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A walk along the north shore of the Ribble Estuary this morning produced 5 Little Egrets, a Peregrine, 4 Greenshank and 5 Ravens (quite rare on the Fylde). A small pond had a few Common Darters, Blue-tailed and Common Blue Damselflies and a couple of Brown Hawkers. Plenty of butterflies out too: Painted Lady, Red Admiral, Peacocks, Meadow Browns, Speckled Wood, Common Blue and Gatekeepers.
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Not in South America and not even a bird! My "break" between tours has produced some good Dragonflying in Lancs with opportunities to see Red-veined Darter and Lesser Emperor at Brockholes Quarry and several Yellow-winged Darters near Aldcliffe on the Lune south of Lancaster. Greenshank and a couple of Common Sands in Conder Creek on the way home were the only birds of note.
at 00.30 hrs on 16th with a rave going on in town. With only a couple of hours sleep we wearily made our way up the valley and just after dawn we had good looks at the rare Rufous-breasted Warbling-finch (endemic to Peru - this photo from December 2004) as well as some Rusty-bellied Brush-finches, Streaked Tit-spinetail, Pied-crested Tit-tyrant, Black-necked Woodpecker and Bronze-tailed Comet. Before heading back to Jorge Chavez Airport in Lima we managed to find Great Inca-finch in the midday heat - our fourth inca-finch of the trip.
After a hard morning's search for Great Spinetails near San Marcos on 13th (albeit successfully) we need an easy stroll to a traditional site where a Grey-bellied Comet had been regularly seen for four years. Wrong! No sign of one of the world's rarest hummers in nearly two hours - I suppose it had to happen one day.
Just for completeness here's a pic of Black-billed Shrike-tyrant at Cruz Conga. You can see that when compared with White-tailed the bill is more slender and all dark, less distint throat streaking (though this is variable) and a pale iris is just evident. There were some nice Rufous-webbed Tyrants here too.
The stretch of road known as Cruz Conga (the town is actually a few kms away) is one of the most reliable sites for this rare flycatcher. This bird was perched up on the pines just after dawn as usual, although a few Black-billed also do this at this site too. It's a little distant but you can see the pale pinkish base to the lower mandible (broader and thicker set than Black-billed's bill) and the sharp black streaking on the throat. The Cruz Conga is good today with Rufous Antpitta (cajamarcae race), Black-crested Tit-tyrant, Baron's Spinetail, Black-crested Warbler and Striated Earthcreeper near Abra Chimu.
I've never been able to get a decent photo of the rarest of the inca-finches and as you can see - I still haven't! This Grey-winged Inca-finch showed well but rightly kept to the little shade available.
I seem to be seeing these Yellow-faced Parrotlets a little easier nowadays in the Balsas area. On 10th we had nine in a pre-roost gathering and 10+ the following morning. A lengthy search for Chestnut-backed Thornbird resulted in lengthy views of three birds near Hacienda Limon and Andean Condor coming out of roost in the canyon was a nice bonus.
We spent 9th and 10th July in the Abra Barro Negro area near Leymebamba seeing Russet-mantled Softtails, Coppery Metaltail, Buff-breasted Mountain-tanager, Sword-billed Hummer, Rainbow Starfrontlet and Grey-breasted Mountain-toucans in the area. On 10th we crossed the paramo and headed over the pass into the Maranon canyon. We camped by the banks of the Maranon near Balsas.
Birding out of Tarapoto for two days we saw some great stuff and many Peru ticks for me. A site in the Huallaga Valley was particularly productive with White-bellied Pygmy-tyrant, Planalto Hermit, Rufous Casiornis, Sulphur-bellied Tyrant-manakin and Rusty-backed Antwren. The Tarapoto - Yurimaguas road passes through some nice upper tropical forest near the tunnel about an hour north of town. Target birds here included Wattled Guan, Dotted Tanager, Plumbeous Euphonia, and Blackish Pewee. My favourite group of Neotropical birds is the puffbirds, so it was nice to see this Lanceolated Monklet as well as a host of more widespread Amazonia birds like Bluish-fronted Jacamar and White-tailed Trogon (top).
Three full days birding in the Pomacochas and legendary Abra Patricia area produces male and female Spatuletails, Ochre-fronted Antpitta, Chestnut-crested Cotingas, Cinnamon Screech-owl, Johnson's Tody-Tyrant and Royal Sunangel to name a few. En route to Moyabamba we stop at Puente Aguas Verdes where this drake Torrent Duck is seen. Pre-dawn birding on 4th July at Moro de Calzada produces Rufous and Blackish Nightjars with Mishana Tyrannulet, Red-shouldered Tanager and Stripe-necked Tody-tyrant seen during our morning walk towards the "Moro".
Leaving Batan Grande we headed east again towards Olmos with Tumbes Tyrant at El Tocto and then a night in camp in Quebrada Frejolillo seeing Elegant Crescentchest in the late afternoon. Early on the morning of 28th June we saw a pair of the endangered White-winged Guans in the canyon. A stunning male Black & White Tanager was a nice surprise here and the usual Black-capped Sparrows, White-winged and White-headed Brush-finches were around. After a windy morning at Abra Porculla we reached Jaen and our first Little Inca-finches on 29th June. The following day an early start secured Maranon and Chinchipe Spinetails, Maranon Crescentchest and Buff-bellied Tanager before heading for Pomacochas and the Utcubamba Valley - the home of the Marvelous Spatuetail. A lunchtime stop in the desrt east of Jaen produced Little Inca-finch and this cracking Pearl Kite.
Still at Batan Grande we stopped the bus to look at this Rufous Flycatcher on top of an Acacia. In the midday heat there was still plenty of bird activity with noisy Baird's Flycatchers in the distance. During a scan across the dry Rio Leche we discovered a pair of Snowy-throated Kingbirds - a birds I had not seen in Peru for four years or so. The pair of Black-faced Ibis flying over was even better as I had not seen these in Peru before at all! Tumbes Swallow and the endemic Coastal Miner were other noteworthy species at this point.
We started our North Peru tour on 26th at the coast near Chiclayo with a rather distant Peruvian Plantcutter, great views of 4 Rufous Flycatchers and various other Tumbesian birds. The following day we travelled inland to Bosque Pomac (Batan Grande) where we managed better views of this rare cotinga. Pre-dawn birding here also got us Scrub Nightjar and Baird's Flycatcher as it got light.
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