The whole day was spent birding in and around the coastal town of Paracas. First priority was to find a petrol station that stocked our particular brew. Luckily just north of Paracas in the town of Pisco (of ‘Pisco Sour’ fame) we found such a station and thankfully filled up with fuel. Now more relaxed about our options, we continued north to the Pisco marshes, a narrow strip of swamp between the beach and a rambling shanty town. We found a spot to park and walked out onto a wooden jetty, this time keeping the car well within view. The area held plenty of birds: large numbers of Great and Snowy Egrets, Neotropic Cormorants, hundreds of Common Moorhens and with search we picked out a few other bits and pieces, best of which was a small gang of Andean Ducks including a couple of fine males. Some enthusiastic pishing brought forth a very confiding Wren-like Rushbird, which hopped around in the short reeds just below us. We were just beginning to really enjoy birding here, when two local ladies approached us. After some initial confusion when we thought they were admiring our dress sense, tugging their shirts and pointing at us, the penny finally dropped and we realised that they were in fact warning us that the area was very dangerous and we were likely to be robbed. Enough said, we legged it.We then headed further south into the desert on the Pan-American Highway, stopping to check any remnant patches of mesquite bushes and agricultural fields. Amazing the effort people were going to, to transport water into the parched desert sand in a bid to raise crops. The birds appreciated the efforts though, as the few brave species in this area congregated around the fading fields. The undoubted highlight was a flock of fourteen Tawny-throated Dotterel, a stunning plover with a particularly upright stance, vermiculated wings, a black belly patch on the male and a gorgeous rufous throat patch set off by a broad off-white supercilium and black eyestripe, and an unusually long thin bill for a plover. Unfortunately they were not as confiding as the Dotterel we’re used to in Europe so no photograph to show how handsome they are. The other new birds that we found in this area were Slender-billed Finch, Yellow-billed Tit-Tyrant and the aptly named Parrot-billed Seedeater. In a patch of scrub nearer to the coast we found a male Peruvian Sheartail, a tiny hummingbird with a ridiculously long tail, longer than the length of its body.Bird species total: 2763Posted 17th July, Paracas, Peru