Four Kings - A Winning Combination

The sun shone brilliantly after the storm. It was a holiday. A perfect combination for a birding spree. Even if the destination was just at the La Mesa Ecopark not that far from home. Lately, however, that place had been abuzz with sightings (not to mention posting of photos in Facebook) of two, count 'em, two uncommon kingfishers - the Spotted Wood and the Indigo-banded. Not only were both simply photographable, they were uncharacteristically insouciant to people.

Thanks to the directions provided by Anthony Balbin and Prof. Reuel Aguila, we (me, my wife and buddy Bong Nabong) easily found the place where the pair of Indigo-Banded Kingfishers hang around. During a lull - while the lovely pair was away - Anthony, called us and told us he found the other "star" of Ecopark. We quickly followed him and voila! - the friendliest Spotted Wood Kingfisher ever! 

Our friends, Maia, Jops, and Doc Cha who came after we left gushingly told us that the kingfisher was so indifferent to human presence that Doc Cha was even able to photograph the bird using her iphone!

On our way back to the Indigo-banded Kingfisher pond we met another friend, Jo Solis, who told us that she just saw the Oriental Honey Buzzard. We followed her and caught a glimpse of the raptor before it flew away.

At the pond, there were now more photographers awaiting the famed pair's return. The three of us joined Steve Albano,  Prof. Reuel, Alex Ting, and Leomar Doctolero in the stake-out. Soon Maia, Jops, Doc Cha, Bram, Kath and Sean Melendres arrived. Perhaps knowing that they now have a big audience, the male (who was nicknamed "superman" because his plumage resembles the superhero's costume) made a grand entrance and perched on a small piece of protruding wood and stayed there until we all had our fill.

As we prepared to leave, Sean informed us that he saw White Wagtails at the spillway. "There was also a Grey Heron" he calmly said as if that was as common an occurrence as rainfall in October.

Cynthia, Bong and myself, of course, went to the spillway. Steve followed not long after. Yes, there was the Grey Heron which, if I am not mistaken, was the first time this species was seen here. 

And yes, there were White Wagtails - we saw at least two of them - but they were quite at a distance.

It was while waiting for the migrant wagtails that a Common Kingfisher popped into view. 

It was also while searching for the wagtails that we saw a Collared Kingfisher way out on the concrete spillway.

When Maia, Jops and company joined us, we were rewarded with views, albeit a bit distant, of a Philippine Serpent Eagle!

Beautiful weather, great company, four kinds of kingfishers in half a day's birding - definitely a winning combination!

Good, Better and Bes

Cynthia's cousin, Voltaire "Bes" Yap, was visiting from California. Being a bird photographer himself, he wanted to take some pictures of the local avifauna. Due to the fickle weather, we thought it prudent to take him somewhere close yet birdy enough. The La Mesa Ecopark was the perfect choice.


Early Wednesday morning we were scouring the mini-forest area hoping to see the Red-bellied Pittas, or the Ashy Ground Thrush, or the Common Emerald Dove, or the Mangrove Blue Flycatcher. One hour later and I was hoping that a bird, just any bird, would appear. "Where have all the birds gone?" I thought to myself as embarrassment slowly crept over my entire being. "Bes came all the way from the U.S. for nothing?" as I furtively glanced at our guest afraid that he will get bored and deeply disappointed. If he was, Bes certainly didn't show it as he gamely took photos of leaves and spider webs and..


I breathed a sigh of relief. 


At around eight in the morning, I suggested that we go the spillway to wait for the White Wagtails. On the way out and out of despair, we took photos of the ubiquitous Brown Shrikes and Yellow-vented Bulbuls just so we can satisfy our craving for a picture of a bird. Moving on, we were stopped on our tracks by a very noisy pair of Black-naped Orioles. Not only were they very vocal, they were photographable (normally not easy with these treetop dwelling creatures). 

They eventually flew but not before we have had our fingers numbed from the constant pressing of our camera's shutters. "That was good!", interjected Bes who in his jubilation treated us to a cup of "taho" (sweetened soft tofu with pearl tapioca).


With bouncy steps we proceeded to the viewing deck next to the spillway where we were greeted by a flock of Little Egrets. In the distance a Common Sandpiper was bobbing its behind rhythmically as if dancing to some latin beat. Not far from it a Grey Wagtail was living up to its name. One hour later and still none of Bes's target birds had shown up. I excused myself and went to the Vermiculture area. There I prayed that I may not be put to shame as I watched every tiny movement in the spillway below. Thirty minutes later and still nothing. Soon Cynthia and her cousin came asking for an update. When I shook my head, Bes informed us that he will be going to the Butterfly area to photograph those tiny colorful flitting insects instead. He had barely gone a few steps when I saw something blue alight on the concrete dike.


"Kingfisher!" I yelled.


"Kingfisher!" Cynthia shouted at her cousin.


Faster than you can say kingfisher (again) Bes was next to me propping up his camera gear. Together we took photographs of the Common Kingfisher and I can see my friend grinning from ear to ear. 

As the little blue bird flew off a couple of black-and-white birds took its place. "White Wagtails!" I whispered as a third bird joined them. "The whole family even!"


What followed was a fast and furious clicking of camera shutters. Eventually the wagtail family flew away. "That was better!" said Bes gushing with excitement.

And we all left happily....ever after. 

I Am Curious, Yellow?

First of all, to some of you "googlers" who got here because of the title:  this has absolutely nothing to do with the 1967 movie of the same name. As a matter of fact, this has everything to do with birds and bird photography. So there.


Now where was I? Oh yes, birds!


The recent arousal of interest in wagtails spawned in part by the appearance of several species at the La Mesa Ecopark brought forth some serious discussions as to the method of identifying them. The White Wagtails were the easy ones, being the only kind that has a black and white color. The similarly hued Forest Wagtail inhabits, as its name implies, wooded areas, unlike the Whites which prefer flowing streams. So it would be impossible to get confused between these two species.


Which brings us to the Grey and Yellow Wagtails. In their non-breeding (winter) plumage, the possibility of mistaken identifications is alarmingly quite common. When we first saw the non-white wagtails at Ecopark, my first  impression was that they were Yellow. After all they do have yellow underparts. It was only when the photos were posted via the internet that the analyses from our birding friends ensued. The yellow rump and white patch on the feathers all pointed to the fact that these birds were Grey Wagtails!

Last Saturday while at the Agripark in Los Banos, Cynthia and I saw lots of wagtails! From a distance they all look the same - brownish upperparts, yellowish below and a white stripe over the eye. They were all frolicking on the fallow fields next to us. 


The Kennedy guide describes the habits of Yellow Wagtails as: "Often encountered in groups ranging from a few to hundreds of individuals in open country, particularly ricefields, marshy areas and parks, on the ground at all elevations." A Guide to the Birds of the Philippines by Robert S. Kennedy, et al, page 308. (emphasis mine). Whereas Grey Wagtails almost never inhabit open areas but rather on or along stream beds.

some yellow in the underparts

very little yellow underparts

I am curious, Yellow?

Wholly Cropped!

I am not really sure why I decided to bring just my short lens to the La Mesa Ecopark spillway. Perhaps it was the uncertainty of the terrain - this will be the first time that we will go there. Or maybe it was the thought of walking from the entrance of the Ecopark to the place where the Thrushes stay - a long, uphill route.


In retrospect, the question still remained a big "why?" inasmuch as we didn't go inside the Ecopark to look for the Thrushes anyway and the terrain next to the spillway was as even as can be. But all that is water under the bridge, or in this case, over the rocks.


What is important is that we got what we came for. For the five of us (my wife, Cynthia, myself, Jun Osano, Mark Jason Argallon and his brother, Paul Kevin) our singular purpose of being there was to look for (and hopefully take some pictures of) the White Wagtails that birding friend, Ruth Francisco, saw two days ago. 


After waiting for about an hour, we saw all three wagtails at around 8:15 am. It was interesting that these birds visited the area with almost clockwork regularity. They would stay for a few minutes, fly off, then return to the same place in just about an hour. Learning from this behavior, we positioned ourselves to the spot closest to where they would always land. At about 10:05, one of the wagtails flew in and for the next ten minutes we took its photograph to our hearts content.


However, as I was saying earlier, because I was using my 300mm lens with a 1.4X extender, my subjects were merely dots in the resulting photographs. To be able to make a presentable image, I had to do an almost 100% crop. 

Thankfully, during the in-between times when we were waiting for the reappearance of the White Wagtails, there were other interesting birds that kept us busy. Once again, because of their distance, I had to do some major cropping in order to fully show the beauty of these feathered creatures.

Barred Rail

Common Kingfisher

Common Sandpiper

Osprey

Grey Wagtail