Chile – Maria Pinto [2]

Santiago, 21 May 2012

Today is Navy Day, a public holiday in Chile. I spent a good part of the day walking around the golf course at Maria Pinto again. I haven’t played golf at all in the last 10 years and borrowed a 6-iron from one of my colleagues playing, to try a few shots. I wish I hadn’t. If I’d asked someone to guess my handicap it would have been a lot more than the 13-14 I was when I last played regularly. So, I concentrated on birding.

The list of species looked very much the same as last time. I did manage to add a few new ones, though, with my first Chilean hummingbird, a Green-backed Firecrown, Spot-flanked Gallinule, Dark-faced Ground Tyrant and a rapid, noisy flyover by a Pantanal Snipe.

This was my last birding opportunity before I head back to South Africa for a 5-week break.