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do so hope that you will enjoy following my adventures. You can
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Please!
Birdlife
International
Chaskwasi-Manu
Children's Project
April
7th
Hot,
28 Celsius, sunny with very little wind. Westerly.
Lima
Early
in the morning, just as the sun is rising and before it heads north
too far, I set off for Los Pantanos on the bike. First time riding
the bike with panniers, the going is easy but I can tell that it will
need some cleaning before I set off for the hills. Through Miraflores
and down to the beach, there are cycle paths nearly all of the way,
not that people leave them free for cyclists though.
I
soon arrive at my hotel for the next four nights, Casa del Inca in
Chorrillos, and I head for the beach unladen, leaving everything at
the hotel. Gloria and Natalie, the staff, are pleased to see me and
say that the beach is safe. Being bitten on Pisco beach four years
ago though, I leave my binoculars and camera at the hotel.
The
sea is as thunderous as ever and the tideline has soapy suds thick
and viscous. I walk to the north end of the beach, seeing two
Blackish Oystercatchers and a few of the American variety on the
sand. Three fishermen are managing their long net in the surf by
manipulating ropes.
I
reach the north end and watch as four fishermen using rod and line
together with gaudy spinners try their luck. I ask if they have
caught any and the disappointing response is that only one fish has
been caught amongst the four of them.
A
small sand spit here with wave dashed rocks some fifty yards out has
a thousand or so birds; mostly Franklin's gulls with a few Belcher's
and Kelp Gulls, a couple of Whimbrel, four American Oystercatchers
and a single Sanderling.
A
car seat is on the sand propped up against a couple of large lorry
tyres. Perfect for seawatching, if only I had some optics. I don't
obviously but still manage to see a couple of fine Red-Legged
Cormorants and a few terns, Royal and Elegant, as well as Peruvian
Boobies, Pelicans and Neotropic Cormorants. No Guanay Cormorants and
only two Inca Terns. Most strange! Anyway, two new birds for the
Green Bird list, I head off to the hills.
Climbing
the high dusty hills, lacking any vegetation what so ever, reminds me
of a couple of places in the UK. The geos, large cliffs cut into by
millennia of wave action, have rock that is angled by fault movement
to eleven o'clock, just as on Fair Isle in North Scotland. The
magnitude of the cliffs match Fair Isle too. How wonderful to be
reminded of the place I call Paradise when in Peru. The pathway up
the hills reminds me of the path to the Old Man of Hoy on Orkney. The
big difference here being the weather. Hot as this, 30 degrees
Celsius, it may never be on Orkney.
Fair
Isle has tens of thousands of birds flying around the geos and over
the waves. There the birds are Northern gannets and Fulmars. Here
their place is taken mostly by Franklin;s Gulls for which there are
thousands. Around my head vultures fly close. Circling by I see that
a few are Turkey Vultures amongst the commoner Black. Another bird
for the list.
Back
on the sand I walk back to hotel, do some shopping and then head for
Los Pantanos de Villa. Now with camera and bins, I find a large new
salty scrape that has a variety of America-bound waders. The peeps
are all Least Sandpipers, twenty two of them and there are both
Yellowlegs, Greater and Lesser and a few Spotted Sandpipers.
It
is late afternoon and after chatting with two of the reserve's staff,
I head for the hotel and an early night. Darkness falls quickly.
Light at 6:15 p.m. Dark by 6:30.
April
8th
Out
early I cycle to yesterday's new scrape on the north side of the Los
Pantanos de Villa reserve and search around it's edges. Thirty three
Least Sandpipers have no other Peep species with them. I start to
list and count all the birds with the intention of putting them all
on eBird later.
Permit
is bought at the reserve centre from Grecia and I walk to the
observation towers overlooking the largest of the lagoons. Two Harris
Hawks are close and the lagoon has the usual birds, egrets,
cormorants and Great Grebes.
A close by Striated Heron allows an
opportunity to photograph it.
Off
to the sea, I am stopped by some alarm calls from Scrub Blackbirds. A
Harris Hawk has caught one of them and is plucking it from atop a
lamppost near to the large white water tower. The poor blackbird's
feather float down to me.
I
reach the beach and there is the usual mass of birds on the lagoon.
Receiving a phone call, I am soon joined by Dr Rob Williams who has
come to bird and film. Together we chat birds and Rob's incredible
sharpness soon has him calling “Blue-footed Booby.” I can just
make out the bird amongst a group of Peruvian Boobies as they rise
and dip in the large swell.
Enjoying
all of the usual birds, the waders, gulls and skimmers, the egrets,
cormorants and pelicans, we search for Humboldt Penguins without
luck. We do find though a new bird for the Green Bird list, a flock
of twenty nine Semi-palmated Plovers are just inside the soapy surf
that covers the tideline. The waves crashing down here are the
biggest I have ever seen.
Rob
said he had heard a Peruvian Pipit whilst walking to the beach so we
walk behind the large reedbed to search the saltmarsh scrub. A small
hummingbird flashes by and Rob immediately calls out “Oasis.” I
don't hear it or get anything on it so no way can I count it.
Rob
films me for a future project as I cross a small wooden bridge and he
does an interview once we are back at the visitor's centre a while
later. Three takes and done, friends arrive, Mani and Katia and it is
time for Rob to leave for his lunch. A fabulous morning birding with
one of Peru's finest.
With
Mani I walk back to the beach and find four Peruvian Thick-knees
there thanks to Nick's location details. Nick is one of the
friendliest people I know and works at Los Pantanos together with the
delightful Grecia. Thick-knees photographed we join Katia who has
driven to the beach. Together we walk the beach south adjacent to the
lagoon and I find an extremely tatty looking Laughing Gull, my first
for Peru. Another bird on the list, the longer black bill, all dark
primaries and longer black legs and overall larger size denote this
bird over the thousands of north-bound Franklin's Gulls. Marvellous
to think that all will be in Canada by mid-May.
