Lima Birding Tours: Pelagic

Our Pelagic Birding tour is the real thing — a full offshore day on the Humboldt Current, out to as far as 30 nautical miles from the Peruvian coast, in search of the albatrosses, petrels and storm-petrels that almost never come within sight of land. The cold, nutrient-rich water off central Peru is one of the most productive seabird systems on the planet, and this trip is built for serious listers and photographers who want the deep-water specialities, not just the inshore seabirds. We leave Lima at 4:30 AM, drive an hour south to the fishing port of Pucusana, and board a private, properly equipped boat for around seven hours at sea.

The heart of the day is the pelagic zone and the chumming session, roughly 25 nautical miles out, where a slick of fish oil and scraps pulls the tubenoses in to the boat. This is where Peru's albatrosses appear — Waved, Salvin's and Buller's, and in the cooler months Chatham and Black-browed — gliding in on stiff wings alongside Southern and Northern Giant-Petrels and Southern Fulmar. Storm-petrels patter over the slick in numbers: Wilson's, Elliot's, the sought-after Ringed (Hornby's), Markham's, Wedge-rumped and Black, while Cook's, Galápagos and White-chinned Petrels, Buller's, Pink-footed and Sooty Shearwaters and the tiny Peruvian Diving-Petrel work the swell around us.

Away from the slick the same waters hold Red-billed Tropicbird, Nazca, Masked and Blue-footed Boobies, South Polar Skua and three jaegers, Sabine's and Swallow-tailed Gulls, Arctic Tern and both Humboldt and Magellanic Penguins. It is also a superb day for marine mammals — pods of Dusky, Common and Bottlenose Dolphins are routine, Humpback Whales pass through from July to October, and there is always an outside chance of a Blue Whale, the largest animal that has ever lived.

On the way out and back we work the Pucusana coast and islands for the Humboldt Current's inshore seabirds — Peruvian Booby, Guanay and Red-legged Cormorants, Peruvian Pelican, Inca Tern, Blackish Oystercatcher and the endemic Surf Cinclodes — with South American Sea-lions hauled out on the rocks. Our free Peru Pelagic checklist, compiled from the pelagic, island and seawatch trips off Lima, Pucusana and Paracas, runs to 76 seabird species recorded within 40 km of the coast. Groups are small, the boat carries safety equipment exceeding Peruvian maritime requirements, and we are back in Lima by late afternoon.