EPIC CAPE HORN CRUISE DAY 4: AT SEA

Spent the day at sea sailing south and turned up an amazing tally of seabirds today. The recent rough weather elsewhere must have pushed a few different species our way as you will see… But what is really brilliant are the views you get from the ship and also that we could use our scopes as well. In between all of the activity, we took it in turns to go indoors to get a coffee and food, snacks, and more food, lunch, more coffee...... You ge the picture! And it was a long day of seawatching from sunset at 07:40 to sunset at 8pm,  but what a day!

 

1000+ Sooty Shearwater 

18 Pink-footed Shearwater

1 Manx Shearwater

8 Westland Petrel

34 White-chinned Petrel

64 Westland/White-chinned Petrels

260 Fuegian Storm-Petrel

1 Grey-backed Storm-Petrel…..!!!!!

4 White-faced Storm-Petrel

30 Southern Giant Petrel

6 Northern Giant Petrel

70 Giant Petrel sp.

27 Stejneger’s Petrel

1 Juan Fernandez Petrel

2 Gould’s Petrel…!!!!!

8 Chilean Skua

2 Common Diving-Petrel

22 Snowy Wandering Albatross 

2 Antipodean Wandering Albatross 

17 Salvin’s Albatross 

147 Black-browed Albatross 

2 Grey-headed Albatross 

6 Southern Royal Albatross 

2 Northern Royal Albatross 

6 Imperial Shag

Northern Giant Petrel

Southern Giant Petrel

Antipodean Wandering Albatross

Masatierra Petrel

Snowy Wandering Albatross

Gould's Petrel

 

It was certainly an epic day.

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

EPIC CAPE HORN CRUISE: DAY 2 AT SEA

This proved to be an absolute epic day as we sailed south towards Puerto Montt. Take a look at the list and numbers of each species seen. I have only noted species seen less than halfway to the horizon but when I scoped into the distance the sea was alive with birds all through the day and you can multiply the numbers given by 5x, 10, 20x for a truer picture of total numbers. It was hard to tear ourselves away to get food and drinks, and being out on deck from around 7am - almost 8pm saw a steady stream of activity throughout the day.

Highlights were White-bellied Storm-Petrel, a single White-faced Storm-Petrel, and seeing 7 species of Albatross.

 

42 Fuegian Storm Petrel

4 White-bellied Storm Petrel

1 White-faced Storm Petrel

4 Wandering (Snowy) Albatross

33 Southern Royal Albatross

5 Northern Royal Albatross

83 Black-browed Albatross

19 Salvin’s Albatross

3 Grey-headed Albatross

6 Buller’s Albatross

2 Juan Fernandez Petrel

3 Masatierra (DeFilippi’s) Petrel

17 Stejneger’s Petrel

19 White-chinned Petrel

11 Westland Petrel

1400 Sooty Shearwater

300 Pink-footed Shearwater

1 Manx Shearwater

2000+ Grey Phalarope

4 Northern Giant Petrel

Southern Royal Albatross

Snowy Wandering Albatross

Black-browed Albatross

Salvin's Albatross

Stejneger's Petrel

Westland Petrel

White-chinned Petrel

EPIC CAPE HORN CRUISE: PRE CRUISE EXTENSION DAY 3 & MAIN CRUISE START DAY

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. 

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. 

Blackish Oystercatcher

Surfbird

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.

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. 

Magellanic Snipe

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. 

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. 

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! 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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!

EPIC CAPE HORN CRUISE: PRE-CRUISE EXTENSION DAY 2

This morning we left the hotel at 6.30am and headed around an hour to the start of the winding road up to approx. 3,000m to the ski resort at the top of the Farellones. We had a pair of Moustached Turcas on the road in front of us giving mind-blowing views, even when we all piled out of the minibus and started clicking away with cameras… Wow! 

The endemic Moustached Turca is my new favourite bird!

Just up around the corner several Black-chinned Siskins were hanging around roadside telegraph wires, prompting another quick vehicle exit. There was also a close and I mean close, Black-billed Shrike-Tyrant, we scoped a Great Shrike-Tyrant, had another Rufous-tailed Plantcutter, saw many Grey-hooded Sierra-Finches, more Rufous-banded Miners, and our first Band-tailed Sierra-Finches. 

Black-billed Shrike-Tyrant

Not too far away we had a nice hour or so walking along a dirt track where we found a pair of Scaly-throated Earthcreepers, a close Cordilleran Canastero and eventually we tracked down 2 pairs of Sharp-billed Canasteros. 

Andean Condor

Leaving here we drove up to the ski resort right at the top of the road where we enjoyed nice close views of several Andean Condors flying overhead. There was also Aplomado Falcon, several Mountain Caracaras and a pair of Spot-billed Ground-Tyrants. Dan explored up the hill and found Creamy-rumped Miner but despite everyone searching for this species we had to give it up and go for lunch.

White-throated Hawk 

Dropping lower down for lunch we were all amazed when a White-throated Hawk flew in and landed in a large tree next to us! Wow again! A few Plain-mantled Tit-Tyrants were in nearby trees as well. Driving much lower we found our first Austral Blackbirds along the roadside, and a Chilean Tinamou was seen briefly. We then spent the last couple of hours trying in vain to find a White-throated Tapaculo before returning to the hotel for 6.15pm.