MKinHK
Mike Kilburn
The longest flight I’ve ever taken had me clearing the edge of the Andes and dropping over the desert that fringes the Pacific Ocean and surrounds Lima a mind-melting 29 hours after leaving Hong Kong. Apart from a couple of Jackdaws in Paris during my layover, and the ubiquitous Feral Pigeons, a handsomely dark-hooded Belcher’s Gull - a Humbolt Current endemic - flying across the highway just as I left the airport was a fine welcome to Peru.
On two mornings I spent a couple of hours in the lovely Bosque del Olivar, a city park built around a grove of wonderfully gnarled and weathered olives that have witnessed the march of Peruvian history for almost half a millennium. They were full of birds and I had a terrific couple of hours collecting a fine array of Pacific coast specialists that were completely new to me.
Almost the first tree I looked at held a gang of Southern Beardless Tyrannulets - a small, tuft-crested bundle of muted colours with couple of equally muted brown-tinged wingbars. I’ve always thought “Beardless”, is, while essentially accurate, the most stupidly redundant adjective of all time in that it tells you absolutely nothing useful about the bird whatsoever. I mean seriously, it’s as if Monty Python was put in charge of naming it! Rant over.
As I pished them in a couple of introduced Bananaquits and several Vermillion Flycatchers of the distinctive dusky local race that is only found around Lima came barreling in too as if they’d never been pished before. I saw a variation of plumages over my two visits here, ranging from the classic burning red nominate race to brown-tinged black birds the colour of wet coffee grounds. They had absolutely no fear of people, even feeding newly fledged chicks just a couple of metres off the main drag.
Cheers
Mike
On two mornings I spent a couple of hours in the lovely Bosque del Olivar, a city park built around a grove of wonderfully gnarled and weathered olives that have witnessed the march of Peruvian history for almost half a millennium. They were full of birds and I had a terrific couple of hours collecting a fine array of Pacific coast specialists that were completely new to me.
Almost the first tree I looked at held a gang of Southern Beardless Tyrannulets - a small, tuft-crested bundle of muted colours with couple of equally muted brown-tinged wingbars. I’ve always thought “Beardless”, is, while essentially accurate, the most stupidly redundant adjective of all time in that it tells you absolutely nothing useful about the bird whatsoever. I mean seriously, it’s as if Monty Python was put in charge of naming it! Rant over.
As I pished them in a couple of introduced Bananaquits and several Vermillion Flycatchers of the distinctive dusky local race that is only found around Lima came barreling in too as if they’d never been pished before. I saw a variation of plumages over my two visits here, ranging from the classic burning red nominate race to brown-tinged black birds the colour of wet coffee grounds. They had absolutely no fear of people, even feeding newly fledged chicks just a couple of metres off the main drag.
Cheers
Mike
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DSC05136 Vermillion Flycatcher @ Olivar.jpg323.4 KB · Views: 26
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DSC04927 Vermillion Flycatcher @ Olivar.jpg376.7 KB · Views: 24
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DSC05175 Vermillion Flycatcher obscurus @ Olivar.jpg107.8 KB · Views: 27
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DSC04966 Southern Beardless Tyrannulet @ Olivar.jpg506.4 KB · Views: 27
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IMG_0156 Bosque el Olivar @ Olivar.JPG639.9 KB · Views: 18
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