Camella's Back

We were invited by our neighbor and fellow birder, Chin, to go with him to Camella Homes in Bulacan. We've been to that place before and we had a great time with the Jacanas. Inasmuch as one of our target birds, the White-winged Tern, had been seen there lately, going back would be a good opportunity.

For almost three hours we stayed by the pond looking at a number of Pheasant-tailed Jacanas and Whiskered Terns cavorting all over the place. However, the hoped for flight of the Jacanas did not happen as we expected - only some short hops from one end of the pond to the other.

While waiting for our target bird to appear I observed an uncommon behavior from what I believe is a Clamorous Reed Warbler. Normally this species is a skulker -darting in and out of tall reeds while looking for insects. This one, however, was acting more Pipit-like, standing on top of waterlilies and grabbing an unfortunate bug. It looked like a Pipit, behaved like a Pipit, but Pipits are migrants and were supposed to be back up northern Asia by now. Our friend, Adri, later confirmed that this was indeed a Clamorous Reed Warbler.

Anyway, another interesting avian activity I observed was playing "king-of-the-hill" (or should I say a "king-of-the-pole") between two species. The Blue-tailed Bee-eater would perch on said pole then fly off to chase of an insect. A Whiskered Tern would then perch on the said pole before the Bee-eater could return. The smaller bird would then harass the tern albeit to no avail. Eventually the tern would also fly off to join its comrades in swooping for tiny fish. That would be now an opportunity for the Bee-eater to reclaim its throne, so to speak, and fend off the returning tern. But then the Bee-eater would of course had to eat so off it would fly again. That would be the go signal for the tern to return (pun intended). That scenario was repeated several times.

As in most of our birding trips there would be a bonus bird. This time it was a pair of Greater Painted Snipes! For a short while both male and female got out of hiding from the reeds and enjoyed a few moments in the sun.

female 

male

A little after 8 am, with the White-winged Terns not showing up and the heat and humidity becoming unbearable, we all agreed to call it a day. 

JIF

JIF is the number one peanut butter brand in the United States. Lately, however, JIF acquired a new meaning here in the Philippines. Now JIF stands for Jacana In Flight - photos of which had become a common posting in Facebook the past several weeks. Like most bird photographers, we wanted to be a part of this growing community. Our friend and regular birding companion, Peter and I contacted Jonet T. Carpio - he is "the man" who rules over the Jacana territory. So it was arranged - we meet up at the Camella Homes in Bulacan between 6:30 and 7 Saturday morning.

At 6:30 we were there. Jonet gave us a detailed description of what to expect, where to look, and the best time to photograph our target species. For the next hour and a half we endured the scorching sun as we attempted (most of the time unsuccessfully) to get our JIF shot. I said unsuccessfully because the long-tailed birds were so unpredictable in their movements. You'll never know when they will decide to fly and if they did it was only for a short distance - oftentimes too short for our cameras to focus properly on the fast moving subject.

Thankfully, there were some passable photos that would be good enough to be included in the JIF posting in Facebook.

In between lulls when the Pheasant-tailed Jacanas were not up in the air, other species provided a respite, thankfully so. Interestingly, we were provided with BIF opportunities. Normally, BIF would mean "Bird In Flight" however, in our case that morning, BIF turned out to be Bittern In Flight. All three species went flying by, albeit at varying distances and at different times.

Black Bittern

Cinnamon Bittern

Yellow Bittern

Around 9 am, the jacana activity quieted somehow. A birding couple, Gilbert and Wilma Go, came and joined us. We stayed with them for another half hour with still very minimal activity from our target bird. 

At 9:30 with the heat becoming unbearable, we bade goodbye to our new friends and to our host. Our deepest gratitude goes to Jonet who took time off from his schedule to show us where the jacanas were and providing very important information about birds in the area and even setting up a hide for us photographers.

One of the slogans for the famous peanut butter I mentioned above goes: "it's terif!" That's exactly how we would describe our experience with our version of JIF.