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Message: <blockquote data-quote="tom mckinney" data-source="post: 1594071" data-attributes="member: 2161">Abra MalagaIt’s easy to point the finger at governments and big businesses when they destroy vast tracts of land, but in the case of Royal Cinclodes it’s much more difficult. The Polylepis that the Cinclodes is found in makes great firewood for local people living in remote areas. These are often the poorest of people, totally isolated from the modern world, who depend on the wood for survival. Yet once it’s gone, so too will the Cinclodes. Bye bye. It’s really annoying that some birds seem to be so hopelessly inept when it comes to quickly adapting to a new landscape - why can’t they all just be like Ring-necked Parakeets? Anyway, it's estimated that there are less than 250 left, mostly in Peru but also a tiny number in Bolivia.Now that the road is paved all the way from Cusco, the Abra Malaga pass is the easiest site for Royal Cinclodes. Most other sites involve pretty rough travel, whereas from the town of Ollantaytambo you can probably strike it lucky and be back in just over half a day. Not that there’s any reason for such a quick visit, the general birding up there and on the way is top class. This was our favourite day of the whole trip, so good that we ended up going back a couple of days later.If you’re doing it independently then the best way for transport is by hiring a taxi for the day. Ours came as part of the booking with our hotel (KB Tambo), but you could sort one out with the drivers hanging about near the train station. I don’t know what to suggest as a price, but I’d say you’re being overcharged if you pay much over 150sol (about £35). It’s about a 50 minute drive from Ollantaytambo to the pass.You can’t miss the start of the trail. Just before the top of the pass there’s a few big signs saying Royal Cinclodes Reserve and the well marked trail leads up from there. Also, I’d heard stories of how difficult the walk up is - hmmm, well I’m no Usain Bolt, but the slope is so gentle that even at 4,300m it’s a doddle. Just be sensible and take your time. It’s impossible to rush anyway, there’s far too many Ground-Tyrants around to pulp your already oxygen starved brain.From the top of the ridge look down to your right and you’ll see the largest patches of Polylepis. The trail winds down gradually and you pass tiny bits of Polylepis on your left - don’t neglect them, we had Red-rumped Bush-Tyrant, Puna Tapaculo, both the Tit-Spinetails and Ash-breasted Tit-Tyrant here. The best Polylepis is the first big patch under the cliff, basically the first big patch you come to on the trail. This is the regular place for Royal Cinclodes, though they’re by no means guaranteed. I’ve read that in bad weather they can move off well away from the valley, sometimes even being seen by the road at the pass. The birding in this patch of Polylepis is quite extraordinary - what looks like a really small area of trees turns out to be really dense once you get inside. All the birds eventually show themselves off very well, but be ready to pish yourself to death in the process.On our first visit we arrived just after 6am and the sky was pretty clear and the views across to Mount Veronica incredible, but soon the cloud dropped and it suddenly became more like the Pyg Track up to Snowdon. White-winged Diuca Finches on the way up, Plumbeous Sierra-Finches common, 10 Bright-rumped Yellow-Finches and White-fronted Ground-Tyrants everywhere. Starting the descent we had a Red-rumped Bush-Tyrant just in front and quickly had another 4 Ground-Tyrants (Cinereous, Taczanowski’s, Puna and White-browed). Reaching the first tiny bit of Polylepis on the left we got great views of Ash-breasted Tit-Tyrant then pushed on to the 1st big patch of Polylepis.As soon as we got inside the trees we could hear growling Stripe-headed Antpittas, but other than that nothing. We had a pretty worrying 10 minutes of seeing absolutely nothing and the cloud was coming lower all the time - bad vibes. However, soon things started singing, and with some exhausting pishing we pulled out a gorgeous Tawny Tit-Spinetail followed by an endemic White-browed Tit-Spinetail. Another Ash-breasted Tit-Tyrant popped up and at least 2 Junin Canasteros were singing, though we never managed to see them. At the base of the cliff 2 Blue-mantled Thornbills were chasing about high up and Mountain Caracara were cruising just by us at head height, but still the that cloud was getting lower - noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo…… oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo  … etc …More pishing, more pulsing veins in my temples. But soon 2 Stripe-headed Antpittas came out to see what all the stupid noise was about. Pishing - ha! Love it. They probably thought we were so pathetically stupid that we wouldn’t even see them. Another White-browed Tit-Spinetail and then a rush of adrenalin: a feeble couple of squeaks, but I’d heard that call a million times whilst sat watching Emmerdale listening to my iPod - Royal Cinclodes. Two birds came up from the ground and started flying around the cliff - awful views. Eventually one plummeted off the cliff and back onto the ground just around the corner out of view. More squeaky calls and then it came up onto a low tree, calling frantically to the bird up on the cliff. A bit distant but perfectly clear views. We were a bit worried about it calling so madly and decided to back off, suspecting we were troubling it. We got as far back as we could whilst still being able to just about see it, when suddenly everything went completely right - the clouds parted, cherubim and seraphim did annoint the montane air with Heavenly trumpet voluntaries, angels did weep at the beauty they witnessed beneath their perfect forms. And so on and so forth. The Cinclodes flew down and landed in the top of another tree about 20m from us - no sh1t! Great views, a bit of butterflies in our stomachs and even a bitter streak of sadness - the poor sod clearly had no idea how much trouble him and pals are in!Perfect views for about 2 whole minutes with only the sound of the river running vertically down the cliff from the melting glacier on the other side of the valley. Spiritual almost, but most certainly not in a filthy hippy DHSS joss stick way.But then 2 Stripe-headed Antpittas totally f***ed up the atmos as they rolled past our feet, squealing and clawing each other's heads in a death roll as they tried to viciously murder each other. Comedy moment. They rolled past and vanished back into the trees, but when we looked back up the Cinclodes had gone. Forever. And ever.Time for food - never did two slices of stale brown bread filled with sweating processed cheese and crushed paprika favoured Mr Potato crisps ever taste quite so good. The walk back up in the mist was a lot easier than we thought it would be, and one final surprise was a Puna Tapaculo calling from the top of a single Polylepis tree. Back at the top of the pass the cloud had reduced visibility to un-birdable, and so we worked our way back to Ollantaytambo stopping at the Penis ruins I mean Peñas ruins (ha ha ha ha ha) for Creamy-crested Spinetail, Rusty-fronted Canastero, White-tufted and Shining Sunbeams, Great Sapphirewing and Tyrian Metaltail.Later that night I banged my head on a door frame. It hurt a lot. You didn’t need to know that, but now you do anyway. A few days later we went back up to the Abra Malaga pass again, but I'm out of wine, so I’ll have to leave it till an other time, which almost rhymes.By the way, for those of you just waiting for the horse incident, don’t worry, we’re getting near.***Variable Hawk - 2Mountain Caracara - 2 Andean Lapwing - 2 Andean Gull - 2Great Sapphirewing - 1 at PeñasBlue-mantled Thornbill - 2White-tufted Sunbeam - 1 at PeñasShining Sunbeam - 2 at PeñasTyrian Metailtail - 1 at PeñasSlender-billed Miner - 1 ROYAL CINCLODES - 2. Oh hoorah!Bar-winged Cinclodes - commonWhite-browed Tit-Spinetail - 2+Tawny Tit-Spinetail - 1Junin Canastero - 2+ heard onlyRusty-fronted Canastero - 2+ at PeñasCreamy-crested Spinetail - 1 at PeñasStripe-headed Antpitta - 2Puna Tapaculo - 1. Call just a simple repeated chup, not like my mp3 or the description in SchulenbergAsh-breasted Tit-Tyrant - 2Cinereous Ground-TyrantTaczanowski’s Ground-TyrantPuna Ground-TyrantWhite-browed Ground-TyrantWhite-fronted Ground-TyrantRed-rumped Bush-Tyrant - 1Great Thrush - 3Cinereous Conebill - common at PeñasBlack-throated Flowerpiercer - 3+ at PeñasPlumbeous Sierra-Finch - commonWhite-winged Diuca-Finch - 2 Bright-rumped Yellow-Finch - 10Golden-billed Saltator - 1 at Peñas***Below are some of the worst ever photos of some of the area's best birds: Royal Cinclodes (the brown smudge on top of the tree); Mr Potato Head; Tawny Tit-Spinetail; White-browed Tit-Spinetail.</blockquote>

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