Puerto Montt was our first land excursion. We drove for about two and a half hours with a few birding stops on the way until we reached Alerce Andino National Park. We walked through a second growth forest of mixed species for a couple of hours. Good forest birding. If we had hiked further up the trail, we would have found alerce trees, the second oldest trees in the world after the bristlecone pines. The trees are a draw to come back as hikers. We birded the Chamisa Wetlands on our way back to the boat.
We got back to the boat in the mid afternoon. As we left the harbor, we had a great view of the volcanoes, something else to explore in the future, in addition to the lakes and the glaciers in the area. That is the problem and the joy of travel for me. The places I visit for the first time get on the list of places I need to return to and explore further.
We were on deck as we left the harbor. We would be on the lookout for the Pincoya Storm-Petrel. This is a recently discovered and described species. There was some discussion among the more experienced birders about its species status. Before seeing any birds over the water, Fabrice showed up with one in the hand. Then we found another.
Later in the trip we would find other birds, Pincoya Storm-Petrels today only, under the lockers, behind planters, in some of the swimming pools, and in the corners of any of the spaces open to the sea. As the boat traveled across the water at night, birds that feed at night were attracted to the lights, run into the boat, and hide, unable to take off from the boat. Some mornings members of our group would do an early search and toss the birds off the back of the ship. It was always a little suspenseful to wait for them to flap their wings and fly off.
My bird list for the day:
Black-necked Swan
Flightless Steamer Duck
Chiloe Wigeon
Yellow-billed Teal
Yellow-billed Pintail
Black-browed Albatross
Sooty Shearwater
Pincoya Storm-Petrel (in hand only, does that count?)
Neotropic Cormorant
Peruvian Pelican
Snowy Egret
Black-faced Ibis
Turkey Vulture
Black Vulture
Southern Caracara
Southern Lapwing
American Oystercatcher
Whimbrel
Greater Yellowlegs
Brown-hooded Gull
Kelp Gull
Austral Parakeet
Green-backed Firecrown
Ringed Kingfisher
Chilean Flicker
Chucao Tapaculo
Ochre-flanked Tapaculo
Magellanic Tapaculo
Dark-bellied Cincloides
Thorn-tailed Rayadito
White-throated Treerunner
Demur’s Wiretail
White-crested Elaenia
Tufted Tit-Tyrant
Austral Negrito
Spectacled Tyrant
Patagonian Tyrant
Austral Thrush
Patagonian Sierra-Finch
Common Diuca-Finch
What I didn’t see today and others did: Imperial Cormorant, Black-crowned Night Heron, White-throated Hawk, Chilean Skua, Parasitic Jaeger, Franklin’s Gull, Chilean Pigeon, Rufous-tailed Plantcutter, Chilean Swallow, Grassland Yellow Finch, Yellow-winged Blackbird, Black-chinned Siskin, House Sparrow
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