My brother, Casey McFarland, is in Chile right now. He’s a wildlife tracker and the author of Bird Feathers: A Guide to North American Species which is released today. In Chile, he’s supposed to be tracking mountain lions, though it sounds a lot more like he’s taking 20-mile hikes in armpit-deep snow and seeing everything but mountain lions.

I’m a little hazy on the details because I’m a city mouse; Casey’s a country mouse. It’s very thoughtful that Casey thought to put his wilderness experience in Chile in even terms I could understand. He sent me this photo:

He writes:

super rad little place on the “highway” from coyaique to cochrane- a 300 km stretch of rutted, potholed dirt road through the mountains.

run by a really nice gal- a wood stove and the griddle heats the place… two buses welded together. she made a mean “churasco completo” which is the chilean hamburger, more or less. but it’s just a big slab of meat on pan, with mashed avocados, sliced tomatoes and a little mayo (or sickeningly massive amounts if you’re not careful). pretty damn good.

spring seems to be here- some flamingos showed up the other day- funny to see them standing in the bleary, high grassland mountain lakes with snow covered peaks all around.

Funny, that’s exactly what I thought about the bus–something so tropically colored in a totally wrong environment, like it took a hard left somewhere in Colombia and just eventually got stuck in that snowbank.

Casey’s still in Chile, even as Bird Feathers: A Guide to North American Species is released. Spread the word to all your birder friends!

He and his co-author worked insanely on it–there are some great candid shots of them elbow-deep in feathers at the book website.