Imus Go There

 When our friend, Linda Gocon, posted photos of some unusual birds taken in Imus, Cavite, I thought "I must go there."

Early Saturday morning (June 26) my wife and drove to the place not that far from SM Center. Only to discover that the "birding" place was teeming with joggers, cyclists, and even motorcyclists. Forget about the Grass Owl I whispered to Cynthia. Thankfully, despite the abundance of human beings, there were still birds that inhabit the nearby grasslands. The most common of which (aside from the Eurasian Tree Sparrows, of course) was the Zitting Cisticola!

Something really weird happened next. We both saw some movement on the ground. So we both took pictures of the bird that was roaming around. I knew that my subject was a Paddyfield Pipit and I assumed that Cynthia was photographing the same species. However, when I was processing our photos at home I discovered that the bird my wife was taking pictures of was an Oriental Skylark!

Paddyfield Pipit

Oriental Skylark

Next came the doves: A Zebra Dove was also foraging among the grass.

Cynthia was lucky enough to get a shot of a Spotted Dove making a landing.

We then moved to a place where some trash had been piled up. From there my wife saw a Cinnamon Bittern in a distance. Eventually it flew off and of course, Cynthia got a perfect BIF (bird in flight) shot! 

To console myself after failing to get my BIF shot, I took an obligatory photo of a Eurasian Tree Sparrow.

Speaking of BIFs, a couple of Oriental Pratincoles were flying around providing a challenge for us.

Cynthia's sharp eyes got her a White-browed Crake.

From the roundabout, we proceeded to a road nearby. Feeding on the grass stalks were a horde of Munias - both Chestnut and Scaly-breasted.

Chestnut Munia

Scaly-breasted Munia

I also saw an immature Striated Grassbird preening on barbed wire.

Near the narrow road, we were surprised to see an Intermediate Egret!

Perched on the electric wire were some Pacific Swallows

Past nine o'clock and we were soaked in our sweat, so we both agreed to call it a day. As we were about to leave, we got our "lifer" - penguins!!

Ricefields Forever?

Gone are the ponds. The place can no longer be referred to as "wetlands". In its place are ricefields, as far as the eye can see. Because of that thousands of migrant ducks and waders no longer come here. This is Candaba now.

In fairness, there were still birds. Chestnut Munias, Red Turtledoves, and Zebra Doves were plentiful.

Our trip with birding buddies Peter Ting and Wenxing Pan last Saturday was like a roller coaster ride. There were ups and downs. The downside being the absence of the ducks and waders I mentioned earlier. The whole time we were there, we only saw two Wandering Whistling Ducks, two Black-winged Stilts, one Long-toed Stint and one Common Greenshank. Wood Sandpipers, on the other hand, seemed to be more in numbers. Perhaps it was because now they tended to flock closer together in the watery gaps between the rice crops.

The upside was being rewarded with really close views of two kinds of bitterns: The Yellow as we were entering the site and the Cinnamon as we were leaving.

Yellow Bittern

Cinnamon Bittern

Then we had the up-and-down experience of trying to photograph birds in flight. First was a pair of Eastern Marsh Harriers. Each time we saw them they tended to fly farther away from us. We had to either wait for them to fly back or we leave the place then return when the raptors felt that there were no more people around and got more confident to fly closer.

The other challenge was the Oriental Pratincole. Surprisingly, there were lots of them, maybe close to a hundred, all ceaselessly flying overhead. Trying to focus on an individual is a test of patience and skills.

Without the ducks and waders, we had to cut our trip short. It was about this time last year when we twitched some rarities here: the Baikal Teal, Falcated Duck and Spot-billed Duck all seen at the pond close to the Mayor's house. Now there were just ricefields. Is it going to be like this forever?

They're All Plover the Place

Any faint-hearted birder probably would not have gone through it. All the discouraging signs were there: target bird not seen the day before, heavy rain falling early in the morning, strange sounds coming from the car when driving over 80 kph, me not feeling too well…

But we had determination. We got faith. We pressed on towards our goal.

At seven in the morning our friend, Prof. Tirso Paris, was escorting us inside the fallowed grounds of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI). He led us to the fields where the rare migrant, the Oriental Plover, had been seen and photographed. Tirso was telling us that just two days ago these uncommon birds were quite close to where they parked their cars. Today, so far, nothing. However, Oriental Skylarks seem to be everywhere! Cynthia and I have never seen so many of these tiny brown birds in a single place!

At the next stop, Prof. Tirso pointed out a tiny speck among the green grass. It was our target bird allright but unfortunately too far and too hidden for passable photographs. Looking through my binoculars I even discovered there were actually two of them, one still sporting traces of its breeding plumage.

Tirso decided to scout the nearby area to see if there would be more of these birds (there were supposed to be about seven of them) while we stayed put and photographed the more oblivious Wood Sandpipers. 

Soon we got a call from our friend saying he found them. We rushed to where he was and there three Oriental Plovers were busy hunting for food. They stayed at a distance unlike in the past but still afforded us some good enough shots.

After having our fill of the Plovers we took a break to have a snack with our host and to enjoy the Birds of IRRI exhibit were most of the photographs on display were taken by our beloved Prof. Then we explored the lowland area where Oriental Pratincoles were quite plentiful. Today must have an "Oriental" theme, what with lots of Oriental Skylarks, Oriental Pratincoles and even a few Oriental Plovers.

Soon Tirso was pointing at a smaller wader mingling with a Black-winged Stilt. "Marsh Sandpiper" he informed us. It was somewhat unusual for this species which prefers coastal areas to be inland and even on a ricefield so we added that to our list of birds photographed that day.

Rain started to fall again so we all agreed that it was to time to go. Our heartfelt thanks goes to our dear friend, Prof. Tirso, not only for accompanying us inside IRRI but also for locating our target birds for us.