White-bellied Seedsnipe, Laguna Los Palos, Patagonia 10 September 2025 (Mike Watson)
WHITE-BELLIED SEEDSNIPE HAD FOUND ITS WAY ONTO MY BUCKET LIST. I had first read about it in the Croom Helm Shorebirds identification guide way back in 1986, when it was published. Four weird, apparent shorebirds, plus Magellanic Plover tagged onto the end of the book, after Ruff. I didn’t really expect to find myself working my way through the seedsnipes all these years later. This engimatic bird usually requires a hike above the tree line in far south Patagonia and even then, owing to its cryptic plumage and the fact that it is usually well into its breeding cycle by the time people (often bound for an Antarctic cruise) look for it around Ushuaia, it can be tricky to find. However, they do not spend the Austral winter on the mountain tops. Instead, White-bellied Seedsnipe descend to the rolling Patagonian steppe grassland to the east of the Andes, where they present a different challenge to locate in a vast rather uniform landscape. I had searched for it last autumn but was thwarted by an unexpected river crossing, deep water-filled rutted tracks and ultimately a collapsed cattle grid. This year’s first visit down south was a bit late to expect to find one on its wintering grounds, so I didn’t have much hope, but why not try anyway? The Lesser (or Magellanic) Horned Owls I wanted to recce for the Wild Images tour start next morning were dealt with very quickly so I had some extra time. Not far away, the endless stony shore of windswept Laguna Los Palos, north of Punta Arenas is my goto spot for Magellanic Plover and it is also an occasional site for the seedsnipe among other interesting shorebirds. 13,000 steps and double figures of Magellanic Plovers later, just when I was resigning myself to a hike up a mountainside in Tierra Del Fuego a loud piping call came from a shorebird that flushed about 10m in front of me. It landed not much further ahead… and had a white belly and chainmail-patterned wing coverts. WOW! White-bellied Seedsnipe. I wish I had someone else to share the sighting with but on the other hand it was nice to enjoy it alone in a wild, wide open landscape. What a privilege to see one at sea level as well.
Magellanic Plover, Laguna Los Palos (Mike Watson)
Laguna Los Palos landscape, looking reminiscent of a mountain top?
Lesser (or Magellanic) Horned Owl, so wonderfully accommodating! (Mike Watson)