I thought a report on the wildly different birds of Chile might be in order, since there´s not too much lake monster content at the moment:

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Yoshi would point at a bird and remind me that it was not to be harassed. It could raise such a racket as to give anyone a headache. At the time, the bird he pointed to seemed entirely peaceful, graceful, friendly even... but his advice was not given unwarranted.

I was walking the beaches of Cucao when I first realized the power of the Tero Tero vocal chords. Something of a symbol to the Mapuche, this bird is surprisingly aggressive in its territorial defense. I didn't realize it at the time, but as I was walking along your standard beach rocks I was actually walking along the nesting habitat of the Tero Tero. Simply searching for an outlet to the oceanfront, I wasn't sure why the birds would circle around, even follow me with their incessant caw-ing. I was constantly watching my back to ensure they didn't divebomb me, akin to the crows of mating season on campus in the US.. Later I would realize that the birds laid eggs that mimicked the beach rock environment, and would take flight to decoy any intruders that came along. In fact, their camoflauge decoys were so successful that I never saw any eggs.

However, even more impressive on my list of Chile birds is the venduria (sp?) Picture a turkey-sized bird, a head painted a brownish red, different from the rest of its body, that can be seen flying from the sea to large trees, usually either a large evergreen or a "monkey puzzle" tree. For those unfamiliar with the monkey puzzle tree, it's native to South America, but can be seen in some places of the US with a distinctively sharp foliage that can cut your hand if you were to grasp it the wrong way. Whatever the birds' destination, the intent, I would assume, is to keep predators from desiring a Thanksgiving dinner. Once among the confines of these sharp-leaved trees, they waddle around the branches talking to each other, resembling the cackling of a tableful of retired old ladies playing bridge. It is probably the most amusing birdcall I've ever heard in my life, and every time Jose and I did anything (buy the local rhubarb, enter the library, look for a football pitch) we would always hear them at the most punctual moments and figure they were laughing at us. The snobs!

Suffice it to say there's a lot of cool birds here!

So concludes the Buck report on Chilean fowl.