We left Santiago early doors and headed to the coast some 90 minutes away to a shoreline called Renaca, which is north of Valparaiso. Our main target of Chilean Seaside Cinclodes fell almost immediately and nice views were had of a couple pairs along the rocky coastline.
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| Chilean Seaside Cinclodes |
But there was so much activity it was hard to know where to look first, with Peruvian Pelicans, Peruvian Booby, several Inca Terns, a flock of Surfbirds, a few Blackish and many more American Oystercatchers, Hudsonian Whimbrel, Ruddy Turnstone, Neotropic Cormorant, a few Red-legged Cormorants and masses of Kelp Gulls.
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| Blackish Oystercatcher |
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| Surfbird |
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| Hudsonian Whimbrel |
Just around the corner Inca Terns were almost within touching distance and brought the wow factor to proceedings, a flock of Franklin’s Gulls were seen on the beach and finally a group of Grey Gulls were found just before boarding the minibus.
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| The extraordinary Inca Tern showed rather well |
Moving on to Estero Mantagua we searched for Stripe-backed Bittern in vain but had Many-coloured Rush-Tyrant, Wren-like Rushbird, Red-fronted and Red-gartered Coots, Spectacled Tyrant, a superb Spot-flanked Gallinule, Magellanic Snipe, many West Peruvian Doves, Fire-eyed Diucon and a pair of displaying Green-backed Firecrowns.
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| Magellanic Snipe |
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| Spot-flanked Gallinule |
Some familiar shorebirds were present with both Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs, and a flock of Baird’s Sandpipers. We finished off with brief looks at Dusky Tapaculo and Austral Negrito before having to leave.
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| Baird's Sandpiper |
Our final spot was Quirilluca where we nailed the endemic Dusky-tailed Canastero quickly and had views of Green-backed Firecrown, Tufted Tit-Tyrant, another Moustached Turca, Chilean Mockingbird, Long-tailed Meadowlark and Picui Ground-Doves, but failed to find White-throated Tapaculo.
All that remained was a 2 hour drive to the port of San Antonio to catch our cruise ship Sapphire Princess and the real start of our Cape Horn Cruise adventure! Upon arrival, check-in was a breeze ( we needn’t have bothered with QR Codes or Green Lane authorisation on the App!) and we were onboard by 4.15pm and had time to mooch around the ship and everyone could explore a little bit.
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| Sapphire Princess - our home for 14 nights... |
The buffet was enticing to everyone and that was when Lynzi showed us a photo of a pale grey petrel sat on one of the decks that she and David T had found. We all rushed to see it and spent a good while figuring out that it was in fact a rare Masatierra Petrel. Wow!
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| This Masatierra Petrel was a surprise. it is also known as DeFilippi's Petrel. |
Unfortunately, our departure was delayed an hour and was pretty frustrating but in the meantime we saw an Inca Tern, Guanay Cormorant and some Peruvian Pelicans, with distant Elegant Terns fishing way out and David T even saw Humboldt Penguin in the harbour. Eventually our cruise ship was being pulled out of its mooring by a couple of tugboats and we were heading out into open water, passing many South American Terns along the way, plus Franklin’s Gulls and a few SouthAmerican Sealions. Once we’d left the sheltered port, the first of 5 Arctic Skuas appeared, along with a few Peruvian Boobies.
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| Pink-footed Shearwater - our first 'proper' seabird and very common as it turned out! |
And then everything went quiet and we wondered if that was it for the day. However, all of a sudden a Pink-footed Shearwaterappeared, and then another, followed by a couple of Sooty Shearwaters, more pinkfeet, and then a smaller shearwater with faster wingbeats – unbelievably it was a Manx Shearwater (in the Pacific Ocean!). it was only the second time I’d seen one in this part of the world! And then it all kicked off with a flurry of more shearwaters, and then the shout of “ALBATROSS” went up and our first couple of Black-browed Albatrosses were seen.
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| Black-browed Albatross - another very common sighting |
As if this wasn’t enough, a Buller’s Albatross flew by and shortly after a very close Chatham Albatross was spotted sat on the sea really close to the ship. As we neared it, the bird flew away a short distance and settled on the water once again allowing a few record shots.
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| Chatham Albatross |
More shearwaters of both species appeared, and then our first of several Fuegian (Wilson’s) Storm-Petrels appeared, and Keith even managed a view of a Peruvian Diving-Petrel. Events only came to an end when the light faded too much but we still managed a few close Sooty Shearwaters before close of play. What a day! And what was pleasing to everyone was that the views we were getting of these seabirds were very, very good. We had scopes set up and could scan the horizon but many of the birds seemed to want to pass close in front of the hull. Amazing!
So this was our first evening onboard a cruise ship and we had dinner in the large buffet area, where an amazing variety of different dishes was available. A few of us retired to one of the numerous bars a little later to toast the day’s successful sightings but I think no-one was too late in bed as tomorrow promised to be epic!
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