It's the Thought that Counts

I can't believe that it has been more than a year since we last birded in Antipolo. Especially since that place is one of our favorite birding spots. And now we're finally back.

We began at the area just past the basketball court. That brought back some memories: This place was where seeing a Grey-streaked Flycatcher was a sure thing. Since we haven't seen one for quite some time now, I hoped that we would be lucky today. But migration time is almost over so we probably won't see it, I thought to myself. Then voila! one flew in and landed just above me.

Cynthia, on the other hand, was busy taking shots at the constantly moving Elegant Tit.

We heard a lot of birds around but strangely couldn't locate them. So we moved on and as we turned a corner I pointed to my wife a White-breasted Waterhen preening out in the open. It was on her side so she started firing away.

As we rounded out the village, another thought came to mind: Where were the Scaly-breasted Munias that were so numerous in our previous trips here. Then, "Look!" Cynthia said as she pointed to a small group of munias, most of which were juveniles. Luckily we got good photos of the adults as well.

When we first entered the subdivision one of the first things I observed was that the two common species usually encountered here were conspicuously absent. That seemed a bit strange, I thought. It was only about an hour later that we finally saw the White-breasted Woodswallow and the Long-tailed Shrike.

"We haven't seen the Spotted Doves yet" my wife was thinking aloud. I shared the same thought. As we were driving, she saw a large brown bird. Before we could even pick up our cameras, it flew down and out of sight. We both jumped out of the car and tried to locate what we were sure was a Spotted Dove. Thankfully it was perched in the open and we got full views of it.

Finally as we were about to end our birding trip, Cynthia pointed to a Collared Kingfisher perched not that far from where we were. We were so glad that this species was still thriving here considering that an enormous house had already been built over its usual habitat. That was indeed a comforting thought.

It was a considerably short birding foray - about two hours or so - but at the end of the day it was all those thoughts coming to actualization that really counted.