Blue Rock Year

My wife and I walk around our subdivision as our (almost) regular exercise routine usually around 7 am. Birders that we are, we oftentimes stop whenever we hear or see some of the neighborhood birds. Throughout the time that we've doing this (about a year or so) we have seen quite a number of birds. But the one species that we kept wishing to encounter was the Blue Rock Thrush. The last time we've seen one here was in November of 2010.

And so every time we do our walk, we identify the birds we see this way: Blue Rock Sparrow, Blue Rock Bulbul, Blue Rock Fantail, Blue Rock Dove, Blue Rock Woodpecker….well, you get the idea. 

Then one cloudy morning one week into 2016, we saw it! We were not sure at first because it was perched on a rooftop and heavily backlit. But the GISS definitely says it is the bird we were hoping to see. Of course, I did not have my camera with me at the time. Trusting in luck (and after a quick prayer) Cynthia and I rushed home - about 3 blocks away - to get my camera. This time we brought the car along to quicken our return at the scene. Thank heavens our beloved Blue Rock Thrush was still there and was more out in the open even!

Now when we do our morning exercise routine we can properly name the birds that we would be encountering: Eurasian Tree Sparrow, Yellow-vented Bulbul,  Philippine Pied Fantail, Zebra Dove, Philippine Pygmy Woodpecker and so on and so forth.

Looks like it will be a good birding year for us.