So after at least a couple of days birding and beach cleaning at Los Pantanos de Villa, a day of final preparations of bike, equipment and self will start with an early morning jaunt around the San Isidro - Bosque el Olivar Park, Kennedy Park and the Miraflores shoreline.
Dawn seen from rooftop, Black Vultures will soon be circling as doves and parrotlets fly across the sky. In the garden Blue Tanagers, Saffron Finches, Croaking Ground Doves and Banaquits will arrive to find bananas and ground seeds waiting for them.
Breakfast eaten, off out the door and make my way to San Isidro's Boque El Olivar, the Olive Grove Park, a park with hundreds of olive trees. These are the ancestors of three olive trees brought to Lima in the Sixteenth Century by a Spaniard named Antonio de Rivera.
Birds to be seen include the small Southern Beardless Tyrannulet and the large Harris Hawk. Scrub Blackbirds will be poking around beneath the trees and Vermillion Flycatchers dazzlingly perched on a branch.
Time to turn and head for the beach, a few kilometres away.
Passing the ancient Huaca Pucllana, a large clay pyramid system built over a thousand years ago, the walk arrives at Parque John F. Kennedy. The park is full of cats and people feeding cats! Flower beds contain sleeping cats and the huge, Joseph's coat of many colours bull sculpture does nothing to dissuade them. At least the flowers also have butterflies and the trees have lots of birds.
Down to the beach eventually, Long-tailed Mockingbirds are on the steep ivy-covered slopes as the pathway descends to the sea.
The pebbled beach and breakers of the Pacific line up to provide a noisy backdrop as I walk to the pier.
Rainbow Crabs cling to every rock and Inca Terns rest on stanchions.
Gulls on the stones, Peruvian Pelicans on the sea . . .
Time for a coffee and some smooth jazz!
Then the fun will really begin!!!!
Please have a look at my book . . . The Biking Birder - The Quest for 300, available as a Kindle at present on Amazon but soon a paperback version will be published.
All the very best,
Gary xxx
Gary Brian Prescott - Facebook page
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