EPIC CAPE HORN CRUISE: DAY 3 PUERTO MONTT

We woke up to calm waters in the sheltered fjord-like scenery as we were moored off Puerto Montt. Leaving the ship in a tender was a relatively easy affair and we were ashore by 8.15pm. We met our local guide Raphael and headed to the private forest of Las Cumbres, seeing several Black-faced Ibis, Southern Crested Caracara and Southern Lapwings along the way. Once we were parked up, a pair of Chilean Pigeons flew over and one landed in a bare tree nearby, giving nice scope views and a flock of Grassland Yellow-Finches fed on the track in front of us as we walked across a field into the forest. We followed a narrow trail inside this amazing forest and had great views of a couple endemic Chucao Tapaculo’s. 

Chucao Tapaculo

The first one walked along a moss-covered log lying on the forest floor but the second individual fed around the base of a tree for several minutes, allowing awesome views. A few of us also had an endemic Black-throated Huet-Huet as well in the same area but it didn’t hang around very long. The lack of recent rain and dry conditions did not help our chances of seeing either of the other two endemic tapaculos, although we did hear Ochre-flanked Tapaculo later on today. Anyway, our walk through the forest also produced a mixed flock of Thorn-tailed Rayadito and White-throated Treerunners, plus a close Green-backed Firecrown. Leaving here we headed over to Lahuen Nadi National Park and another forested trail where some of us saw the endemic Des Mur’s Wiretail and we then drove to another site to try and get better views of the wiretail and also saw a Tufted Tit-Tyrant. A meandering drive across the countryside in search of flickers produced a pair of Slender-billed Parakeets to round off our first land-based shore excursion of the cruise. Once back aboard the Sapphire Princess we were out on deck enjoying our first Imperial Cormorants, as well as Brown-hooded Gulls and South American Terns.

 

As we sailed along the scenic channel towards the Gulf of Corcovoda we saw a few Humboldt Penguins and eventually we saw our main target – 9 Pincoya Storm-Petrels. This species is only found in this small area of Chile and we were extremely fortunate to see them and was certainly one of the highlights of the trip.

Chilean Skua

 

We also had:

13 Westland/White-chinned Petrels

98 Pink-footed Shearwaters

70 Black-browed Albatross

2 Chilean Skua

1 Pomarine Skua