I
do so hope that you will enjoy following my adventures. You can
do so via this blog and also by my Biking Birder Facebook page and
Twitter feed. Also if you want to see all of the photographs I have
taken then please go to the Facebook pages linked below.
or
via my personal Facebook page :
I
am trying to raise money for two charities and obviously I would
love you to donate to them.
Please!
Birdlife
International
Chaskwasi-Manu
Children's Project
April
5th
Hot,
28 Celsius, sunny with very little wind. Westerly.
Lima
Breakfast, watching seedeaters, very small plain brown birds, in the garden. I just don't like them as I find them difficult to sort out.
Blue-black Grassquits?
Bicycle
packing and checking in the morning is followed by meeting a lovely
Peruvian lady in Kennedy Park for a catch up chat. Having passed once more the superb pyramid, Huanca Pulluana, I get to the park.
Paola I met back
in 2014 when we stayed at the same hostel in Miraflores and we have
been in touch via Facebook ever since. She is an incredibly brave
lady who suffers from a variety of conditions, such as Fybromyalgia.
Despite
the fact we hadn't seen each other for over three years we
immediately recognise each other at the Blue Bull rendezvous spot. We
sit in the shade to help Paola and talk for over an hour before
retiring to a cafe for juice. Her courage through such horrific
suffering is incredible and as with all one meets who are suffering,
one can't help thinking how can I help?
The
best news though during all of Paola's talk of illness and job
problems occurs when she shyly says that she has a boyfriend!
Fantastic. I hope that Roberto will be the sort of loving partner she
deserves.
Late
in the afternoon I wonder down to the beautiful blue pier of
Miraflores Beach once more, more in hope than expectation that
Blackish Oystercatchers will be there. All week the sea has been
extremely rough, with large waves, so good for the surfers here,
crashing the rocks and providing no place for the birds to feed.
The
view is better today though for when I arrive I see a much calmer
ocean and hopes are raised. Good job too because as I scan the rocks
to the north of the entrance to the pier, there they are, two
Blackish Oystercatchers! Timing things to perfection, they don't stay
long before they ehad off out to sea. Not before I have the evidence
though, photographs and a couple of videos.
April
6th
At
a birthday party a couple of nights ago, Fernando, the wonderful
Peruvian husband of Fabian, a lovely French lady and father of the
brilliant eight year old daughter, Malu (!!!xx), told me that
birdwatching in the grounds of a university on the eastern edge of
the city of Lima. Fernando kindly sent me three extensive papers
detailing bird studies carried out in the grounds. I read through
them and make a list of the bird species, adding English names from
the list of Latin and Spanish names. Some interesting species are
possible.
Three
hours after leaving the house I am lost. Everything was going fine.
The Liman roads, although busy of course, are safe enough as drivers
seem to care more about cyclists than each other. For me they make
way, wave me through, smile and say “buenos dios.” To each other
they are brutal but non responsive and not abusive at all. They may
cut each other up, sneak through the tiniest gap and pip there horn
at the slightest hold up but to cyclists they are wonderful.
I
do find a university and after security guards help me chain my bike
to the railings I find that not only am I not allowed into the
grounds but that it is the wrong university! I leave here and head to
the nearby dusty hills. I am trying to get near to them hoping for
new bird species but there is no way to them. Every road has gates
and Privado signs. I look at the height of these hills and realise
that the actual university is on the other side of them. Having to do
some emails to various organisations and phone calls to contact my
bank over a slight problem; a cashpoint wouldn't give me any money
yesterday despite my account having a healthy balance, I head for
home.
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