February 2001

by Rob Batchelder

I recently spent 48 hours in Lima, Peru on a business trip. Because I was already in Quito, Ecuador when I found out I was going to Lima, I had little time to prepare for my trip to Peru, and ended up going without the benefit of a field guide or even a bird checklist. I did, however, spend a couple hours on the Internet trying to learn as much as possible about birding spots near the city. In the course of conducting my on-line research, I came across the web site of Kolibri Expeditions, a bird-guiding business run by Gunnar Engblom, a Swedish biologist and tour guide who has lived in Peru since 1998. I contacted Gunnar by e-mail and made arrangements for him to pick me up early on Saturday morning, February 17, at my hotel in Lima's Miraflores suburb.

Before leaving Lima, we made a quick stop at Gunnar's office to pick up his passport. While waiting outside in his van, I got good looks at urban species such as Pacific Dove, Croaking Ground-Dove, House Wren, House Sparrow, Bananaquit, Rufous-collared Sparrow, and Shiny Cowbird. According to Gunnar, his office is also a good stake-out for Amazilia Hummingbird and Peruvian Sheertail, but neither visited his neighbor's Bougainvillea plant during our short stop.

Heading out of town, our first stop was the well-known Pantanos de Villa marshes just south of Lima, where we picked up Gunnar's Peruvian friend Alejandro Tello, the president of a local environmental NGO. With several other stops on our birding itinerary, we didn't spend much time at Pantanos de Villa, but managed to spot Great, Snowy, and Cattle Egrets, Little Blue and Striated Herons, Puna Ibis, White-cheeked Pintail, Plumbeous Rail, Slate-colored Coot, Black-necked Stilt, Peruvian Thick-knee (in a field behind the wetland), Gray-headed Gull, Groove-billed Ani, and Peruvian Meadowlark.

We then continued south to the fishing village of Pucusana. A friend of Gunnar's owns a house in Pucusana overlooking the ocean and several seaside cliffs. From his friend's back porch, we had good looks at Peruvian Pelican, Peruvian Booby, Neotropic, Guanay, and Red-legged Cormorants, Blackish Oystercatcher, Band-tailed and Franklin's Gulls, Inca Tern, and Peruvian Seaside Cinclodes. Several Bottle-nosed Dolphins also entertained us as they swam past the house within 100 meters of the shoreline. Pucusana is apparently also a good spot for Humboldt's Penguins, but they didn't cooperate during my visit.

From Pucusana we continued south along the Pan American Highway to the Puerto Viejo wetlands, located about 70 km south of Lima on the west side of the highway. Here we saw White-tufted and Great Grebes, Black-crowned Night-Heron, Least Bittern, White-cheeked Pintail, Cinnamon Teal, Andean Duck, Common Moorhen, Slate-colored Coot, Killdeer, Lesser Yellowlegs, Spotted Sandpiper, Wren-like Rushbird, Many-colored Rush-Tyrant, Blue-and-White and Barn Swallows, Yellowish Pipit, Cinereous Conebill, Vermilion Flycatcher, and Peruvian Meadowlark.

On the way back into Lima, we saw Black Vultures and an American Kestrel along the highway.

Over a six hour period, we tallied 51 species, and I added 25 new birds to my life list. Following is a list of all species seen:

Rob Batchelder
Alexandria, Virginia, USA
batchelder@yahoo.com
www.dunelark.com