U.P. to no good (but with nice ending)

Saturday, November 14, we again went to U.P. Diliman to do some birding. We had a sumptuous breakfast at Rodic's and not far from it on top of the electric posts were some Crested Mynas.

 

As we proceeded to the MSI, the Eastern Cattle Egrets were at their usual place near the museum.

The area in front of the MSI building was a disaster! Several of the tall trees were blown down by the recent typhoon Ulysses. Perhaps it was because of this that there weren't any birds around. The yellow flowers in front of the parking lot of the Child Center were also gone and because of that the Olive-backed Sunbirds that used to enjoy the nectar decided to stay on the top branches of the bare trees instead. Which meant that they were unphotographable. From there we went to the Astronomy Dome. Along the way the Brown Shrike was more cooperative.

At first we thought the resident Long-tailed Shrike had gone because we didn't see it at its usual hangout. Fortunately, we spotted it in the area near the street.

We made another round of the area and parked our car. It was then that I spotted a large brown bird on a tree branch. I took a shot at it despite being backlit and hoped I would be able to identify that mysterious bird. It was only when I was processing our photos that I found out that it was a Philippine Hawk-Cuckoo.

A short foray into the pond yielded a Collared Kingfisher.

Although we saw some species today that we hadn't seen in our previous trips here, it was still a not so good birding trip for us because most of the local birds were missing. Maybe it was because of the destruction of some of the habitats caused by the typhoon.

Thankfully, our birding ended quite well. Before going home Cynthia suggested we visit her daughter in Pasig. After parking our car just outside her daughter's gate, we noticed some bird activity at a nearby tree. While my wife was spending time with Jenn and her family, I brought out my camera and started taking photos of the Lowland White-eyes.

After the Storm

The sun was shining brightly this morning. For the past couple of days we experienced one of the most severe storms this year. Super typhoon Ulysses battered Central Luzon with heavy rain and strong winds. So strong that a number of trees in our neighborhood fell to the ground.

Now that the skies are blue I decided to bring along my camera as we did our morning walk around our condominium grounds. Good thing I did because the local birds were glad that the storm had finally gone away and were enjoying the sunny weather. A male Olive-backed Sunbird was gorging on the nectar of the orange flowers.

One of the trees that was not felled by the strong winds was now hosting a small flock of lowland white-eyes.

By the retail row, the pair of Philippine Pied Fantails were at their usual haunt.

Surprisingly a Brown Shrike was at the same tree enjoying a tiny butterfly for breakfast.

The Yellow-vented Bulbuls were calling out loudly as if begging for their photos to be taken. I obliged of course.

And finally, we heard the familiar cooing of the Zebra Doves. However, we had a hard time locating the source of that "kurukutu". We were already having neck pains as we searched behind the thick leaves and then one graciously flew into plain sight. 

It was a nice way to start the day. For us, Friday the 13th actually means good luck.

It's back!

During our daily walk around our condo grounds we are always on the look out for birds. Occasionally we would bring binoculars and sometimes our cameras. Since we saw quite a number of birds last Wednesday, on Thursday morning I decided to bring my Canon 5D3 with the Tamron 150-600 lens with me. My wife and I also hoped that the Brown Shrike would be around. Since the beginning of September, we always looked at the places where the annual migrant used to hang out the previous years. And it was still a no show.

After watching the daily morning pilgrimage of the Yellow-vented Bulbuls (for the past couple of months we have observed their daily routine where small groups would fly from South to North stopping now and then on the tree tops by the river, and we wondered why this sudden behavior), we paused by the parking lot to watch the sunrise. It was then that Cynthia heard the twittering of the shrike. We moved closer to the wall and voila! Our hoped for migrant was finally back!

Happy that I got tons of shots of the cooperative shrike, we moved on. As expected the Yellow-vented Bulbul's "towncrier" was at its usual perch and calling loudly to its fellow "pilgrims" who were passing by.

Our next target was the Philippine Pied Fantail. As we approached its usual milieu, a small flock of very active Golden-bellied Gerygones were darting all over the place.

As if that wasn't enough, another flock, this time of Lowland White-eyes mingled with the Gerygones in hunting for their breakfast.

A little further down, the usual pair of Fantails showed up.

Having accomplished our goal (and even got a bonus) we walked back towards our building. Along the way, we heard a Zebra Dove calling. After some effort at trying to locate the source of the cooing, we eventually found the bird partly hidden among the leaves.

As we entered our building, I told my wife that I should at least take a photo of the very common Eurasian Tree Sparrow. Let's go the Great Lawn, she suggested, where this species is definitely a sure sighting. So we did and I got my list of local birds completed.

Birding Itch Satisfied

Because of the ECQ (Enhanced Community Quarantine) due the Corona virus, my wife and I, being senior citizens, were not allowed to leave the compound of the condo where we are residing. Thankfully, there are spaces here where we can do our daily morning and afternoon walking exercise. One area is called the great lawn which is an open space on the fourth story level between the six condominium towers. That place has a wide grassy area (hence the name) and another area with huge swimming pools. Along the borders are some trees and flowering shrubs. 
At the ground level is a road surrounding the towers and the pavillions. The back side of this road abuts the Marikina River while the left and right areas are next to huge vacant lots that are filled with trees. Because of the vegetation in these places, there are birds, albeit the more common ones such as Eurasian Tree Sparrows and Yellow-vented Bulbuls. During migration period, Brown Shrikes are also seen here.

In our recent walks while we were checking up on a Brown Shrike whom we named "haggard" because of its looks, we were surprised to see an immature Blue Rock Thrush. I thought it was just passing through on its way back north, but for two consecutive days it was still at its usual hang-out. Yesterday before we went to sleep, Cynthia suggested that we bring our cameras with us on our scheduled morning walk.

So we did. At the Great Lawn, a Brown Shrike (definitely not haggard, as this was quite chubby and had better colors) dove into the grass and grabbed a prey. It flew to a nearby tree and gave us some good photo ops. 

Surprisingly the very common Eurasian Tree Sparrows were quite sparse this morning and we were not able to take passable shot.

At the ground as we were getting to the place where the Thrush stays, we were greeted by a pair of Philippine Pied Fantails.

The Blue Rock Thrush didn't fail us. It was as if was actually waiting for our appearance. When it saw that we had arrived it gave us different poses.

After a while it flew off. Perhaps so that we could focus on the other birds in the area. True enough the Zebra Dove couple was on the ground not far from where the thrush was.

Then came "haggard". We were happy to notice that he was no longer as haggard as he used to be perhaps prepping up for the long journey that he would soon take.

High above an Olive-backed Sunbird was searching for its breakfast.

Not far from it, another surprise was an Arctic Warbler.

Round the corner, we finally were able to get pictures of the Eurasian Tree Sparrow.

After making our round, we returned to thrush site and voila! it was back, this time perched on a tree branch.

Having met our "quota" we walked back to our tower. Along the way Cynthia was distracted by some chirping coming from the tree near the wall. Unfortunately, the Lowland White-eyes were too active that we only got some documentary shots.

Of course, we have to take an obligatory shot of the Yellow-vented Bulbul

Despite the quarantine, we were glad that we were able to satisfy our birding itch. And even got an uncommon migrant at that.

Show us no Pitta

For more than two hours we waited. Two hours of being drenched in sweat and enduring the humidity of a summer. We were at the Mini Forest of the La Mesa Ecopark for a particular purpose: to  photograph the Hooded Pitta and the Mangrove Blue Flycatcher. We sadly dipped on both.

But please show us no pity.  The morning was not a total disaster. For one thing a Black-naped Oriole - a species that prefers to stay high among the branches of tall trees - came out in the open and posed for us for a few minutes.

Then a pair of Lowland White-eyes cavorted just above us.

An overstaying(?) Brown Shrike was still hanging around perhaps aware that it was still quite cold in its home in northern Asia.

A surprise was a Philippine Bulbul which have not been seen much in this area.

Also the morning was about people. As we were about to get into the mini forest we met a young guy. He was a campus missionary from our church (Victory Christian Fellowship) in Novaliches. They will be holding a youth ministry at the Ecopark he told us.

While waiting for the Pitta we met an old friend, and fellow birder, Jenny de Villa. We spent some time together catching up and sharing our birding experiences.

Finally, as we were already driving on our way out, I saw a guy dressed in camp and holding a camera with long lens. "Bird photographer!", I told my wife. I waved at him and parked the car. He came over and introduced himself and we did likewise. We just added a "lifer" to our birding friend list - Rey Ibay.

The Expected and the Unexpected

Hoping that our luck the day before would continue, I once again brought my camera as we did our early morning walk. For one thing, we were quite sure that the flock of Lowland White-eyes would come at around 6:30 am to the two trees next to the entrance of our condominium building. We noticed on several occasions that they had been pretty consistent with their foraging schedule. And we were right, at the expected time, about 20 individuals came. However, getting a picture was quite a challenge since they were constantly moving in search for the tiny insects under the leaves. I was lucky enough to get a few good ones.

After the white-eyes left, we continued our walk and had an unexpected encounter with a Philippine Pygmy Woodpecker. As a matter of fact, this species is seldom seen here. And on those rare times, it was quite far or high up in the trees. This time it was different. The woodpecker was quite close and was obviously unmindful of us.

Other than that, it was just the usual suspects around the neighborhood. And as always, towards the end of our walk, the Philippine Pied Fantail is a must.

Grovin' on a Sunday Afternoon

We had some pretty good luck birding a week ago at the back side of our condominium complex so we both agreed to give it another try Sunday afternoon.  A few minutes after 4 and the heat was still intense. We looked at the poles beyond the fence and next to the Marikina river hoping to see the Common Kingfisher again. It wasn't there. We soon found out why. The migrant bully perched majestically on the pole as if daring the smaller kingfisher to try and kick him out of his throne.

We moved further into the worker's compound. Of course, it was Cynthia's sharp eyes that caught sight of a tiny bird almost invisible on top of one of the numerous poles in the area. "The Common Kingfisher is still here!" she assured me.

The bank on the other side of the river was peculiarly devoid of the usual Little Egrets. We saw one fly by but were not able to get a good shot. Even the number of Whiskered Terns were sparse. Of the two we saw, none perched on the protruding sticks in the middle of the river. Luckily, my wife got a photo of one as it dove for a fish.

While Cynthia was trying to desperately get better pictures of the couple of terns and one egret, I roamed towards the edge of the compound. The resident Philippine Pied Fantails were at their usual place.

A little before 5 pm, we walked back to our unit. As we passed by a couple of trees, my wife heard the usual twittering of the flock of White-eyes. It was a photographic challenge as the light was fading fast and our subjects, though plentiful, were extremely active and preferred the darker side of the trees. At least we got one good shot.

Although our foray this time was not as productive than the week before, we're just glad that our area of residence aptly named The Grove still offers some good birding opportunities.

Four River

Sunday afternoon at around 5 we went to the worker's compound in our condominium complex. Being a Sunday the usual throng of laborers were not around. This would be an opportunity for us to have a closer look at the Marikina River which is very close to the worker's area. We were so thankful that we added 4 more species to the list of birds seen at The Grove.

We've seen the Little Egret on our usual daily walk but it was quite a distance - they were on the other side. This time we got a bit closer and I was able to get photos of them.

Also lately we've witnessing Whiskered Terns hunting for fish. From the worker's compound we even saw several perched on poles sticking out of the water.

What really surprised us was a Common Kingfisher inhabiting the area on our side of the river.

Another surprise, and the fourth new species we got, was when we were about to leave we saw this bird fly by. At first we thought it was just another tern but it's mode of flight was so different. I was lucky enough to get a shot. Looking at the result I realised that what we saw was a Common Sandpiper!

The Philippine Pied Fantail was also friendlier this time and allowed us to get closer to them.

The sun was about to set so we decided to go back to our building tower. Just as we approached the entrance a flock of Lowland White-eyes having a last minute food hunting before calling it a day.