We had a few different spots we wanted to try and cover today, which meant quite a busy day in prospect. The first order of call was a spot just 20 minutes drive north from Yunguy, called Pueblo Libre, an area of montane desert-like scrub, filled with cactus and various spikey plants. Our main target here was the Pale-tailed Canastero, but there were a few other birds we hoped to encounter in just a couple of hours. We arrived just at first light, and immediately set to work tracking down our targets.
This worked out well, with the Pale-tailed Canastero being
found within the first quarter of an hour, although we could not find one that
showed well until much later in the morning. Our next target was the rather
uninspiring Spot-throated Hummingbird, which we also found fairly easily. These
were our two main targets, but the scrub turned out to be quite birdy and we
also managed to find the spectacularly unspectacular Drab Seedeater and
Fulvous-faced Scrub-Tyrant, which were both new for me. Other good birds
included Vermillion Flycatcher and numerous Croaking Ground Doves.
A nice bonus for the morning was a showy Sechuran Fox, a species normally restricted to the desert plain between the Andes and the sea, so it was a surprise to find one so high up in the mountains. Clearly the desert habitat here still appeals to the species enough to bring it up to these altitudes.
We decided around 09:00 that our plan for the day, to return
to the National Park in the afternoon, was just no feasible given the condition
of the road, as well as at least a three-hour drive in the afternoon to our
next destination. So after another hour birding around Pueblo Libre before
heading back to the hotel in Yunguy to grab our things before making steady
progress on the drive in the afternoon, a much more relaxed day.
About halfway through the drive, we decided to make a stop
at the Laguna Cochobamba, as we had on the way up to Yunguy, but this time to
search the Puna grassland for the local Puna Pipit. Having the car washed took
up some time, so we did not reach the lagoon until 16:30, when the shadows from
the mountain were long. Still we had an enjoyable hour birding, as the waterbirds
were still abundant and the grassland offered great views of Streak-throated
Canastero and flushed Puna Snipe.
And as for the pipits? Well, they left us with some work to do. We found three different birds in the grassland, but one we were not able to find in the open so we had two birds to work on. Both of these I managed good photos of, and it is clear they are both the same species. Unfortunately there is so little work done on South American pipits that good identification is not always possible, and further work will be required, from the photos, to truly work out what they are. Fortunately the photos were good enough that upon our return, we were able to confirm both birds as Puna Pipit
Pueblo Libre: Croaking Ground Dove, Eared Dove, Sparkling Violetear, Purple-collared Woodstar, Oasis Hummingbird, Spot-throated Hummingbird, Turkey Vulture, Pacific Pygmy Owl, American Kestrel, Pale-tailed Canastero, Southern Beardless Tyrannulet, Yellow-billed Tit-Tyrant, Fulvous-faced Scrub Tyrant, Vermilion Flycatcher, Blue-and-white Swallow, House Wren, Chiguanco Thrush, Hooded Siskin, Rufous-collared Sparrow, Peruvian Meadowlark, Scrub Blackbird, Golden Grosbeak, Blue-and-yellow Tanager, Cinereous Conebill, Band-tailed Sierra Finch, Greenish Yellow Finch, Blue-black Grassquit, Drab Seedeater, Band-tailed Seedeater,
Laguna Conococha: Andean Goose, Crested Duck, Puna Teal, Yellow-billed Pintail, Yellow-billed Teal, Chilean Flamingo, White-tufted Grebe, Silvery Grebe, Giant Coot, Andean Lapwing, Puna Snipe, Andean Gull, Snowy Egret, Black-crowned Night Heron, Mountain Caracara, White-winged Cinclodes, Streak-throated Canastero, Puna Ground Tyrant, House Wren, Puna Pipit, Rufous-collared Sparrow, Ash-breasted Sierra Finch, Bright-rumped Yellow Finch,
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