On Fri, Sep 7, 2012 at 7:29 AM, Dave Torr <> wrote:
> Hi
>
> I am heading off to Peru in just over a week with a friend to do a bird
> tour.
Wow, have a fantastic time. If you haven't been before, Peru is a
wonderful country. Apart from the incredible number and variety of
birds (1800+) it's gorgeous and the food is *fantastic*. Seriously, so
good it can make you cry.
> We have a spare day in Lima before the tour - any suggestions for
> places to bird in Lima would be good
Lima itself is not the birdiest setting as it's extensively urbanized.
One _fantastic_ site that you could easily do on a spare day is
Platanos de Villa. It's a marsh/wetland of about 400ha technically
within Lima itself. I'd recommend getting a cab to take you there and
back - negotiate the price beforehand and you should be fine. (It
should also be accessible by public bus but that would likely end up
sucking up a fair bit of your time.) The site has lovely trails,
observation towers and heaps of good birds. If you're new to the
region, it's easier to start off with ducks and other waterfowl than
to try from some of the harder-to-distinguish regional birds.
Note that when we originally asked we were told that Platanos de Villa
was "closed"...but the folks at Platanos de Villa hadn't been told
that ;-) If you have a local birding contact in Lima, it would be
worth double-checking.
There are several other well-known sites along the coast from Lima
either north or south but aren't as easy to get to. If your tour
originates in Lima, you may well be visiting some - and Platanos de
Villa too, for that matter. If you are interested in the archeology,
the Huaca Pucllana site in Miraflores is very much worth a visit. A
bit further out but not too far is Pachacamac is another outstanding
(and extensive) site. There are birds at both locations but they
wouldn't be first choices for birding.
Have a great time.
P.S. There is a CD available of Peruvian bird sounds available from
www.birdsounds.nl that I found worthwhile:
http://www.birdsounds.nl/index.php?pg=productsitem&gr=0&id=1007
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