This was to be the final day of the main tour, with a site called San Marcos with our name on it.What made that site so necessary? One, great, bird. This is the stronghold of a rare and local Peruvian endemic, the Great Spinetail. Before we had even smelt the morning coffee (which we had with us for the field), the birds were in the bag, a walk of some thirty metres from the car being all that was required. The same area held Masked Yellowthroat, and repeat Black-necked Woodpecker and Buff-bridled Inca-Finch, but, sadly, no White-winged Black-Tyrant. With this miss, Nick opted to check another site, where we spread out and set to scan the area. I was just lifting my bins to my eyes for my very first scan of the area, when Mark promptly announced he had one! It was not meant to be that easy, but, as you may have realised from the previous blog posts, it was just that kind of trip. In the afternoon, after our final lunch together, and immediately before our return flight to Lima, we returned to the comet site at Rio Chonta, which for me at least provided a last stab at another possible lifer, Andean Swift. However, the skies proved to be free of swifts of any kind, although we did see Yellow-billed Tit-Tyrant, Andean Flicker, Rusty-crowned Tit-Spinetail, Golden-billed Saltator, and White-winged Cinclodes among others to close out the main tour.
We departed for Lima, and Mark and I bid farewell to Rick who was Houston-bound, and Nick, who was Argentina-bound, while we went off shopping for supplies for our next day in Central Peru, when we were set to visit the Santa Eulalia Valley, east of Lima, where yet another Inca-Finch was in our crosshairs...
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