Tierra del Fuego, 9-17-23

I woke up with a very sore sternum after yesterday's accident.  It was extremely painful getting in and out of bed, but otherwise not so bad.  Outside the temperature was in the upper twenties with snow flurries and quite windy.  I decided to run into town and get a decent breakfast and be a tourist.  First stop was the beached St. Christopher.  This old ship was a rescue tug for the British Royal Navy during World War II and ran aground on the coast of Ushuaia in 1957 where it remains to this day.

There are usually a few birds around like these Imperial Cormorants.

And my new favorite the Dolphin Gull.

Black-crowned Night-Herons occur on every continent except Antarctica.  Here in Tierra del Fuego they are very dark.

Something scurried among the baracle covered rocks.  Was it a rat?  No.  It was my lifer Dark-bellied Cinclodes.

I walked from the St. Christopher just a few block to the tourist part of town, ate some breakfast and bought a couple of souvenirs from "el fin del Mundo."

Although I really wanted to do one of the Beagle Channel boat tours, with the icy cold wind and my chest contusion I decided instead to finish my original plans for yesterday and drive to Tierra del Fuego National Park.  My targets were some of the forest birds and Spectacled Ducks.  The snow covered countryside was spectacular.

Once inside the park, I drove the slush covered dirt road through snow covered trees.

I stopped and whistled an imitation of the call of the Austral Pygmy Owl and birds came a running.  Austral Thrush was common.

A striking rufous and white nuthatch-like bird proved to be my only White-breasted Treerunner for the trip.

Then came in a noisy flock of Thorn-tailed Rayaditos acting like bushtits.  That's got to be one of the coolest bird names ever.

There were plenty of streams and lakes in the area having eBird records for Spectacled Duck.  But finding a black and white duck in the dark streams with snow covered banks and rocks proved to be difficult.  At Bahia Lapataia I found a couple of Austral Blackbirds.

 A female Upland Goose flew by.

I found a few more Black-chinned Siskins.

It was getting late so I headed back.  A couple of Chimango Caracaras chased a Black-chested Buzzard-Eagle into view.  I've seen a few of these through the years.

Well, not a fantstic day but still a pleasure to get to see this remote part of the world.  Tomorrow I'm off to El Calafate.