Condor Cliffs

It wasn´t the advertised headline in the flyer but the smaller caption promising close views and many sightings of the world´s largest bird of prey that seized my attention.

The flyer was promoting a cruise to view the Searrano Glacier, a 2.5 hour trip from Puerto Natales, the Chilean gateway town to the reknown Torres Del Paine National Park. The trip was along the optimistically named Last Hope Sound. The name derives from the sailor ... who was trying to discover the Magellan Strait, a convenient shortcut that avoided the perilous journey around Cape Horn. But it was neither a fabulous glacier nor important maritime shortcut that caught the eye.

The Andean Condor has, at over 3 metres, the largest wingspan of any bird. It is widespread over the andean range but the birds of the patagonian andes are surely the hardiest of the species given the region´s tough and temperamental climate.

Patagonia was living up to its reputation as we left harbour and motored past a small party of black necked swans. Rain, mist covered mountains and a biting wind for which the region is famous. The good ship 21 de Mayo has capacity for 100 and was near to full despite the weather´s attempts to scare off - this being Halloween after all.

The journey was surprisingly calm and gave greater understanding to why such a heavy price was placed on charting the area. The presence of the mountains and the relative small body of water prevents big seas forming. How the ghosts of mariners lost around the Cape must curse for lack of an earlier discovery.

Our concern was no greater than whether we would be fortunate enough to catch sight of a condor in such unpleasant conditions. A cormorant colony and then a sealion colony soon after came into view. Both sea-creatures huddled among species of their own kind to keep warm, the sealions camoflaged well among the rocks.

Our first glimpse of a condor came just after we had picked out the sealions. It glided over a cliffface and disappeared form view, it´s massive size and shape the only clue to its identity.

We did not have to wait long to see more. "Condor Cliff" we were told was home to some 20 birds and as our boat drifted near we caught sight of two perched high on the cliff face taking shelter. The distance between us did not mask their enormity. The resemblance to a large turkey is not merely passing. The body is large and chunky and streaked with white which appears better in flight. They have the typical featherless head of a vulture, perfect for cleaning after being burried into a carcass. And aroud their neck, a white colour of feathers to give it a very distinctive appearance.

If the above decription gives the impression of an ugly bird then in flight they reveral their true self. Their enormity in itself is impressive but it is their effortless economy of movement that most impresses. It was rare to see one flap its mighty wings. In flight the white backs of the wings add colour and their long wing tips "primary fetahers" spread like fingers reveal an unlikley elegance.

As we reached the Serrano Glacier and were greeted to the sound of crashing ice into water, 4 more birds circled above us. The sun had arrived late and the condors made up for lost time by circling on the thermals. Andean Condors will soar for hours and travel great distances. They are not hunters, that they do not deliver the killer blow. They wait for nature to run its course before ridding the landscape of a carcass, scavenging huge quantities of meat at a single sitting.

We saw more on return when the cormorants and sealions were still sheltering from the returning rain and wind. In a land where only the strongest truly survive, it is somehow fitting that the world´s largest bird of prey should be the one to master it.