So we are continuing our journey through Peru and have reached Paracas on the Pacific Coast. Here we took a two hour boat trip to Las Ballestas. The boat set off from Paracas Pier at 8am and was back by 10am but cost us only 30 soles per person plus port and national park entry.
At first we visited a point on the mainland coast where we had good views of a 170m high Geoglyph (a bit like the Nazca Lines). Here we saw several of the expected birds Peruvian Pelican, Peruvian Booby and Inca Terns but also some Black Oystercatchers.
Continuing to the Islands itself the first bird we actually saw was a Turkey Vulture flying over the boat to check us out. But soon enough we were picking out several Humboldt Penguins on the island. Another lifer and my fourth ever Penguin.
In the air the most numerous birds were Peruvian Booby and Inca Terns. I kept checking out the boobies to see if there was any different boobies among them (Blue-Footed from the north or Nazca from the south) but didn’t spot any.
The Inca Terns were especially attractive with their white Salvador Dali line in the cheek. They also fed almost like a petrel, landing on the surface and picking from it rather than diving like most terns.
As well as all the birds it was possible to pick out crabs, anemones and the like among the rocks.
Whilst we had seen the Neotropic Cormorant on the flight out, we were pleased to see a massive group of Guanay Cormorants on the Islands too.
Continuing back towards the mainland we saw a group of Sea Lions excited by fishermen with their nets and inevitably thousands of Anchovies.
Walking along the coast in the Paracas National Park we did also add Coastal Miner and Chilean Flamingo (no camera) which took our year list to 1034 and our Peru list to 84
WildScot Photography 
Wonderful sightings, it is interesting to see how the species change as you head further south. Inca terns are very handsome birds.
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