February 14, 2024 (continued)
It doesn't matter how much time we spend on the verdant, east slope of the Andes. It is just never enough time. Our five days between the highland town of Pomacochas and the lower foothills near Pueblo Aguas Verdes were amazing, full of incredible bird and wildlife sightings, but we only scratched the surface of what is possible in this incredibly biodiverse corner of the world. Alas, a short trip is never enough time and it is always bittersweet for me whenever I leave the rainy side of the Andes behind. I'm sure it won't be long until we return.
However, we were also excited to visit the lower Marañón Valley. There were still a handful of Marañon endemics on our wish list, and we began our search for the first one of these along a busy gravel road between Pedro Ruiz Gallo and Shipasbamba. My eBird sleuthing had indicated that we stood a reasonable chance at locating a Marañón Spinetail here, and we did.
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| Marañón Spinetail - Road to Shipasbamba, Amazonas, Peru |
It wasn't exactly the most serene birding location with the frequent truck and motorbike traffic covering us with dust and blocking out all bird-song. The Marañón Spinetail is perhaps not the most exciting bird species out there, nor is it easy to observe as it skulks in the deepest shadows and densest shrubbery. Still, we were quite happy to find and photograph one, even if my photos are brutal. The Marañón Spinetail is a Critically Endangered species that has declined substantially in recent decades, mainly due to the extensive deforestation occurring in the lower Marañón Valley.
We returned to the highway and continued to the north, our destination for the night being the bustling city of Jaén. The Marañón Spinetail was one of four target species we had around Jaén; the others were the Marañon Crescentchest, the Little Inca-Finch and the Chinchipe Spinetail. All are endemic to a small portion of the Marañon Valley.
My eBird sleuthing came through with a win for the second time in the day. I decided to turn off onto a dusty road near Bagua Grande; we had about an hour of light remained before dusk. Perhaps we could knock off one of the three remaining targets before the sun set.
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| Bagua Grande area, Amazonas, Peru |
We braved the extensive motorbike and truck traffic - it was rush hour after all, and there is no such thing as a quiet dirt road in Latin America. I wasn't optimistic when I played the tape for Marañon Crescentchest, but immediately, one responded!
Laura and I spent the next twenty minutes trying to find a window where the crescentchest wasn't blocked by fifty branches, and we were eventually satisfied with great views of the skulker. It was worth the wait to finally lay eyes of this beautiful species. Of course, I blew my photos...
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| Marañón Crescentchest - Bagua Grande area, Amazonas, Peru |
Feeling lucky, I played the tape for the Little Inca-Finch as well, since the habitat surrounding the road didn't look half bad. Amazingly, we had one respond!
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| Little Inca-Finch - Bagua Grande area, Amazonas, Peru |
A pair of Little Inca-Finches popped up onto the tops of some of the cacti and sang back at us. Laura and I gawked at the birds, while several locals on motorbikes gawked at the strange white people pointing cameras and binoculars up the hillside. You can't blame them - that is a pretty unusual sight here, well off the tourist track.
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Little Inca-Finches - Bagua Grande area, Amazonas, Peru
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This was our fifth and final species of Inca-Finch, all of which are endemic to relatively small regions of Peru. As you might infer from its name, the Little Inca-Finch is the smallest of the five species. It prefers arid, cacti-filled areas of the lower Marañón Valley.
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| Little Inca-Finch - Bagua Grande area, Amazonas, Peru |
Though our afternoon had mainly consisted of a long drive, and the birding sites had been far from picturesque, you couldn't argue with the results! We had connected with three out of the four targets we had for Jaén, including arguably the hardest two. It was after dark when we finally approached Jaén, and we found a roadside hotel in the nearby town of Fila Alta. It was one of the cheapest hotels of the trip and they even had cold beers for sale in the lobby. Perfect.
February 15, 2024
Our plan for birding around Jaén was a little more relaxed given yesterday's success. We opted for a bit of a sleep in, then a drive across the city to an area called Bosque de Yanahuaca, one of the premier birding sites around Jaén. Our lazy morning meant that it was already 8 AM when we arrived, and the sun was already rather high in the sky.
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| Rufous-browed Peppershrike - Bosque de Yanahuanca, Cajamarca, Peru |
Most birders opt to explore the actual reserve, which involves coordinating your access with the local caretaker. This ensures the best chance at finding the Little Inca-Finch and Marañón Spinetail, which can be tricky outside of the reserve. We were only on the hunt for the relatively common Chinchipe Spinetail here, and so we just walked one of the gravel roads before the reserve entrance.
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| Brown-crested Flycatcher - Bosque de Yanahuanca, Cajamarca, Peru |
Despite our late arrival the birding was excellent. We encountered several species new for our Peru lists, including Blue Ground-Dove, Ecuadorian Ground-Dove, Northern Slaty-Antshrike and Brown-crested Flycatcher, pictured above. Tataupa Tinamous were rather vocal, and we enjoyed new trip birds like Red-crested Finch, Drab Seedeater and Rufous-fronted Thornbird.
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| Red-crested Finch - Bosque de Yanahuanca, Cajamarca, Peru |
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| Drab Seedeater - Bosque de Yanahuanca, Cajamarca, Peru |
I had a chance to remedy yesterday's botched photography attempt of the Marañón Crescentchest. Several were singing from the roadsides and with a bit of effort I was finally able to see one only partially obscured by branches.
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| Marañón Crescentchest - Bosque de Yanahuanca, Cajamarca, Peru |
The crescentchest family (Melanopareiidae) includes four species in South America. They were originally lumped in the same family as the tapaculos until genetics indicated otherwise. This is one of my favourite bird families. Something about that colour pattern is so striking! Laura and I have now found all four of the crescentchest species, though the Olive-crowned Crescentchest in Brazil was heard-only.
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| Marañón Crescentchest - Bosque de Yanahuanca, Cajamarca, Peru |
We found our main target, the Chinchipe Spinetail, relatively early on when birdsong was still high, before any worrying thoughts began to creep into our heads. There was a bit of relief that our lie-in and late arrival time didn't cost us this species.
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| Chinchipe Spinetail - Bosque de Yanahuanca, Cajamarca, Peru |
The Chinchipe Spinetail bears a striking resemblance to the Necklaced Spinetail which we had observed earlier in the trip, except it has no necklace. It used to be considered a subspecies of that species. Like the Necklaced Spinetail, the Chinchipe Spinetail also has an explosive duetting song which pairs make while deep within a thorny bush. Luckily, with some patience, we managed decent views of them.
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| Chinchipe Spinetail - Bosque de Yanahuanca, Cajamarca, Peru |
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| Chinchipe Spinetail - Bosque de Yanahuanca, Cajamarca, Peru |
Originally, we had tentatively planned for two nights in Jaén but with our success, the extra night wasn't needed. We would put it to good use in the upcoming days, instead. Our visit to Jaén had been brief but it was successful, and we were happy to continue on to the west.
We aimed to spend the next couple of nights in the city of Olmos, located in the desert north of Chiclayo, and situated near several birding sites including Quebrada El Limón. Before reaching Olmos, we had to cross back over to the west side of the Andes at Abra Porculla. Abra Porculla's claim to fame is that it is the lowest mountain pass where one can cross between the eastern and western slopes of the Andes, anywhere along the Andean chain, from Colombia to Chile!
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| Birding in the fog - Abra Porculla, Piura, Peru |
Our drive throughout the morning had mainly traversed dry, scrubby areas in the Marañon Valley, but as we gained elevation and approached the pass, we were met with lush vegetation and a wall of fog. When we finally reached the pass, the fog was thick enough to seriously hamper our birding efforts.
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| Birding in the fog - Abra Porculla, Piura, Peru |
We weren't about to let a bit of fog deter us, and five minutes after we had parked we had found one of our targets, the Black-cowled Saltator!
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| Black-cowled Saltator - Abra Porculla, Piura, Peru |
The other species we hoped to find here was the Chapman's Antshrike, as we had already struck out with them earlier in the trip near Casupe. We resolved to spend the rest of the afternoon searching for them.
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| Black-and-white Seedeater - Abra Porculla, Piura, Peru |
Several Black-and-white Seedeaters were nice to see, as it is a species that we haven't encountered on too many occassions. We also found a little group of Mouse-gray Flycatchers that included a photogenic one.
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| Mouse-gray Flycatcher - Abra Porculla, Piura, Peru |
The Chapman's Antshrikes stubbornly refused to cooperate and so we pressed on. We stopped on a couple of occasions to observe Gray-chinned Hermits; the subspecies found in this part of the world is sometimes treated as a full species, the Porculla Hermit.
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| "Porculla" Gray-chinned Hermit - Abra Porculla, Piura, Peru |
At one point, a pair of Chapman's Antshrikes sang from down the slope. Unfortunately, with the thick fog, we were unable to spot them even though they weren't that far from us. Undeterred, we continued along the path with hopes that the next pair would be more cooperative. This tactic worked as less than an hour later we had a Chapman's singing from the upslope side of the road. With some patience and some clever "hide the speaker in the shrubbery" tactics, we coaxed it down into view.
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| Chapman's Antshrike - Abra Porculla, Piura, Peru |
The Chapman's Antshrike is a small, attractive antshrike that most closely resembles a Barred Antshrike though with some obvious differences. It inhabits Andean slopes in northwestern Peru and southwestern Ecuador.
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| Chapman's Antshrike - Abra Porculla, Piura, Peru |
We backtracked after we had had our fill of the Chapman's Antshrike, making good time back to the vehicle. We only stopped on a few occasions, such as when we found a group of vocalizing frogs in one of the roadside puddles. This is a species of poison dart frog called the Loja Rocket Frog (Hyloxalus elachyhistus). Like many of the species birds in this region of Peru, the Loja Rocket Frog is endemic to a relatively small region of southern Ecuador and northwestern Peru.
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| Loja Rocket Frog (Hyloxalus elachyhistus) - Abra Porculla, Piura, Peru |
Happy with our successful venture in the fog, we returned to the vehicle and finished the drive down the slope into Olmos. The fog immediately dissipated as we left the pass behind, and a gorgeous sunset appeared as we neared Olmos. We found an inexpensive hotel and booked two nights. The next post will be about the rest of our explorations in this part of Peru with the rental car. In just a few days time, we would be flying to Iquitos and exploring some sites in the Amazon.
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