GPS Location

The term "GPS" is a device generally used for tracking and navigation. In our case, it had a different meaning, particularly on Saturday, April 1, at the Ninoy Aquino Park and Wildlife Center (NAPWC). It had been quite a while since we visited this place and our expectations weren't that high. After parking our car we walked to the edge of the pond. There we met three young ladies (Aly, Ria and Anj) who were doing some bird watching. After introducing ourselves and doing some bird talk, I looked at the pond and some birds of the Ardeidae family. Then at a distance, I noticed some movements and got excited when I realized what they were - a pair of Greater Painted Snipes! (Henceforth refered to as GPS). We did not expect this species to be seen here since they are quite uncommon. The last we saw some GPS were at the Camelia Homes Subdivision in Bulacan way back in 2017. Unfortunately they were a bit far that I only got some documentary shots. The female is the more colorful one.

After a while the pair of GPS left. It was then that took shots at the members of the heron family - Black-crowned Night Heron, Little Egret and Yellow Bittern

A pair of Pacific Swallows even landed not too far from us and offered some photo ops.

Happy that we got into the GPS location, our young lady companions took a group shot with us.

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!

U.P. for Breakfast

To be honest, the reason I told my wife that we're going birding at U.P. Diliman, was because I wanted to have breakfast at Rodic's to enjoy the best Tapsilog there is. But before reaching our destination, we decided to stop over at the Hardin ng Rosas. We were surprised to discover that the pond was almost completely covered by vegetation! The Black-winged Stilts were gone and we didn't see any Moorhens also. Thankfully there were two immature Black-crowned Night Herons there.

 

We arrived at Rodic's just as they were opening. Inasmuch as they don't allow on-site dining yet, Cynthia and I both agreed to savor our breakfast at the parking lot of the MSI Building. Unfortunately, there were a few birds there and we noticed the Security Guard cordoning off some parts in the area. After breakfast off we went to the Astronomy place. The resident Long-tailed Shrike was there of course! I think there were two individuals even.

 

Behind the fence, three Collared Kingfishers were at their usual perch.

 

There were also a couple of Crested Mynas on the roof of the building.

 

As we were leaving and passing by the Genome building, we saw some Orioles frolicking about. I quickly parked the car and we were so excited  photographing a family of Black-naped Orioles at such a low level!

 

Other than these species, there weren't that many birds which was fine with us. After all we went to U.P. just for the Tapsilog at Rodic's.