Day 0. Lima-Piura
At 6 PM on the day prior to the start of the tour we fly to Piura in North Peru. Hotel in Piura.
Day 1. Piura, San Pedro de Vice Mangroves and afternoon pelagic at Los Organos.
The early morning start takes us to the mangroves at San Pedro de Vice. The keybird here is the rare Peruvian Tern which we may or may not see at sea, so we may as well give a try at this reliable spot before heading to Los Organos. There are also a number of gulls, terns and shorebirds here.
We plan to arrive at Los Organos at 1pm and will immediately board the boat. Hotel in Los Organos or Mancora.
Seabirds that are possible on North Peru pelagics include Waved Albatross, Galapagos Petrel, Parkinson's Petrel, Flesh-footed Shearwater, Pink-footed Shearwater, perhaps Galapagos shearwater, Cook's Petrel, Least, White-faced, White-vented, Black, and Wedge-rumped Storm-Petrels, Blue-footed, Brown, Peruvian and perhaps Nazca, Masked or Red-footed Boobies and Swallow-tailed Gull.
This afternoon we shall prime a spot with chum to which we shall return early the following day. Hopefully we shall attract more birds still the following morning.
Day 2. Los Organos Pelagic. Evening flight to Lima.
Returning to our chum spot, we shall continue to look for many of the same birds. During this day we will also, set course to the NW to a very rich bank off of Tumbes. We shall certainly find other birds here. In the afternoon we travel back to Piura for the 8 PM flight to Lima. Hotel in MIraflores, Lima
Day 3. Lima Pelagic
A 7-8 hour pelagic off the coast of Lima we reach around 33 nmiles to shelf. Here we have great success with enormous numbers of White-vented Storm-Petrels, as well as Wedge-rumped, Wilson (ssp chilensis aka Fuegan SP), many Ringed Storm-Petrels as well as abundant Black Storm Petrels in the Austral Summer and several Markham's Storm-Petrels in the winter. We make an 7/8 hour trip to deep waters off Lima on the third day. When back in port we shall continue to drive south to Nazca where we shall stay overnight.
Day 4 and 5 Pelagics from Puerto de Lomas south of Nazca.
Day four and five we make trips out from Puerto de Lomas with a fishing boat. Nowhere on the Peruvian coast is the shelf as close as this. One only needs to go to around 10-20 miles to get excellent seabirds. Perhaps not the most comfortable set-up but it can be very productive. A recent trip from here in December produced Kermadec and Galapagos Petrel and a Cookilaria (photos achieved but not yet fully analysed). Also seen here on other trips have been Waved Albatross, Salvin's Albatross, Buller's Albatross, Sabine's Gull as well as Chilean Skua. This is a new locality first explored by Kolibri Expeditions. Many interestng sightings will undoubtedly come from here in the future.
In January 2011 it was also very good for Humpback Whale, whence several were seen breaching.
In the afternoon on day 5 we shall return to Lima arrving at around 8 pm.