Arriving in Punta Arenas at 7am we were on the first tender and landing at the dock by 8am where our first Dolphin Gulls lounged on the quay. A Dark-bellied Cinclodes was also seen under our minibus when we met our excellent local guide Claudio Vidal. Heading along the coastal road we stopped at some pools where Chilean Flamingo’s, Chiloe Wigeon and Red Shovelers were seen.
Chilean Flamingo's
Red Shoveler
ManyUpland Geesewere dotted around the area, along with a fewBlack-faced Ibisand a couple ofCoscoroba Swans.
Upland Goose
After a short drive further along the coastal road we stopped to view a gathering ofFlying Steamer-Ducksand we were lucky to spot a pair ofFlightless Steamer-Ducksperched on a rock together. There was also aRock Shag, manyImperial (King) Cormorantshere as well, along with a pair ofCrested Ducksand even a fewPeale’s Dolphins.
Flightless Steamer-Duck
Flying Steamer-Duck
We then headed inland, seeing lots ofLesser (Darwin’s) Rhea’sand drove to a large lake. Here we found the key species of our day,Magellanic Plover, although it took some searching in the strong winds. Also here were a fewTwo-banded Plovers, a flock ofPatagonian Yellow-Finch,AustralNegritoand severalWhite-rumped SandpipersandChilean Skuasgave close views.
Chilean Skuas
Two-banded Plover
Heading further inland for around 90kms we found 100’s ofLeast Seedsnipe, over 50Tawny-throated Dotterels,Common Miner,Scale-throated Earthcreeper,Correndera Pipit, more Two-banded Ploversand eventually a coupleRufous-chested Dotterels.
Least Seedsnipe were so common today
Rufous-chested Dotterel
Tawny-throated Dotterel in habitat...
Tawny-throated Dotterel
A small wetland held a fewAshy-headed Geese,Chiloe Wigeon, as well as numerousUpland Geese. Leaving here we saw many moreLesser Rhea’sandGuanacos, some fox thing as well before heading back to the port and our cruise ship.
Guanaco
Once aboard, we had time to get some food from the buffet restaurant and grab a nice coffee before meeting on deck. Our view from the very front of the ship is superb and as we sailed along the Magellan Straits we enjoyed pretty decent views of a few Magellanic Diving Petrels, 23 Black-browed Albatross, 2 Southern Giant Petrels and a couple of Magellanic Penguins to round off a brilliant day. Oh and we had some distant views of another wacky pteradroma species as well….. And so ends another cracking day.
We woke this morning in another scenic wonderland at the Amalia Glacier, surrounding by mountains covered in forest. It was light just after 7.15am and we were out on deck in the cool early morning air.
There's some amazing scenery today...
This Fuegian Storm-Petrel hitched a ride as we sailed towards the ocean
You get some idea of the scale of the mountains compared to this cruise ship...
The ship remained at the glacier for 90 minutes before heading back out towards the open ocean. It took until 2pm to reach the Pacific Ocean but along the way we found 5 Flightless Steamer-Ducks, 4Magellanic Penguins, 15Magellanic Diving-Petrels, 250Fuegian Storm-Petrels(with one on deck) and 4Chilean Skuas.
We had only been in the ocean for a few minutes before we found an absolutely awesome White-headed Petrel that gave a couple of passes in front of the ship. Wow!
WHITE-HEADED PETREL - 1st for Chile
The rest of our journey until we finished was in a really rough sea which produced our firstSlender-billed Prionsright in front of the ship. NumerousFuegian Storm-Petrelswere passing, there was a singleSnowy Wandering AlbatrossandSouthern Royal Albatross, 102Black-browed Albatross, lots ofSooty Shearwaters, manySouthern Giant Petrels, over 30White-chinned Petrelsand 7Grey Phalaropes.
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!
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 endemicBlack-throated Huet-Huetas 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 hearOchre-flanked Tapaculolater on today. Anyway, our walk through the forest also produced a mixed flock ofThorn-tailed RayaditoandWhite-throatedTreerunners, plus a closeGreen-backed Firecrown. Leaving here we headed over to Lahuen Nadi National Park and another forested trail where some of us saw the endemicDes Mur’s Wiretailand we then drove to another site to try and get better views of the wiretail and also saw aTufted Tit-Tyrant. A meandering drive across the countryside in search of flickers produced a pair ofSlender-billed Parakeetsto round off our first land-based shore excursion of the cruise. Once back aboard the Sapphire Princess we were out on deck enjoying our firstImperial Cormorants, as well asBrown-hooded GullsandSouth 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.
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.
