Sunday, August 02, 2020

She Saw

We started the month of August by doing some birding at the campus of U.P. Diliman. We saw most of the birds we've seen 7 days ago at the same places. What was interesting was that my wife saw (and got pictures, of course) a couple of species that I didn't. Not that we were birding separately, but it was her keen hearing and quick eyes that caused both incidents. First, it was the juvenile Olive-backed Sunbird. After parking at the MSI parking lot, she followed some chirping that she kept hearing. When I got to the place where she was, somehow the Sunbird was already gone.


Then later, Cynthia got some photos of a juvenile Crested Myna. She pointed the bird to me but by the time I was able to raise my camera the black bird went inside the thick greenery and completely disappeared.


Other than that we pretty much saw quite a number of birds. Moi, being the more "obligating" one, took pictures of the "trash" birds which my wife preferred to pass over. Like the Eurasian Tree Sparrow,


the Yellow-Vented Bulbul,


and the Zebra Dove.


There were still a number of birds that visited the bare tree by the roadside but lesser than what we've seen the week before. Besides, as I said earlier, the weather was not that cooperative. So we only got documentary shots of the Golden-bellied Gerygone and the Philippine Pygmy Woodpecker..



..and a better shot of the Pied Triller.


The parking lot area of the MSI Building gave us better results in photographing the Black-naped Oriole.


Behind the Chemistry Building, or as we prefer to call it, the Long-tailed Shrike's place, naturally gave us good shots of the eponymous bird.


Although we again failed on getting a shot of the Striated Grassbird, we were thankful that the flock of the Scaly-breasted Munias was still there having a feeding frenzy.


And as bonus, a family of Coppersmith Barbets showed up unexpectedly at this place.