Chile - El Yeso Valley or Farallones ? (1 Viewer)

[Tony Knight]

We have 2 days based out of Santiago in December. Day one will be Campana/Coast/Wine tasting and Day two will be either Farallones or El Yeso. Obviously El Yeso is attractive due to the diademed plover but a little further from Santiago. Otherwise is there much difference between the birds we would see at El Yeso vs Farallones ?

Thanks
Tony

 

[pbjosh]

Have a look at the eBird hotspots for both and particularly the bar charts. It should answer all your questions about species and relative abundance

 

[Tony Knight]

Have a look at the eBird hotspots for both and particularly the bar charts. It should answer all your questions about species and relative abundance

Thanks for the reply. I have looked on ebird but the Farellones region is split into many different sites which might or might not be covered in a one day visit (ie some might be a couple of hours walk from a road), tough to get to etc........ the same but less so with El Yeso. It's not as easy as comparing list A with list B. I guess due to the different birds at the different elevations. I was just looking for a general opinion from someone who'd visited both as to whether its worth the extra hour each way or whether the only real benefit of El Yeso is the plover.

thanks
Tony

 

[dandsblair]

You might find this blog from earlier this year useful for El Yeso. We didn't see the Plover at El Yeso although another group found one a few weeks later at the hot springs beyond the usual spots.
When choosing our days from Santiago We were told that Crag Chilia, Moustached Turca, GB Seedsnipe and a few Tyrants are easier at El Yeso and we saw these.

 

[THE_FERN]

El yeso was better for us. We found no sandpiper plovers (not at the hot hot pools), and crag chillia was surprisingly difficult. However, creamy-rumped miner was common on the pay road to the thermal pools.

Apparently, heavy snow fall last year covered the sandpiper plovers' usual area and since then they've been difficult