Jeff Clarke Ecology

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Updates and photos from around the world on my travels both through pleasure and work

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23/02/17 Arica, Chile Click on the images to enlarge to full size. Arica, set in the heart of the Atacama Desert would be our last port of call in Chile. Russ and Emma had been made a recommendation for guiding whilst in Arica and this proved to be an excellent option. We met up with our guides Jorge Abarca and Jorge Figueroa from Birding Arica. They spoke very little English and we spoke hardly any useful Spanish and yet somehow we got along really well and were able to make ourselves pretty well understood. We were immediately whisked up to the Molinos area of the Azapa Valley. We had barely exited the vehicle when I noticed Andean Swifts careening across the clear blue sky. I was delighted as this was a species I’d really wan...
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21-22 /02/17 Two Days at Sea -  Heading North for Arica Click on the images to enlarge to full size. If our wildlife expectations had been met so far in the tour, they were about to enter another dimension of superlative. Dawn was still breaking, on our first day since Coquimbo, when I made it out on deck. It was immediately obvious that things were afoot. There had clearly been a significant attraction of seabirds to the ship overnight. I quickly rescued a couple of stranded Buller’s Shearwaters and put them over the side. I kept coming across early rising passengers with bloodied hands, who had done something similar, but hadn’t reckoned with the powerful ripping hooked tips to their bills. Lesson 1: Don’t mess with an indign...
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20/02/17 At Sea and Coquimbo Click on the images to enlarge to full size. We awoke early to take advantage of the half day at sea before arriving at Coquimbo, particularly as I also had to squeeze in my 4th lecture at 11.00am. A quick pre-breakfast loop of the decks revealed the presence of a couple of landbirds. They rarely settled, probably due to regular disturbance by the maintenance crews and passengers. One proved to be a Seaside Cinclodes, but the other was something much more unexpected, a Fork-tailed Flycatcher, a species with only a handful of records for Chile. I managed a passable in-flight record shot; useful if verification is required. Fork-tailed Flycatcher at sea © Jeff Clarke It was a distinctly hazy mor...
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19/02/17 Valparaiso Click on the images to see them at a larger size. By coincidence Russ and Emma had been organising a guided trip at Valparaiso with the same company as Anno and me, Albatross Birding. Logic prevailed and we all joined together. Our guide for the day, Carolina Yañez rendezvoused (with driver and mini-bus) at the port terminal. We were soon being whisked to a superb little nature reserve Posada del Parque in nearby Concon. On the way there we stopped at a patch of threatened scrubby duneland to pay our regards to a pair of Burrowing Owls. They were still bathing in the early morning sun and were clearly used to humans, obligingly allowing a very close approach. Burrowing Owl © Jeff Clarke Once at the re...
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18/02/17- All at Sea - North to Valparaiso Click on the images to see them at a larger size. Today seemed like an ocean of birds in the early morning. Large numbers of Pink-footed and Sooty Shearwaters were joined by increasing numbers of dapper looking Buller’s Shearwater. The petrels were represented by three types of Pterodroma in the diminutive form of Stejnegers, medium sized De Fillipi’s and large Juan Fernadez Petrels, all looking rather smart. On the Albatross front we had run out of Wanderer’s but still clung on to Northern Royals, Black-browed and increasing numbers of Salvin’s. Pink-footed Shearwater © Jeff Clarke Buller's Shearwater © Jeff Clarke De Fillipi's Petrel © Jeff Clarke Salvin's Alba...
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