There has never been such a thing as unspoiled nature. Few, if any, regions can be characterized as pristine. But that does not mean that nature and wild(ish) things are not beautiful! We should try to capture this beauty whenever we can. This website is my attempt at doing just that.
About me
Hi there! My name is Clemente T. Sánchez. I am a PhD candidate in the Department of Political Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. I am originally from Santiago, Chile. In my professional life I study bureaucracy and how it interacts with the natural world. In my personal life I’ve become somewhat of an amateur bird photographer. By now this is perhaps the hobby I enjoy the most, and pulled together this website in an attempt to share my work.
In 2024 I started documenting the different birds that I encounter on my day-to-day and while traveling. I am lucky that I get to travel a lot, either due to conferences or fieldwork, or because I’m visiting home. Thus far I have photographed 567 different species, that is, 5.08% of known species according to the Clements Checklist (no relation). You can check out my eBird profile, as well as my contributions to the Macaulay Library. I also started a YouTube channel where I share some videos I’ve taken.
Why the Southern Lapwing?
Vanellus chilensis, also known as ‘queltehue’ in Chile, ‘tero’ in Uruguay, and ‘quero-quero’ in Brazil, is one of my absolute favorite birds. Their call is embedded in my mind as the sound of my childhood, of them screaming early in the morning in the shores of Lago Ranco, where I would spend the summer with my family. I love that for a pretty colorful bird they are very common across their range. It is not hard to find them at all! I’ve had the luck to encounter many of them in Chile and Brazil during my travels, and I always make sure to take a few pictures.
Southern Lapwings are loud and pretty aggressive, especially around their offspring. I’m probably not the only one that was told to be careful around them when I was growing up, that they could use their claws (hidden in this image) to gauge out your eyes. So when I was deciding what to call this website, I thought it would only be fair to name it after the bird that I have the earliest memories of. I leave you with their wonderful call:
