In case anyone is interested in the results of this trip, here is a hastily compiled summary:
Overall about 130-140 lifer birds was a fine outcome, considering my expectations were relatively low and little birding time was anticipated. This total will adjust based on whether I can identify the miners, ground-tyrants, cinclodes and various "finches" (who thought "grey-flanked cinclodes" was a good name for the only cinclodes without grey flanks?). Anyway, as so:
23rd September: Santiago area. Arrived at the airport early am, and encountered what would soon become a staple bird I'd be drowning in for the whole trip: rufous-collared sparrow. From here, we took an introductory morning at a nearby reserve. The method of selection was "look at a map, find a place that looks green and has habitat", and the result was Parque Natural La Plaza Sur. Although the first couple of miles were highly disturbed and grazed, and not overly productive for my friend's plants, it was fine for birds. Eventually the trails rose into more vegetated rocky shrubs and outcrops. A strange partridge paid me a visit while I was sitting on a rock to catch my breath (Chilean tinamou), and this would end up being my only views of the species this trip. Moustached turca was heard and seen multiple times here, including in the parking lot right by the suburbs. Many of the birds here would serve to be regular species for the rest of the trip.
24th September: Altos de Chicauma. This location was the result of me browsing eBird for promising sites, with both tapaculos reported recently. The early trails took us through what I could only think of as a sort of dense savannah on a large grassland, with abundant shrubs and trees. A fly-by black-chinned siskin and a few "finches" were the initial birds of note. Giant hummingbird was a mystery that took an embarrassing 15 minutes of encounters to identify. I was simply not prepared to see any kind of hummingbird circling and flycatching high, high in the sky in groups like a swift would! No better way to learn but by experience that swifts and hummingbirds are closely related, I had assumed all hummingbirds were generally after nectar with occasional invertebrates. Unfortunately the promising riparian habitat for dusky tapaculo was almost entirely burned, and I heard not a peep from either tapaculo that whole day (but several turca calls did get the blood pumping -- it would take a while before I could confidently distinguish those calls from white-throated tapaculo).
25th September: Rinconada. A morning spent scouting habitat for rocky habitat plants. My friend's hope was interesting rain-fed annual plants and shrubs. My hope was crag chilia, as many had been seen around the area. This was the day we learned that many parks and accessible areas in Chile are frequently and unfortunately closed for 3 or even 4 days a week, including weekends, so my bets on Parque La Giganta were promptly squashed. The dry and parched conditions were not productive for anything. So nothing to do but head east into the Andes for some high elevation birding. The main target for me was torrent duck, a bird I've wanted to see for many years, but despite several promising sites (and recent sightings) none were located. Drive-by Andean condor, more finches (on snow), and the first confusing cinclodes series of the trip nonetheless kept me occupied. That's not mentioning the dozens of rufous-collared sparrows that seemed to be managing just fine this high and in complete snow. Clearly a very adaptable bird.
26th September: Parque Nacional La Campana (Ocoa entrance). It wouldn't have been a floristic trip to Chile without a visit to the mixed palm-arid-evergreen community of northern La Campana. Reports of white-throated tapaculo had my thoughts focused in that direction, but despite being a very enjoyable area generally for biology, birding was not overly productive. A distant fly-by Chilean pigeon served as my only new bird of the trip. However, the plants were overall quite decent, so it was hardly a disappointing day.
27th September: Parque Nacional La Campana (Cajón Grande and Granizo). A spot of wetter habitat revealed that flowering season in these areas was still yet to arrive. However, these were apparently good sites for both tapaculos, and green-backed firecrown which I had not yet come across. Despite best efforts, no tapaculos were heard, and I had only distant calls of the firecrown, leading to another quiet birding morning. After another few hours of trying to figure out if I was hearing pygmy-owls or turcas, I did at least bump into a familiar sound I had long memorized for the trip: dusky-tailed canastero. The bird was very agile, but views were decent. The afternoon took us south of Valparaiso, and I spent this time hoping for more luck with dusky tapaculo, unsuccessfully. Fortunately, a lagoon (which my notes label as "Humedal Urbano Cartagena") offered the first wave of waterbirds and plenty of new species. Of course, the actual reserve was closed, limiting observation to a portion of the exterior fence. Several of these birds (brown-hooded gull, black-necked swan, spot-flanked gallinule, red shoveler, etc) were not seen anywhere else on the trip, so even tapaculo-less, this more than made up for it.
28th September: A drive along the coast from Valparaiso to La Serena. This felt like my last good shot at dusky tapaculo, so I wandered into some local Valparaiso canyons before we sped off. The only production from this venture was rufous-tailed plantcutter, and still no firecrown. No worries, there were plenty of other locations ahead of us. The first stop was to view Peñon de Vida Marina along the coast, to take in a short sample of coastal "catch-up" species not yet seen such as Peruvian booby, grey gull, seaside cinclodes, inca tern, and the only red-legged cormorant of the trip. My first request of the day was Playa Quirilluca, another attempt for dusky tapaculo. As fate would have it, the first bird I heard when leaving the car was such, marking the first record of the species on the trip. Unfortunately, despite scaling the trails towards the sound, the bird refused to call again and I was unable to get any visual. With sunlight starting to dip, we dropped out in favour of my friend's plants, and headed further north to Reserva Puquén. A beautiful site with flowering Alstroemeria, Puya, and two spontaneous life birds: great shrike-tyrant and Chilean flicker. As the sun started to set, I heard another dusky tapaculo from a short shrubby hill, but despite this easier habitat, was still unable to lay eyes on the bird. I can't complain, people had warned me this species was very difficult to see, so it is what it is!
29th September: Reserva Nacional Las Chinchillas. This location featured a nice balance of flowering plants and good birds (crag chilia and white-throated tapaculo), and so it was a no-brainer destination. Finches of some definition and sparrows abounded, as did moustached turca, while good shows of endemic and localized wildflowers occupied both of us for most of the morning. The original idea was to spend just the morning here, and venture to Fray George in the afternoon, but it turned out Fray George was closed (what a surprise) and so we stuck out at Las Chinchillas for most of the day instead. However, birding was quite sparse, not an outcome I anticipated from a South American country where many birders speak of huge bird diversity. Crag chilia was neither heard nor seen throughout the course of the morning and early afternoon. But just before returning to the car, I took a short jaunt down a second trail and located one high in the tree canopy. Some gentle pishing brought the bird, and even more sparrows, down to eye-level for great views. My search image was mostly for rocky slopes and ravines for the species, so I had to wonder if I could have overlooked it previously for that reason. Nonetheless, target acquired!
30th September: A drive along the coast from La Serena to Copiapo. With every nearby and enroute park closed for several days, I was able to bribe the driver into allowing a morning jaunt the Elqui river in La Serena, as it seemed to be the "last chance" for several missing birds such as many-coloured rush tyrant. The morning was decently productive, with several of the aforementioned species and others I hadn't yet encountered such as oasis hummingbird, red-fronted coot, wren-like rushbird and grass wren (heard only). Unfortunately no spectacled tyrant, but that species was never a priority in particular. A stop for a locally endemic Puya species offered more birding, but again largely rufous-collared sparrows and further finches. That is, except for a bird call that I had longed to hear this trip: white-throated tapaculo! Unlike dusky, where the habitat was much a challenge to trawl through, the habitat here was very exposed and open, and some persistence eventually pulled up decent views of this species. The bird was still quite adept at dashing through undergrowth and around the rocky outcrops, which only had me imagining how troubling its dense forested undergrowth relative was to locate.
1st October: Starting in Copiapo, we visited some roadside flowering spots which provided some avian entertainment besides. Least seedsnipe, as-of-yet unknown ground-tyrant/miners, and scale-throated earthcreeper. Heading towards the coast a bit more had my first Guanay cormorant of the trip, and distant views of Peruvian diving-petrel off-shore. Not a bad day, but extending the trip to Carrizal Bajo added a suspected white-winged coot to the haul, among the rest of the far more abundant coots.
2nd October: A drive along the coast from Copiapo to Antofagasta. The first "no life bird" day of the trip. Hey, it had to happen eventually!!
3rd October: A drive from Antofagasta to San Pedro de Atacama. A drive-by Belcher's gull in the town, the only one of the trip despite some significant searching through the day. I expected the species to be more abundant initially. A series of lagoons near Parque Nacional Morro Moreno (labelled on my map simply as "Ojo de mar, Sector rinconada", offered my first and only dark-faced ground-tyrant, and a distant offshore Peruvian tern. Here, the goal was to head up the coast to Majillones, as there were recent sightings of Humboldt penguin and other coastal species so far missing on the trip. Unfortunately it seems the checklists from this area are pelagic or otherwise on boats, as none of the landmarks shown in the photos could be seen from the public roads or even walking along the beaches here. I would have to resort to being penguinless, and cope with only my distant views of Peruvian tern and drive-by Belcher's gull earlier. A shame, but nothing could be done about it.
4th October: Starting from San Pedro de Atacama, we headed north, which enabled ample birding, ranging from new waterbirds to further finches and ground-tyranty things. Flowering was evidently too early here, with most plants being dormant still. A shame, but at least the birding was fantastic. A close-call of nearly being fined for resting my telephoto lens on the reserve barrier, and several new life birds, we paused for lunch. From here, we headed south with the goal of visiting Laguna Miñiques (for me, masked coots, for my companion, other plants), but true to the form of the trip this site was also closed and even viewing the lakes was off-limits. After being politely informed we'd be arrested and fined if we tried to climb the hill or view the lake in any fashion, we retreated empty-handed. On the bright side, the drive back resulted in views of lesser rhea and rufous-fronted dotterel, which were new birds as-of-far for the trip. I was surprised how passive aggressive the rangers and folks were here in general, but I suppose years of foreign tourists drags on anyone.
5th October: Without diademed sandpiper-plover (which seems to be unreliable and generally rare anyway), we headed directly east to see what we could hit on our last day. Masked coot was thankfully finally seen at Laguna Quepiaco, although only 2, which seemed at odds with the recent lists of 20+ birds. I wonder where they all could have been. These roadside stops finally picked up plumbeous sierra-finch, another miner sp., and another smattering of cinclodes and ground-tyrants TBD. Intensive searching failed to pick out any diademed sandpiper-plovers, and again had me wondering how recent observers located them and where in the puna complex specifically. With the afternoon en route, we were forced to pivot and head towards Calama, leaving the mountains behind us. A final stop at higher elevations flushed a flock of black siskins, a bird I'd have much more appreciated to photograph perched, but nonetheless appreciated as the last lifer of the trip.
In summary: aside from troubles with dusky tapaculo, the general "target" birds were acquired, along with some good memories and more than plenty of photos to sort out!
