Nest Quick

It was a quickie birding trip at La Mesa Ecopark.  My neighbor and fellow birder, Chin Fernandez, wanted to go to this place. It will be his first time. Our friends, Jops and Maia, joined us to help introduce Chin to this birding refuge so close to the city.

Surprisingly, it wasn't a very productive outing that morning. We did catch a glimpse of the Red-bellied Pitta but the supposedly more common Hoodeds were nowhere to be seen.

To expand our coverage of the place we decided to go separate ways. It was when I was all by myself that a female Mangrove Blue Flycatcher darted across the trail and hid in the underbrush. 

A little while later a Common Emerald Dove nonchalantly fed by the edge of the trail just a few feet away from me.

The highlight of the day was when Chin and I staked out the Ashy Thrush's nest. It was fellow bird photographer Reuel Aguila who showed it to us. We were enduring the high humidity and the mosquito attacks waiting for some action when we were joined by another bird photographer, Steve Albano.

Suddenly there were some movement. The female thrush landed on the nest and the heads of a pair of nestlings popped into view!

The mommy bird then sat down and began brooding on its offsprings. That was the sign for Chin and myself to call it a day.