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!

When Things Don't Go As Expected

Saturday morning Cynthia and I planned to go birding in Infanta. It's been a while since we've been there so we were expecting to see some species that we have not seen for quite some time. As we approached Baras the skies were dark and looked like it would be raining soon. So we decided to just go to Palo Alto - our usual birding spot in Baras. At the gate, the guard informed us that birdwatching is no longer allowed there. There had been complaints from the local residents he said without specifying what the complaints were about. He was very apologetic about it and requested us to turn around. With that unexpected situation my wife and I both agreed to continue going to Infanta inasmuch as the sun was beginning to peep through the clouds. As we approached the town of Tanay, we were surprised at the long line of vehicles. Was there an accident ahead? was our initial thought. As we inched closer to the front of the line we realized that there was checkpoint and the military was asking the drivers the reason for going to Infanta. Apparently "pleasure trips" were not being allowed to go through. Another unexpected snag to our birding plans. As we drove back I told Cynthia that our only option would be Taytay. 

When we arrived at the usual bird stop in Taytay, we were glad to see fellow bird photographers Mon Quisumbing, Joel Dayao and his wife, Gemma. With them was Bing Santos and her husband Arnel. They were all waiting for the resident Black Bittern to appear. Since the said species was still a no show, my wife and I photographed the birds in the area.

Whiskered Terns, surprisingly, were quite plentiful.

 

There were also some Intermediate Egrets and Little Egrets.

Intermediate Egret

 

Little Egret

 

All of a sudden a Black Bittern did a very short fly by. It disappeared among the tall grass before we could point our cameras at it. Again, we concentrated on the "friendlier" birds. One of which was a White-browed Crake.

 

Another surprise was when a Purple Heron flew over and landed at some distance.

 

We then saw another bird fly at a distance and landed on a banana tree. At first we thought it was our target species but it turned out to be a Yellow Bittern. And we only got a documentary shot at it because it was so far away.

 

Then a single Wandering Whistling Duck flew by but unfortunately we were unable to get a good shot at it.

Around 9:30 am and the hoped for Black Bittern still not appearing, we decided to call it a day. It wasn't that fruitful birding trip since we had some unexpected glitches in our plan but just having the opportunity to be out in fields was refreshing for me and Cynthia.

Candaback

After a rather long hiatus from  birding, my wife and I decided to return to our hobby. The place we agreed to go back to was the Candaba wetlands. The last time we visited this place was in early January of this year. We were disappointed that time having photographed a total of only 13 species. We hoped we would be luckier this time.

The very first bird we encountered was the Purple Heron. As it turned out this would be the bird of the day - having encountered it at different places.

As I negotiated the challenging deeply rutted dirt road, we were frustrated by surprising skittishnesss of both the Zebra Doves and Red Turtledoves. We would see them feeding on the grounds ahead of us but everytime we stopped to take their photos they would fly away. And this happened a lot of times! Rather surprising because in our previous trips here both species would remain on the ground unperturbed by our presence.

At least one of their cousins, a Spotted Dove, posed long enough for us to be able to take a shot at it.

The area near the entrance was a fallowed farmland and completely devoid of avian population. As we neared the "wetlands" the Whiskered Terns were as usual flying around. Again, we only saw a few individuals where there used to be hundreds of them before.

Good thing a family of Common Moorhens were out searching for food.

We also encountered three species of bitterns but only managed to get photos of two: the Cinnamon and the Yellow. The Black Bittern made a quick flyby, landed on a clump of tall grass and completely disappeared from view.

Cinnamon Bittern

Yellow Bittern

A White-breasted Waterhen walked across the road and stopped just before going in the shrub.

A little further up the road, Cynthia noticed some movement by the tall grass. "Coucal!" she said softly. Unfortunately, the large bird skulked behind the reeds and never showed itself in full view.

As we approached the pond which was now almost dry, we were glad to see several members of the Ardeidae family: the Cattle Egret, Little Egret, and Intermediate Egret. 

Cattle Egret

Little Egret

Intermediate Egret

Since there wasn't that much water the colony of Black-crowned Night Herons was no longer there. Actually we were surprised when we saw one juvenile fly over.

When we were just about to get to the "mayor's house" I noticed that the ruts on the road was definitely not accessible, especially since our car isn't a 4-wheel drive. So we thought it prudent to just turn around.

At the provincial road, we got photos (and not so good ones even) of two of four regulars usually seen here: the Striated Grassbird and the Long-tailed Shrike. Unlike before, the Pied Bush Chat and Chestnut Munias were too far off for us to even get a decent shot.

Striated Grassbird

Long-tailed Shrike

After about 3 hours we decided to call it a day. A few meters down the road I saw some waders in the shallow waters. Let me just say that we got some bonus albeit all photos were only of the "documentary" type inasmuch as our subjects were too far off from the roadside. At least we know that some migrants such as the Marsh Sandpiper, Wood Sandpiper, Black-winged Stilt, Long-toed Stint and even a Little Ringed Plover still come to this place.

Marsh Sanpiper

Wood Sandpiper

Black-winged Stilt

Long-toed Stint

Although we got better results now than we had early this year, it was still heartbreaking that the number of species and the quantity of birds had declined sharply this year.

From our home to this place took us about an hour-and-a-half when we left at around 4:30 in the morning. The return home took almost five hours as we had to endured the horrendous traffic situation in MetroManila, particularly along EDSA. It was such a traumatic experience that we probably would never come back to Candaba again.

Going for the Shrike

We first saw this annual migrant in our neighborhood a week ago. However due to inclement weather I wasn't able to take a photo of this bird. This morning, a gleam of sunlight finally broke through. I brought my camera and prepared to go for the Shrike. It didn't take us long to find it, albeit at quite a distance. Knowing its habit of not going far from its chosen territory, we followed its short flights from one tree to another and eventually got a good enough shot.

A small flock of Scaly-breasted Munias then flew in. It looked like these were siblings that were the result of a nesting couple we observed early last month. Two of them seemed like they were having a spat.

While we were enjoying watching these young Munias frolic around, three small birds came flying by and landed on a small tree next to us. To our surprise they were juvenile Olive-backed Sunbirds.

Happy that we got our target birds at the great lawn area, we continued our morning walk at the ground level hoping to get a shot at the Zebra Doves. Unfortunately, only one showed up and it was a "heard only" experience. As we approached the retail row area we hoped that we would encounter the Philippine Pied Fantails we saw yesterday. This time they were a no-show and we discovered the reason why. Another migrant bully was staking claim on that area.

Of course, I had to take an obligatory shot of the very common Eurasian Tree Sparrow.

As we were about to return to our condo, I saw a huge wader fly overhead. It was too high and backlit that I am not 100% sure of its ID. For now I'd say it was a Purple Heron.

And that ended our quick morning sortie around our condo grounds.

Lucky 13

With the sun shining beautifully that morning, we thought that the road to the back ponds of Candaba would be dry and accessible. It wasn't. Thanks to Bong's 4-wheel drive SUV, and his driver Rudy's expertise and determination, we somehow made it at least to the former mayor's house. Another sad thing was the dearth of birds. What used to be wetlands had been converted to rice fields. The lack of sufficient bodies of water resulted in only a few birds staying there. In our 3 hours or so of birding we only managed to photograph 13 - only 13 - species.

On our way in, some Intermediate Egrets were hunting for food on the still unplowed field.

Ahead of us a pair of White-breasted Waterhens were looking warily at us. One of them stayed long enough for us to get a few shots.

At the mayor's house, Cynthia was able to photograph an Arctic Warbler, while I was shooting at a Long-tailed Shrike.

We all agreed not to go beyond the mayor's house afraid of going through worse road conditions. Besides, we met birding friend Irene who told us that there was a Pied Harrier near the fork coming from the entrance. We went to the said place and thankfully there were some birds there that were flying about. The most common was the Black-crowned Night Heron.

Then there were the Purple Herons as well.

Cynthia was lucky enough to get some good shots of the Philippine Ducks flying at a distance.

Little Egrets also joined the flying group.

We did see the Harrier but were unable to get a good shot at it. Chestnut Munias were quite plenty and were perching near the road.

A Lesser Coucal was out sunning.

Cynthia also got a shot of two Turtledoves. No, we didn't see a Partridge on a pear tree.

Before going home we decided to go by the provincial road because Bong wanted to take some photos of Pied Bush Chats. After some driving around we eventually saw them -both male and female.

I, on the other hand, wanted a Striated Grassbird, which strangely enough, we never saw inside the "wetlands". It was already on our way back that I finally got what I hoped for.

It's so sad that birds were getting fewer and fewer here in what was once one of the prime birding places in Luzon. We were lucky to even get 13 species!

Many, many thanks to our friend, Bong, for inviting us to go birding with him to Candaba. We appreciate it very much!