Birding the Land of Fire and our search for the White-bellied Seedsnipe

The flight in to Ushuaia was dramatic, due to both turbulence and the impressive jagged peaks across the Beagle Channel in Chile, cloaked in the dark green of Southern Beech forest, and sprinkled with snow. Tierra Del Fuego, the land of fire, had been somewhere I craved visiting since drooling over the wildlife documentary, Flight of the Condor, back in the 1980s. It has taken me a long time to get here, but boy. was it worth the wait. The whole place felt very laid-back and chilled compared with the bustle of Buenos Aires, and the cool, clean air was a welcome relief too. It seemed the local government had a message about the Falkland Islands, claiming Ushuaia to be the capital of the Malvinas! Hard to believe that 40 years on, this is still an issue, at least among some politicans.

After picking up our tiny rental car, we meandered towards the town from the airport, which is kind of out on a headland, come island, stopping to see our first Upland Geese hanging out by some scrapes. We noticed two Ashy-headed Geese here, the only two we would see on the mainland. Austral Negritos, gorgeous little black and ginger chats zipped about, perching atop any conspicuous twig, Stonechat-like, or running about on the turf like tiny Wheatears (pic below). We then drove out west towards the edge of town to our Air BnB.

For the next three days and then a day and a half at the end of our trip, we birded the Ushuaia area, with most of the birds seen being new for me. With a rental car, it was easy to get around, felt safe when walking around with bins and camera. We didn't have a scope and it really wasn't that necessary, though it could have helped when looking out over the Beagle Channel.

Black-browed Albatrosses, Southern Giant Petrels, Rock Shags and Imperial Cormorants were common along the coast here, with plenty of South American Terns, Dolphin and Kelp Gulls too.  By the port, Dark-bellied Cinclodes and the very dusky version of Black-crowned Night Heron were present, with plenty of Flightless Steamer Ducks, South American Terns and Dolphin Gulls hanging out.

Dark-bellied Cinclodes, Flightless Steamer Duck and the local version of Black-crowned Night Heron

...

In the forested areas, the common birds were Thorn-tailed Rayadito, Austral Thrush, Black-chinned Siskin, Patagonian Sierra Finch, Southern House Wren, White-crested Elaenia and the ubiquitous Rufous-collared Sparrow. Chilean Swallows were fairly common in open areas and were feeding large chicks in and around the suburbs.

 

The beech forests are made up primarily of two Southern Beech species with a well-developed shrub layer, and stacks of standing and fallen dead wood. There is a lot of epiphytic lichen and moss, owing to the clean, humid air. Two species of orchids were flowering, but with the late season, few other plants were in flower.

 Dog Orchid, seen in a few places in the forest

 

 

Thorn-tailed Rayadito (Rayadito means stripy fellow!) and Chilean Swallows

....
 

I will describe the birds of some of the key sites we visited:

 1. Ushuaia Dump

This site is well-known as the stake-out for White-throated Caracara. It wasn't too obvious where best to view from and with big garbage wagons coming in and out, we needed to be a bit careful! At the mouth of the river, large numbers of Kelp Gulls, plus a few Kelp Geese, Dolphin Gulls and Chilean Skuas, were loafing on the beach, or bathing in the fresh water. We dropped off the main road down a steep dirt track which crossed the river - following the garbage wagons, and then turned left straight after the bridge. We followed this track up to the dump, going past the entrance where the wagons were entering, towards a property, with a bit of forest surrounding. We parked up here and immediately saw a couple of White-throated Caracaras flying about. That was easy!  

Ushuaia Dump is on the eastern edge of the town and just off the main road. Follow the red line and park by the red star.

 

There was stacks of activity over the dump, with large numbers of Kelp Gulls, a few Chilean Skuas, Southern Crested, Chimango and White-throated Caracaras, plus a couple of impressive Black-chested Buzzard Eagles. We speculated about whether Andean Condors ever visit, but we didn't see any.  The White-throated Caracaras came and went, often flying in over the forest and dropping into the dump and out of site. Occasionally they'd sit up on top of the earth banks surrounding the dump and give good views. We visited the site twice and saw them quickly on both occasions.

 

2. Reserva Natural Urbana Bahia Encerrada

This little wetland was a great find, nestled between the airport 'island' and the port. There are a couple of viewing screens and platforms, trails and a scrape all within walking distance of the town and airport. We visited several times during our time in Ushuaia as birds came and went, so it was worth dropping in for half an hour when passing. 

 

 

Lots of Crested Ducks and Dolphin Gulls (pics above) hang out near the freshwater stream outflow, with a few Chiloe Wigeon and Red Shovelers. Correndera Pipits are in the grasslands, with Speckled Teal (pic below), Yellow-billed Pintail and Musk Rats in the scrape by the screen. A couple of Magellanic Snipe showed incredibly well, seeming very bold compared with Common Snipe back home. These snipe proved to be my 2,500 bird species so will live long in the memory.

3. Airport road

The road up to the airport goes through some interesting habitat, with a sheltered bay and rocky coast on one side, and grassland with some scrapes on the other. Rufous-chested Dotterels were found easily on the shore here, with plenty of Baird's and White-rumped Sandpipers, while Flightless and Flying Steamer Ducks were offshore with a couple of Great Grebes. You can park easily along here, but we walked it a couple of times too. Long-tailed Meadowlarks were walking about in the grassland and we had a White-throated Caracara fly past too. 

Rufous-chested Dotterel and Long-tailed Meadowlark

 

4. Rio Pipo Mouth

Accessed along the Costa de los Yamanas road, this was a good spot, with plenty of loafing gulls, ducks, geese and shorebirds. We had both Blackish and Magellanic Oystercatchers here, Rufous-chested Dotterel, both Steamer Ducks, Kelp Geese, Speckled Teal etc. 

Magellanic Oystercatcher and Flying Steamer Duck

5. Playa Susana

The tourism boom in Ushuaia is pushing the city further west into the forest towards the national park, which will eventually limit its sprawl. At the very western end of this, accessed along recently cleared roads is the delightful Playa Susana. Parking at the end of the road, you drop down some timber steps to a beach, bounded by beech forest and scrubland. The birding here was great, particularly first thing in the morning when there was a lot of passerine activity. Highlight was finding a pair of very confiding and very large Magellanic Woodpeckers which had been bathing in a stream at the back of the beach, before flying into some dead trees where they showed beautifully for an hour or so. They occasionally banged out their two note rapid and very loud drum and were answered by other carpinteros much further off.

Also seen here, were Blackish Oystercatcher, Fire-eyed Diucon, Austral Negrito, Tufted Tit-tyrant and Black-faced Ibis. 

 Fire-eyed Diucon

In the forest near to where we were staying on the west side of town (Miradores Fin Del Mundo), I added Austral Parakeet and White-throated Treerunner to the list, which I didn't see elsewhere. I also heard Magellanic Woodpeckers there too. 

.....

Searching for White-bellied Seedsnipe at the Garibaldi Pass

The mountains around Ushuaia are known to hold White-bellied Seedsnipe, perhaps the most tricky of this strange family to find. So tricky in fact, that we didn't find any! The main two sites are the Marshall Glacier on the edge of Ushuaia (we didn't visit and there are no recent sightings) and above the Garibaldi Pass, which is about 45 minutes (46km) northeast of the city, along a paved road. We decided to give the site near the Garibaldi Pass ago, but only had a recent sighting pin from Ebird to go on. Advice from other birders was to not try this without a guide, but having looked into this, local guides are very expensive and their hit rate is less than 50%, which put us off. Some birders we later met on the cruise had opted for that, gone to the same place and also failed, so we were pleased we didn't spend the money. The drive to Garibaldi Pass is worth it alone, with spectacular views along the way as you head up through the forested mountains. At the pass itself, Andean Condors cruised low overhead, which was class.

We parked at the roadside just south of the viewpoint at the pass. From here we walked off the road along a track down to a little lake. A stream comes into the lake and close to there we spotted a trail that went up the valley. It was quite easy to follow and I suppose takes you up to Miradore Andres - as marked on the map above. It was easy going though we lost the trail briefly in a few spots. Boots were essential but it was ok underfoot, only a bit muddy in places. Eventually, we got above the forest and on to the mountain side, which was covered in montane plants, and was rather wonderful! Here we found Dark-faced and Ochre-naped Ground Tyrants and some juvenile Yellow-bridled Finches. 

 

Ascending even further, we got into the area near the snowline which looked good - from what we had been told - for the seedsnipe. We spent a good while crisscrossing the area, which was mostly bare rock and gravel with occasional patches of tussocky grass, but without success. The views were fantastic, and we had some strong winds with occasional brief snow flurries. It felt quite ok to attempt this route alone, but I would not have done it if there had been snow on the ground, or a poor forecast. We had mostly clear skies until near the top, and were in agreement that we'd go straight down if the weather deteriorated for any length of time.

 

 

Sadly, no Seedsnipe for us, but the walk was fantastic through habitat which had only been marred by the activities of non-native North American Beavers lower down.  At the top of the trail, you can see a huge amount of montane habitat stretching into the distance and I suspect most of the area hosts seedsnipe and the other montane birds.

..................

Most people who visit or bird Ushuaia visit Tierre Del Fuego National Park. It is close to the city, about 20 minutes drive away along a dirt track to the west. We failed in this respect, having turned up at opening time (8am), we then found out we had to pay in Argentinian pesos; we didn't have enough. We then tried four credit cards but their system wasn't working. They asked us to go online but the signal was poor so we couldn't do that either. Meanwhile, three coachloads of general tourists arrived and swamped the office and surrounding area, so we gave up and went elsewhere. The NP is apparently beautiful and has some good forest trails and lakes, around which you can find many of the Austral specialities. However, we found virtually everything just by walking through forest on the edge of town, or up by the Garibaldi Pass. Spectacled Duck and a couple of the owls were the main things we didn't see that we may have found there, although the duck is very difficult apparently.

Having had a fantastic few days, it was time to catch our boat. We would be back at the end of our trip for a day and a half just to have one last look at some of these fantastic Austral birds. Ushuaia, you were worth the wait!