For our final morning before heading back to Lima we explored the Paracas Peninsula, which is a desert headland just south of the town where it is possible to see some seabirds and wading birds. It is mostly popular for outdoor activities, so I decided to wake up early and head onto the island before breakfast, then return to the hotel and eat and go back, in case any disturbance flushed any of my target birds away.
Really I only had one target species; the Surfbird. From looking at eBird data I thought I had a reasonable chance of finding this wader at the small port of Lagunillas on the island, so I headed there for first light and began to explore the beaches. There were several wader species on offer, but I could not find any Surfbirds. Snowy Plover and Ruddy Turnstone made up the bulk of the non-Oystercatcher waders, with the former even having a small chick running around. There were also nice views of Surf Cinclodes but in the dull light it was not worth photographing.
Having deduced there were no Surfbirds, I headed round to Playa Roja on the other side of the bay to Lagunilla. This area had a few more rocks, as well as other seabirds sat on them. As soon as I made it round, I spotted a group of greyish birds close together feeding on one of the rocky outcrops! That was them, 33 Surfbirds all feeding together and avoiding the surf, in the company of a single Sanderling. They were quite confiding and I was able to get some excellent views and decent photos even in the poor light!
After breakfast I returned to this same area but the Surfbirds had gone. Returning to Lagunillas I found them all roosting on a small rocky island just offshore, meaning no improvement to my photos in the improved light. There was some chance to photograph the Surf Cinclodes, and they reacted strongly to my playback, but unfortunately it turned them quite erratic and even getting wet feet could not get me better photos than the last time I saw them two years ago.
Before leaving the peninsula we visited the Mirador dos Aves. And indeed there were a lot of birds here, most notable the 2000+ Black Skimmers all roosting on the beach. They were quite approachable realty, with some flying exceptionally close to us. Additonally there was another new species for me with a few Elegant Terns dotted around the Skimmer flocks, on the shoreline were a handful of Chilean Flamingoes and offshore was a flock of Peruvian Terns.
After this we began the four hour drive back to Lima. On the way we spotted two Bottlenose Dolphins feeding offshore, but could not find a return to go back and see them without significant effort. We also stopped off at the Humedal de Chilca, a small lake on beach. It was rammed with birds, notably Hudsonian Whimbrel and especially Willet, along with commoner wetland species. There were no different waders (besides the Willet) but it was still very enjoyable, with a nice backup cast of White-cheeked Pintail and Cinnamon Teal, as well as Grassland Yellow Finch in the lakeside vegetation.
The drive to Lima saw us deal with some awful traffic and once again got stopped by the police, this time the fine came for not having the headlights on, but we managed to get away with only $42 rather than the $300 they wanted, which felt like a minor victory. After reached the hotel in Lima we crashed, ready a days recharge!
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