El Yeso Valley

February 13, 2015

We left the hotel at 6:30 am on a large tour bus.  It was one and a half hours to the Maipo Valley.  We stopped for gas in San Jose de Maipo, then a long drive on a gravel road up to El Yeso Valley.  We saw the cars and tents of campers along the river.  February is vacation month for Chileans.  When we were in Santiago, we were told it was not very crowded in the city because people were off work and vacationing.
From one stop on the road looking down to the river below we observed clearly but distantly a pair of torrent ducks in the river below.  We did not get the look we always hope for, the one our birding guide Fabrice posted from another trip on YouTube:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFG3Rbjgim0.    On one hillside we watched a mustached turca frantically scratching the dirt with one leg out to one side.


We had to hurry past the dam to avoid being delayed by a large convoy of trucks transporting gypsum.  We arrived at the bogs at about 10.  We noted a few herds of goats and horses grazing in the meadows.  The valley itself was quite spectacular.




We spent 10 am to lunch exploring the bog.  The best birds for me were the ones I was able to observe at length:  White-sided Hillstar (a hummingbird), Grey-breasted Seedsnipe, and three Diademed Sandpiper Plovers which allowed us to get close and photograph them.  The Sandpiper Plovers had been banded and studied by Fernando Diaz, our co-leader for the day, and his colleagues.


We had a picnic lunch near the bog, then headed back down the hill.  We stopped at one stop near a lake where Fabrice and Fernando and Will went up the hillside and flushed a Band-winged Nightjar.


This day we drove to about 8000 feet.  We did not have to deal with a lot of mud.  Apparently, the bogs have been muddier and wetter.  We were fortunate; the bus was able to drive further up the valley than on other occasions we were told.  The weather was beautiful though it could be windy at times.  We had great birds.  These are the ones I saw:

Torrent Duck
Crested Duck
Black-chested Buzzard-Eagle
Mountain Caracara
American Kestrel
Southern Lapwing
Diademed Sandpiper Plover
Gray-breasted Seedsnipe
Mountain Parakeet
Band-winged Nightjar
White-sided Hillstar
Moustached Turca
Crag Chilia
Scale-throated Earthcreeper
Plain-mantled Tit-Spinetail
White-browed Ground-Tyrant
Black-fronted Ground-Tyrant
Cinereous Ground-Tyrant
Blue-and-white Swallow
Gray-hooded Sierra -Finch
Greater Yellow-Finch
Plumbeous Sierra-Finch
Rufous-collared Sparrow
Austral Blackbird
Long-tailed Meadowlark
Yellow-rumped Siskin

In addition, other members of the group saw at least 15 other species that I missed or could not identify to my satisfaction.