Lima - days 44-45

Final days back in Lima before heading home and with time to kill I decided to get down to Costa Verde via a few of the city park, particularly Parque el Olivar in San Isidro district. The highlights were three Harris’ Hawk and a fishing Night Heron at close range – proving that sometimes the best bird encounters can occur in an urban situation, where bird are habituated to humans, than in a remote Amazonian rainforest. I found West Peruvian Dove, Eared Dove, American Black Vulture, Blue-black Grassquit, Vermilion Flycatcher, Scrub Blackbird, Red-masked Parakeet, Scarlet-fronted Parakeet (both introductions), Amazilia Hummingbird, Southern Beardless-Tyrannulet, Shiny Cowbird, Bananaquit, Croaking Ground-Dove, Saffron Finch, House Sparrow, Blue-grey Tanager, House Wren, Harris’ Hawk, Tropical Kingbird, Long-tailed Mockingbird, Rufous-collared Sparrow and Black-crowned Night-Heron. The Night Heron proved to be photographic highlight as it fished for carp! More of which will appear in a later blog. After a nice ceviche at AltaMar, the coast was quiet and quite disappointing compared to previous visits in the previous seven years but provided Inca Tern (12+), Band-tailed Gull (Belcher’s Gull), South American Tern, Kelp Gull, Peruvian Pelican, Neotropic Cormorant and American Kestrel. Photos from top-to-bottom are Night Heron, Band-tailed Gull, Saffron Finch, Eared Dove, Scrub Flycatcher, Vermilion Flycatcher, Long-tailed Mockingbird and West Peruvian Dove.