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Sixteen new birds. We flew from Lima to Cusco in the Andes.  Our first birding day was with our friend Fabrice Schmitt visting Huacarpay Lake about half an hour by taxi from Cusco. A beautiful day, clear blue sky and calm, just  one thing missing: oxygen! We were gasping for breath just walking to the car.
We made good time out of Cusco and were soon at the lake, large, mill pond-still with plenty of reeds and rushes – looked good. Our first new bird came immediately as Andean Gulls flew low over the surface. Next a pair of Puna Teal floating majestically mirrored in the still water, complete with bright blue bills. A raucous call drew attention to a pair of Andean Lapwings on a grassy bank of the lake. These lovely waders even posed for a photo in the warm sun.
Near the lake was an area of scrub on a hillside which held plenty of birds, mostly our old friend the Rufous-collared Sparrow but with a little patience we soon added more new birds. A Giant Hummingbird was feeding below a small cliff and then showed off perched on a small bush, a species we looked for but missed in Ecuador so great to get it back. Fabrice suddenly called one of our most wanted birds here, Bearded Mountaineer, a rare hummingbird and a speciality of this site. A real good-looking hummer with white in the tail and indeed a beard, well, a colourful throat, very nice. No sooner had the hummer zapped off when we heard a Rusty-fronted Canestero singing.  It gave us the run-around for a while but eventually surrendered and showed pretty well.   In stark contrast to the Mountaineer, next came a very common and widespread  bird, Chiguanco Thrush.  Quickly following on from this came both Rufous-naped and Spot-billed Ground-tyrants feeding on a rough grassland area below the road.  While scanning the edge of the reedbed we picked out the Puna Snipe quietly feeding in the shadows.  While watching this diminutive wader, an Andean Negrito popped up on a rock nearby.  Moving even further around the lake, a rocky escarpment gave us White-browed Ground-tyrant.  The same rocky slope also gave us our first good look at Greenish Yellowfinch, as our earlier sightings had been too brief to really see properly.  Our last new bird of the day was a Green-tailed Trainbearer which we enjoyed watching while sipping a well-deserved cold drink overlooking the lake.  Many thanks to Fabrice for his expert local knowledge and good company.
Bird species total: 2788
Posted 21st July, Cusco, Peru

Having birded the best sites just south of Lima, today was mostly a driving day as we headed to a new area north of the capital city.  It looked so simple on the map, just follow the Pan-American Highway across town and out the other side.  So how did we manage to find ourselves driving completely the wrong way down a crazy street, full of fast traffic, fruit stalls, tuk-tuk taxis and enormous potholes?  At least we knew exactly where we were on the map but that didn’t help much as we tried to turn round and head back the way we had come.  Amazingly, there were no cross words between us though the tension was high as Alan sought to keep our little car intact despite all attempts to ram us or drive us off the road while Ruth struggled to follow our erratic route and get us onto the right road again with no recognisable place or street names.  At last we succeeded and found ourselves driving once more across wide open desert with Lima safely behind us.

Our destination was the Reserva Nacional de Lachay, an area of mist forest which promised new birds for our list.  We arrived too late to explore thoroughly today but we birded the entrance road with the intention of returning early tomorrow morning.  Even this short drive in proved productive as we picked up a new Miner for our list on the way, this time Thick-billed Miner.  But the short drive out again was even better as we caught sight of first one, then a second and then a third male Least Seedsnipe.  This cautious little skulker seems a cross between a dove, a grouse and a wader, but however you want to classify it, it is a pretty little bird and we were lucky to see three males at fairly close range.

We continued on to Huacho for accommodation where we picked a hotel down a quiet side street, only to find the garden behind the high stone wall was full of young people in national dress practising for their traditional dance session this evening – what a bonus to experience some Peruvian culture and all such friendly people.

Bird species total: 2765
Posted 18th July, Huacho, Peru

The whole day was spent birding in and around the coastal town of Paracas.  First priority was to find a petrol station that stocked our particular brew.  Luckily just north of Paracas in the town of Pisco (of ‘Pisco Sour’ fame) we found such a station and thankfully filled up with fuel.  Now more relaxed about our options, we continued north to the Pisco marshes, a narrow strip of swamp between the beach and a rambling shanty town.  We found a spot to park and walked out onto a wooden jetty, this time keeping the car well within view.  The area held plenty of birds: large numbers of Great and Snowy Egrets, Neotropic Cormorants, hundreds of Common Moorhens and with search we picked out a few other bits and pieces, best of which was a small gang of Andean Ducks including a couple of fine males.  Some enthusiastic pishing brought forth a very confiding Wren-like Rushbird, which hopped around in the short reeds just below us.  We were just beginning to really enjoy birding here, when two local ladies approached us.  After some initial confusion when we thought they were admiring our dress sense, tugging their shirts and pointing at us, the penny finally dropped and we realised that they were in fact warning us that the area was very dangerous and we were likely to be robbed.  Enough said, we legged it.
We then headed further south into the desert on the Pan-American Highway, stopping to check any remnant patches of mesquite bushes and agricultural fields.  Amazing the effort people were going to, to transport water into the parched desert sand in a bid to raise crops.  The birds appreciated the efforts though, as the few brave species in this area congregated around the fading fields.  The undoubted highlight was a flock of fourteen Tawny-throated Dotterel, a stunning plover with a particularly upright stance, vermiculated wings, a black belly patch on the male and a gorgeous rufous throat patch set off by a broad off-white supercilium and black eyestripe, and an unusually long thin bill for a plover.  Unfortunately they were not as confiding as the Dotterel we’re used to in Europe so no photograph to show how handsome they are.  The other new birds that we found in this area were Slender-billed Finch, Yellow-billed Tit-Tyrant and the aptly named Parrot-billed Seedeater.  In a patch of scrub nearer to the coast we found a male Peruvian Sheartail, a tiny hummingbird with a ridiculously long tail, longer than the length of its body.
Bird species total: 2763
Posted 17th July, Paracas, Peru

Peruvian Thick-Knee and Tern amongst today’s highlights.  We left Pucusana and made an early roadside stop, picking up Amazilia Hummingbird and Croaking Ground-Dove.  Hard to watch for birds when you had to check every footstep – the dry earth had cracked into dry mud pillars with deep fissures inbetween, perfect for twisting an ankle if you didn’t pay attention.  Continuing south on the Pan-American Highway, the scenery was stark: sea on the one side and desert on the other.  At San Antonio the desert was punctuated by a much-reduced river which allowed some cultivation and gave us the opportunity to bird along the riverbanks.  A pair of Peruvian Thick-knees stood motionless on the dry gravel of the riverbed – great to see these Stone Curlew-like waders.  The same area also gave us Short-tailed Field-Tyrant and Puna Ibis.  Continuing south, we made a brief stop at a gently shelving beach near the road where we saw some 300 Gray Gulls roosting on the beach, and another Humboldt Penguin offshore.  Also both Blackish and American Oystercatchers fed at the surf edge.  On again until we reached a large pool alongside the road.  With water being so scarce in the area, we couldn’t pass this by and had to stop to check it out.  It proved to be a good move as we added White-cheeked Pintail and also enjoyed more views of Great Grebe and Slate-coloured Coot.  A very late breakfast stop, eating a cheese and ham roll bought at yet another petrol station we’d checked, provided us with another new species for the list with a pair of Coastal Miners.  This is a pale pipit-like bird which fed in the arid desert scrub.  We eventually reached Paracas mid-afternoon and were impressed with the number of seabirds feeding in the shallow waters: hundreds of Peruvian Boobies hurled themselves into the water like darts and we encountered our first Peruvian Terns, a tiny creature very similar to our familiar Little Tern in the UK. 
Of course given our luck at the moment, it’ll be no surprise to read that the hotel we were aiming for is in fact closed all this year, and is undergoing a major rebuild ready for 2009.  So instead we spent more time looking for an alternative, and are listening to the sounds of heavy trucks passing outside our bedroom window as we write this!  But at least the food is good, so we’ve something right.  The rest of the day was spent birding in the Paracas National Park, a vast area of spectacular desert where the dunes meet the dramatic cliffs over a turbulent sea.  Impressive scenery but sadly no new birds for our list. 
Somewhere in the middle of all this, we also made time to visit an internet café where we again continued our efforts to fix up the rest of the Peru leg of our trip.  At present it seems that whatever we try to arrange, we come unstuck at every turn.  Just when we think we’ve got something sorted, circumstances beyond our control unravel our plans and it’s back to square one again.  Very frustrating, and worrying too as we need a really big score here. 
Bird species total: 2757
Posted 16th July, Paracas, Peru

Peru gets off to a frustrating start!  We arrived at Lima airport in good time, and full of anticipation went to pick up our hire car.  And immediately ground to a halt.  Despite us being able to show the man at the National Car Hire counter the confirmation email we’d received from National with the correct date, time and type of car we’d booked, he denied all knowledge of our booking and refused us any help.  An angry phone call to the head office in Lima resulted in them offering us a 4×4 pick-up truck later in the day, totally unsuitable for keeping our luggage secure, an issue we’re probably paranoid about now, given our previous experience in Canada.  So much for customer service, the whole reason we’d booked with National in the first place since they’d been so helpful in New York. Instead we were passed over to the next-door Budget counter, who did at least have a car available for us to take straight away.  But it was smaller than we’d booked, had two partially flat tyres, has an intermittent fault in the electrics which means the engine conks out on an impromptu basis and refuses to re-start, though we didn’t realise this until we were firmly stuck in the traffic in the centre of downtown Lima.  And if that wasn’t enough, it runs on a kind of fuel that doesn’t seem to be stocked by any of the petrol stations, so it looks like we’ll be pushing it back to Lima soon.  Or maybe pushing it over a cliff in frustration!

Much later than anticipated we finally chugged into Pucusana, a small fishing port south of Lima, and at last saw some Peruvian birds.  As the fishermen threw scraps into the water, birds fought to pick up the pieces: Inca Terns, Peruvian Boobies, Peruvian Pelicans, Guanay Cormorants, Red-legged Cormorants and Belcher’s Gulls, all new for the year.  With so little time and so much to see, we dashed around the corner to a secluded cove splashed by sea spray as the waves forced their way through a narrow fissure in the cliff.  Pottering about on the rocks, dodging the waves with ease, was a Peruvian Seaside Cinclodes behaving more like a Surfbird than any passerine – a brown Thrush-sized bird complete with wingbars, a long tail, and a pale throat.  Next we jumped in a tuk-tuk taxi for a very bumpy uphill ride, pursued by a gaggle of barking dogs to a viewpoint overlooking the town and down into the next cove along.  With light beginning to fail, we hurridly scanned the sea for our target species, Humboldt’s Penguin.  We were in luck and picked out just one bird bobbing about in the swell.  We enjoyed good if distant scope views of our first penguin of the year, though it was incredibly how long the bird could remain underwater.
Bird species total: 2748
Posted 16th July, Paracas, Peru