THE Biking Birder - Green Birding Adventures Over the Years: 2018-04-29

Saturday 5 May 2018

20th of April. Ebirding at Barba Blanco.

Hello again! That is hello if you have been here before. If you are new to my blog then please take your time to read and hopefully enjoy it. Please follow me using the box to the right.

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.

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I am trying to raise money for two charities and obviously I would love you to donate to them.

Please!

Birdlife International

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/bikingbirderperu2018

Chaskawasi-Manu Children's Project

http://www.chaskawasi-manu.org/en/donation-for-chaskawasi-manu-project/

April 20^th, 2018

Hot, hazy and sunny day

Up at 5:30 a.m. In order to spend a few hours exploring and counting all birds seen to put a report onto eBirds later. A Golden-bellied Grosbeak is a bright starting bird for the day and with a resplendent male Vermilion Flycatcher one can only appreciate the vibrant colours of many Peruvian birds. Two Black-necked Woodpeckers are in the tall Eucalyptus trees in the hotel gardens but despite hearing them with their chattering call, I cannot get good views of them in the trees and I watch both leave with undulating flights away onto the adjacent orchards.

I take the dusty road towards the Hydro-electric power station a kilometre or so to the north. A new bird for both me and therefore for the Green Birding list is a White-tipped Dove.

Just one is sitting on the branch and I listen as it gives a two note, deep coo. It's throat extends, emphasising the grey-blue head of this rather large dove.

Through a security gate with Holas to the guards and past the station, I take the steep road up through the village. Passing over the river where a dam has surging water, two Peruvian Sheartails are hovering and chasing each other over the water. The road splits at the top of the only street in the village; to the left the road goes to Callahuanca and to the right to some ruins called Caskashoko. I turn right.

A little way along the road the force of a flash flood here is demonstrated by the side of a house having disappeared revealing a now unused bathroom. Through a small village of around twenty shack house with a few dogs I walk steadily in the strong and hot sunshine and photograph five different butterfly species before reaching the ruins. Interesting to note that most butterflies here have equivalent species and families in Europe, be they skippers, whites, or blues.

The ruins are contained over a small area at the end of the road and consist of walls and a couple of small ruined houses. A few birds are here, mostly Band-tailed Sierra Finches and Collared Warbling Finches. There are also a few Cinereous Conebills and an entertaining Purple-collared Woodstar that keeps returning to the top twig of a near by dead bush.

A couple of attractive lizards are sunbathing and watch me carefully as I pass. They don't seem too bothered by me though.

After returning to the hotel for a snack and a quick shower, I walk along the road and then back along the edge of the river plain. New birds seen include seven White-crested Eleanias, Drab Seedeaters, a couple of Chiguanca Thrushes and a single Blue & Yellow Tanager.

The evening meal at the hotel is delicious; a pasta concoction that I am not too sure of the contents. The staff here are delightful and my waitress, Jessica, laughs as I clear the table on my conclusion.

Green Year list : 104 birds average new birds to list per day : 5.20 birds

Distance walked : 5.61 miles elevation up and down : 1468 feet altitude : 4445 feet

19th April 2018 Uphill to Babra Blanco

I am sorry to have been out of internet range for so long. Who would have guessed that being thousands of feet up in the High Andes would be so remote?

I intend now that I am back in Wifi country to post all of the days details I typed whilst in my tent or in a small room found for me by villagers.

Things have been very tough but so very wonderful.

OK let's go back a couple of weeks . . . .

Hello again! That is hello if you have been here before. If you are new to my blog then please take your time to read and hopefully enjoy it. Please follow me using the box to the right.

https://www.facebook.com/bikingbirder2015/

or via my personal Facebook page :

https://www.facebook.com/gary.prescott.92

I am trying to raise money for two charities and obviously I would love you to donate to them.

Please!

Birdlife International

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/bikingbirderperu2018

Chaskawasi-Manu Children's Project

http://www.chaskawasi-manu.org/en/donation-for-chaskawasi-manu-project/

April 19^th, 2018

Hot, hazy and sunny day

Time to move on from Chaclacayo, the road is busy and the way is a constant uphill climb, though not quite enough on the most part to require a push. Going through a few grimy villages, the tarmac has frequent potholes and cracks; the concrete pathways have steps and slopes and are busy with people.

A divide in the road with my chosen route leaving the busy main road, heading north. At last, although much steeper, this road is quite and as it climbs the scenery changes to one of lush, orchard-filled valleys. I won't be missing the traffic! House Sparrows are beside the road but I won't be counting these introduced birds on the Green Birding list.

A Peregrine Falcon dashes past!

Mostly now I am pushing my heavy bike uphill and with the weather so hot I am in need of a lot of liquid to drink. This is mostly cartoned fruit juice, peach being my favourite. Does this count as my 'five a day?' I know that as usual I have checked that the cartons contain juice that has vitamins, in this case A, C and D. I am always amazed, and always put a carton back on the shelf, when such juice doesn't contain vitamins. Pulped, concentrated and worthless as a food item in my eyes. Anyway I stop at a small shop to buy a couple of my favourite one litre juice cartons and chat with the lady behind the counter. Her name is Rose and she gets every item customers want despite the fact that she finds walking very difficult due to arthritis.

I give her a large cuddly toy of Nemo to give to her Granddaughter, though I feel that Rose might hold onto it for herself for a while!

A small ground dove lands on the road in front of me and starts to forage amongst the grass beside the road, a Bare-faced Ground Dove, a lifer as well as a new bird for the Green list. Another dove lands next to it, a Croaking Ground Dove making a nice pair to compare differences. Both are about the same size but the markings on the Bare-faced make for darker looking bird when watched without optics. As they take off on my drag uphill another difference is the whirling rattle of wings sound as the Bare-Faced Ground Dove takes off.

The road continues through this beautiful valley, villages are passed and one surprise is the number of large hotel with camping recreation places with exclusive looking restaurants I pass. At some time of year this area must be a popular destination for Peruvian tourists, a place for Limans to escape the city. Most are closed with refurbishment going on. On reaching Barba Blanco and having seen an advert for one particular establishment every kilometre along the way, I decide to ask for a bed for the night at Hotel Rustica. Despite the expensive price of one hundred Soles, around £50 a night, I take it and find myself on a room with a long balcony and an immense king-size bed, en suite of course. Luxury it may be but considering that I will be camping more often than not as I proceed to climb higher and higher, I will take two nights of this for now.

Mid afternoon, showered and fed, I go out for a walk to explore and bird. The hotel is built upon the flood plain of a river and the area is an expanse of stony plateau with adjacent agricultural orchards, corn or cactus crops with a couple of closed down camping spots. Birds are few yet there are enough to keep one alert. An Oasis Hummingbird is new and is feeding on some flowers that are beneath the lowest branches of some tall eucalyptus trees and is in shadow. Monarch butterflies are flying around in small numbers. I wonder of these ones are migrating north?

Over the hill tops to east a white phase Variable Hawk flies over quite high. The hills on all sides are magnificent and rise a few thousand feet higher than the river terrain. A small flock of birds feeding on plants near a smashed household, a sign of the power of the river at some time of the year, includes Rufous-collared Sparrows, Hooded Siskins and Band-tailed Seedeaters. Strangely enough this is only flock of small birds of these species I see.

After being chased off one particular derelict camping area by two fiercely barking dogs, the riverside has some twelve foot tall reeds and willow-like trees.

As usual Vermilion Flycatchers are within the trees and two Dusky-headed Flycatchers. Pishing, the silly sounds one makes that seem to make some birds show themselves with curiosity, works here by bringing a number of Southern Beardless Tyrannulets close to me.

Now having not seen any other hummingbird species at Chalacayo other than Amazilias, I will be honest and say that I was getting worried over not seeing Peruvian Sheartails. I needn't have worried as they are common here. They include males with two beautiful, long tail plumes of white, tipped with black. Such tiny birds but constantly on the move. Another common hummingbird here is the Sparkling Violetear. Much larger than the diminutive sheartail, the spectacular green hummer with brilliant blue belly and ear coverts, is found here amongst some tall plants with orange flowers, sharing the nectar with a number of Amazilia Hummingbirds. I stand amongst an area strewn with the popular flowers and have Amazilias and Violetears come to within a few feet of me.

Doves are everywhere with good numbers of Croaking and Bare-faced Ground Doves, Eared Doves and Western Peruvian. In fact doves of these species make up the majority of the birds seen. With eight new birds for the Green bird list, things are going tremendously well in every way.