23/2 It was 15.00 when we left the house sit in Greenwood that we’ve been at for the last week and a bit and walked down to the bus stop, the bus took us to Warwick station, into Perth...

23/2

It was 15.00 when we left the house sit in Greenwood that we’ve been at for the last week and a bit and walked down to the bus stop, the bus took us to Warwick station, into Perth on the train and out to the airport. If we’d got it right and gone to Airport Central it would have cost me nothing, but we got off at Redcliffe and got the bus to T3 which we found was only for Qantas international, so we got the shuttle bus around to T1, sat around on the seats until it was time to check in and we were soon in the lounge waiting to board the plane an Emirates A380. The flight left on time and we spent 9hrs getting to Dubai

Ollies first flight

24.2

We arrived in Dubai on time after a pleasant flight, we had a vacant seat next to us so one of us could sort of lie down, so we both got some sleep, the meals were all pretty good. We had a 2hr wait on the transfer which was in a different terminal, we arrived in terminal A and left from terminal C, again we found a free shuttle bus. Disappointingly there was no viewing area on the outside of the building, so we had look at the Burj Kahlifa in the distance with a few Rock Doves and crows around the terminal. The flight left at 8.05 for a 19hr flight in a Boeing 777 to Buenos Aires that included a stop at Rio De Janiero. Strangely we were left on the plane for 2hrs whilst the poor cleaners had to clean the plane around us. We arrived at 22.30, it took a while to get through customs but we found the lady from Imagine Holidays and we were all soon on the bus heading for the Savoy Hotel in the city. It was here that the bombshell was thrown at 11 of the 34 of us. We were supposed to have got a visa for Chile. Bev had contacted the Chilean consulate in Perth and they had advised us that because we were only there for a few hours we didn’t need a visa. When we got to the hotel after the laboriously slow check in we got to our room and rang the emergency line that we had for Imagine Holidays. They were aware of the problem and are attempting to do something about it, but it’s now the weekend, so I don’t like our chances. It was 00.30 when we finally turned out the lights.

25/2

I had a quick look at a nearby park not long after sun up, the first bird was a Rock Dove followed by House Sparrow, both introduced species. A loud calling bird on top of a statue turned out to be a Juvenile Haris’s Hawk my first new bird for the trip. In the park were Chalk-browed Mockingbird, Picazuro Pigeon quickly followed by Rufous Hornero, both common city birds here and also some Cattle Tyrants. Went back for breaky then we both walked down to the Ecological park down by the bay and slowly walked the circuit gradually adding new birds all day. In the main lake by the esplanade we got Rosy-billed Pochard the most common duck by far mainly because they come to the wall of the esplanade where people feed them. There were a number of Limpkins feeding out in the open feeding on the weed covered lake. Next were some Common Starlings another introduced species. There were a few Wattled Jacanas out on the weeds. We then found the bush where Southern Screamers were roosting and nearby some Silver Teal, White-tufted Grebe and Southern Lapwing. A Crested Caracara came zooming by and roosting in some trees were some Monk Parakeets another introduced species. The Red-gartered Coot and Common Gallinule were easy to find, a pair of Brazilian Teal roosting in the grass was harder to ID. The martins zooming around were difficult to get a good enough look at until we found some perched in a tree and sorted them out as Brown-chested. A lone Muscovy Duck and a flock of Nanday Parakeets were two more introduced species. Lake Duck was next to be found and a White-rumped Swallow perched in a tree was easy to ID. A lone Pied-billed Grebe was next along with a lone Coscoroba Swan, raiding a bin was a Greyish Baywing, nearby were Yellow-billed Cardinal and Great Kiskadee. We then crossed into the park and took the perimiter track that runs around the coast. A channel runs beside the track where we got a Rufescent Tiger Heron. Later we saw small flocks of Greyish Baywings in the trees and feeding in small flocks on the ground. There was a large burnt area on the inside of the perimiter track where we got some Harris’s Hawks, then we started to see a few trees in flower, I hoped and I hoped and there they were, some beautiful little Guilded Humingbirds, they were chasing each other in and around the tree, my first look at a hummingbird, occasionally one would hover in front of a flower, there were none of the spectacular males, all females and juveniles as far as I could tell. We came across an all black bird vocalizing in a tree by the track, I never really got a good look at it but later study revealed that it was a White-lined Tanager. Then we got several good looks at Solitary Flycatchers as they fed, one was in company with a Tropical Kingbird, I also got a half decent look at a Masked Gnatcatcher and Small-billed Eleana. An American Kestrel did a slow fly-by for us. The seashore was disappointing with no birds on the shore for the entire 5km stretch, off in the bay were some Neotropic Cormorants and Great Egrets flying by. Then a pair of Bare-faced Ibis flew by overhead. On the eastern edge of the reserve is an inlet where we got Snowy Egret, Cocoi Heron and Wood Stork, but no waders on the small mud flat. Back at the main lake we added White-winged Coot and Black-headed Duck . We wandered slowly to the western end where we added White-faced Whistling Duck and Striated Heron. The last bird for the day was a Red-crested Cardinal. We left in time to get back well before dark as there is a lot of homelessness here, with a fair amount of criminal behaviour which makes it unadvisable to be out and about after dark. The weather had been sunny all day, away from the bay it was quite hot and sticky but there was a nice cool breeze coming off the bay when we were near it. We went to La American for dinner which is only a few hundred metres from the hotel and had empaladas and a huge sundae that we shared. As I suspected no word from Imagine Holidays.

Haris’s Hawk juvenile Cattle Tyrant Picazuro Pigeon Rufous Hornero Monk Parakeet Rosy-billed Pochard White-winged Coot White-winged Coot Brown-chested Martin Limpkin Southern Screamer Lake Duck female Silver Teal Wattled Jacana with juvenile in background Yellow-billed Cardinal Great Kiskadee Rufescent Tiger Heron Greyish Baywing Solitary Flycatcher Guilded Hummingbird White-winged Coot Lake Duck male sub adult White-faced Whistling Duck Silver Teal Limpkin with catch Neotropic Cormorant Southern Screamer Southern Screamer Striated Heron Red-crested Cardinal

26/2

We were up at dawn and down to the ecological park early and were rewarded by a brief view of a Plumbeous Rail. Yesterday we couldn’t find a single Rufous-bellied Thrush, today they were everywhere, next we had to use the scope to ID a Ringed Teal roosting by the water’s edge. We then walked along the esplanade and found a White-faced Ibis feeding in the long grasses. The gates into the sanctuary open at 8am, we were later than I’d hoped going through to have a look at the duck ponds where we added Black-necked Swan. From the track that bisects the duck ponds from the main lake we spotted a Spot-flanked Gallinule and had a good look at him through the scope as he worked the edge of one of the islands in the main lake. It was now time to head back, but on the way out we managed views of Golden-billed Saltator and Saffron Finch in the trees by the visitor centre and by the roadside feeding on a roadside verge we got a small family of Shiny Cowbirds. We were not all that far from the hotel when we were both splattered with what turned out to be a flour based bomb. Very soon after that a guy turned up with a tissue and attempted to try and dab the paste, we told him we were near our hotel and needed no help, but he persisted first with Bev then with me, and then as I watched him try and dab at me I noted his hand attempt to get into my pocket, but he was too slow and I told him to F@#$ off which he did so having now been discovered. He got nothing from us thankfully. After I reported the incident and changed our white daubed clothing we had our late breakfast and got ready to head off to the ship. It was 13.30 when we boarded our bus and headed down to the port. The expected thing happened though and we were refused boarding because we had no visa for Chile. There are about 220 of us in this situation, a lot of very unhappy and angry Aussies. Now I’m going to bring a touch of reality here. Whilst we were standing around with frustrated looks on our faces a young woman with a long-handled brush and pan was making her way around the area, cleaning up, I moved out of her way as she went by me so she could clean behind me, she looked up at me and smiled. It was then that I saw the whole of the right hand side of her face was disfigured. It could have been a burn but it looked suspiciously like an acid attack. We’ve had our holiday disrupted and rightfully so we aren’t happy. But this poor woman has had the whole of her life wrecked in a moment, she will probably never marry, and is most likely estranged from her family. At least though she has a job. On our way from the hotel to the wetlands we pass a homeless camp, several families sleeping on the side of the road in humpies, they have nothing. Apparently there is some sort of tit for tat reprisals happening between Australia and Chile and as usual its the ordinary public that pay the price. Our intitial anger was that neither Imagine Holidays or Norwegian Cruise lines had bothered to inform us of the change in visa requiements even though they both knew. Norwegian just told us to bugger off. Imagine however have done a good job of rescuing what they can out of the situation arranging hotel stays and we believe flights down to Ushuaia where we should be able to board the ship since it will have passed the port of Punta Arenas in Chile. So we were bussed back to the Savoy hotel at about 16.30 where we eventually got our room which is bigger than the one we left this morning, we headed out early for dinner since we had missed lunch across the road to the Continental where we both had a rather plain but good sized hamburger with excellent chips and some organic fruit juice for about A$29.

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