Northern Peru Days 1 & 2

An early start on February 21st for my journey to Peru with a cab arriving on time at 05:30. Half an hour later I was at Heathrow Terminal 4 and quickly checked in and passed through all the formalities before it was time to relax and have breakfast. The Air France flight took off on time and we headed West over Staines, King George VI and Queen Mother Reservoirs before turning and flying East to Paris. I had a couple of hours wait at CDG then boarded the 14:00 flight to Lima during which time I watched a couple of movies including The Joker. After a long wait for my luggage I met Neil and our guide, Jose, then we drove a short distance to our hotel.

The next morning was an even earlier start, 03:40, as we had an internal flight to catch. There was just time for a quick coffee and to meet the third member of the trip, Jane, before we were whisked back to the airport and onto a flight to Chiclayo in the northern part of Peru for the start of our Partnership for International Birding trip.

We drove south through a desert plain for half an hour seeing a few common birds en route. As we approached our first stop the sky was full of hazy smoke, a result of burning of sugar cane. It didn’t affect the birds as we heard our target bird, Peruvian Plantcutter, as we climbed out of the van!

Peruvian Plantcutter

It took a few minutes to see one then after more searching we got very good views and photos of the first endemic of the tour. At least five birds were present at this site and we also saw the first of many hummers with a Peruvian Sheartail visiting flowers in this fairly arid region.

Peruvian Sheartail

Also seen was another endemic – a Blue-headed Whiptail Lizard basking amongst the piles of litter. 

Blue-headed Whiptail Lizard

Driving on we stopped briefly for an obliging Burrowing Owl before rejoining the Pan American Highway.

Burrowing Owl

Our next stop was a marsh where we had our first waders: Greater Yellowlegs, Spotted Sandpiper and a small flock of Least Sandpipers. In the tall reedy vegetation we could hear several Wren-like Rushbirds but they refused to show themselves. A huge flock of Barn Swallows hawked over the swamp and our first Vermillion Flycatcher glowed like a light in the Reeperbahn.

Jane & Jose looking at gulls while Horacio checks out his phone in the restaurant

We carried onto the coast and stopped at a restaurant overlooking the seafront. It was hard to tear ourselves away from the windows with hundreds of Franklin’s Gulls and other seabirds (Elegant Terns, Brown Pelicans and Peruvian Boobies) constantly flying past but the food was good too! On the beach were lots of traditional fishing boats made out of reeds.

Traditional reed fishing boats

After lunch our first stop was an abandoned village where our local guide found us a pair of Peruvian Thick-knees. Their cryptic plumage blended in so well with the rubble that every time you looked away from them it was almost impossible to find them again until they moved.

Peruvian Thick-knee

We then visited a large lake where there was a distant flock of Black-faced Ibis so we decided to get closer to them. Unfortunately we got stuck and despite many attempts at digging the van out we still couldn’t get free.

Digging out our stuck van

Storm clouds closing in

With the skies darkening we decided to walk back to the village so we could summon help and seek shelter in case the storm broke.

Pacific Hornero

Luckily there were some helping hands and while we found some new birds including Pacific Hornero and Snowy-throated Kingbird, they managed to free the van and we drove on to Chaparri Lodge, stopping along the entrance track for a pair of Aplomado Falcons and a sunset view.

Aplomado Falcon