Subic Birding - Day 3 - Once Again

I was telling my wife that this time seemed different from our previous trips to Subic. Without fail, for the past 3 years, we have encountered birders here. However in the past two days that we were here it was just the two of us.

January 1, our final day, we decided to try the road along the Botanic Garden hoping to see the White-fronted Tit. Once again, we failed miserably on that. And once again, as what happened before, we met a birding couple. They were stalking a Red-crested Malkoha. We introduced ourselves and discovered that Art and Riza Melicor didn't know where the Nabasan Trail was. They have heard that it was a good birding area but apparently nobody had given them directions to that place. So we happily offered to show them the way. After the negotiating the loop, and them having photographed the Whiskered Treeswifts, we bade our goodbyes. 

My cold was not improving at all so Cynthia and I agreed to return back to our home so I can rest. That meant cutting short our birding sortie. Which meant no bird photos for the beginning of the year. Except for a backlit shot of a Spotted Dove.

Subic Birding - Day 2 - A Lifer to End the Year

We were hoping for a bleeding heart but got fowled instead. Yesterday, Chris Chafer, a birding friend, told me via PM that there were Luzon Bleeding Hearts at the Nabasan Trail. Bright and early in the morning Cynthia and I began our search for the rare pigeon. Halfway inside the trail I saw them - no, not the bleeding hearts but a family of Red Junglefowls. In my excitement (this was a lifer for us!) I forgot to adjust the settings of my camera and so I only got one documentary shot of the male.

After negotiating the entire length of the trail and dipping on our target species, we returned to the junction where we saw the White-bellied Woodpecker yesterday. It wasn't there this time. In its place was a Balicassiao and a pair of Green Racket-tails.

Surprisingly, there weren't a lot of birds. We moved on and went to Hill 394. Again it wasn't birdy at all although we were lucky that a Luzon Flameback dropped by.

From there we tried the area across the Treetop Adventure Park. Here we got good shots of a nesting White-bellied Woodpecker.

Philippine Bulbuls were quite active here as well.

A huge flock (about 20 individuals) of Ashy Minivets passed by stopping at the pine trees for a few minutes.

After lunch we went to the Waterfront area. Other than a couple of Lesser Sand Plovers (?), there were no birds on the seashore.

On the way to the Volunteer's Park, we encountered a Crested Myna along the way.

At the park, the hoped for Brahminy Kites were absent. I'm sure it was because some people were already exploding fireworks by the lake and a Karaoke system was in full blast. As a consolation, my wife was able to photograph a Clamorous Reed Warbler.

To end the year, we had an obligatory shot of the migrant Brown Shrike.

Subic Birding - Day 1, Only This and Nothing More

"Once upon a December quite dreary while I pondered weak and weary
Having driven quite a distance and my body feeling sore
Our car barely stopping when Cynthia heard a tapping
As of one urgently rapping, rapping that's for sure
Tis some woodpecker my wife was quite sure
Only this and nothing more"

I was reminded of Edgar Allan Poe's poem about the raven as we had an encounter with the White-bellied Woodpecker at the Nabasan Trail. We had barely parked the car when the loud tapping filled the morning air. We did not have any problem finding the bird and we got our shots right away. I hoped that that would be a good beginning to our birding trip to Subic. Unfortunately, it did not turn out that way. We did see a lot of birds, but photographing them was a different story. The local avian population somehow seemed more skittish now. For the whole day that we spent birding we only photographed four more species aside from the White-bellied Woodpecker: White-throated Kingfisher, Whiskered Treeswift, Blue-throated Bee-eater and Philippine Falconet.

Only these and nothing more.

White-bellied Woodpecker

White-throated Kingfisher

Whiskered Treeswift

Blue-throated Bee-eater

Philippine Falconet

Stalking the Flames

Our friend, Anthony Balbin, gave us precise directions: As you enter the road to Nabasan, on the right side there is a dead tree about twelve feet high near the fence. The birds will come almost at eye level.

Armed with and encouraged by this information, we travelled to Subic early Tuesday morning. We proceeded directly to the place that Anthony described. Just as we made the right turn, we saw it! The male Luzon Flameback was digging a hole in the dead tree trunk! Cynthia and I both fired away. 

My wife got some some good shots while I had a few……oh wait! are those Sooty Woodpeckers?

Luzon Flameback

Sooty Woodpecker

Actually there was a mixed flock frolicking on the trees on both sides of the road. Black-naped Orioles were calling incessantly while the Rufous Coucals were doing their own vocalizations. 

The Balicassiaos were darting back and forth and then a solitary White-throated Kingfisher dropped by to say hello.

Balicassiao

White-throated Kingfisher

Since I was um, er… "distracted" by the Sooty Woodpeckers earlier, we decided to stay across the dead tree trunk and stalk the Flamebacks. This time I got my share of Luzon Flameback photographs.

By 9 am, everything quieted down. We made another trip around the Nabasan trail loop and didn't see any birds. Birders, yes. We noticed a couple carrying cameras and looking up at the trees.  Birds photographers, Cynthia and I agreed. George and Manette Inocencio are still new into this hobby and are both very enthusiastic! It is interesting to note that every year since 2013 we've met birders (who became our friends) here at Nabasan. Last year it was Rannie Aguilar and his family. The year before that was Jens Hansen a Dane who had been travelling all over the world to watch birds. After some shop talk with the Inocencios we bade them goodbye because we will be checking in at Mango Valley, our hotel of choice for this trip. We later had lunch at our favorite restaurant, Cocolime. 

A few kilometers after we left our house that morning I already heard a noise coming from our left front tire. Cynthia thought it was just because of the road we were travelling on. However after lunch, the noise seemed louder. I told my wife that I'm getting worried about it and I will feel a lot better if we have it checked. We drove to  Yokohama Tire where they also had a repair shop. My worst fears had been confirmed - the wheel bearing of the left tire was damaged. The manager sort of hemmed and hawed with regards to getting the replacement part. We were adamant that we need to have it fixed asap because we will be returning to Manila the following day. After about 4 hours, the manager told us that the bearing had been replaced and that it was now ok. We left hurriedly so that we can still do some birding before it got dark.

A little before 5 pm, we were at Cubi Point. There it was mob rule by  a huge flock of Black-naped Orioles harassing the smaller Pied Trillers and the bigger Large-billed Crows. At the safer part of the community a lone Philippine Hanging Parrot tried to catch the last rays of the setting sun.

The times when we were here at this time of day, groups of Blue-naped Parrots would usually come and roost among the pine branches. However, this day we only saw one, peeping out of its home one last time before calling it a day.

Then came the Black-throated Bee-eaters, hundreds of them, flying from all directions and all settling down on the pine trees. It was a sight to behold but sadly the crepuscular light was not good enough for photography.

Early the following day we were at the area near the Jest Camp. A horde of Coletos were basking in the dawn. When the sun shone brightly a little later, that sort of signaled them to start their breakfast. The Coletos flew to a tree to gorge on the fruits. 

It was then that we noticed that one bird didn't seem to belong to the group. It was definitely bigger and was all black without the Coleto's distinctive fleshy part on the head. When I finally realized what it was, I was thrilled! Not only will this be the first time I will see this species in the Philippines, it is also the first time I am looking at (and photographing) the male Asian Koel!

From there we proceeded to the Nabasan Trail. Once again, the Sooty Woodpeckers were there. An angry looking male Bar-bellied Cuckooshrike made a brief appearance.

Here the Psittidae family was represented by the Blue-naped Parrot and the Green Racquet-tail.

Blue-naped Parrot

Green Racquet-tail

Of course, because this was really our main target in coming here, we started stalking the Flamebacks again. Like clockwork, the male came and began working on the hole while the female patiently waited nearby.

We made one more trip around the loop and this time we got the Blue-throated Bee-eater and the Whiskered Treeswift.

Blue-throated Bee-eater

Whiskered Treeswift

Then it drizzled. A White-throated Kingfisher was so indifferent to the raindrops as we got our last bird photo of the day. 

It was time to check out of our hotel and start the long trip home. After parking at the hotel grounds I noticed that our left rear tire has gone flat! As in totally flat! Thankfully the hotel driver was around to help replace it with our spare tire.

It was such a sad closing to our wonderful two-day birding in Subic. So affected were we that we both decided to bypass lunch and head straight home.

Did ja view?

Deja vu - noun - a feeling of having already experienced the present situation. French literally meaning "already seen".

Our experiences in Subic the past two days had been quite deja vu-ish . First of all, it was almost the same dates that we were here last year - just one day's difference. Then, for the most part, the scarcity of the birds were an eerie repetition of 2013's dearth of avian sightings. Finally, on a positive note, where we met a pair of newbie birders (Mr & Mrs Jorge Abiva Garcia) before, we had the same experience this year when we met Dr. Rannie Aguilar and his family. 

It was on a Sunday afternoon right at the entrance towards the Nabasan trail that we met the Aguilars. Since it was their first time to go birding in Subic, we offered to take them around the better known birding areas. For a newbie, Rannie had very sharp eyes. It was his keen observation skills that enabled Cynthia and myself to see some of the birds in the forest. Example number one: while I was busy taking pictures of the Whiskered Treeswifts, Rannie and his son's attention were somewhere else. When I approached them he pointed to a Green Imperial Pigeon. It took me a while to spot it.

By the road to Hill 394, he asked me "Did you see it?" I shook my head. He then directed me to the tree trunk across the road. A White-bellied Woodpecker was busy hunting for food.

We went to the Crown Peak area late in the afternoon. Although birds were quite numerous - Blue-naped Parrots, Black-naped Orioles, Blue-throated Bee-eaters and Yellow-vented Bulbuls were all preparing to settle in for the night - it was already too dark for us to get any decent shots. This was very similar to our experience last year. 

We agreed to meet up again the following morning inasmuch as the hotels where we were staying in weren't that far from each other.

It was still dark when we arrived at Nabasan Trail the next day. We waited patiently hoping we would encounter an owl, but none appeared. The sun was already shining brightly when bird activity commenced. Green Imperial Pigeons were still too lazy to leave their roosts. It was the Guaiaberos that were up and about.

We moved on when the bird activity dwindled somewhat. Along the exit trail, Cynthia heard some mewing sounds. We parked our cars and looked for the source of those strange noises. I looked at Rannie who was shooting at something. When asked what it was, he showed us a full body shot of a Rufous Coucal! "They already hid in the bushes," he informed us. I was devastated. The Rufous Coucal is one of my most sought after species. We've been to Subic many times and not once have we seen them. Cynthia noticed the dour look on my face. "We'll come back again tomorrow and we'll see them then," she said consolingly. Still my heart was pained. So I prayed. We were about to board our vehicles when the mewing calls once again resounded in the crisp morning air. One, two, three coucals flew across the road calling to each other. One of them perched in full view. My prayer had been answered. My last lifer for the year was now in the bag.

My wife and I needed to go back to our hotel before 10 am so we could avail of the free breakfast. A little after nine we said goodbye to our new friend and excellent bird spotter. He and his family would be going back to their home in Lucena after lunch so he wanted to make the most of his birding morning.

There weren't new birds along Nabasan trail and the Botanic Garden when Cynthia and I returned after breakfast. Our afternoon birding only yielded a Philippine Green Pigeon.

Tuesday morning, we hit the road to Hill 394 again. Like last year, another target bird, the White-fronted Tit was a no-show. That place only yielded a Luzon Hornbill and a pair of Sooty Woodpeckers.

Just like yesterday, we had to go back to our hotel for our breakfast. We both agreed that we would go home after our morning meal. To borrow the words in my blog one year ago: Our trip was not that productive bird-wise but we did gain new friends. For my wife and myself that is still a plus. And we got a lifer this time.