Wader Quest reaches 100 species!

After the disappointment of yesterday's fruitless search for Peruvian Thick-knee it was a very happy WQ team that clapped their eyes on not one, but seven thick-knees, thanks to Renzo our guide, taking our total number of species to 100. Much celebration ensued, not just because of the the total, this bird was one of those that had captured our imagination and we really wanted to see one.

Peruvian Thick-knee such a great looking bird.

We watched them walk around a little, then in flight, calling; brilliant! What a thrill! These really are lovely birds and we felt so privileged to see them even if the surroundings (the edge of an industrial estate in the Atacama Desert at a place called Lurin) was not so picturesque.

Five of the group of seven.

This subtle beauty has such elegance!

Happy guys, but see what we mean about the surroundings?

Full of happy thoughts we went on to a place called Pucusana, a small fishing port along the coast south from Lima. Here we hired a man with a small boat to take us around the rocks just outside the harbour. The sea was a bit high so we couldn't circumnavigate the headland as we had hoped, but we went far enough to get species number 101 on the list, Blackish Oystercatcher.

We got a bit closer to these than we did the American
Black Oystercatchers in California!

The happy team heads back to dry land

After the boat trip, from the neck of the headland, we were surprised to come across another pair of Blackish Oystercatchers, this pair got themselves all hyped up with a bit of displaying and ten saw off a Belcher's Gull who was too close for comfort.

The display starts with the Belcher's Gull looking on.

The Belcher's backs off nervously when the pair appear to turn on him.

Then one of the birds lunges at the gull, seeing it off!

The pair look rather pleased with their success.