The plan for the day was as follows; wake up in San Pedro de Casta, bird the montane scrub around the town to try to track down our remaining targets in the area, then try to cover some of the journey up the valley towards the very highest points where we would be birding the following day. But the thing about plans is that they never materialise in the way you envision.
The morning birding in the scrub down the mountain from the
town was good, with quite a few lively groups of birds, but managed to find
exactly zero of our target species. The only new bird for me was a rather
dapper Oasis Hummingbird male, which perched but all too briefly. There were
other new species for the trip list, including the ever-wonderful White-capped
Dipper and a few Streak-throated Bush-Tyrants. Otherwise, it was a very
similar species setup to the previous day. It was still enjoyable to be able to
spend more time with many range-restricted species, and we got significantly
improved views of many species; notably Purple-collared Woodstar and
Rusty-bellied Brushfinch.
By 13:00, in the sun's heat, we decided to head back to
San Pedro de Casta and then return to the same area to bird for the rest of the afternoon.
This would obviously give us a final shot at our outstanding species, but also
meant we had a guaranteed bed for the night and a known suitable restaurant. And
so, after a lunch of rice, eggs and fried sweet potato, we headed back out to
enjoy the last few hours of daylight.
The afternoon however did not produce the birds we wanted, and was generally quite slow. We had fantastic views of no less than three Peruvian Pygmy Owls, and managed a nice Andean Tinamou running in the road on our way back to the hostal at the end of the day. Overall a rather steady day, with just a handful of new species and a single lifer, but still very much enjoyable.
Valle de Santa Eulalia: Andean Tinamou, Spot-winged Pigeon, Black-winged Ground Dove, White-tipped Dove, Eared Dove, Andean Swift, Sparkling Violetear, Bronze-tailed Comet, Giant Hummingbird, Peruvian Sheartail, Purple-collared Woodstar, Oasis Hummingbird, Andean Condor, Variable Hawk, Black-chested Buzzard-Eagle, Pacific Pygmy Owl, Black-necked Woodpecker, Mountain Parakeet, Rusty-crowned Tit-Spinetail, Canyon Canastero, Pied-crested Tit-Tyrant, Streak-throated Bush Tyrant, White-browed Chat-Tyrant, House Wren, White-capped Dipper, Chiguanco Thrush, Hooded Siskin, Rufous-collared Sparrow, Rusty-bellied Brushfinch, Golden Grosbeak, Blue-and-yellow Tanager, Cinereous Conebill, Rusty Flowerpiercer, Ash-breasted Sierra Finch, Mourning Sierra Finch, Greenish Yellow Finch, Band-tailed Seedeater,
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