breathing space: angono

Showing posts with label angono. Show all posts

Sunday, January 22

A day in Rizal

A morning in Antipolo...

Midway through December last year, Adri and I took a short trip east of Manila to Rizal to visit our friend with a lovely home and garden, teacher Emma. It is always a delightful visit, to sit down with her over a leisurely breakfast and talk about this and that in the world while surrounded by greenery and beautiful things.

Before leaving (our morning visit had lasted until noon - as good conversation always makes us lose track of the time), we took a short walk down her street and came across a few birds.

A Philippine Pygmy Woodpecker was keeping busy up a huge rain tree, together with several Lowland White Eyes, a migrant Arctic Warbler, a few Gerygones and a pair of Pied Fantails.

Further down, we spotted a White-throated Kingfisher and a few Philippine Bulbuls. A Grey backed Tailorbird called loudly from the tangle of vines and bamboo while an invisible Mangrove Blue Flycatcher sang melodiously. Above us a Philippine Serpent Eagle circled twice before gliding gracefully over the hill.

Back at the gate of the house, Yellow-vented Bulbuls and Red-keeled Flowerpeckers were gorging on the the bubbly white fruit of a small tree.

I've seen this tree in thickets here and there but never found out what it was. I asked help online and one of the suggestions was Dalunot, Pipturus arborescens.

Found this botanical print from Fr. Blanco online
at eol.org/data_objects/32359676

What I always thought of as its flowers, were actually its fruit! The small, soft, white and fleshy fruit looked to me like thick soapy foam bubbles and the birds love it!

The red-keeled flowerpecker we were busy observing was no exception. I was happy to find out that it was a native plant. (Please do correct me if the identification is wrong!)

Right above us a Philippine Coucal was skulking in the thick vines. How wonderful to be in a place where the birds do not seem so afraid of humans!

On to Angono...

Since we were already in Rizal and we had the whole day free, we decided to drive further and check on the family of Philippine Eagle Owls at the Angono Petroglyphs.

When we got there, we were delighted to here the news from the curator Roden that the young owl had just fledged that morning! We quickly spotted him quietly perched in front of the cave wall.

Higher up above the cave was mom, carefully hidden but keeping an eye out.

And even further out was dad, also well hidden but still in view.

We spent a good hour on the viewing platform for the petroglyphs chatting with Roden talking about the owls, the museum, and of course, the state of the nation. Such serious topics! All the while a pair of tiny Scaly-breasted Munias were busy with their nest just above the cave.

Life seems so fleeting when standing before a centuries-old testament to history.

Sunday, March 11

sunday birding part 1: natural + cultural history

"ah mga birdwatcher sila, pinapayagan namin silang lumabas sa viewing deck kasi ino-observe nila ung pamilya dyan ng philippine eagle owl. para sa kanila, secondary lang itong mga petroglyph!" - curator to other visitors (they're birdwatchers, we allow them to go past the viewing deck because they're here to observe a family of philippine eagle owls roosting there. the petroglyphs are only secondary to their purpose here!)

ooops. truthfully, i would not have finally visited the angono-binangonan petroglyphs if it weren't for a report from wbcp-er vincent about a very accomodating family of owls living in the area. and i suppose this holds for a lot of birders who had recently flocked (pun intended) to the site. another eagle owl sighting, the 2nd for the year! suddenly the eagle owl is not such a difficult bird to bag!

so, it was an excellent opportunity to hit two birds (not literally!) with one stone.

the angono-binangonan petroglyphs were "discovered" by national artist botong francisco in 1965. the townspeople were aware of the drawings, but apparently no one had realised their importance. it turned out that these figures, scratched into the rock, are the oldest known rock art in the philippines, estimated to have been created in 3,000 bc. it is a collection of 127 drawings made by several individuals and it has been declared a national cultural treasure.

ironically, these treasure is located in the vicinity of a golf course and a resort! thankfully, the area has been preserved, and hopefully, it will continue to be.

to make the area more accessible, a tunnel was created in the adjacent rock barrier. in the beginning they tried to blast their way through, obviously not a good idea as the rock they were blasting was continuous with the rock shelter with the petroglyphs! so they hired igorot miners to tunnel through by hand! i can imagine how long it took them to finish the tunnel, but looking at the stone wall at the start of the tunnel, i appreciate the artistry the laborers put into the rip-rap, creating the puzzle-piece wall, each stone probably filed to fit exactly. truly reflective of the stone work skills of the igorot.

light at the end of the tunnel

jigsaw puzzle wall: the pieces fit perfectly

when we arrived at the viewing deck and mini-museum, adri and i found alex & tere already there with a guest singaporean birder. also there was toto, a bird photographer and of course also vincent, who was on his regular sunday hike which led him to the owl discovery. wow, these owls were really popular! so many visitors on a sunday!

the deck for viewing the petroglyphs

can you spot the philippine eagle owl up in the tree?

we quickly joined them (outside the petroglyph view deck area!) to see an adult owl perched on a gmelina tree branch, in full view. it was regarding all the humans with ... curiosity? disdain? apprehension? hopefully, it was more of the former, as it didn't seem concerned at all with our presence, its huge eyes blinking slowly in the bright sunshine as it watched us.

i can see you with my big yellow eyes!

ever seen an owl wink?

the juvenile was in a more concealed spot on a neighboring tree, we could see it from the bottom and it looked like it still had soft downy, feathers. from time to time it would play with a branch with its beak, and alternated between falling asleep (well, its eyes were closed) and looking down at us.

baby in the tree: the newly fledged eagle owl

whoooooo's there?

when the others had their fill and left, i took a cue from my friend maia and started looking for signs of what these huge birds (the philippine eagle owl is the largest owl in the philippines) were eating. Small bones, looking mostly like rodents from the skulls (maia writes about that here), littered the bottom of the rock face. i remember when i was very small, we had a hamlyn guide to natural history collecting and a whole section was devoted to owl pellets. these aren't owl poop, but regurgitated pellets containing indigestible parts like bones. finally, after 20+ years i get to see the real thing!

various bones from a previous meal

finally, after almost an hour, we decided to move on to the actual attraction at the site. the petroglyphs! almost all the rock engravings looked human, some of them even had "fingers"! i wonder what the place looked like in 3,000 bc when the ancient people had carved these drawings! definitely no resorts and golf courses or sprawling subdivisions. how many eagle owls lived in the company of these humans? did they regard them with as much wonder and respect? did the owls' strange calls at night inspire superstition?

the angono petroglyphs in binangonan: the oldest known art in the philippines

nature's censorship :-)

check out adri's video of the owls:

after a short conversation with the national museum dude roden and vincent, we were on our way. the day was only half over and we had to move to another birding site in the city, this time by the coast.