Avian Adventures in Peru - 1

Peter writes...
Last November I was fortunate enough to visit Peru at the invitation of PROMPERU, the country’s tourism authority.  The plan was that I might at some later date, as a result of that trip, take a group of birdwatchers to Peru for Avian Adventures.  Well, last month that plan came together and I led an Avian Adventures tour to the north of Peru and to the Andes and Machu Picchu.

The tour began with an early morning KLM flight from Birmingham to Amsterdam followed by a 12-hour flight to Lima.  It wasn’t nearly as bad as it sounds with comfortable seats, plenty of legroom and in-flight food and entertainment both of a good standard.  I managed to watch three movies!

We arrived at Jorge Chávez International Airport more or less on time at around 6:00 pm, passed quickly through immigration formalities and picked up our bags without fuss.  Unfortunately, traffic in Lima was dreadful and it then took about an hour to get to our hotel in Miraflores, which is described as “an exclusive residential and upscale shopping district south of downtown Lima”.  However, it had been a long day and by the time we had checked in there was no appetite for anything other than sleep!

To enable us to acclimatise and recover from the long flight we spent our first day in Peru birding in areas close to Lima.  Our local guide was Gunnar Engblom, owner of Kolibri Expeditions.  I had been birding with Gunnar on the last day of the November trip and had met him again recently at the Birdfair at Rutland Water.

We began by driving to a wetland area, Humedales Puerto Viejo.  This provided some easy birding to get us started – ducks, herons, cormorants, shorebirds and just a few passerines.  Highlights were the colourful Peruvian Meadowlark and Many-colored Rush Tyrant, a dozen or so Grassland Yellow Finches and numerous Black-necked Stilts and Wilson’s Phalaropes.

Many-colored Rush Tyrant

 Black-necked Stilts

Later we went to Lomas de Asia, a relatively new birding site that seems set to become a popular destination for visitors to Lima.  Lomas is the name given to fog-watered vegetation in the coastal desert, a region that experiences little or no rainfall and is otherwise devoid of plant life.  Lomas de Asia is essentially a fog oasis.  We spent a couple of hours here during which we saw Burrowing Owls, a Black-chested Buzzard-Eagle, Vermilion Flycatchers and a number of species that weren’t seen again during the tour.  Several of these were attracted to a small reservoir and to various puddles around the parking area.  They included Band-tailed Sierra Finch, Raimondi’s Yellow Finch, Collared Warbling Finch and Chestnut-throated Seedeater.  Particularly notable were the Thick-billed Miners, a species that is endemic to Peru.  Several of them were very confiding and they were probably used to finding food around the picnic site where Gunnar and his driver, Renzo, prepared our second breakfast of the day!  While we waited for food we occupied ourselves trying to identify the various hummingbirds that came by.  Gunnar named them as Amazilia Hummingbird, Peruvian Sheartail and, appropriately, Oasis Hummingbird.  These were just the first three of more than 50 hummingbird species that we would see in the next two weeks.

 Band-tailed Sierra Finch

 Burrowing Owls

 Thick-billed Miner

 Vermilion Flycatcher

 Grassland Yellow Finch

Collared Warbling Finch

From Lomas de Asia we drove back north to Pucusana, a small fishing town where we saw hundreds of small boats anchored in the shelter of the harbour.  They were a colourful sight but thankfully, Gunnar recognised them as a sign that we probably shouldn’t go ahead with the boat trip he had planned – conditions out at sea were a bit rough!  In reality this was no big deal although it did mean that we would have to be content with seeing Humboldt Penguins from a distance, which after only a short while we did.  From the cliff top we also watched Inca Terns, Red-legged Cormorants, Peruvian Pelicans and Peruvian Boobies.  Along the sandy shore were Ruddy Turnstones, Belcher’s & Grey-headed Gulls and Blackish Oystercatcher.  Inca Terns were also hanging around the fish market, even perched on the market stalls in the manner of gulls rather than terns.  They really are unusual birds with their dashing curly white moustaches.  They are placed in the monotypic genus Larosterna, a name that seems to imply a combination of gull and tern.

 Belcher's Gull

 Blackish Oystercatcher

 Inca Tern

Peruvian Pelican

All in all it was an excellent start to our tour; during the day we visited several other sites and recorded about 70 bird species.

More to follow…

Peru Fam Trip - 2

Our time at Hacienda Concepción had been all too short but after breakfast we packed our bags and took the boat back to Puerto Maldonado to catch a flight to Cusco.  Puerto Maldonado lies at about 600 feet above sea level; Cusco is at 11,200 feet – we were now well and truly in the Andes.  We arrived in Cusco in mid-afternoon; our next destination, now travelling in a minibus, was the luxurious Inkaterra Hacienda Urubamba.  However, there were stops on the way at a couple of lakes to see a completely different range of bird species: Andean Gulls, Chilean Flamingos, Yellow-billed & White-cheeked Pintails, Puna Ibis, White-tufted & Silvery Grebes, Black-necked Stilts, Andean Coots and Andean Ducks.  A surprise among all these ‘strange’ birds was to see two Sanderlings pecking about at the water’s edge.

 Sanderlings

 Andean Gulls

Chilean Flamingos

Located in the Sacred Valley of the Incas, Hacienda Urubamba is described as "a contemporary hacienda-style hotel...immersed in the countryside in a gorgeous area...surrounded by imposing green mountains...(with) breathtaking views of the valley."  And that's before you go inside!  Suffice to say that normally it would be way beyond my budget.

Inkaterra Hacienda Urubamba

There was clearly the possibility of some good birding around the hotel but with departure at 6.30 a.m. there was little time to explore.  We were now heading to an even higher elevation and fittingly, a Mountain Caracara was one of the few birds we saw as we climbed a winding mountain road to about 14,000 feet.  Leaving the vehicle by the roadside, we climbed up the nearby hillside to reach the Royal Cinclodes Trail at about 14,500 feet and by now a shortage of breath was an issue for some of us!  Royal Cinclodes is a Critically Endangered species with a very small population and there was no chance of us finding one without going much further than we did.  Just being at that altitude was a great experience and we did see White-winged Cinclodes, which although quite a common species really does look quite similar to Royal!  Also up here were Andean Lapwing, Plumbeous Sierra-Finch and what we eventually identified as Cordilleran Canastero. 

Mountain Caracara

White-winged Cinclodes

We couldn’t stay at high elevation for too long as we had a train to catch and after just one further brief stop we descended to the town of Ollantaytambo for the 12.55 p.m. service to Machu Picchu.  My recent experience of trains has been confined to the Cross Country Trains service between Stafford and Birmingham Airport and to the service between Tavira and Faro in the Algarve.  It’s fair to say that my expectations weren’t high!  However, I was pleasantly surprised by virtually all aspects of this journey, the comfort, the refreshments, the helpful staff, the view and not least by the regular pairs of Torrent Ducks that could be seen as the train passed alongside the Rio Urubamba. A Fasciated Tiger-Heron and one or two White-capped Dippers were also seen.

Perurail

Rio Urubamba from the train

Torrent Ducks

On arrival it was just a short walk from the station to the Inkaterra Machu Picchu Pueblo Hotel and the rest of the day was spent birding in the grounds there.  For the first time on this trip there were hummingbird feeders and also feeders with fruit for tanagers, euphonias and, as it turned out, for Dusky-green Oropendolas.  The species list was impressive with Andean Cock-of-the-rock probably the star bird.  It was also good to see hummingbirds such as Gould’s Inca, Chestnut-breasted Coronet and the endemic Green-and-white Hummingbird.

 Blue-grey Tanager

Thick-billed Euphonia

 Gould's Inca

Chestnut-breasted Coronet

At last came the day for us to visit Peru’s main attraction.  It required just a short walk from the hotel to catch a bus that took us up the mountainside to the entrance of Machu Picchu.  To say that Machu Picchu is impressive would be an understatement.  The setting is spectacular and not for nothing is it a UNESCO World Heritage Site and listed among the New Seven Wonders of the World.  You can read about it here.  Suffice to say that it was built by the Incas in the 15^th Century but not known at all to the Spanish colonists and somehow remained unknown to the outside world until American historian Hiram Bingham brought it to international attention in 1911.  Not surprisingly, we weren't the only visitors!  In fact Machu Picchu attracts more than a million tourists annually.  Although I had binoculars and two cameras I somehow felt under-equipped without a selfie stick.

 Machu Picchu

Apart from ruins, there are many birds to be seen at Machu Picchu, perhaps most notably the Inca Wren, a species first described as recently as 1985.  Quite what the Incas (not to mention the Spanish) were doing that they overlooked this bird one can only imagine!

Inca Wren

We spent the afternoon birding back at the hotel, also walking along the railway line and the river.  It was really good with quite a number of species that we hadn’t seen previously and we gave up only when the light became too poor to see.  The afternoon bird list included Violet-throated Starfrontlet, Streaked Xenops, Brown-capped & Red-eyed Vireos, Plumbeous-crowned Tyrannulet, Capped Conebill and several species of tanagers.

Birding along the railway line

The following day was spent travelling to Lima.  We caught the 5.35 a.m. train to Ollantaytambo, a minibus from there to Cusco and then a LATAM flight to the capital, where we arrived at 6.30 p.m.  There was just one worthwhile birding stop.  It was at a lake where Plumbeous Rail, Puna Teal, Wren-like Rushbird, Yellow-winged Blackbird and Band-tailed Sierra-Finch were the most notable species.

Our last morning of the trip was spent at the offices of PROMPERU where a workshop was held during which we had the opportunity to meet and talk to various local ground operators and hoteliers/lodge owners.  It was a well-organised and worthwhile event.  It was also an opportunity to meet and thank the people from PROMPERU who had organised our trip.

So that was it, except that some of us had flights home that weren’t leaving until late evening.  There was only one thing to do – we went birding!  Local guide Gunnar Engblom had been involved in the workshop and was already known to a couple of us so it didn’t take much to arrange an afternoon tour of coastal sites around Lima.  With the accent on gulls, terns and waders, this was really easy birding compared with the rainforest and thoroughly enjoyable.  Standout species were Inca Tern, Peruvian Thick-knee, Belcher’s, Kelp & Grey-hooded Gulls (not forgetting hundreds of Franklin’s), Red-legged Cormorant, Peruvian Pelican and Peruvian Booby.

 Franklin's Gull

 Belcher's Gull

 Red-legged Cormorant

 Elegant Tern

Peruvian Thick-knee

All in all it was a great trip and confirmed what we already knew, that Peru really is a great birding destination.  The country’s bird list runs to about 1,800 species with more than 100 endemics.  It has a wealth of other wildlife, stunning scenery, huge areas of unspoilt wilderness, including vast tracts of forest and lots of historical interest.  Without exception in my experience, the people were friendly and welcoming, the accommodation is good and I enjoyed the food.  There was nothing not to like!  My return is already scheduled with an Avian Adventures tour to Peru already planned for September 2018.