A revision to the itinerary meant we left the hotel at 6 and
drove for 90 minutes for a field breakfast before attempting to find another
endemic – the very localised Great Spinetail. We knew it’d be difficult to find
at this time of the year as it wouldn’t be singing and things didn’t look good
as the prime area had been trashed by heavy machinery. Still, we tried the area
and further up and down the road without success and were contemplating leaving
when we heard an odd call. We decided to follow it up and up popped a Maranon
Yellowthroat. While we watched this bird instead, a large brown bird with a
long tail appeared in the background – the Great Spinetail! It later transpired
that the calls we’d heard were in fact made by this bird.
Great Spinetail habitat that had recently been wrecked
We drove on to our next stop, a large lake teeming with Andean
Coot and a single Pied-billed Grebe. On the surrounding fields were
Rufous-webbed Bush-Tyrant, Band-tailed Seedeater and Peruvian Sierra-Finch as
well as a local woman who wanted payment from us for birding the site (she went
empty-handed).
Andean Coot lake
Andean Coot
Our next visit was to an ancient burial site, a local
tourist attraction, which dates back to pre-Inca times.
Rufous-collared Sparrow at the burial chambers
We were serenaded by a group of little boys who sing songs for money, see video:
After a quick field lunch we visited a lovely narrow canyon
with steep cliffsides where Andean Swifts flew overhead and White-winged
Cincloides patrolled the fast-flowing river.
White-winged Cincloides
Black Metaltail
Our target species were all
hummers and it didn’t take too long to track them all down: Black Metaltail,
Grey-bellied Comet and Giant Hummingbird – the 53rd and last hummer
of our trip. We also added Rusty-crowned Tit-Spinetail and saw bushes coated in
a huge emergence of moths before heading back to our hotel.
moths
Local women in traditional costume walking the cows home
Our last day in Peru and it was a long one as we checked out
of our hotel at 5am for the short journey to the airport. We arrived we we’d
started the trip almost two weeks earlier, at a hot, busy airport in Lima. We’d
arranged some last day birding on the coast so we didn’t have to spend the
whole day in the airport and we were soon heading slowly through the traffic
jams of Lima south onto the Pan America Highway with the Pacific Ocean
alongside. We managed to see Franklin’s and Belcher’s Gull, Neotropic
Cormorant, Inca Tern and Peruvian Booby from the car before we’d made our first
stop.
Inca Tern
At a lookout over the ocean there were dozens of very close
Inca Terns as well as better views of the afore-mentioned seabirds. We carried
on to our main stop – Villa Marshes, which consists of several large lagoons
just inshore of the beach. The spits and islands were covered by hundreds, if
not thousands of Franklin’s Gulls and there were plenty of new waterbirds to
look for.
Franklin's Gull
We unearthed the first Yellow-billed Night-Heron of the trip plus a
small flock of Andean Duck, a stifftail very similar to Ruddy Duck, quite a few
waders including American Oystercatcher, Killdeer plus some introduced
Yellow-hooded Blackbirds, a couple of stunning Great Grebes and some distant
Chilean Flamingos, while out to sea there were lots of Elegant Terns.
American Oystercatcher
Yellow-hooded Blackbird
Black Skimmer
Great Grebe
We drove back to the centre and took a boardwalk trail where
we enticed out a Many-coloured Rush-Tyrant - a small rainbow-coloured flycatcher - a sun-drying Neotropic Cormorant, close-up Pied-billed Grebe and a Plumbeous Rail which crossed the boardwalk in front of us to a marshy
pool.
Neotropic Cormorant
Pied-billed Grebe
Plumbeous Rail
All too soon it was time to leave and we drove down to a bustling fishing
port where we had a boat trip around a rocky island.
The first stretch was on
the open sea which was very bumpy but it soon settled down and we could enjoy
our last bit of birding. There were seabirds in view constantly, either crammed
onto the ledges of the island or flying past us out to sea. Most of these were
Peruvian Boobies but we also saw a small number of Humboldt Penguins, a single
Blackish Oystercatcher, Guanay and Red-legged Cormorants and our last endemic
of the trip, a Peruvian Surf Cincloides.
Peruvian Booby
Humboldt Penguin
Belcher's Gull (aka Band-tailed Gull)
Guanay Cormorant
Red-legged Cormorant
Blackish Oystercatcher
Peruvian Surf Cincloides
A few Blue-footed Boobies were perched on the rocks, perhaps
just visiting from the Galapagos where they breed, while huge South American
Sea-Lions slept on the lower slopes.
Blue-footed Booby
South American Sea-Lions
As we approached the harbour the boat
owner threw scraps of fish overboard and very quickly we were surrounded by
squabbling Peruvian Pelicans fighting each other for the flesh, like a scene
from The Walking Dead.
Peruvian Pelicans
Turnstones
Once back on dry land we walked through the throng of people
in the harbour down to a restaurant for our last meal together. Then it was
back north through the traffic into Lima. The traffic jams did at least give us
time to locate and identify a flock of about 100 Broad-winged Hawks, apparently
an unusual sight over the Capital. Once we’d dropped Jane off, we headed back
to the airport for our flight on KLM to Amsterdam and onto the UK. It was a
great trip which totalled 373 species, and thanks go to our guide, Jose
Antonio, our drivers and all at Partnership for International Birding for
making it go smoothly.
We headed straight to the lower slopes of the road we
visited yesterday for a field breakfast.
Breakfast in the field
Birding along the road we had brief
views of a Red-crested Cotinga that refused to perch in the open for photos. A
Black-throated Flowerpiercer was more obliging as was Golden-billed Saltator.
Black-throated Flowerpiercer
Golden-billed Saltator
We carried on climbingup the road to just over 3,000 metres and saw both trainbearers,
Black-billed Shrike-Tyrant and Ash-breasted Sierra-Finch. Another stop added our
first Brown-bellied Swallow, White-tailed Shrike-Tyrant and a flyover Andean
Gull, the only one of the whole trip. A fetid roadside pool had a Plumbeous
Rail that showed itself a couple of times before scurrying back into cover.
We walked along a little track where the bushes were
bustling with birds including Rainbow Starfrontlet, Brown-backed Chat-Tyrant
and best of all, a pair of Black-crested Tit-Tyrant. It was then time to start
heading back down although we stopped a few times for Cream-winged Cincloides,
Rufous-webbed Bush-Tyrant and a trio of Sierra-Finches: Plumbeous,
Peruvian and Mourning.
Mourning Sierra-Finch
Peruvian Sierra-Finch
All of the towns we drove through had bunting hung up over the streets for a local festival they have at the end of February.
Peruvians re-creating the cover of Abbey Road
Motorbike taxis are the commonest transport
Hotel in Cajamarca
We drove on to Cajamarca to our last hotel, right on the
edge of town complete with extensive gardens. We had time for a wander round,
seeing a rather tame Great Egret on the pond, several Great Thrushes looking and behaving like Blackbirds from home, and a Spot-throated Hummingbird.
