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LSU camp 
PERU

SAN MARTIN (Compass)

Lat:00o00´S/00o00´W ha topography msl 
Protected/registered status 
Best Time for visit (27th-28th June, 2006)

 

Birding Site Guide

From Alto Nieva walk about 1km to a restaurant called Chanchita. From here you get a nice view over the lower section of the valley. Scan here for Raptors. I saw White-throated Hawk and Swallow-tailed Kite soaring by. From here, it's about another 4km down to a bend with a couple of houses. This used to be at km 389 but would now be at km378. The road here was under repair though and there was no marker. At the house as for Juan Rojas or nearby for Ronald Espinar who could be employed as guides. An admission to the trail may also be charged. We were unlucky with the weather and got rained on heavily. The trail is fairly straight forward but at the first quebrada don't cross straight over where a small trail continues passed a small pond on the right. Instead, walk down the quebrada about 50m to where the trail continues on the other side. From here it is a good trail. The number of quebradas on the map in Valqui corresponds to the rivers and not the several small streams that cross the trail. After another fairly large river crossing, you get to a large open area where you can camp. I assume this was the LSU camp used in 2002. It was very boggy but a flat, elevated area on the right with a wooden frame had better draining. 

The trail on the way there passed through some nice forest and the forest edge around the camp had excellent birding in the morning with good mixed flocks. I also heard Rufous-sided Crake in the clearing. Another good spot was just 5 minutes along the trail from the main road where I had an excellent tanager flock, including Blue-naped Chlorophonia, Straw-backed, Vermillion, Orange-eared and Metallic-green Tanagers. My plan was to follow the instructions in Valqui and go up to a place called Utter Solitude to look for Ochre-fronted Antpitta and Long-whiskered Owlet but from the camp site another river was a gushing torrent and I couldn’t pass. I saw 40 species including 9 lifers. 


Species seen


Other Fauna 
A total of -- species of mammals. 

There are -- recorded species of amphibians and reptiles. 

Flora 

Author: Charles Hesse

 

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