Ardei Day

Taytay is one of the very few places that we can go birding these days. In my previous blog I wrote that due to old age creeping in on me, I find it quite difficult to drive long distances. So Saturday morning we were at the usual roadside area along a wetland. To our surprise the place was teeming with species of the Ardeidae family! Several kinds of Herons and Egrets (but interestingly none of the skulking Bitterns) were everywhere!

Let me start with the Herons - Black-crowned Night Herons (both adult and immature), Purple Herons and a totally unexpected Grey Heron!

Black-crowned Night Heron - adult

 

Black-crowned Night Heron - immature

Purple Heron

Grey Heron

 Then there were the Egrets: from the Littlest to the Greatest and an Intermediary in between. Allow me to clarify that: Little, Intermediate and Great Egrets were all present.

Little Egret

Intermediate Egret

Great Egret

 

As a bonus we got the Eastern Cattle Egret at U.P. Diliman.

Eastern Cattle Egret

 

Not a bad harvest on a short birding morning with the Ardeidaes!

Osaka Birding - Day 5

We had ample time to go birding on our last day in Osaka. Of course we had to go the place that is within walking distance from our hotel - the Osaka Nanko Bird Sanctuary. It was a beautiful sunny morning which is probably why the pesky insects we encountered three days ago were very, very few. The "hide" allowed visitors in earlier than its scheduled 9 am opening. Unfortunately, birds were even fewer this time. The good thing was we saw species that were not here the last time we came. Such as this Whimbrel.

The Great Cormorant was still at its usual place.

The Great Egrets were already in their breeding plumage.

The Eastern Spot-billed Ducks did some fly-by.

A Common Moorhen also did a short stop over.

We then tried the wooded area around the "hide". The only bird we saw was a male Narcissus Flycatcher.

The last photo of the day and of the trip is that of the bird we first saw in Osaka and for us, had become the avian symbol of this beautiful city, the White-cheeked Starling, which we saw as we were walking back to our hotel.

Time to pack and get ready for our return flight home.

A Quick Peck

Our first full day in California is a day of errands. Or should I say, of shopping. My wife, Cynthia, wanted  to get that over and done with as soon as possible so that we can enjoy the rest of our stay here relatively free of obligations.


First, we visited my daughter's home in Arcadia to get some documents we needed to determine if we needed to pay taxes. Inasmuch as her place was very near one of my favorite birding haunts, I insisted that we make a quick birding foray there.


Peck Road Water Conservation Area (aka Peck Pit to local birders) still harbored some nice birds that lovely spring morning. There weren't that many in terms of species but those that were there were surprisingly friendly. The very first bird we saw was a totally unexpected Mountain Chickadee. As its name implies these are birds found in higher elevations. Peck's Pit by any stretch of the imagination can never be considered a mountain or even a hill for that matter.

The chickadees turned out to be only the first among other surprises that morning. A Great Egret seemed out of place hunting among the tall grass hundreds of feet away from the nearest body of water.

Another oddity was a pair of Killdeers, which is a type of plover, doing their quaint stop-and-go antics on a grassy patch.

Cassin's Kingbirds, although a regular winter visitor were so unmindful of human beings that one of them flew from a nearby perch to the ground just a few feet in front of me!

Even the usually skittish Mourning Doves were quite accommodating too.

Despite just having a quick peek at Peck's Pit, I was happy to once again see my favorite birds here in Southern California.

Carpet of Plovers

The sun finally burst forth on Wednesday dissipating the gloom that prevailed over Southern California for about two weeks. I needed to untangle the web of sluggishness that had enveloped my being the past fortnight (and lose the pounds that seemed to have discreetly added to my weight). So I grabbed my "bazooka" and prepared myself for a staggering one mile hike (ha-ha) around Bolsa Chica in Orange County. Of course this arduous endeavor included frequent stops to photograph the teeming local avifauna.

The most common of which were Semi-palmated Plovers. I love plovers - they are such cute little birds which those big, adorable eyes - and Semi-palmateds are perhaps my all time favorites. Bolsa Chica was carpeted with these birds, some even venturing on the trails with such a sans souci attitude that I have not witnessed before.

There were other birds of course - terns were twittering and dive bombing the lagoon in great numbers and dowitchers were probing the muddy waters with their long bills in a peculiar sewing machine motion. A Great Egret caught a good sized catfish that took what seemed like an eternity to swallow.

At the end of my "trek" I was huffing and puffing and convinced that I have lost a significant amount of poundage. Which I immediately regained by feasting on a burger combo at McDonald's.

For more interesting birding blogs and photographs please visit:

Happy Bird-day

What do you do when you turn 61 and is out-of-work?

One word: Birding!

I thought I'd celebrate my three-score-and-one years of existence by going back to Santa Fe Dam where I had a fairly good birding experience last week. Unbeknownst to me, Wednesday was the day they turn the sprinklers on. Water was spurting practically everywhere...most especially at places where seed-eating birds normally feed. After an hour of driving around and not finding the usual array of avian species expected here, I decided to hightail it to Peck's Pit in El Monte, hoping that the bird gods (not to mention the birthday gods) would shower me with mercy and make the anniversary of my birth not so disappointing as it had been so far.

I always have misgivings whenever I go Peck's Pit by myself. The place had been known to occasionally harbor some unsavory characters. Thankfully, it was not so today. Thankfully, too, that there were sparrows galore. 

At the edge of the lake, after taking a shot at a Cormorant, I staked out a Belted Kingfisher which flushed when my subject cormorant flew. Knowing that birds are creatures of habit and that kingfishers usually come back to their favorite hunting spot, I waited for close to an hour for it to return. Alas, all that waiting was in vain. This kingfisher must have kicked the habit, I murmured to myself.

As I was waiting for the uncooperative kingfisher, I noticed a Great Egret fly by. What caught my attention was an orange thing sticking out of its back. When I looked at the picture later that day, my worst suspicions were confirmed - it was an arrow! It seemed that the big bird was none the worse for that, but it makes me mad that someone could be so cruel to do that kind of thing.

Tired of waiting and upset at what I have just seen, I thought it was about time to go home. Approaching the trees close to the parking lot, I noticed a flock of small birds with dark heads. Juncos, I surmised, and inasmuch as I still don't have any decent photos of these cute migrants, I immediately assumed my best stalking stance and inched closer to where they were feeding. But wait, why were their bellies striped and why were there plain brown birds hanging out with them? Surely these can't be Juncos, but what are they?


Using my binoculars I focused on the group and realized I was looking at a species that calls Africa its home. Bronzed Mannikins (aka Bronze-winged Mannikins) are small sparrow-like birds that are rather common as caged birds. What I was looking at were most likely escapees that have established themselves in the seed-rich grassland of Peck's Pit.

Now that made my day, and my birthday a happy bird-day.