Happy Birdday

I already have a blog title in mind even before we went birding last Saturday morning: Happy BRT Day! (sounds like happy birthday, right?). BRT stands for Blue Rock Thrush, an uncommon migrant to the Philippines. Our friend, Bert Madrigal, posted a photo of one taken at the campus of the University of the Philippines (U.P.) in Diliman, Quezon City - a place close to our residence. He saw three of them according to Bert. That was our incentive to go birding on my birthday.

My wife and I were at the Science Complex (where the BRTs were seen) at 6:30 am. Three hours later and I had to accept the fact that my planned blog title would never be used after all. Not a single Blue Rock Thrush showed up!

But it was my birthday and I would not let minor disappointments ruin it for me. Cynthia and I made lemonade out of lemons, so to speak. We saw quite a number of birds, albeit the usual suspects found in U.P., but the Lord in His graciousness showed us two species that were rarely seen here: A Rusty-breasted Cuckoo and a Black-chinned Fruit Dove - both still in the immature stage.

Immature Rusty-breasted Cuckoo

Immature Black-chinned Fruit Dove

The good old reliable Philippine Nightjar was still in its usual roosting place.

There were other birds that we saw and photographed too but these were the highlights of our day. 

Despite not seeing our target species, my birthday birding trip to U.P. was still an enjoyable one considering that I wasn't feeling well the day before. This was definitely a great tasting lemonade.