Sunday 5 April 2020

Punta Arenas 1st January 2020

We had plenty of time on our day trip around Punta Arenas again with great weather which is a rarity for this part of the world even at the height of summer. We spent most of the day north of the city on the Patagonian steppe grasslands. It was a nice difference from the mostly southern beech forest we had visited the previous day in Ushuaia. Our guide for the day was Cristofer De la Rivera of Patagonia WildWatching

One of the main targets of the day was the unique Magellanic Plover. This species is lies within its very family Pluvianellidae. It looks a cross between a Turnstone and dove. It had been classified as a dove in the past due to the odd fact that it feeds its chicks on crop milk. Recent molecular data shows that it is a shorebird which the closest relatives being sheathbills. We managed to see at least three at one roadside lake. It appeared that this included one pair breeding probably with chicks in the area, so we didn't hang about too long for that reason.

Much like the Falklands it was interesting how limited the passerine diversity was. I had 64 species for that of which only 14 were passerines. The Chocolate-vented Tyrants were great birds to watch. The whole grasslands were a bit alien coming from a Irish perspective to see Guanacos, Gray Foxes, Lesser Rheas, Least Seedsnipe (common) and Magellanic Oystercatchers roaming across the wide open dry steppe. Just to confuse us were numerous introduced Eurasian Brown Hares also present.
We finished up the day in the small wetland Humedal Tres Puentes on the outskirts of Punta Arenas. There was a decent line-up of wildfowl present along with the only Andean Duck of the trip.