Day 1,011: Long-tailed Meadowlark. Torres del Paine National Park.

Laetitia led a tour that began with several days in Torres del Paine National Park in Chile. Her daily limericks featured the wildlife and geology of the park. The Long-tailed Meadowlark is a more colorful bird than its northern relative, easy to recognize with it scarlet breast and long tail.

Austral Meadowlark males’ breasts of flame
Put their drab northern cousins to shame
And you likely won’t fail
To notice the tail
From which this lovely bird gets its name.

Day 1,010: Southern Crested Caracara. Torres del Paine National Park.

Laetitia led a tour that began with several days in Torres del Paine National Park in Chile. Her daily limericks featured the wildlife and geology of the park. Taxonomists usually place Caracaras in the family of falcons. This large raptor is mostly a predator but will eat carrion and fruit when prey is scarce.

‘Tis a splendid Austral bird of prey
That’s found down Patagonia way
Seeing a Caracara
With its special aura
Will likely bring joy to your day.

Day 1,009: Lesser (Magellanic) Horned Owl. Torres del Paine National Park.

Laetitia led a tour that began with several days in Torres del Paine National Park in Chile. Her daily limericks featured the wildlife and geology of the park. The local Horned Owl is a close relative of the more familiar one in the northern hemisphere.

Up north, the Horned Owl is called “Great”
But “Lesser” in the Austral state,
Patagonian Chile,
Which is kind of silly
For I think that they both are first rate.

Day 1,008: Puma. Torres del Paine National Park.

Laetitia led a tour that began with several days in Torres del Paine National Park in Chile. Her daily limericks featured the wildlife and geology of the park. The park is a living laboratory for studying predator-prey relationships with the guanaco and puma as study subjects.

Patagonian guanaco’s bane,
The elusive big cat of the plain,
Is the Chilean puma,
The carnivore “summa,”
At the top of the local food chain.