After the Long Tail, the End

It was a nice and sunny morning as we birded the campus of the University of the Philippines in Diliman. The area around the MSI Building parking lot was unusually devoid of birds, except for the Yellow-vented Bulbuls.

Both Black-naped Orioles and Brown Shrikes were calling but refused to come out in the open. Cynthia suggested we go to the place where the Long-tailed Shrikes were regularly seen. Sure enough, as soon as we got there, the shrike did not disappoint us. 

Next we visited the pond. Unbelievably, we didn't see any birds. Not a single species! No Common Kingfisher, no White-breasted Waterhen, no Grey Wagtail. Nada!

We both agreed to try and visit St. Ignatius Village - the subdivision where we used to live. During our morning walks there, we always encountered some birds and we hoped we would do so again. As soon as we entered the gate, I saw some Golden-bellied Gerygones out in the open! But before I could reach my camera, they flew away. A little further up, some Olive-backed Sunbirds were feeding on the flowers of a tree. I quickly parked and before we could even get out, the sunbirds were gone. We drove around the village and drew a complete blank.

With saddened hearts we ended our birding sortie for that day.