Best shots of a visit to Tierra del Fuego
29th January - 10th February 2008
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This Dolphin Gull landed on the hood of the car for a brief moment.
This photo combines many things that were a permanent part of our visit:
the Beagle channel (seen from the port of Ushuaia), the birds, the car, ... and the rain!

TRAVEL ARANGMENTS
We travelled to Ushuaia by plane from our home in Buenos Aires, so this time there was no tedious driving, as has been the rule on all our previous trips to Patagonia, including Ushuaia in 2001.
We hired a car at Ushuaia which was a great asset.

PLACES WE VISITED
We spent 12 nights here, giving us nearly 12 days of outdoor life to discover the many wonderful spots of Tierra del Fuego. This included: a visit up the Martial glacier, many visits to the National Park (NP, Parque Nacional Tierra del Fuego) to do the trails through wonderful forests and along the very attractive coast, a drive along the eastern road to Harberton visiting Natalie Goodall's Acatushún museum of marine mammals, another drive extending further east yet to Moat farm, an overnight trip to Río Grande to see specialty birds, and a boat trip on the Beagle Channel to see penguins and photograph the albatross. The frequent rain did not deter us from setting off on long walks and luckly we never got soaked - the weather here being renowned for rapid changes in the climatic conditions.

PHOTOGRAPHIC PRODUCE OF THE TRIP
I got back with about 2,500 photos, most of them of birds and other wildlife. Of these I selected some 370, the majority of them birds and just a few other animals, and which have been inserted into their respective pages of this site. Below is a selection of these, together with a very small sample of the forests, vegetation and other memorable vistas. The trip has allowed me to add 18 new bird species to the site, and to greatly improve some 35 other species which until now were very poorly represented. The only butterfly photo I got apparently turned out to be the first record of that species (Cosmosatyrus leptoneuroides) for the island! Some of the main bird species I most yearned for, and which I succeeded in getting, are: White-throated Treerunner, Dark-bellied and Grey-flanked Cinclodes, Thorn-tailed Rayadito, Short-billed Miner, Andean Tapaculo, Fire-eyed Ducon, White-crested Elaenia, Yellow-bridled Finch, Red Knot, both Steamerducks, White-throated Caracara, Gentoo Penguin, and others. In the case of the Magellanic Woodpecker I only got photos of the female, and a big surprise to me was to get Grass Wren on the edge of the Beagle Channel!

Equipement: This was my first visit to the south with the x1.7 teleconverter for the FZ30 Lumix compact camera, which was instrumental to getting "closer". I used the built-in flash a few times, mainly for the forest birds such as the Rayadito, Treerunner and Tapaculo. It was also my first trip taking a decent set of bins: the Glacier model by Meade which proved to live up to expectations.

Many thanks for visiting this page - Alec Earnshaw
Copyright (C) 2008 - A. Earnshaw

VIEWS
The Beagle Channel from Le Martial, the coastal trail at the NP, Lapataia vewpoint and the Garibaldi pass

Autumn colors creeping in, the Acatushún museum and "bone house" at Harberton farm, the National Geographic Endeavour on the Beagle Channel sailing back from Antarctica, and a view of the Andes from Road "b" west of Rio Grande.

The forests are always spectacuar, in the NP or on the road to Moat farm, with ferns everwhere and lichens growing on every bit of rotting wood. At high elevantions the vegetation is decidedly like tundra.

BIRDS
Here is a reduced sampling of the bird photos produced on this trip. To see more please visit the respective order and family pages.

PENGUINS
It is well worth doing the 5-hour round trip by boat from Ushuaia to see the penguin colony at Isla Martillo, just off Harberton farm. Here one can see not only the very numerous Magellanic Penguins but also a handful of Gentoo Penguins.


Great Grebe


Southern Giant Petrel


Black-browed Albatross


Rock Cormorant


Imperial Cormorant


Black-crowned Night-Heron


Black-faced Ibis


Kelp Goose


Upland Goose


Ashy-headed Goose


Speckled Teal


Cresed Duck


Chiloe Widgeon


Flightless Steamerduck


Flying Steamerduck


Andean Condor


Bicoloured Hawk


Southern Caracara - displaying


Chimango Caracara


White-throated Caracara


Southern Lapwing


Magellanic Oystercatcher


Rufous-chested Dotterel


Two-banded Plover


Sanderling


White-rumped Sandpiper


Red Knot


Whimbrel


Hudsonian Godwit


(Least?) Seedsnipe


Chilean Skua


Kelp Gull


Brown-hooded Gull


Dolphin Gull


South American Tern


Magellanic Woodpecker



PASSERINES

FURNARIDS - "Ovenbirds"

Short-billed Miner


White-throated Treerunner


Thorn-tailed Rayadito


Bar-winged Cinclodes


Dark-bellied Cinclodes


Grey-flanked Cinclodes


Magellanic Tapaculo



TYRANTS

Fire-eyed Diucon (2 adults + juvenile)


Dark-faced Ground-Tyrant


Ochre-naped Ground-Tyrant (juvenile)


Rufous-backed Negrito (female)


White-crested Elaenia


House Wren


Grass Wren


Austral Thrush


Chilean Swallow


Correndera or Helmayr's Pipit


Rufous-collared Sparrow


Yellow-bridled Finch


Pataginian Yellow-Finch


Grey-hooded Sierra-Finch


Patagonian Sierra-Finch


Black-chinned Siskin


Austral Blackbird


Long-tailed Meadowlark


MAMMALS

Guanaco


Andean Fox


Most likely Dusky Dolphin (or else Peale's Dolphin)


INTRODUCED MAMMALS

European Rabbit


American Beaver



INSECTS
Cosmosatyrus leptoneuroides near SanSebastian
Possibly first sighting of this species for the island of Tierra del Fuego?


RETURN