We began the first phase in our Round River fieldwork with bird surveys of the lakes throughout the Chacabuco Valley. The bird surveys are an important part of our work here because it gives Conservacion Patagonica an idea of the types of birds that are using the area, both migratory and resident. Our fieldwork days started with a 5 am wake up call followed by a quick breakfast of oatmeal and some much needed coffee and tea. We then drove out to our field sites at various lakes and split into teams, situated at several different vantage points around the lake to ensure that we had a comprehensive view of the whole lake. With the help of Fernando (our local bird expert and guitar player extraordinaire) and Iris, we slowly began to master the bird species of the area. For each survey, we sat at our vantage point for three hours, recording the birds that we saw using the habitat in and around the lake. We repeated the same procedure in the evening, as birds are crepuscular, meaning they are most active at dawn and dusk.
As our competence at identifying birds grew, we were able to survey more, and larger lakes. Since some of these lakes were farther away from our home base campsite, we drove out to the more remote locations and car camped for several days at a time. Our first car campsite was Lago Pepa, a site that was dense with Lenga forest- a welcome change to the open steppe land we had been so accustomed to. This change in habitat meant a greater diversity of bird species and we had an exciting few days of observing new and interesting species! Additionally, getting up so early meant that we had some stunning views of the sunrise.
A common species we saw was the Great Grebe- a water dwelling bird that had a hauntingly beautiful call that echoed around the lake (similar to a loon). We even got to see a Grebe catch and swallow a fish whole! Other exciting species we were able to see were the Austral Parakeet and Chilean Flamingo- unique birds to the area and very charismatic to say the least! In addition to these species, we’ve also been seeing many: Austral Pygmy Owls, American Kestrels, Andean Condors, Spectacled Ducks, Andean Ruddy Ducks, Silvery Grebes, and Southern Caracara.
We are very excited to have surveyed seven lakes so far, and will continue to survey lakes in addition to starting our grassland monitoring and Vizcacha survey fieldwork.
(Photos by Iris)
Typical view from our morning bird survey vantage points
The groggy group on a morning birding training session.
Nick scoping the scene.
The sweet campsite of “Team Extreme” at Lago Adelita
Preparing a post-survey brunch at our campsite