I'll skip the flight out...(flew KLM)..three films watched including Madagascar...hilarious!!
Oh...At Bonaire saw Laughing Gulls...(a lifer!!) and Long Tailed Mocking birds(another...from now on they all are...lifers that is unless I put a * thats the same as I have seen before..(in NAmerica or just like our Western Palearctic!!), a mother feeding a juvenile...
[NB. Located in the Dutch Caribbean....50 miles off the Venezuelan coast...Netherlands Antilles]
]Day 2...didn't sleep very well!! Up early for Breakfast...and into minibus to travel north of Lima to a desert....on way stopped at Ancon a fishing port ...to see Inca Terns,(got to be one of the birds of the trip!!)
Kelp Gulls (they are huge!!),Fantailed Gulls, Neotropical Cormorants, Guanay Cormorants (they have a white front!) and allegedly Peruvian Boobies...(a pair so far away they were white blobs by the time I saw 'em!!) Fortunately on the last day there were lots to be seen and near to fishing!!
These were wheeling and landing watching the fishermen unloading their boats...and throwing over board the innards and stuff that was n't wanted...hence the large numbers of birds...
There were also Blue and White Swallows(these were just about everywhere so will not be mentioned again...they were really lovely little birds!!) Rufous Collared Sparrows (which were even lovelier and became quite a favourite of mine!!) House Sparrow (Passer Domesticus)*
Pacific Dove (white edge to wing and a bright blue eye ring...much brighter than in the book)...the Birds of Peru...a good book as far as the text goes...thanks to James Clements....but the illustrations were to put it mildly not that accurate...our local guide(Silvareo- who joined us at Cusco) used plates from The Birds of Columbia...and I have seen the Birds of Venezuela now and thats more accurate..shouldn't moan a few years ago there were no books!!
Shiny Cowbird, Grove Billed Ani, oh and huge Peruvian Pelicans!!! Stock Doves not ferals!!
Lima is shrouded in mist all the time...we didn't go for a sea trip...wouldn't have seen anything!
We then journeyed on to the desert. We had a local guide with us (cant remember his name...) and we reported to the Warden who looked after the National Park (the desert area) he rode a motorbike and we got an escourt..(no flashing bluelights tho...just to ensure we didn't fall into ditches, holes or run over the huge rocks scattered everywhere...much easier to have a bike!!)
Lomas De Lache
Well it was a desert...hard walking....
First Raptor!! Black Chested Buzzard Eagle...watched us the entire time we were there just changed position to keep an eye on us!!
Then a pair of Burrowing Owls...these are great little characters!!! Great long legs out of proportion to their bodies...
Eagle, I enjoyed reading about your trip to Peru. When money and time allow I would like to go either there or Ecuador for my next major trip. How many lifers did you get on this trip?