Explorations of an Ecologist

Saturday, 9 March 2024

A Month In Northern Peru, Part 3: Lush Forests of Casupe (February 4, 2024)

February 4, 2024

We said our goodbyes to the owner of Eco Camping Racarrumi and hit the road at 6 AM sharp. We continued inland, away from the coast and towards the foothills, which is where we hoped to spend the morning birding. The landscape continued to change during our ~45 minute drive on the well-maintained gravel road, and by the time we made our breakfast stop, we were surrounded by larger trees and beautiful dry forest.

Casupe area, Cajamarca, Peru

The reason that this particular site was chosen as our breakfast stop was simply because we saw a couple of interesting, white-headed birds zip past in front of the car. We stopped to investigate. Our first White-headed Brushfinches!

White-headed Brushfinch - Casupe area, Cajamarca, Peru

And then we heard an Elegant Crescentchest singing close to the road, so we just had to coax him into view. And a Tumbes Pewee caught my attention as it perched on a prominent snag. Up next was a Mouse-gray Flycatcher. And then a White-edged Oriole shot past, and a group of Red-masked Parakeets screeched by overhead.

Mouse-gray Flycatcher - Casupe area, Cajamarca, Peru

We stopped to make a quick breakfast here, and half an hour had passed before we continued along. So much for a quick roadside stop to check out the brushfinches.

White-headed Brushfinch - Casupe area, Cajamarca, Peru

We drove a little further along and saw a dramatic transformation near the town of Casupe, as the dry forest was replaced with lush forest. We must have passed an invisible threshold of sorts where the precipitation levels were a bit higher.

Casupe area, Cajamarca, Peru

We chose this particular stretch of road just past Casupe due to all of the tantalizing species found here. This particular patch of forest was relatively undisturbed, and White-winged Guans had sometimes been reported from along here. The White-winged Guan is a Critically Endangered species that is only known from a few valleys in northwestern Peru. We would be visiting another good area for the guan later in the trip - Quebrada El Limón - but I always like to have backup sites for any of the scarce/localized species we are searching for. This was our backup site for the guan, while it also held a number of other birds we hadn't seen before.

Rufous-necked Foliage-gleaner - Casupe area, Cajamarca, Peru

One of the first targets to fall was the furtive Rufous-necked Foliage-gleaner, as one was singing right next to where we parked the vehicle. With a bit of coaxing, Laura and I were treated to great views of a pair.

Rufous-necked Foliage-gleaner - Casupe area, Cajamarca, Peru

It was a gorgeous, partly sunny morning that held a lot of promise. We were happy to discover that this road had minimal traffic; perhaps, one vehicle every 20 minutes or so. I love birding a quiet dirt road through beautiful habitat since the walking is easy and visibility is good along a roadside.

Birding the lush forest of the Casupe area, Cajamarca, Peru

Our morning continued to produce interesting birds as we quickly found Gray-and-gold and Three-banded Warblers, species that would provide the soundtrack for the morning. We heard a Gray-breasted Flycatcher and several Henna-hooded Foliage-gleaners, while a small mixed flock contained our first Marañón Tyrannulet.

Gray-and-gold Warbler - Casupe area, Cajamarca, Peru

A smart-looking Long-billed Starthroat perched close to the road, allowing for some decent photos through a window in the vegetation.

Long-billed Starthroat - Casupe area, Cajamarca, Peru

We rounded a bend and heard some intriguing sounds filtering down from somewhere along the hillside. They sounded vaguely guan like, and then in my peripheral vision a large black bird clumsily flew down the slope and disappeared. Could it be the guans?

The next bend in the road confirmed our suspicions. There, sitting awkwardly in a roadside tree, was a trio of White-winged Guans!

White-winged Guan - Casupe area, Cajamarca, Peru

The guans were rather wary of us (as they should be, since they've been nearly hunted to extinction) but we managed pretty good views of them. Eventually, they took flight down the mountain away from the road, showing off their namesake white wings in the process. We were pretty excited to have found our target species so easily.

Fasciated Wren - Casupe area, Cajamarca, Peru

Generally, at some point in the morning when the birding slows down, Laura focuses more of her energy into scanning the ground and low vegetation, while I continue to observe the trees and sky for birds. This strategy paid off yet again, as she spotted an emerald green snake in matching vegetation beside the road.

Giant Parrot Snake (Leptophis ahaetulla occidentalis) - Casupe area, Cajamarca, Peru

This is a Giant Parrot Snake, a species with a wide distribution in South America that we have seen a few times previously. It felt good to get a snake "on the board" early in the trip!

Giant Parrot Snake (Leptophis ahaetulla occidentalis) - Casupe area, Cajamarca, Peru

We walked for several hours, finding around 50 species of birds. Some, like the Henna-hooded Foliage-gleaners and Ochre-bellied Doves refused to show themselves. Others, like this Black-capped Sparrow, were quite photogenic.

Black-capped Sparrow - Casupe area, Cajamarca, Peru

We rustled up a couple of White-headed Brushfinches and a single White-winged Brushfinch along this stretch of road as well.

White-winged Brushfinch - Casupe area, Cajamarca, Peru

Plumbeous-backed Thrush was the dominant thrush in this habitat, but we found a surprise Andean Slaty Thrush as well. This species is not regularly found in this part of Peru and came up as rare on eBird.

Plumbeous-backed Thrush - Casupe area, Cajamarca, Peru

Andean Slaty Thrush - Casupe area, Cajamarca, Peru

We had found all the birds we were hoping to, other than Chapman's Antshrike and Black-cowled Saltator, and so we called the morning a success. Our walk back to the car was a little less birdy but the butterflies were out in full force.

Hyalyris latilimbata - Casupe area, Cajamarca, Peru

Anthanassa hermas - Casupe area, Cajamarca, Peru

Laura and I turned the vehicle around and began the drive back towards Chiclayo. We made a few roadside stops, however, such as when Laura spotted this Peruvian Pygmy-Owl from the car.

Peruvian Pygmy-Owl - Casupe area, Cajamarca, Peru

We also stopped for half an hour in the dry forest just past Casupe, in an unsuccessful bid to find Chapman's Antshrike.

Tillandsia straminea (a type of bromeliad) - Casupe area, Cajamarca, Peru

Frost's Lava Lizard (Microlophus koepckeorum) - Casupe area, Cajamarca, Peru

The above lizard, Frost's Lava Lizard (Microlophus koepckeorum) was a new one for us. The birding was quite good in the dry forest and I managed a few decent photo ops as well.

Superciliated Wren - Casupe area, Cajamarca, Peru

Pacific Parrotlet - Casupe area, Cajamarca, Peru

Laura and I also found this Tumbes Pewee visiting a nest.

Tumbes Pewee - Casupe area, Cajamarca, Peru

Tumbes Pewee nest - Casupe area, Cajamarca, Peru

It was around 12:30 PM when we left the Casupe area for good. We continued westward towards Chiclayo on the Pacific coast, stopping for lunch at a small restaurant near Reservorio de Tinajones, where the food was amazing, before continuing past Chiclayo and then south towards Cajamarca. We didn't make additional stops on this drive, other than a brief one for a Peruvian Thick-knee that Laura had spotted beside the highway. These bizarre, desert-loving "shorebirds" are always fun to come across.

Peruvian Thick-knee - Mocupe area, Lambayeque, Peru

We drove for much of the afternoon, making good time so that we were left with only a couple of hours until Cajamarca which we would traverse the next morning. We found a lovely little hotel in the town of Tembladera to spend the night.

Wednesday, 6 March 2024

A Month In Northern Peru, Part 2: Chiclayo area (February 3, 2024)

February 2, 2024

Traveling to Chiclayo in northern Peru isn't an easy endeavour. Luckily, we live less than an hour from a major international airport - Pearson Airport in Toronto - but there are few direct flights between Toronto and Lima (and none that were affordable for us for the dates we wanted), and flights to Chiclayo are all via Lima. After a very long travel day that included a red-eye from Toronto to Mexico City, another flight from Mexico City to Lima, and a third flight to Chiclayo, we were ready for bed. The warm breeze outside of the Chiclayo airport invigorated our senses - we were back in Latin America!

The representative for the rental agency met us at the airport and informed us that we were being upgraded to a Toyota Rav4, which was a pleasant surprise. Before long, we were on the road. If I wasn't fully awake after the long travel day, the hectic driving in Chiclayo certainly snapped me into focus! Fortunately, I have driven many times throughout Latin America and I quickly fell into a comfortable rhythm. I had forgotten about the excessively high and numerous speed bumps, and Chiclayo has its fair share of them. We found our hotel, located a cochera (secure parking area) to store our vehicle for the night, and went for a walk near the hotel to locate dinner. A hole-in-the-wall hamburger joint suited our needs. Sleep came easy that night.

February 3, 2024

Chiclayo is situated in the very dry coastal plain of Peru. The typical winds in South America drift from east to west across the continent, taking moisture from the Amazon basin with them and depositing this moisture on the east slope of the Andes as orographic precipitation. As a result, the air west of the Andes is very dry. The cold Humboldt Current passes the Peruvian coastline, and the cool marine air is not conducive to forming rainclouds as well. This all contributes to the arid conditions in coastal Peru.

But northern Peru isn't quite as dry as southern Peru and northern Chile, and vegetation does grow in some areas, especially near the river valleys which transport some small amounts of water from the Andes down into the Pacific Ocean. Unfortunately, almost all of this vegetation has been cleared for firewood but some pockets remain. It is here where a number of very special birds can be found, species restricted to northern Peru and southwestern Ecuador, such as the Peruvian Plantcutter and the Rufous Flycatcher.

Burrowing Owl - Mocupe area, Lambayeque, Peru

Laura and I drove an hour south of Chiclayo to one of these vegetation patches near the village of Mocupe. Chiclayo isn't a visually appealing city, mainly due to the excessive amounts of plastic garbage seemingly everywhere, but as we approached the coast the amount of garbage lessened, mainly because the on-shore breezes pushes it all a bit further inland.

Mocupe area, Lambayeque, Peru

As we opened the car door, we immediately heard a creaky sound that was familiar to us. A plantcutter! Just like that, we were looking at our first "lifer" of the trip, a Peruvian Plantcutter teed up on a thorny tree right beside the car.

Peruvian Plantcutter - Mocupe area, Lambayeque, Peru

This one had pretty scruffy plumage but we admired him all the same. Adult males typically show extensive rufous on the belly and undertail coverts, as well as a striking black and white wing pattern. Perhaps this is a young male.

Peruvian Plantcutter - Mocupe area, Lambayeque, Peru

Laura and I quickly strapped on our optics, applied sunscreen and headed out to see what other avian (and reptilian) wonders we could find.

Mocupe area, Lambayeque, Peru

This was our first time in coastal north Peru, but we had visited the dry scrub of southwestern Ecaudor, so many of the birds overlapped. I hadn't really done any studying of the calls, but I recognized a few right away, such as Necklaced Spinetail, Streaked Saltator, Fasciated Wren and Superciliated Wren. A few of the sounds required us to find the actual bird to nail down the identification, such as Collared Warbling-Finch and Tumbes Tyrannulet.

Collared Warbling-Finch - Mocupe area, Lambayeque, Peru

The day was young and the air was only warm instead of scorching hot. There were some biting flies, but only a few, and lizards scampered by regularly, while hummingbirds flitted in the new blossoms. Life was good!

Knobbed Pacific Iguana (Microlophus occipitalis) - Mocupe area, Lambayeque, Peru

Speaking of hummingbirds, Laura and I were a little surprised by how many there were. However, it was spring in this part of Peru and the vegetation was more lush than we had expected. Most of the hummingbirds were Short-tailed Woodstars and Amazilia Hummingbirds, but there were quite a few Peruvian Sheartails as well. This species is gorgeous and we enjoyed our best-ever views of them.

Peruvian Sheartail - Mocupe area, Lambayeque, Peru

One of our target species here was the Cinereous Finch and we quickly found our first pair. Despite its name it is actually a type of tanager, and I found their sooty gray plumage with contrasting yellow bill an attractive combination. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get close enough for really good photos.

Cinereous Finch (right) - Mocupe area, Lambayeque, Peru

One bird species that had become a bit of a nemesis for us is the Tschudi's Nightjar, a form of Band-winged Nightjar found in coastal Peru and Chile that had recently been elevated to species status. We had searched for them at a few sites in southern Peru to no avail, but Tschudi's Nightjars reside in the desert scrub here. We ventured in a ways from the road and flushed a few of them, along with some Lesser Nighthawks which provided a nice comparison. Despite some effort, we were unable to locate any of the ones we flushed once they landed again on the ground, so the flight views were all that we would get.

West Peruvian Dove - Mocupe area, Lambayeque, Peru

The morning air rapidly warmed and lizard activity seemed to increase proportionately. We found at least three different species. This was the flashiest - a male Ecuador Desert Tegu (Dicrodon heterolepis).

Ecuador Desert Tegu (Dicrodon heterolepis) - Mocupe area, Lambayeque, Peru

We found quite a few Peru Desert Tegus as well (Dicrodon guttulatum).

Peru Desert Tegu (Dicrodon guttulatum) - Mocupe area, Lambayeque, Peru

At one point, a small flock of Sulphur-throated Finches alighted in a leafless shrub next to us. This species is rather nomadic and one that we only saw a couple of times in southwestern Ecuador.

Sulphur-throated Finches - Mocupe area, Lambayeque, Peru

Laura and I still hadn't found any Rufous Flycatchers and the morning was getting quite hot. We switched tactics, heading back to the main road and walking north to where we had seen some larger trees next to an area that seemed popular for dumping garbage. Not the most scenic spot, but we were able to get off the road and away from all the garbage. Almost immediately we found a territorial Rufous Flycatcher. That was easy!

Rufous Flycatcher - Mocupe area, Lambayeque, Peru

The Rufous Flycatcher is a member of the genus Myiarchus which includes the familiar Great Crested Flycatcher, a common summer resident where I live in southern Ontario. However, once one moves further south in North America and throughout South America, the diversity of Myiarchus flycatchers increases, and most areas have several species. The problem is that many of the species look frustratingly similar and are best told apart by vocalizations. Laura and I frequently refer to them as "a pain in my archus" (get it?). Luckily, the Rufous Flycatcher bucks that trend and is quite visually distinctive!

Rufous Flycatcher - Mocupe area, Lambayeque, Peru

We found a few other interesting birds in this area, including a Pearl Kite, several Parrot-billed Seedeaters and a Golden-olive Woodpecker.

Pearl Kite - Mocupe area, Lambayeque, Peru

Parrot-billed Seedeater - Mocupe area, Lambayeque, Peru

A cracking male Peruvian Plantcutter perched down at eye-level, but turned his head right when I pulled the trigger on the photos. Just missed a great shot!

Peruvian Plantcutter - Mocupe area, Lambayeque, Peru

We began walking back to the car when suddenly a fox appeared right in front of us! This wasn't any old fox, but a Sechuran Fox, which is a species restricted to the scrubby deserts of southern Ecuador and western Peru. We couldn't believe our luck to have such good looks at one on our first morning of the trip.

Sechuran Fox (Lycalopex sechurae) - Mocupe area, Lambayeque, Peru

The temperatures were really ramping up and we had seen all of our target birds and so we opted for the air conditioning of our vehicle and left Mocupe. We spent the hottest hours of the day driving inland towards the Chaparrí area. The dry forests here are home to a number of different species. While most birders opt for the expensive Chaparrí ecolodge, we skipped this, choosing a place called Eco Camping Racarrumi that had several bungalows for rent. This proved to be a good choice as the cost was a lot less than the ecolodge, and we were surrounded by beautiful dry forest which was full of many birds.

Birding at Eco Camping Racarrumi, Lambayeque, Peru

Laura took advantage of the hammock and we birded from the front porch, seeing beautiful species such as Baird's Flycatcher, White-tailed Jay and Golden Grosbeak.

White-tailed Jay - Eco Camping Racarrumi, Lambayeque, Peru

Baird's Flycatcher - Eco Camping Racarrumi, Lambayeque, Peru

Golden Grosbeak - Eco Camping Racarrumi, Lambayeque, Peru

Photographic opportunities with some of the most common species were quite good, as well.

Long-tailed Mockingbird - Eco Camping Racarrumi, Lambayeque, Peru

White-browed Gnatcatcher - Eco Camping Racarrumi, Lambayeque, Peru

Saffron Finch - Eco Camping Racarrumi, Lambayeque, Peru

Laura immediately found the two resident puppies and made quick friends, as she is known to do.

Making friends - Eco Camping Racarrumi, Lambayeque, Peru

For the last couple hours of daylight, we drove over to the nearby Reservorio de Tinajones to look for waterbirds in the marshes and landbirds in the dry scrub. The birding here was excellent and I put the scope to good use.

Reservorio de Tinajones, Lambayeque, Peru

Most interesting to us were the large numbers of Comb Ducks. This is a species that we have only seen on a handful of previous occasions, yet there were over 100 individuals here. The males look especially ridiculous with their "combs" on top of their bills.

Comb Ducks - Reservorio de Tinajones, Lambayeque, Peru

We found around 50 species in the hour and a half before dusk, including an uncommon Yellow-billed Pintail and a group of four Chilean Flamingo, which is somewhat rare here. Cue the poor quality, digiscoped record shot:

Chilean Flamingos - Reservorio de Tinajones, Lambayeque, Peru

While Laura relaxed at a nice viewpoint over the lake, I walked down the road a ways and turned up a photogenic Necklaced Spinetail and, right before dusk, a lifer in the form of a pair of Tumbes Sparrows.

Necklaced Spinetail - Reservorio de Tinajones, Lambayeque, Peru

Tumbes Sparrow - Reservorio de Tinajones, Lambayeque, Peru

The sunset was vibrant and we watched the sun slink away while the egrets gathered in a nearby tree to roost for the night. We considered staying out for a while after dark to try for Scrub Nightjars, but it had been a long day and we were happy to get back to our bungalow and set up the moth sheet.

Sunset at Reservorio de Tinajones, Lambayeque, Peru

The evening was a little breezy, while the vast majority of species that attended the moth sheet were a type of scarab beetle. These two factors limited the moth activity, but we found a few interesting things, anyways.

Vine Sphinx (Eumorpha vitis) - Eco Camping Racarrumi, Lambayeque, Peru

Cotton Stainer Bug (Dysdercus sp.) - Eco Camping Racarrumi, Lambayeque, Peru

Peruvian Locust (Schistocerca interrita) - Eco Camping Racarrumi, Lambayeque, Peru

Manduca paphus - Eco Camping Racarrumi, Lambayeque, Peru

This Peters' Leaf-toed Gecko (Phyllodactylus reissii) had set up on the wall next to the sheet. Presumably the hunting conditions were good with the concentration of insects in the area.

Peters' Leaf-toed Gecko (Phyllodactylus reissii) - Eco Camping Racarrumi, Lambayeque, Peru

It had been a long day and we were pretty tired, still trying to catch up after our busy travel day. The next day we had plans to drive further up into the mountains in search of White-winged Guans and a whole suite of interesting birds.