Return to Dumaguete, Day 2 - Van for the Road

While we were having breakfast at the hotel restaurant, we were keeping an eye at the tall bare tree next to the hotel grounds. Birds would come, alight on a branch, stay there for a while then fly off.  This happened in such regularity that I could not stand it any longer. I hurried back to our room, grabbed my camera and resumed my breakfast. Only to leave it every now and then to go outside and tried to take pictures of those birds whenever they stopped by (that's right - tried - because they were so small and so high up the tree). All in all my morning repast had been interrupted by Chestnut Munias, a Grey-streaked Flycatcher and (insert fanfare here) Java Sparrows! You read it right - Java Sparrows! I found it interesting, even bordering on funny, to find this species for the first time in the Philippines, here in Dumaguete, right next to a hotel.

After breakfast, Cynthia and I decided to explore the Ang Tay Golf Course grounds across the street from our hotel. We dared not explore the whole area inasmuch as we came in via the back entrance, so to speak. Nevertheless we did find some birds - most of which were perched high up, I mean way high up the only tall tree in the vicinity. With only my 300mm lens at my disposal, photographing these birds can be quite frustrating! Once again Chestnut Munias were there, along with Asian Glossy Starlings, a Collared Kingfisher and Zebra Doves. At least the Barn Swallows gave better opportunities by perching on the electric wires. 

Nine in the morning and we were in a quandary as to what to do next. Cynthia sought the assistance of the hotel concierge in renting a van. One hour later and we were on our way to Tanjay, a coastal town with lots of ponds along the highway. Just like yesterday, we informed our driver, Danny, that we would every so often ask him to stop so we could take pictures of birds along the way. And stop we did on numerous occasions. Shorebirds were simply all over the place - Common Greenshanks, Javan Pond Herons and Whiskered Terns. 

Common Greenshank

Javan Pond Heron

Whiskered Tern

The Sandpiper family was well represented with Wood, Marsh and Common species. 

Wood Sandpiper

Marsh Sandpiper

Common Sandpiper

We were even rewarded with a lifer! A lone Malaysian Plover was forlornly roaming the mudflats.

We were back at the hotel around noon. It was a satisfying couple of hours birding. 

Da WOW Experience, Part 3

Day 4 - It's a Shore Thing

September 24, 2010 - the 1st Asian Bird Fair officially opened today. We were busy visiting the various booths and meeting foreign birders throughout the whole morning.

After lunch as things quieted down somewhat, Cynthia and I were walking back towards our hotel room when we met two young delegates from Hongkong. We told them about the Collared Kingfisher that frequents the coconut groves near the hotel. They were very grateful and in return they informed us that there was a Little Heron by the breakwater area behind the hotel. We quickly gathered our gears and rushed to where the Little Heron had been found. When we asked permission from the guard if we could enter the breakwater explaining that we would be looking for shorebirds, he confirmed that there were indeed birds there when the tide was low.

Of course, the tide was low the time we were there and it wasn't long before we saw our first bird. It turned out to be a lifer - a Grey -tailed Tattler! Just then the Little Heron flew in and landed at the pier across from us. I was busy taking shots at the heron when a small bird emerged at the top of the berm adjoining the pier. It was a Common Sandpiper and another lifer for us! While I was shifting back and forth in viewing the Little Heron and the Common Sandpiper, another bird came flying in. Brownish with a long curved bill..a Whimbrel! Our relatively short stint at the waterfront yielded four species of shorebirds. Not bad at all!

Common Sandpiper

Little Heron

Grey-tailed Tattler

Whimbrel

The rest of our afternoon was spent in pretty much the same way as we did that morning. That night the bird fair participants were once again treated to another buffet this time hosted by the Primer Group, local distributors of Columbia apparel. Another day, another buffet. It's a sure thing.

A "song" for the holidays

Nuthatch posing on an open pine

Pipit bobbing on a stone

Say's Phoebe taking its time

And a Sandpiper looking so alone

Everybody knows that herons like to hunt for fish

And berries the bluebirds take

The trees have a kingbird and a finch

While buffleheads swim on the lake

Happy Holidays, everyone!

(Note: All of these pictures were taken in one morning's outing at Bonelli Regional Park using a Canon 5D Mk II with a 500mm lens plus a 1.4X extender.)

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A Tern of Fortune

Our birding woes continued to haunt us. Having failed at finding the Solitary Sandpiper last August 15th, two more species of its family made our lives a bit miserable lately. On both occasions we had those “maybe we did, maybe we didn’t” situations. Allow me to elaborate:

Last Saturday my wife and I went to the Los Angeles River to look for Baird’s Sandpipers. There were hundreds of peeps gathered in the distance about of perhaps more than a hundred feet away. To pick out a few paler, longer winged individuals from that group was downright frustrating, especially when the flock would suddenly take off, circle a bit, and land just a few feet where they used to be. We thought we saw a couple of pale birds from the constantly moving throng but without a photograph (did I mention they were too far?) to support our hunch or an expert opinion to confirm the identities of the birds we saw (where are the uberbirders when you need them?), we decided not to include the Baird’s on our list.

I visited San Joaquin Wildlife Sanctuary in Irvine last Monday. Cynthia has to go to work so I went solo. This time my quarry was a Semipalmated Sandpiper. As Yogi Berra once said, “it’s déjà vu all over again”. There were tons of Westerns and Leasts frolicking at the ponds and to pick out one with a shorter bill among them was an exercise in futility. Even with the arrival of locals Jim and Lucy (with her spotting scope) didn’t do any good. I took some pictures of what I suspected to be the Semipalmated, but the expert who I sent them to couldn’t be 100% sure either.

Earlier in the morning, just to shake off the misery of failing to find the Semiplamated, I wandered off to the other ponds, hoping that my target bird would be there (and easier to spot). While I was scanning the waters at Pond C, a tern kept circling and made various attempts at catching some prey. I didn’t pay much attention to it, as terns are not that unusual here. But then in one of its turns, I noticed that the wings were dark grayish unlike the Forster’s that frequent this place. Now this time I had with me my big 500mm lens mounted on a tripod. This set-up is excellent for birds that stay put. But try it on a fast flying whitish bird and it becomes the epitome of inefficiency. That said, I was able to get a “hail mary” shot – good enough to confirm (thanks to Lucy’s help) that what I saw was a juvenile Black Tern! I think it is safe to say that the Black Tern is as uncommon as a Semipalmated Sandpiper hereabouts. At least my day wasn’t a total loss.




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"Life is like a flock of gulls..." *

“You’ll never know what you will get.”

South end of the Salton Sea. We just pulled into the corner of Lack and Lindsey Roads. There were cars lining up the edge of the narrow dirt road some 20 feet above the shoreline. Birders from the San Bernardino Valley Audubon Society were lined up by the road peering into their spotting scopes at the birds below. We asked one of the birders, Dave Chadsey whom I have met at Legg Lake before looking for the Bay-breasted Warbler,  if there was anything interesting down there. “Just a bunch of gulls, including some Herrings”, he replied casually. My wife and I looked at each other. “Herring Gulls, you say?” I commented in the same casual tone – trying to sound like I have seen this species a gazillion times already (which Dave probably had) – when as a matter of fact it would be a lifer for Cynthia and myself. So I raised my binoculars to the group of gulls bunched together on tiny strip of mudflat below and tried to figre out which of these are the Herring Gulls. As I was just about to take a picture of the gull flock, Dave announced that the group are moving on to Obsidian Butte to try and look for the Yellow-footed Gull. I asked Dave if it’s alright that we tag along. Graciously he said ok. We quickly packed our gear (thus not being able to photograph the Herring Gull(s?) and jumped into our Jeep since the birding caravan had started to move.

By and large, birders are very nice and accommodating. However….

Yesterday afternoon we drove to Unit 1 of the Salton Sea Refuge. At the observation deck, we met an elderly couple who were scanning the area with binoculars. We asked them the usual “Anything interesting?” question. The little old lady smiled and said, “Well, there’s a bird…..”. We waited for the continuation. A few minutes passed. Had we been sitting, we would have fallen off our seats at the unbearable suspense. But then she just smiled and continued looking through her binoculars. At this point,  Cynthia and I descended from the observation deck and walked towards the ponds further down the road, to look for one of our target birds, the Stilt Sandpiper. When we were out of earshot from the couple on the deck, I yelled, “What bird was it?” My wife stared at me and was at once concerned with my state of mind. “I just needed to vent”, I assured her. Having done that, I was now able to breathe normally. Thankfully, as some sort of a palliative, we got our Stilt Sandpipers.

The following morning, at the same area, we met Taurino Tadeo, a young guy we have also met previously at Bolsa Chica. Taurino and I have a lot of things in common: we are both half-Filipino, we enjoy photography, we love birds and we are both exceedingly good-looking (well, at least he is). We exchanged information on where to look for particular birds, him giving us directions on where to find Burrowing Owls, and us showing him where the Sandhill Cranes hang-out during the day. Wishing each other good luck, we parted ways on our separate missions.

Back at Obsidian Butte with Dave and the group, it didn’t take long for them to locate the Yellow-footed Gull. The bird was quite a distance – perhaps the length of a city block - but the San Bernardino Auduboner’s were so nice in letting us look through their spotting scopes. We were so grateful to them for our 7^th lifer of the year.

They decided to stick around to look for the Lesser Black-backed Gull, so we grudgingly said goodbye to the friendly group inasmuch as we still have to look for our other target birds: Mountain Plover, Sprague’s Pipit and Chestnut-backed Longspurs.

  

We failed miserably on those three despite searching diligently for over two hours the areas where they were reported seen. On the return trip home we took the east side (Highway 111) route. On a whim, we decided to stop by Mecca Beach on the north shore of the sea. There we were greeted by gulls! Lot’s of them! Easily I recognized Ring-billeds and Bonaparte’s. Then a huge gull with dark wings flew over and alighted on some rocks about a hundred feet away. “I think that’s a Lesser Black-backed Gull”, I told my wife. “It was reported seen here quite recently.”

 “Then, what are you waiting for?”, she asked. “Go after it.”

 A hundred feet seemed like forever when chasing a lifer, but eventually I was able to get close. Close enough to correctly identify the gull as a Lesser Black-Backed.

As we resumed the trip home, our conversation went something like...

"What about that other gull?  Is that a third year Western?"

"Could be a winter adult California"

"…..might be a Thayer’s, you know……"

"another Herring, maybe?..."

"..but the irises are pale...."

A Lotta Bonelli

As you will recall, my 85th lifer for the year 2008 was a Red-breasted Nuthatch which my wife and I saw at Galileo Hills last Oct. 18th. Unfortunately, we weren't able to get some pictures of the said bird. So when it was reported that one was sighted at Bonelli Regional Park in San Dimas, I was there bright and early on Oct. 28th.

Not long after I parked my Jeep, I saw a bunch of Yellow-rumped Warblers enjoying a puddle of water. As I approached I immediately saw the Red-breasted Nuthatch among the leaves almost above me. Bad lighting and the innate restlessness of this species only allowed me some so-so shots. Better than none, I reasoned to myself. After about five minutes it left the area, never to be seen again despite my repeated forays to that particular spot.



Other than that the place was quite birdy and I was able to get some nice pictures, particularly of a Redhead Duck which I thought was quite unusual here.


All in all, I had quite a good harvest of avian photographs some in rather interesting poses.