Chile – Yerba Loca [2]

Santiago, 30 Apr 2012

Yesterday I drove to the Yerba Loca Nature Sanctuary again. It was only 2 weeks to the day since my last trip, but the first major snow of the year on the Andes made me return. I was hoping for some good shots of the snow-covered mountains. I parked at the same place as last time and as soon as I was on the walking trail took a photo looking up the valley. I went properly kitted out for the conditions and headed for the furthest point on the walking trail that I had reached last time. Little did I know that the snowline was 200 m lower than the elevation of my target point, so I got to walk almost half the distance from the car park in increasingly deeper snow as I went up the trail. My photo from that point on the trail shows just what a difference 2 weeks can make at this time of year, heading into winter. The area around the peak at the top of the valley will remain snow-covered now until the spring thaw.

Like last time, it was not a long list of birds that were seen. Some were the same as on the previous visit, Chilean Mockingbird, Buff-winged Cinclodes, Diuca Finch, Long-tailed Meadowlark, Austral Blackbird and Austral Thrush. However, they were outnumbered by the list of new species, although some were seen on my trip to the El Yeso valley. These were Rufous-banded Miner, Chilean Flicker, Striped Woodpecker, American Kestrel, Torrent Duck, Tufted Tit-Tyrant, Great Shrike-Tyrant, Grey-hooded Sierra Finch, Fire-eyed Diucon, Plain-mantled Tit-Spinetail and distant Black-chested Buzzard-Eagle and the one I hope to get a lot closer to in the coming months, Andean Condor.