For several years I was on the selection committee of the Tinker-Muse prize. which is an award for research excellence and/or policy advice related to Antarctica and the Southern Ocean. The committee met annually in different parts of the world and there was often a chance of doing some birding during free time or when I was up early with jet lag! In 2013 the committee met in Punta Arenas at the southern tip of Chile, where we stayed at the Hotel Cabo de Hornos, which was next to the leafy square of Plaza de Armas Munoz Gamero.
I travelled to the meeting with Iberia via Madrid and Santiago, and then on to Punta Arenas with the Chilean LAN airline. As it was a very short trip I just had hand luggage so I could only take a 300 mm zoom lens, which doesn’t really provide enough reach for good bird photography, but I did still get a few acceptable photographs. The hotel was close to the ocean and during a walk along the coast I was able to see a number of seabirds, including Kelp Gull and Dolphin Gull, with the latter being a lifer for me. Crested Ducks were also very common and a single Magellanic Cormorant was fishing on the ocean.
A walk around the town produced a few more of the common birds of southern Chile, including Austral Thrush, Thorn-tailed Rayadito and Black-chinned Siskin.
No visit to Punta Arenas would be complete without visiting some of the lively bars and restaurants, including the famous Shacketon Bar, which provides a link to the Antarctic.
My flights home on 17 June were not as straightforward as my journey out since snow in Punta Arenas during the morning delayed by flight to Santiago meaning I missed by connection and I had to take an overnight LAN flight to Madrid. But at least I wasn’t delayed too long.
Although a very short trip, it was fun to be back in Punta Arenas, which I hadn’t visited since early 1989 when I was joining the German ship Polar Stern for my first visit to Antarctica. I even got a couple of ‘lifers’, although I would see a lot more of the birds of this part of the world when I visited the Falkland Island in September 2015.