Day 8
We head out in the morning to Punta Catalina on the Atlantic shore. Last year there was a small group of red knots here and we hope to see a flock. On the way, we pass by a pond with Chilean flamingos; our closest look at them yet. On the Atlantic side, we don’t see any red knots so we head to the point where we can view both the bay and the Atlantic. A group of juvenile Magellanic penguins decides we are interesting and swims in to shore for a closer look. One of the juveniles starts to get out of the water and we think they may come right up to us but he has second thoughts and stumbles back into the water and the whole group swims away.
We do find a flock of red knots and godwits on the bay side, maybe a few hundred total birds with more godwits than knots again. Just as we are leaving, a Giant petrel flies by and agitates all of the shorebirds. The wingspan of the bird is amazing and dwarfs the largest of the gulls. It is a long drive so we head back to camp. No evening survey again since high tide is after dark.