breathing space: swamphen

Showing posts with label swamphen. Show all posts

Wednesday, December 31

Making up for lost birding months

Sad to say, 2014, especially the last half, was not a very productive birding (or blogging!) year for me. Caught up in work and other duties, my binoculars, camera and birding gear hardly left their respective confines in my room.

The start of the year wasn't so bad: a trip to Batanes highlighted my summer, and I wrote about the birding here. I had a trip to Davao where I racked up 3 lifers - which I never got to blog about (hopefully I can revisit that in a blog post next year!). A return to Davao in August to help out the WBCP and the Philippine Eagle Foundation was a very fulfilling adventure which I wrote about for e-bon (here), plus an additional lifer on the beach for that trip care of Pete Simpson.

And that was mostly it for my birding year! I had a few trips to the neighborhood LMEP, joined a couple of raptorwatches in Tanay and even did some migrant spotting in Concepcion, Tarlac and volunteered to lead a guided trip for grade-schoolers at UP - but that was it! Where did my birding year go?

By November I was wallowing in misery over my non-birding season. As soon as the classes ended in December for the Christmas break, Adri took me on a 3 day trip to nearby Candaba and Subic to try to make up for 6 months of birding deprivation. To say that I was super excited is an understatement!

We set off for Candaba early in morning... a routine I had severely missed! I had packed food, water, overnight necessities and birding clothes for 3 days. Checked my binoculars, my camera and extra batteries and my (slightly dusty) birding notebook. Ready and rarin' to go!

And when we got to Candaba, the calls of cisticolas and flocks of egrets were welcome sounds and sights. I immediately began practicing photographing roadside grassbirds and munias.

Striated Grassbirds called loudly from the side of the road.

Chestnut munias twittering at sunrise.

When we got the the mayor's ponds: ducks galore! And it was then I realised my huge mistake! I had forgotten to pack the tripod like Adri had asked me! I wanted to cry (in fact I actually did!) How stupid of me! All the ducks in front of us, and no tripod for the scope! Worse of all, Adri could not set up his digiscoping rig without the tripod or scope! Our birding weekend had not even started and I felt like I had ruined it already!

Adri, the best husband in the world, comforted me saying that we did not need the scope and it was ok that he didn't take any photos. I was inconsolable. Even a show of supremacy by the eastern Marsh Harrier and the showy displays of the Purple Swamphens couldn't make me feel better.

A Little Grebe fishing for breakfast.

Purple Swamphens were displaying aggressively.

To make matters worse, we ran into a hunter on his motorbike, carrying his long firearm complete with silencer. On his second time to pass us, Adri asked him "Hunting?" to which he immediately answered "Yes!". Adri gently reminded him that hunting was not allowed to which he answered "Yes, I know the ducks can't be hunted, I'm only shooting the doves." Adri again reminded him that RA 9147 included all birds, to which he again countered "But the doves eat the seeds we broadcast in the fields!" And Adri (for the nth time) says "All living things CANNOT be hunted!" Thankfully he gives a resigned "Ganun ba?" and drives away. We think that he was also warned by the locals further down the road.

A hunter in the marshes... click on the photo and take notice of his commemorative plate.

I couldn't have been more down. Finally, Adri (did I say best husband in the world?), said we could detour back to home to grab the scope and then go on our way to Subic. We would lose some time, but most of it was dead birding time anyway. At least we could still have a good rest for an early start of Subic birding the next day. We left Candaba just as a Peregrine Falcon was hunting over the main ponds.

A Peregrine Falcon hunting over the ponds.

We made good time despite the horrendous Christmas season traffic, and found ourselves in Subic by mid-afternoon. Yay! Weekend: restart!

It was, thankfully, a very birdy weekend.

The Blue-naped Parrots and Green Racket-tails were very racuous... their loud calls giving away their perches and identifying them as they flew above. Guiabaros were unusually shy, but the Colasisis were very showy, an unusual switch in character.

A Green Racket-tail trying to hide... but its calls give away its location!

Colasisi - I usually get photos of this parrot at home!

All the woodpeckers were busy moving up and down tree trunks, often oblivious to our presence.

A female Sooty Woodpecker.

An extremely busy White-bellied Woodpecker.

A Luzon Flameback on a Cupang tree.

Black-naped Orioles, Bar-bellied Cuckooshrikes, Blackish Cuckooshrikes, Coletos and Balicassiaos were active throughout the day, from sunrise to sundown.

The Bar-bellied Cuckooshrikes were extremely active the whole day.

There were an unusually large number of monkeys hanging out, not my favorite mammals, but one young male of a troop caught my attention: he sat comfortably on some electric cables, hands grasping his feet as he watched us bird. Talk about chilling out.

A Long-tailed macaque chillin' by the roadside.

We found a fruiting tree along one of the main roads and that gave as a few hours of time observing Green Imperial Pigeons and Philippine (formerly Pompadour) Green Pigeons.

The backside of a Philippine Green Pigeon

A GrImp approaching the feeding tree.

At Nabasan, the Cupang trees were in bloom and they housed not only cuckoo-shrikes, woodpeckers and parrots, but also a very quiet immature Rusty-breasted Cuckoo, searching actively for caterpillars in the foliage.

An immature Rusty-breasted Cuckoo high up a Cupang tree.

Of course not to be missed were pairs of Luzon Hornbills, trumpeting around the trees.

A male Luzon Hornbill calling out to its mate at a nearby tree.

The usual suspects were also very friendly and compliant to having their photos taken: the funky looking Whiskered Treeswifts, both males and females, were at their usual perches.

A female Whiskered Treeswift...

... and a male Whiskered Treeswift.

A noisy White-throated Kingfisher also allowed his portrait taken - and he chose a natural perch!

This White-throated Kingfisher forgot to wipe its mouth after its last meal.

But the best bird of the trip was one I had never seen before in Subic. A quiet Philippine Drongo Cuckoo paid us no heed as he flew in and out of the trees along the road, even flying in closer to us as we were observing it!

A Philippine Drongo Cuckoo oblivious to our prescence.

Although nothing could make up for 6 months of lost birding, my momentary thirst for birding was definitely quenched! Birding at a relaxed pace! Subic is the best! I hope this last birding go for the year is a prelude to the coming year!

By the way, remember my first lifer for the year involved breaking the curse of the Chocolate Boobook? I bungled my shot, but it looks like the curse is truly broken: we had an (almost) effortless sighting of it again! Now I wonder why it took me so long to see it.

My shot has improved, but I didn't say it was any good!

A joyful and birdy 2015 to everyone!

Thursday, January 2

ending 2013 with a couple of lifers

the end of the year saw me neglecting birding for work! but while my birding activities slowed down considerably compared to the last few years, i was still able to slip in a few day trips to candaba to enjoy both resident and migrants.

on the first trip, adri wanted to check out the condition of the dirt roads. this year was a bit drier for the -ber months and so, except for some deep ruts, the road was not a problem for a vehicle with a high clearance.

most of the philippine ducks, wandering whistling ducks and stilts we found were by the main highway, enjoying the water-logged earth which was still not being planted.

at the mayor's ponds, several purple swamphens were out in the open, looking more like dinosaurs than modern-day birds.

there were several little grebes also, both adults and juveniles. it's always fun to watch them swimming around and diving under water, only to pop out several meters away.

blue-tailed bee-eaters perched on the tall flowering grass, gracefully gliding to and from their perches.

adult and juvenile purple herons were also a-plenty, together with grey herons, black-crowned night-herons and an assortment of egrets.

at the back of the mayor's house, adri and i pointed out to mel a small colony of bats which we discovered roosting earlier in the year. (no, bats are not birds!)

wood sandpipers were busy foraging through the mud of the un-planted fields. a closer inspection revealed a few sharp-tailed sandpipers, a lifer for adri.

the next trip to candaba was to twitch a very rare migrant. wbcp-ers linda g. and brian e. had reported seeing a pair of black-faced spoonbills a few days before! they had seen it just as the last week of school before christmas break was ending and i was impatient (i think i was literally twitching!) for monday to come to see if they were still around. the weekend passed with daily reports of birders seeing the spoonbills in exactly the same spot. i was hoping and praying they would stay put.

on monday morning adri, andrew and i met up with mike a., tonji and tito along THE spot on the baliuag-candaba highway. i was surprised at the changes in the landscape in the past 2 and a half weeks. many of the fields had been planted already, those which weren't were quickly being drained and plowed. egrets and terns followed the farmers tilling the fields.

when we got to the reported site, we were greeted by probably a thousand black-winged stilts! there were several waders as well: some greenshanks, asian golden plovers, little-ringed plovers and more.

although the sun had just risen, our targets were nowhere in site. wait, wait, wait. soon we were joined by other birders and photographers. at exactly 9am, adri came shouting and running down the road (he was talking to ruth who was parked a few meters away) "spoonbill! spoonbill!"

and sure enough, at the far end of the field in front of us, were 3 black-faced spoonbills! they were chunkier than the egrets and herons around them, and of course, their black-faces and spoon-shaped bills gave them away.

black-faced spoonbills breed in china and korea, migrating south for the winter to hong kong and taiwan. there are less than 3,000 individuals in the world, and this small population justifies its status as endangered. there have been a handful of reports of the black-faced spoonbill in the philippines, i remember a photograph being taken at an awc at candaba several years ago, seen only by that photgrapher, rey, and missed by all of us census-takers. the black-faced spoonbill is one of 6 spoonbill species world-wide, and the only one which is endangered. (it is also my second spoonbill species, the first being the roseate spoonbill which i had seen in the Louisiana bayou in 2005!)

the spoonbills seemed quite at ease, taking turns, sleeping, preening and once in a while, walking in unison for a few meters. after a several minutes, they took to the air, circled around and landed in almost the exact same place.

having satisfied our twitch, we decided to walk away. as we came to our vehicles, the spoonbills again took to the air and this time landed in the tall grass, out of site. a truly wonderful experience and a very pleasant christmas present for all of us birders from candaba.

while the others headed home, adri, drew and i decided to drop by the mayor's ponds. there were a few ducks in the area: mostly philippine and wandering whistling ducks. there were also some tufted ducks, garganey and some shovellers.

the whistling ducks were quite close to the road, looking very handsome in the bright noon light. it's amazing how many there were, considering that when i started birding in 2005, there were no reported wandering whistling ducks in candaba and i had to pick it up as a lifer in far off agusan marsh!

we checked on a very friendly siberian ruby throat and the very hard to see dusky warbler. the dusky warlber was skulking around the exact same bush we found it in last migration season in january. we also had a very brief and unsatisfying view of a middendorff's grasshopper-warbler, what would've been a lifer for me. (i counted it as a third of a lifer - yes, not even half a lifer).

we were getting hungry and the sun was high in the sky, so we decided to head back. the farmers were still busy in the fields, probably to get in as much work before christmas day.

i thought that would be my last birding day at candaba for 2013, but then, 2 days after christmas, melanie wanted to see the spoonbills too! she and mark jason picked us up at 430am and we met up with her friends: first time birders cindy and flyn.

when we arrived at the ponds, we were again surprised at the changes over a few days! half the pond had been tilled as was being readied for planting! uh oh. the black-winged stilts were still there, although less in number, probably having transferred to undisturbed fields. while waiting, a group of waders caught adri's and mark's eye. some greenshanks were preening, and there was one bird that seemed to have a different jizz than the others.

closer inspection on the scope revealed it to be a dowitcher! was it the very rarely reported long-billed dowitcher? there had been less than 5 reports of it in the country, and it wasn't even in the philippine field guide! it was a lifer for all of us!

we had almost forgotten about the spoonbills, which were still nowhere in sight. having heard that the previous group to visit had sighted them at the adjoining fields, we walked up the grass covered ground separating the fields. it was a short walk but it was challenging walking through the tall grass on uneven ground! we were rewarded with closer views of the spoonbills! they were busy foraging (and again sleeping and preening) among the stilts, herons and egrets. they must have gotten used to the farmers because they were unmindful of the farmers who worked nearby.

knowing that it would probably be the last time i would see them, i took my time looking at them and taking in details including the ridges on their bills, their red eyes, and the short feathers on the backs of their necks. one of them had a yellow patch in front of the eyes - a sign of a mature individual.

hopefully, as global attention is brought to the plight of these spoonbills, their population continues to increase (their status was downgraded from critically endangered to endangered in 2000), and they will be seen regularly in candaba in the future.