna

Vicuna

Finally, I left the salt lakes & bogs behind & continued at a faster speed to El Tatio.

Eventually the road became a gravel track

Looks like this is still active given the smoke

A closer view

12 Mar 18 - Chile: A Visit To The Horny Altiplano Lakes

As part of a three month trip abroad, I was going to spend twelve days in Chile. I had visited Chile in mid Sep 02, but found it was a bit disappointing. My time was spent around Central Chile & the Valparaiso coastline. I found the forest sites visited were quiet, but I guess it would be similar to Scandinavia in mid March & perhaps too early in the breeding season for some species to be vocal. It didn't help that I didn't have any recordings of key species, so I was restricted to having to wait for something to call & record it. Then using playback to encourage it to show itself. This approached worked well in most countries twenty years ago. But it didn't work well in Chile, given the lack of species calling. I fared better around the coastline. 

I have looked forward to returning at a better time of the year since that trip. Most Birders visit around Christmas/New Year, whereas I was arriving in March. Perhaps not the classic time to visit, but the Chile trip was designed to fill the twelve days gap from when a Birdquest trip to Northern Colombia ended & when I needed to arrive in Ushuaia, prior to the Atlantic Odyssey cruise from Argentina back to Holland. Having spent a week in the central Chile, the main areas to visit were the Northern Chile sites & from Chiloe Island back to Santiago. There were also some high elevation sites around Santiago I wanted to visit. The plan was to fly North to Calama & after visiting sites around San Pedro de Atacama, drive North to Arica & visit additional sites around Arica. With 450 miles between Calama & Arica, I accepted I was going to pay significantly more for a one-way car hire, but I didn't have the time to consider driving back again. I wanted to fly from Arica to Chiloe Island, but I had to build in an overnight stop in Santiago. I had another hired car booked which again was another one-way drive back to Santiago. Overall, the plan worked well, but I could have done with another two or three days around the Santiago area. However, I do want to visit Easter Island & the Juan Fernandez Islands in the future, so the high elevation sites around Santiago could be combined with that plan.

I arrived into Santiago airport after an overnight flight from Bogota, Colombia. Unfortunately, the flight was over an hour late arriving. Consequently, I arrived at the domestic check-in desk for the internal flight back North to Calama about fifteen minutes after the flight closed. Fortunately, the internal carrier, LATAM agreed to check me in for the next flight without having to pay a rebooking fee. I would arrive about two hours later than planned, but that was pretty good in the circumstances. I had time for a leisurely breakfast in the airport, before heading off to the gate. I arrived into Calama at 12:30 & quickly collected the hire car for the next six days. Calama is one of the main cities in the Northern foothills of the Andes & well placed to get to the touristy town of San Pedro de Atacama near to the Altiplano. My main reason for visiting was to look for the only Coot species I hadn't seen, Horned Coot. This has a limited Chilean range, but it is reliable at its Altiplano lake stronghold of Laguna Menique & Laguna Miscanti: about three hour drive to the South East. The road was good & fairly quiet and after about an hour & a half I arrived at San Pedro de Atacama. After a few circuits of the town, I finally found my accommodation for the night, checked in, bought some food for later & made a coffee to take with me. By 15:00 I was heading off to the lagunas. The road was good & still quiet and about an hour later I was turning off onto the dirt road to the park. 

Tropic of Capricorn: Officially, I was heading out of the Tropics. But neither side of the line felt very tropical. San Pedro de Atacama is around 2400 metres asl & the lakes are over 4100 metres with local mountains that go close to 6000 metres

It is a long entrance track, but I arrived to find the park entrance gate was still open. This site was like all the sites I visited in Chile (except for one), where there were no problems using a normal two wheel drive car to get around. After paying the fee, I was told the park would be locking up at 18:00. This gave me an hour & a half to find the Horned Coots. There were other potential Ticks here, but while Horned Coot also occurs in NW Argentina & SW Bolivia, it can be difficult to find in Argentina & I've not got any plans to head to Bolivia in the near future. I had looked for it unsuccessfully back in Nov 1998 in Argentina. After another ten minute drive I arrived at the viewpoint overlooking Laguna Miscanti. I could see a variety of species on the lake or by the shoreline, but all the Coots were Slate-coloured Coots. I didn't linger for too long as my time was limited & decided to drive further along the track to the viewpoint overlooking Laguna Menique.

Laguna Miscanti: This is the first lake reached

One of the many stunning mountains which looked to be volcanic in origin

Back out with the scope & this time there were at least sixteen Horned Coots among the Slate-coloured Coots. The first key target on my Chile plan was in the bag.

Horned Coot: The Chilean population is around 600 individuals

Horned Coot: They are a large Coot species with this bizarre wattle which extends along most of the length of the upper surface of the bill with tufts on the wattle

Horned Coot

Andean Flamingo: Immature. The black eye & extensive black on the bill confirms the identification

Andean Goose: A common species near water on the Altiplano

The two viewpoints weren't close to the lakes to avoid disturbance to the Birds feeding along the shallow edges. While I was there, the handful of other visitors were keeping in the designated edges. However, there was a sudden disturbance at the water's edge as a Culpeo Fox raced out into the shallow waterline & grabbed a Horned Coot. It clearly wasn't prepared to follow the rules.

Culpeo Fox: That's one less Horned Coot in the Chilean population

With my time being limited, I decided to head back along the track towards the small reserve office & toilets to look for Passerines. Many of the Altiplano species are thinly distributed & it can be quicker to slowly drive to initially search for them. Once found, then I either try approaching slowly using the car as a hide or getting out & walking. There were a few other target species including Cordilleran Canastero.

Cordilleran Canastero: The initial views were not helpful. While I could see it was a Canastero, there were other species which also occur in this region of Chile & they all look the same from this angle

Cordilleran Canastero: Fortunately, it turned around when the relatively uniform wings & mantle could be seen to confirm it was a Cordilleran Canastero. The other potential confusion species have dark wings (Creamy-breasted Canastero) or more rufous wings (Lesser (Sharp-billed) Canastero & Canyon Canastero). There may be habitat difference which also rule those species out, but if that was the case, it was something I wasn't aware of

Cordilleran Canastero: They occur from central Peru to West Bolivia, Northern Chile & NW Argentina

Cordilleran Canastero: They are well camouflaged for this habitat

Cordilleran Canastero

Another identification challenge in Chile & Argentina are the Yellow-finches. Although, half the battle for me is to stay awake. Think about a dull juvenile Greenfinch & you won't be far away from what female & immature individuals look like. Males are brighter, but it doesn't help if there are no males in sight. I saw a small party of Yellow-finches by the track & grabbed some photos. Unfortunately, they flew before I had the chance to get closer. At the time, I didn't get the chance to figure them out. I decided to check the photos that evening, but I forgot. Looking at the photos as I'm writing this Blog Post, I'm pleased to see they were Greater Yellow-finches. They are at the Northern limited of their range at Laguna Menique & Laguna Miscanti & some Birders have seen them here. I hoped to see them at one of the high elevation sites near Santiago, but this is where I ran out of time.

Greater Yellow-finch: The long primaries & very dull colouration with little yellow confirm this is a Greater Yellow-finch. Bright-rumped Yellow-finch would be brighter & has shorter primaries. Additionally, the bill doesn't have a curved culmen which is a feature of Greenish Yellow-finch

Greater Yellow-finch: This shows another view of the bill shape. Not the most exciting Tick, but I'm pleased I saw some

All too soon, a park vehicle arrived to say it was time to leave. I knew I would have limited time around the lakes & my time was severely impacted by the time lost due to the missed internal flight. However, I had still managed to see the Horned Coots & a couple of bonus Ticks. Plus, I would rather be asked to leave, than to get to the entrance to find there is a locked gate & the staff had left. Although, I had to leave the area around the lakes, there was nothing to stop me continuing to scan, once I had passed beyond the entrance. The first highlight was a feeding party of a half dozen Lesser Rheas on one of the hillsides. As I got closer to the road, I started to flush large parties of Golden-spotted Ground-doves.

Lesser Rhea: This is the tarapacensis subspecies which is one of the subspecies of Puna Lesser Rhea

Rufous-naped Ground-tyrant: The rufous nape is largely burnt out in this photo in the early evening light. The black wings, rump & tail help to confirm the identify from this photo

Vicuna: There were at least 35 feeding on the hillsides on the way back to the road

The Altiplano was more vegetated on the hillsides on the way back to the road

A Mountain Caracara provided on one final species of interest on the road back to San Pedro de Atacama.

Mountain Caracara: Looks like it had come down to the pool for a drink. The black head, mantle, wings & white rump & tail with a broad black sub-terminal band makes this an easy Caracara to identify

I took advantage of the tourist side of the town to find a restaurant serving a decent pizza & natural fruit drink before heading off to catch up on lost sleep, as I hadn't slept well on the flights. It had been a good start to the trip & I would have struggled to squeeze in the plans around San Pedro de Atacama if I hadn't been able to catch that next flight as promptly as I did.