There aren’t many new birds for us around Ushuaia, and yesterday’s trip targeted two of them, Yellow-bridled Finch, which we missed in Chile, and the much-wanted White-bellied Seedsnipe, a grouse-like wader that hides on mountain tops.
We had a surprise when our local guide sailed past the well-known site and continued driving for another half an hour, eventually driving us up a private forest track into beautiful Nothofagus forest, before we got out and had a gentle walk up to the edge of the snowline, rather than the rather more unpleasant one we’d have had back at the well-known site. Yellow-bridled finch was found quickly, but after over an hour and a half of walking backwards and forwards up a mountain across snowy stonefields, we were beginning to wonder whether we were in the right place. We shouldn’t have doubted Esteban, as we had superb views of two birds at close range. An easy and happy walk down was improved further by a low-level fly past by an Andean Condor. A cracking day!