skip to main |
skip to sidebar
About two years ago a rapper named Silento became famous because of his song/video titled "Watch Me Nae Nae". Indeed the beat was so captivating that one can't help but dance to its pulsating rhythm.
Now what has that got to do with birding? Nothing really except I just wanted to make a pun of the title. Inasmuch as today is the ninth of September (9-9), and I (with my wife, actually) was out watching birds in our neighborhood, I thought that would be an appropriate title.
We did see some of our target birds such as the Chestnut Munias. We saw three of them - an adult, one that is molting into adulthood and a juvenile.
The Golden-bellied Gerygones were still frolicking at the lower branches and even perching on the electric wires.
The migrant "boss" was now even more conspicuous.
Finally, the Olive-backed Sunbird showed up quite late again.
We missed some species like the Philippine Pied Fantail and the Blue Rock Thrush and those Black-naped Orioles that kept mocking us by constantly announcing their presence and yet not exposing themselves. They would then suddenly fly over us and disappear once again from view. For these birds a fitting title would be "watch me nay nay".
The emperor went to the highest point, looked around at his domain, and proclaimed that he is back! He had always been known as a tyrant, a bully even, chasing away intruders in his territory. He had travelled thousands of miles after spending the warm days of summer in the northern part of his empire. Now for the next 7 - 8 months he will rule his chosen realm with power and arrogance.
Today was the first time my wife and I saw the migrant Brown Shrike.
Learning from yesterday's lesson where we saw several birds, some even at close range, in our regular walk around the village, and not bringing along my camera thus missing some great photographic opportunities, this time I was ready. Good thing I did.. because I was able to document the belligerent shrike as it announced its presence.
To our surprise, it wasn't the only migrant in our village. Back at its hangout (where we first saw it last year) was a female Blue Rock Thrush!
Of course, the "locals" were up and about. Interestingly the Golden-bellied Gerygones were quite plentiful and uncharacteristically even frolicked among the lower branches of the trees. Perhaps avoiding being harassed by the emperor.
On the other hand, the Philippine Pied Fantail, another aggressive species, was doing its usual business.
The Zebra Dove was at its usual nonchalant attitude.
The Olive-backed Sunbird appeared a little bit later than it normally does.
Another surprise was the Chestnut Munia. We did see it yesterday at its bamboo habitat and Cynthia and I were hoping that it would show up again today. Their (there were more than one for sure) appearance in this area had been irregular and there were times that we don't see them for weeks. Today, it seems that another brood of young ones would soon be populating our neighborhood. This adult had been picking up pieces of bamboo leaves and then bringing them inside the thicket.
Finally, a gratuitous shot of the Eurasian Tree Sparrow, a juvenile even.
No photos of the Yellow-vented Bulbuls this time as they appear to be very antsy because their nemesis, the emperor shrike, is back.
Cynthia and I did our morning walk around our subdivision a little bit earlier than usual. Hoping to see some birds, I brought along my pair of binoculars. When we reached the corner of Fourth and Fordham we stopped for a while to catch our breaths (Fourth Street is a bit steep). That was when I saw an unfamiliar silhouette of a bird perched on a rooftop. It was bigger than the common Eurasian Tree Sparrows and stouter than the slim Yellow-vented Bulbuls. Looking through the bins I could tell it was some kind of a thrush. All I could see was its back so identifying it was a bit of a problem. I gave the binoculars to my wife and told her to keep an eye on the bird because I need to go home to get the camera. Then I ran. For three blocks. (It was downhill so it was relatively easy.) I rushed to our room, picked up the 5D3 with the Tamron lens, loaded the CF card and hurried out of the house. This time it was uphill going back to Fourth and Fordham. My tongue was hanging and I was practically crawling when I handed the camera to Cynthia. Thankfully, the thrush was still there. She took several shots but they were all backlit. Having regained a little bit of strength, I took over the photographic duties. I was trying to open up the aperture a couple of f-stops but the camera wasn't cooperating! Anyway, the thrush was now facing us and looking at the dark photos I was able to get, I was able to confirm that it was an immature Blue Rock Thrush! After a while, the thrush flew off.
Then a pair of black birds of about the same size flew across the street and landed on top of a water tank. "Crested Mynas!" I yelled as took several shots at the one perched in plain view.
Both birds took off soon after. We returned our attention back to the rooftop hoping that the thrush would return. That was when my wife saw a pair of Chestnut Munias gathering some nesting material from a clump of bamboos in front of us.
We saw the Blue Rock Thrush again when we tried to look for it at the next street. However, it was on a rooftop that was even higher and farther from where we were. Did I say even more backlit than before? We gave up on the migrant bird and walked back to Fordham. Cynthia heard a twittering noise. "There's a bird up there," she said, pointing to the leafy tree at the side of the road. I looked and was thrilled to see a Pied Triller! That was the first time we've seen this species in our neighborhood.
Then two Black-naped Orioles made a pass over. One of them stopped by to take a look at us before joining its companion.
As we neared the corner of Fourth and Fordham, my wife pointed to a palm tree two blocks away. "There's a colasisi there," she assured me. I looked through my long lens and sure enough, there was indeed a Philippine Hanging Parrot living up to its name and screaming at the Yellow-vented Bulbul perched on the palm stalk across from it. We tried getting closer but somehow the said palm tree was not visible because it was behind a tall house. The colasisi could only be seen from Fordham because this street was on a higher level than the one two blocks from here.
It was almost 8 am and we both were sweating from all that bird chasing. As we slowly walked towards our home, we were so glad that we had that exciting Fordham moment when some not so common birds showed up for us.
My wife and I walk around our subdivision as our (almost) regular exercise routine usually around 7 am. Birders that we are, we oftentimes stop whenever we hear or see some of the neighborhood birds. Throughout the time that we've doing this (about a year or so) we have seen quite a number of birds. But the one species that we kept wishing to encounter was the Blue Rock Thrush. The last time we've seen one here was in November of 2010.
And so every time we do our walk, we identify the birds we see this way: Blue Rock Sparrow, Blue Rock Bulbul, Blue Rock Fantail, Blue Rock Dove, Blue Rock Woodpecker….well, you get the idea.
Then one cloudy morning one week into 2016, we saw it! We were not sure at first because it was perched on a rooftop and heavily backlit. But the GISS definitely says it is the bird we were hoping to see. Of course, I did not have my camera with me at the time. Trusting in luck (and after a quick prayer) Cynthia and I rushed home - about 3 blocks away - to get my camera. This time we brought the car along to quicken our return at the scene. Thank heavens our beloved Blue Rock Thrush was still there and was more out in the open even!
Now when we do our morning exercise routine we can properly name the birds that we would be encountering: Eurasian Tree Sparrow, Yellow-vented Bulbul, Philippine Pied Fantail, Zebra Dove, Philippine Pygmy Woodpecker and so on and so forth.
Looks like it will be a good birding year for us.
The migrants have arrived! In urban settings, the most commonly encountered winter visitor from the north is the Brown Shrike. Local birders make it a point to record - and of course, post in Facebook - their FOS (First of Season) sighting of this species. We are a part of that group.
The past week or so, during our more or less regular walk around our subdivision (read: physical exercise), my wife and I were always on the lookout for this migrant bully. We saw one a couple of times then but I was too lazy to bring my camera with me. Yesterday, Cynthia reminded me to bring my photographic gear so that we can "officially" prove the presence of Lanius cristatus in our neighborhood.
We were nearing the end of our walk and still had not seen our target bird. My wife suggested, as a consolation, that we just focus our attention on the Olive-backed Sunbird family that is a sure find as they frolic among the yellow bell-shaped flowers along Astoria Street. As soon as we got to that place, the very first bird we saw was....a Brown Shrike! It was so cooperative that it was I who gave up taking its picture.
As expected the Olive-backed Sunbirds were there, too. It was mostly the immature ones that posed for me.
Not too far from there, a pair of Zebra Doves were busy feeding on the street.
There were the usual Eurasian Tree Sparrows and Yellow-vented Bulbuls nearby as well but these were the "trash birds" of our subdivision that I no longer felt obliged to capture their images.
Anyway, being successful in recording our FOS Brown Shrike, with a couple of bonuses all in one spot, my enthusiasm for birding seem to be migrating back to my soul again.
