New bird on Lima Pelagics June 29- Chatham Island Albatross
Kolibri Expeditions
Great Pelagic with new record for the Callao Pelagics - Chatham Island Albatross June 29, 2008.
Weather: Overcast and light winds. Wavy but no whitecapping.
Good number of birds.
We used a smaller boat today that easily fitted the 11 birders and chummer Renzo Hidalgo, as well as two boat staff. It had the advantage that it took us faster to the pelagic waters as well as faster back to land. In fact so fast that we could spend half an hour at the excellent Arenillas Lagoon at La Punta, that recently has recieved proper protection and is one of the few mudflats in Peru where the birds are not being hassled. More about this below.
The tour started with the normal Inca Terns, Peruvian Pelicans and Boobies as well as a few Guanay Cormorants, Gray, Band-tailed (Belcher's), Kelp and Gray-headed Gulls. Before we reached Punta Norte of San Lorenzo island we had also seen a few Blue-footed Boobies as well as surprisingly so close to shore a single Swallow-tailed Gull. Good start.
At the point of San Lorenzo the bands of 1000s of Sooty shearwaters appeared and not before long singles of Peruvian Diving-Petrel.
Our first Skua of the day was not a Chilean, but a South Polar and later yet another one was seen before the order was put right and some 5 Chilean Skuas altogether were seen. As we were watching one of the skuas a tall whale blow was seen in the distance. Possibly a Blue Whale, but we never saw the whole thing.
Before we reached the chumming area at 32.5 nmiles, we had several Storm-Petrels. Again one had to carefully look at the birds to seperate Wilson's from White-vented (Elliot's). At times it was difficult. Maybe the problem is that two different sized subspecies present? We could not conclude with certainty but some Elliot's looked smaller than others (that also had white belly). The Galapagos ssp of Elliot´s is practically the same size as Wilson's.
A few Markham's SP showed well before the chum and also several Waved Albatross were sighted. When we also sighted a Hornby's Storm-Petrel and only 2.5 nmiles from our regular chumming site we figured we might as well chum right there.
Apart from the several hundreds of the Storm-Petrels already mentioned we as Wedge-rumped Storm-Petrel, White-chinned Petrel and Waved, Buller's and Salvin's Albatross. Best of all were however the first Lima Pelagic record of Chatham Island Albatros. An adult bird. Í shall post the pics on "pics and files" on www.birdingperu.com.
On the way back we saw a few Pink-footed Shearwater, South American Tern and more Swallow-tailed Gulls, Peruvian Diving Petrel and Chilean Skuas.
At Palomino island among 5000 sealions (impressive!!) we had altogether 5 Peruvian Seaside Cinclodes and one Blackish Oystercatcher. Also the beautiful Red-legged Cormorant.
At Kawinza there were some 10 Humboldt Penguins that were seen very well.
One of the more popular regular events of the Kolibri Expeditions Lima Pelagics is the final chumm! We save some of the chumm to the end and in order not take it to port (the port crew would not like!) we feed the last bits to the huge Inca Tern colony at Fronton island. The boat became completely surrounded by Inca Terns - similar to a Hitchcock movie. Stunning beauty.
As we reached the port 45 minutes before scheduled time we could make a short visit to Poza Arenilla at la Punta. This is an excellent site for waders and gulls.
The surprises included some 4-5 summer plumage Franklin´s Gull and 700-800 visiting Andean Gull from the highlands. Wow....never seen so many Andean Gulls together period ...there were some 400-500 near Cusco airport recently but that seemed more normal.
Next pelagic July 6, July 12, July 26 (half day) and Aug 3.
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Gunnar Engblom-Lima, Peru.
Kolibri Expeditions
http://www.kolibriexpeditions.com
www.birding-peru.com - checklist and data-base. Record your sightings on-line, forum, pictures, identification, Expedition Birding, etc.
Tel: +51 1 273 72 46 (office). 273 71 98 (home) cel: 51-1-91102985 or 99007886
Trevor Hardaker
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Trevor
Hardaker
To see some of my photos of
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and
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visit
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Trevor
Hardaker and John Graham
ZEST for BIRDS
Cape Town, South
Africa
Website:
www.zestforbirds.co.za
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