Gasping for breath on the level
Sixteen new birds. Today we birded with our friend Fabrice Schmitt visting Huacarpay Lake about half an hour by taxi from Cusco. A beautiful day, clear blue sky and calm, just one thing missing: oxygen! We were gasping for breath just walking to the car.
We made good time out of Cusco and were soon at the lake, large, mill pond-still with plenty of reeds and rushes – looked good. Our first new bird came immediately as Andean Gulls flew low over the surface. Next a pair of Puna Teal floating majestically mirrored in the still water, complete with bright blue bills. A raucous call drew attention to a pair of Andean Lapwings on a grassy bank of the lake. These lovely waders even posed for a photo in the warm sun.
Near the lake was an area of scrub on a hillside which held plenty of birds, mostly our old friend the Rufous-collared Sparrow but with a little patience we soon added more new birds. A Giant Hummingbird was feeding below a small cliff and then showed off perched on a small bush, a species we looked for but missed in Ecuador so great to get it back. Fabrice suddenly called one of our most wanted birds here, Bearded Mountaineer, a rare hummingbird and a speciality of this site. A real good-looking hummer with white in the tail and indeed a beard, well, a colourful throat, very nice. No sooner had the hummer zapped off when we heard a Rusty-fronted Canestero singing. It gave us the run-around for a while but eventually surrendered and showed pretty well. In stark contrast to the Mountaineer, next came a very common and widespread bird, Chiguanco Thrush. Quickly following on from this came both Rufous-naped and Spot-billed Ground-tyrants feeding on a rough grassland area below the road. While scanning the edge of the reedbed we picked out the Puna Snipe quietly feeding in the shadows. While watching this diminutive wader, an Andean Negrito popped up on a rock nearby. Moving even further around the lake, a rocky escarpment gave us White-browed Ground-tyrant. The same rocky slope also gave us our first good look at Greenish Yellowfinch, as our earlier sightings had been too brief to really see properly. Our last new bird of the day was a Green-tailed Trainbearer which we enjoyed watching while sipping a well-deserved cold drink overlooking the lake. Many thanks to Fabrice for his expert local knowledge and good company.
Bird species total: 2788
Posted 21st July, Cusco, Peru