Birding Poole Harbour & Beyond: Ringed Kingfisher

Showing posts with label Ringed Kingfisher. Show all posts

27 Mar 2018

27 Mar 18 - The Penguin Parade

After two or three hours cruising down the Beagle Channel from Ushuaia we finally reached Estancia Harberton. For those with more time, it is possible to stay at the Estancia which would be an interesting option, however, we didn't have the time to get off the boat this time with the Atlantic Odyssey starting the following day.

Estancia Harberton: The Estancia is another few minutes in the boat beyond these sandier cliffs

Arriving at Estancia Harberton: The Estancia is the oldest farm in the Argentinian part of Tierra Del Fuego having been built in 1886. It was declared an Argentinian National Historical monument in 1999

Estancia Harberton: Most of the buildings are old wooden original buildings with a lot of character. The Estancia is a mixture of a farm & tourist resort. There is also an interesting museum within a few minutes walk of the quay

Whale bone entrance gate: While this appears to be harping back to an earlier decade when whaling was regular, these may be from a stranded whale corpse (as the museum is dedicated to studying Cetacean & Seal strandings in the Argentinian part of Tierra Del Fuego)

Ringed Kingfisher: This is the stellata subspecies which occurs in Southern Chile & Argentina as far North as NE Argentina. It is replaced by the nominate subspecies in the rest of South & Central America which just sneeks over the border into Texas (but don't tell Trump that)

Having dropped a few people off at the Estancia who were staying there, we headed onto one of the other attractions on the Estancia, the Penguin parade. There is a colony of Magellanic Penguins with a smaller number of breeding Gentoo Penguins in it. The boat slowed approached the beach before just pushing the bows up onto the beach. Again something the Penguins are well used to & they seemed at easy.

Gentoo Penguins & Magellanic Penguins on the beach

Gentoo Penguin: The Gentoo Penguins were hanging around in one large party on the beach (with some Magellanic Penguins burrows behind)

Gentoo Penguin: This is the nominate subspecies which occurs outside of the Antarctic Peninsula & South Sandwich Islands

Gentoo Penguin: Nearly finished moulting

Gentoo Penguin

Gentoo Penguin: This one still has some way to go

Magellanic Penguin burrows: Magellanic Penguins prefer to nest in burrows. Gentoo Penguins nest on the surface: they occur further south where presumably it would be much harder to dig burrows

Magellanic Penguin: The welcome committee weren't ready for out arrival

Magellanic Penguin: At least this one was ready

Magellanic Penguin: Penguin couch potato

Magellanic Penguin

Magellanic Penguin: This juvenile was one of the more advanced individuals on the beach. Presumably Magellanic Penguins breed later than the Gentoo Penguins as there weren't many youngsters on the beach

Magellanic Penguin: Most of the juveniles seen were still losing their downy fluff

Magellanic Penguin: Penguin homage to one of the sketches in Life of Brian

Magellanic Penguin: My approach to getting in the sea

Magellanic Penguin: A bit more adventurous than me

Magellanic Penguin: This one is also cautious

Magellanic Penguin

20 Mar 2018

20 Mar 18 - Chile: Birds Around Punihuil Beach

In the previous Blog Post, I covered the first part of my final morning on Chiloe Island. I headed back to the Punihuil Penguin colony & I took a rib out to the colony. After the trip, I spend some time checking the scrubby edges at the back of Punihuil Beach for Tapaculos, but I had no joy. However, there were a few other species of interest.

Southern House Wren: This is the chilensis subspecies which occurs in Southern Chile & Southern Argentina

Lizard sp.: There were a couple of these cracking green Lizards in the scrub at the back of the beach

Butterfly sp.: I don't know much about South American Butterflies, but if this was in Europe, I would call it a Fritillary sp.

On the way back to Ancud, I managed to see my first Ochre-flanked Tapaculo, but it wasn't prepared to pose for the camera. But there was a good selection of species which were more obliging.

Chimango Caracara

Ringed Kingfisher

Rufous-tailed Plantcutter: This occurs in central & Southern Chile & Southern Argentina

Chilean Swallow: This species breeds in Southern Chile & Argentina & migrates North to winter in Bolivia & Brazil

Chilean Swallow: A closer crop of the last photo showing the left-hand individual

Austral Blackbird

Black-chinned Siskin

A typical habitat photo

One of the many dirt side roads on Chiloe

A final habitat photo

Time for a final lunch in Ancud & to head off for the ferry. My time on Chiloe had been a great & I could easily have spent longer in the area. I will certainly consider returning on a future visit to Chile. However, I was still seven hundred miles from Santiago, without allowing for a number of lengthy side journeys off the main road. My initial plan was to get to Parque Nacional Puyehue for the following morning. This was about one hundred & fifty miles from the ferry terminal, which was a two & a half hour drive. I had a few minutes wait at the ferry before being allowed to board the ferry.

The ferry was packed: But at least I was on the first ferry

View of a Chilean mountain from the ferry

19 Mar 2018

19 Mar 18 - Chile: Parque Nacional Chiloe

A number of ad-hoc stops along the road to Parque Nacional Chiloe from the Pan American Highway had been very successful with excellent views of Black-throated Huet-huet & Chacao Tapaculo. I decided to carry on to the coast to see what the habitat in the National Park was like. This would give me a better idea of where was the best place to spend the rest of the late afternoon & evening. The Park turned out to be a wide coastal beach with rough scrub vegetation behind it, along with some forest paths. There was a constant movement of Sooty Shearwaters along the coast & I gave up looking after the first hundred in a few minutes. There was a stiff coastal breeze & no shelter. The sandy beach was too far from the nearest point I could drive the car & use it for shelter. There was a small chance that a prolonged seawatch might have produced a Tick, but the plan for the day was to focus on Tapaculos & I clearly wasn't I was going to find any on the beach. There were a few species including Common Diuca-finches, Rufous-collared Sparrows & Long-tailed Meadowlarks in the scrubby areas.

The scrub behind the beach at Parque Nacional Chiloe: The Pacific Ocean is just visible beyond the beach

Common Diuca-finch: This is a widespread species in Chile & Argentina which just crosses into SE Brazil

Common Diuca-finch: This must be a juvenile with the fluffy feathering around the nape

Rufous-collared Sparrow: This is one of the most common & widespread Passerines in Latin America, but one I like as it is a good-looking species

Long-tailed Meadowlark: One of the good things about Chile is there aren't too many options for anything seen

Long-tailed Meadowlark: The identification is even easier when it turned to face me

There was a woodland trail, but there were a lot of noisy people on the trail, so I decided against that option. After a general look around the area, I opted to slowly return to Castro, with a few more roadside stops. This was the better strategy with a number of species new to the trip seen on route back.

Ringed Kingfisher: This is the common Kingfisher in Chile

Fire-eyed Diucon: This is a typical Tyrant Flycatcher: sitting still & looking around a lot for the next snack

Fire-eyed Diucon

White-crested Elaenia: This individual has a 'sweet-tooth' & has developed a liking for Blackberries

Austral Blackbird: Looks like a juvenile Austral Blackbird which has been attracted to a Common Diuca-finch (I can't find anything else that fits with this rusty vent) feeding at the road edge

Black-chinned Siskin: This is the only Siskin in the South of Chile

Finally, I arrived back at Castro. I was keen to find places to look at the wide channel near Castro, as one party of Birders had bumped into Chilean Dolphins. They didn't specify where they had seen this small Dolphin. I found a few places to view the channel, but I didn't have the time in the plan to allow a proper search. With limited time, it was no surprise that I failed to see any Chilean Dolphins. However, I did see a number of Birds, including some Black-necked Swans.

Black-necked Swan: They occur from Southern Brazil to Chile & Argentina

Black-necked Swan: The black neck makes them an easy species to identify

Black-necked Swan: Juvenile. This individual has black wing tips indicating it hadn't moulted its primaries from its juvenile plumage

It was dark by the time I reached Ancud. After some dinner, I was back out looking for Rufous-legged Owls. I had no success, but there were other sites along my route so I gave up after an hour of looking.

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