Bohol! The only other time I visited Bohol was way back in 2003. I remembered that it was at the height of the SARS scare and we pushed through with our trip after luch afterthought. I was with Kutch (our host), Vir, Adri and JenneR. Travel around the country wasn't so easy (or affordable) yet, so we took the Cebu Pacific flight to Cebu, the Supercat to Tagbilaran and the Super Ferry to get back to Manila. I wasn't a birder back then. How your itinerary changes with birding on the schedule.
I was so looking forward to birding at the Raja Sikatuna National Park! I already had a list of target birds in mind. And because I was on summer leave, Adri and I could schedule our trip on the work week: Monday to Friday. Melanie was the only one who was free to join us on our trip. When we landed after noon at Tagbilaran and Chito, our driver, picked us up and suggested lunch at... Chicken Ati-Atihan! We convinced Mel it could count as "research".
A familiar menu
After a familiar and filling lunch, we went straight to the Tarsier Sanctuary at Corella (www.tarsierfoundation.org). The sanctuary had an open enclosure, which meant that the tarsiers were free to come and go, and the fence served as protection from predators (i.e. feral cats). Around 10 tarsiers had taken up semi-permanent residence in the enclosure, a smaller territory I guess, in exchange for security. The guides would make rounds early in the morning to look for the tarsiers, which, being nocturnal, would stay in that location for most of the day. The tarsiers were so cute! How could big round eyes and slow head movement not be endearing? I guess they were used to people staring and taking pictures of them. Later we sought our Victor, who was familiar with the birds in the small forest at the back of the sanctuary, and I got my first lifer for the trip.
A Philippine Tarsier at the open enclosure of the Corella Sanctuary
Birding at Corella with Victor & seeing the Philippine frogmouths
(do not comment on Mel's attire please! 
)
The trip to Bilar towards the center of Bohol was filled with conversation with Chito, who had loads of bird and birder stories to share. With the election nearing, politics was part of the dialogue as well.
We arrived in Bilar at nearly 6pm in the evening and Janice of Simply Butterflies was starting to wonder where we were. We knew of Simply Butterflies (simplybutterfliesproject.com) and its charming owner/proprietress Cristy Burlace through Lydia and other birders. It was a very pleasant place to stay in, and convenient being less that 10 minutes away from RSNP. They also catered to the early morning habits and transportation requirements of birders. We checked in and were shown to our 3 night home, a double story hut with the second floor being the sleeping quarters and the bathroom on the first floor. In spite of the heat of summer, it was very cool and airy and comfortable. We didn't even put up our mosquiteros. Not 5 minutes after setting down our things, we headed back to the dining area, ordered our dinner, and got back into the van. Chito had suggested we pay a visit to Ryan at RSNP, who was going to be our bird guide. It was quite dark when we drove into the park, and our headlights illuminated a Philippine Scops Owl perched on a small tree by the roadside, frightening it into flying to the forest on the other side of the road. Its eye shine glimmered as it passed the head lights. We excitedly (and belatedly) got out fo the car, bird calls echoed form the forest. Scops owl, Philippine Hawk-Cuckoo, great-eared nightjar, Philippine Frogmouth. Ryan, a very young and fit looking man, had seen us coming and was walking down the road from the main office to greet us. Adri introduced Mel and me, and we excitedly planned out the activities for the next day. "Madali lang mga ibon ngayon", said Ryan and we were all looking forward to birding. We jumped back in the van and headed back to Simply Butterflies to enjoy our very delicious meal (all our meals at Simply Butterflies were very good) with Chito, who promised to come pick us up at Panglao on Friday.
There was no need for us to get up too early in the morning the next day, having checked the frogmouth and the scops-owl, we didn't plan on doing any owling. After a leisurely breakfast at 530am, Janice's husband Felix drove us to RSNP. While waiting for Ryan in front of the main office, we spotted Spangled drongos flying over the forest and a very active purple throated sunbird flitting high up over the tree tops.
Roadside birding at RSNP
Walking back to the main road, our first sighting was... the Steere's pitta! It perched quite near to us by the road side and was calling continuously so we could all get excellent views without much effort! I was so surprised it looked so much bigger than the the red-bellied and hooded pittas! It was still dark because of the tall trees blocking out the sunlight, but the brilliant azure breast stood out and it was no problem keeping our eyes on this beautiful bird. My main target bird for the trip already in the bag and it wan't even 7 o'clock yet!
Steere's Pitta (aka Azure-breasted Pitta)
High in the tree tops landed a male Samar tarictic hornbill, and this sighting gave us quite a neck strain, until Ryan whispered "tailorbird" and all our attention focused on the bushes behind us at eye level. We followed the movement in the foliage for several meters, until suddenly, out hopped a singing yellow and black bird with a white chin... Yellow-breasted tailorbird! Wow. It was as if we were in birding heaven. A very colorful Philippine trogon hummed quietly in the tall tree a few meters from us. Having seen our targets for the roadside, we began walking back to the amphitheatre to bird behind the offices. On one of the tall trees, a pair of colugos (flying lemurs) stared at us sleepily. Now, these were not cute creatures, their "wings" made their bodies look ridiculously big for their small heads and Mel mentioned that their eyes were quite large as well.
"My, what big eyes you have!"
A we approached the open field, the calls of a rufous-lored kingfisher were driving us mad. So near and yet nowhere to be seen! Eventually, we spotted on of them... just above the ranger's office, in plain sight. It was really too good for words. Mel and I were getting giddy.
A noisy rufous-lored kingfisher
Almost as soon as we entered the Brahminy trail, a noisy blue fantail came to check us out. A Philippine Hawk-cuckoo flew in while we were trying to get good views of a black-faced coucal clambering in a tree right above us. Our walk through the limestone forest was punctuated with not only bird sightings, but an occasional sunning lizard which Ryan would point out every now and then. For a while I was confused on whether I was supposed to be looking at a bird or a herp.
Near the end of our trail, we spotted a small mixed flock of monarchs, whistlers and fantails. I thought we were all looking at the same bird trying to figure out if it was a female black-naped monarch when Adri suddenly said "may babbler ba dito?" "black-crowned babbler," answered Ryan, to which Mel and Adri started to literally twitch... I was disappointed I had missed the bird.
We enjoyed herping as well as birding...
Easy trails at the RSNP
Back at the ranger's office by 1030 am, we had a lunch of lechon manok and rice and coke. We lazed about the grounds, watching tourist come to look at (of all things) the monkeys. A group of tourists would come and one of the rangers would actually call to the forest "hoooooo, mang tikoy!" and a whole band of monkeys would come. Eeek. i don't like monkeys.
Yummy lechon manok lunch
Monkey, monkey...
We discovered posters of the mammals and herps to be found at the park, and I took a picture of the one showing the lizards to act as pocket guide for us.
Whiling away time in the heat of noon
Handy lizard guide now in my camera
Later at 2pm, Ryan rounded us up for a second pass through the forest. Up Brahminy and Oriole Trails. More trogons and fantails, a pair of rufous-tailed jungle flycatchers, and to my relief, a small mixed flock with at least three black-crowned babblers. Never mind the crick in my neck from staring straight up. Another Steere's pitta, and several birds later... we still had no wattled broadbill, the only bird left unseen in our most deisred list. Down Tarictic trail and it was beginning to get late in the afternoon.
Suddenly Ryan got very excited... and we could hear why. The broadbill was calling! We tried and tried for almost an hour... but they wouldn't show. It was getting dark and we decided that we would start from this end of the trail early the next morning. We walked down and exited at the Logarita Swimming pool, where a Silvery Kingfisher perched. While waiting for Felix to come pick us up, Melanie, Adri and Ryan scanned the rice fields for more birds. Felix picked us up after a few minutes. We had dinner at Simply Butterflies with Ryan. Over dinner we declared ourselves a lucky foursome in reference to our birding success for that day.
The Logarita Swimming pool
Ryan was waiting for us at exactly 6am the next morning at the junction to the swimming pool. Felix drove all four of us to the start of the trail where the silvery kingfisher was still perched by the stream beside the pool. We climbed up the trail quickly and quietly, ignoring the birds calling around us. When we arrived at the spot where we had heard the wattled broadbill yesterday, Ryan spotted a hornbill but quickly went to work with his playback cassette tape player. No more than a few minutes had passed, "Ayun! Ayun! Male!" Sure enough, there was a male wattled broadbill perched a few meters from us. It flew off but we spotted another dark shadow flitting through the tangle of vines and branches. "Female!" There was a quiet flurry from all of us, trying to get the best position to see the birds with our bins, scoping and following the 2 birds as they quietly flew from perch to perch. The male quickly disappeared into the undergrowth, but the female remained perched, its blue wattles standing out against its dark head, its bright white breaast making it easy to spot in the shadows. A trogon flew overhead, a common emerald dove landed right in front of us and a rufous-lored kingfisher kept calling from nearby, but we ignored all other birds except the 2 broadbills. Mission accomplished!
Wattled Broadbill at last!
We spent a leisurely couple of hours walking the trails and roads, before 2 motorcycles came to pick us up to bring us back to Simply Butterflies. With heartfelt thanks to Ryan, we ended our birding day at 930am.
Lucky foursome birders
Macmac, me and Adri: a tight fit on a small scooter.
Upon reaching Simply Butterflies, we finally ran into Cristy who was heading for Cebu. We enjoyed the rest of the day at Simply Butterflies just lounging around. Before lunch, while enjoying their homemade ice cream packaged like ice candy, we were guided by Macmac around the facility, complete with assorted trivia and facts about butterflies. Aside from the enclosed butterfly garden, the grounds were actually a large open butterfly garden. Cristy and her staff carefully studied the food and host plants of the butterflies and integrated them in the garden so there were as many, and more kinds of butterflies flew free and visited the garden than were in the enclosure. Simply Butterflies receives several visitors a day, mostly tourists who have had lunch at the Loboc River cruise and on their way to the Chocolate Hills. Most of these visitors came between 1 pm and 3 pm that day.
Hanging out in our cottage at Simply Butterflies
Learning about the other winged creatures at the butterfly sanctuary
Hmmm... pansit!
A froggy (one of many!) in the garden after dinner
We were glad to have ended birding early, and we separately went about inspecting the creatures of the garden and generally doing what we defined as "nothing". A perfect vacation. Tomorrow, we would move on to the sea and beach.
To be continued...
Some pictures from Melanie and Adri, thanks guys!
For more pictures see:
http://katrinket.multiply.com/photos/album/78/wild_bohol
http://adri97.multiply.com/photos/album/49/B_is_for_Bohol_is_for_everything
http://melsjunglehouse.multiply.com/photos/album/118/Bohol_2010
Lists:
Bird lifers:
1. Philippine Frogmouth
2. Steere's Pitta
3. Yellow-breasted Tailorbird
4. Samar Tarictic Hornbill
5. Rufous-lored Kingfisher
6. Blue Fantail
7. Black-faced Coucal
8. Philippine Leaf Warbler
9. Black-crowned Babbler
10 Wattled Broadbill
Mammals:
1. Philippine Tarsier
2. Philippine Flying Lemur
3. Long-tailed Macaque
4. Philippine Pygmy Squirrel
Herps:
1. Small bent-toed geckko
2. Jagor's Sphenomorphus
3. White Spotted anglehead Lizard
4. Common burrowing Skink
5. Malay Flying Lizard
6. 2 striped Mabouya (?)
7. Gecko gecko
BIO Elmer
