South Through the Atacama Coast

Island Girl had a relatively slow day on Monday. She flew just 98 miles (158 km) along the dry Chilean coastline, passing by the desert town of Tocopilla. She seems to be taking her time right now and in no particular hurry to complete her migration.

She roosted high up in a draw among the coastal mountains, just below the top of the mesa above, at 3,378 feet in elevation. I have driven through this area several times using Highway 1 along the coast. To understand the topography better, switch over to Google Earth street view and you can really see how this one was situated.

Most of the times that I have been there, the weather has been hot with the typical intense sunlight of the desert. But at the top of the mountains, a fog bank will often form so it is much cooler up there. That may be why she slept so high last night.

 As an aside, our team often saw huge, lattice-like steel structures built atop these mountains that are designed to wring water from the fog. Water is obviously a precious commodity in a desert, especially so in the Atacama. It is true that there are parts of this desert where rainfall has never been recorded.

It is important at this stage to remember that Island Girl is still engaged in a dangerous and energetically expensive migration. Just because she is getting closer to her winter range in Putu, it does not mean that she is safe from all harm. In fact, I regard this stretch of her route as one of the most dangerous segments of her entire flight south.

While the Atacama may look barren (and it is), it still supports a high number of predators that prey on the local seabird populations. Fox are the most obvious and there are alot of them living in this area. They are professional bird catchers.

One bad decision to sleep in the wrong spot on the wrong night and it could be fatal. We have learned this the hard way in the past.

One would think that an experienced adult peregrine would never sleep in a vulnerable location. You would think that they would always select a high, inaccessible cliff for roosting, totally out of the reach of any ground predator. But they don't. Obviously, evolutionary forces have not completely shaped and perfected the Peregrine Falcon quite yet. Pretty close though, in my opinion.

We know from the wintering data from Putu that our tagged birds often sleep right in the dunes, sitting out in the open. Seems really vulnerable to me but so far, so good. Maybe not as many fox out there.