Happy Birdday

I already have a blog title in mind even before we went birding last Saturday morning: Happy BRT Day! (sounds like happy birthday, right?). BRT stands for Blue Rock Thrush, an uncommon migrant to the Philippines. Our friend, Bert Madrigal, posted a photo of one taken at the campus of the University of the Philippines (U.P.) in Diliman, Quezon City - a place close to our residence. He saw three of them according to Bert. That was our incentive to go birding on my birthday.

My wife and I were at the Science Complex (where the BRTs were seen) at 6:30 am. Three hours later and I had to accept the fact that my planned blog title would never be used after all. Not a single Blue Rock Thrush showed up!

But it was my birthday and I would not let minor disappointments ruin it for me. Cynthia and I made lemonade out of lemons, so to speak. We saw quite a number of birds, albeit the usual suspects found in U.P., but the Lord in His graciousness showed us two species that were rarely seen here: A Rusty-breasted Cuckoo and a Black-chinned Fruit Dove - both still in the immature stage.

Immature Rusty-breasted Cuckoo

Immature Black-chinned Fruit Dove

The good old reliable Philippine Nightjar was still in its usual roosting place.

There were other birds that we saw and photographed too but these were the highlights of our day. 

Despite not seeing our target species, my birthday birding trip to U.P. was still an enjoyable one considering that I wasn't feeling well the day before. This was definitely a great tasting lemonade.

Out for a Lark

October 24, 2008. It was just like any day as far as our morning routine goes. Except I got a couple of cards from my wife as we were preparing for breakfast. Throughout the day I would be receiving calls, text messages and emails from family and friends greeting me on my 62nd birthday. As of today, I am officially "retired" according to the government records. Soon I will be getting my social security pension. Inasmuch as I have been out of work for over a year now, this was not exactly an earth-shaking event for me. Besides, I'm the kind who does not want nor expect any fuss on my birthday "celebration".

So what do I do on my birthday? Go birding, naturally. I wanted to do a reprise of what I did last year - visit Peck Park in El Monte. Last year (which was just a week after Indymac and I had a friendly "divorce") I got some pretty good birding experiences at Peck's. Today didn't go too well, though. All the sprinklers were on and the maintenance people were busy doing their jobs and quite noisy about it. Nevertheless, I was able to capture some good shots of a couple of "Larks": the Lark Sparrow (the most beautiful sparrow in the U.S., in my opinion) and the plentiful Meadowlarks.

Later that night as my wife and I were enjoying a sumptuous Mediterranean dinner, she asked me how my day was.

"It was a lark!" I replied smiling.

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.