A Matter of Thrush

I recently turned 65. Such a milestone age should have been reason enough for some grand celebration but sadly, it didn't turn out that way. For the simple reason that I got sick. Somehow my digestive organs picked this day to stage a revolt against my internal constitution. And made me an unwilling participant in the occupy the bathroom movement. Repeatedly. For several days.


By Saturday, October 29th, things were all quiet on the digestive front. Everything seemed as normal as can be. Time to go birding. Inasmuch as I was still leery about my health, I thought it prudent to just go to nearby University of the Philippines' campus.


As I was parking our car at the MSI (Marine Science Institute) grounds, I was thinking aloud whether the annual visitor, the Blue Rock Thrush, would already be there. 


"What's that bird on the ground?" Cynthia asked.


I looked. 


"Blue Rock Thrush", I replied in the calmest, most insouciant way.


Unfortunately, it flew away even before I could get my camera gears out of the trunk. Hoping that it would return in the not too distant future, I whiled away my time by photographing the antics of a Philippine Pygmy Woodpecker.

"Do you think the Thrush would come back?" my wife was curious.


"I trust it would"


"What's that bird perched on the palm tree?"


"Blue Rock Thrush", I replied in the calmest, most insouciant way.


Unfortunately, it flew away before I could focus on it.


This time a Pied Triller provided me the much appreciated entertainment as we waited for the Thrush to reappear. 

Cynthia, on the other hand, was losing in the game of hide-and-seek with a Yellow Wagtail. Several attempts at locating it turned out futile. Soon she gave up and as she approached the tall acacia tree, she started to ask,  


"What bird....."


"Blue Rock Thrush!" I excitedly interrupted her. And began taking pictures of the bird lest it decide to take a leave once again. Thankfully, it didn't. It was one of those what my wife aptly termed "modeling sessions" where our subject just stood there - facing left, facing right, turning around, moving to an area with a different background, etc.

Having had our fill of the Blue Rock Thrush, I thought I'd push our luck and go for the Philippine Hanging Parrot that hangs out in a nearby gated community. Having obtained our permission from friend Jv Noriega (who lives in that subdivision), we sought the tiny green bird. And found nothing. Unfortunately, some men were clearing the tall grass nearby which probably spooked our target bird.


As in any birding trip, we had some good sightings and there were disappointments. One thing that came out from my sick days was that I had time to reflect on many things. Turning 65 and being under the weather put me in a cogitative state. I resolved that at this age, I need to enjoy life even more. I will not allow disappointments, envy, and other petty stuff to ruin my day. I am blessed with a wife who loves me and shares the same passion I have for birding. Simply being with her as we look at the beautiful feathered creatures, whether common or a lifer, is something that I treasure with all my heart.


Postscript: As I write this, I have once again fallen ill, albeit not as insufferable as the one I had a week ago. Still it cost us a trip to Los Banos. The way my body is behaving right now could affect future birding trips. But I put my health and my life in the hands of God. I know He will be there for me. It's a matter of faith and trust in Him.

Hot 'n' cool

It was 98 degrees in the shade. With a high humidity index to match. In this sauna-like weather, sane, reasonable people stay in air-conditioned rooms and imbibe cool drinks. But not intrepid birders! No, we go out under the blistering sun to look for birds. No, not under the shade of forest trees but out in the open marshlands of Candaba. 


And for what? 


Nothing special, really. We just wanted to go there, is all.


Well, we did see a bunch of Oriental Pratincoles zooming above a pond choked with giant waterlilies. Unfortunately, BIF (birds-in-flight) photography is not my forte, what with my unwieldy zoom lens on a tripod. My wife, on the other hand, was more open to challenges. She persevered, enduring the radiant heat, and kept shooting until she felt that she was finally able to document the aerial aerobics of the fast flying pratincoles.

And then there were those "No! No! Oh no!" moments. A marsh bird would cross the street ahead of us and pause in the middle of the road. We would slowly inch our car closer up to the bird's tolerable distance. We would then turn the car engine off, oh so quietly open the door, bring our cameras to our eyes, focus on the subject and just when we were ready to click on the shutter, a tricycle would come from the opposite direction causing our quarry to dash into the nearest bush. Yes, it happened several times - to aWhite-browed Crake, a couple of White-breasted Waterhens and some Barred Rails. With the amount of shots that we kept losing to the motorized monster, we thought the odds would eventually turn in our favor. Thankfully it did and we finally got a White-breasted Waterhen as it stopped to give us one last look before it disappeared at the other side of the road.

In every outing there usually is a "thriller" moment. This time it seemed a tad more appropriate when I got some nice open shots of a Pied Triller - a bird we didn't expect to see in this kind of environment. 

For Cynthia it was a Yellow Bittern taking one big step over a lotus leaf.

At about 11 am, the heat had become unbearable. Somehow the cold bottle of water didn't have much effect on us. Perhaps it's because it set us back 150 pesos (about $3.50) for a bottle that isn't even half a liter in size. Actually, the 150 pesos was for an "entrance fee" and the bottle of water came "free" with it. This was the first time we've been asked to pay the "entrance fee" (and we've been here many times in the past). But I don't want to dwell on that.


As we prepared to leave for home, we were happy that we still got some cool bird shots to alleviate the effects of the hottest day of the year.

7 U.P. and an Olive

In a span of one week, I visited the University of the Philippines (U.P.) campus in Diliman, Quezon City, twice! First, on a Thursday with my fellow bird photographer, Dennis Alfaro, and then on Saturday with my wife, Cynthia. On both days, the skies were as gray as can be. There were even times when it drizzled which had us scampering to the nearest shade. On a weather condition such as that, what birds could be seen? Not much, it turned out. On those two days, I only managed to photograph a total of seven species at the U.P. campus. Plus an Olive-backed Sunbird that my wife and I saw at the Ninoy Aquino Wildlife Park which we also visited last Saturday.

Mesdames et messieurs, la galerie:

Pied Triller (Lalage nigra)

Pied Fantail (Rhipidura javanica)

Long-tailed Shrike (Lanius schach)

Coppersmith Barbet (Megalaima haemacephala)

Philippine Pygmy Woodpecker (Dendrocopus maculatus)

Lowland White-eye (Zosterops meyeni)

Golden-bellied Flyeater (Gerygone sulphurea)

Olive-backed Sunbird (Nectarinia jugularis)







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