Whimbrel...finally

Two years ago, October 29, 2014, to be exact, I was invited by fellow bird photographerand friend, Prof. Reuel Aguila to do some birding in the Las Pinas-Paranaque Critical Habitat and Ecotourism Area or LPPCHEA. To the non-birders, this is the coastal area along the Coastal Road leading to Cavite and Las Pinas. For reference, here is a map that I copied from Google Maps.

Aerial Map of LLPCHEA. The left "wing" is called Long Island while the right "wing" is Freedom Island. 

Anyway, back to the story.  About a week or so prior to this Oct 29 sortie, another fellow bird photographer friend, Capt. Floyd Bermejo posted a photo of a Whimbrel taken at LPPCHEA.  This bird was the reason I went with Prof. Reuel.  Unfortunately, we didn't see the bird that day.  I can't recall if there were any sightings of it in 2015.  But I don't recall any photos posted on Facebook.  

Fast forward to early September 2016. Another friend Pastor Tony Lim posted a photo of a Whimbrel taken at LPPCHEA on August 29, 2016.  I immediately messaged him asking where in LPPCHEA was he able to photograph said bird. But as (bad)luck would have it, (or perhaps it's fate?), I never got to go to LPPCHEA the whole time I was in Manila. I went back to Coron and stayed for quite sometime and got back only on the 7th of October. I was not hopeful about seeing the Whimbrel anymore (for this year), but I decided to try my luck on the 9th.  My birding companion that day was another birder-friend, Ed Santos.

We got to the site around 6am and proceeded to the end of the abandoned pier area at the end of the center road.  We were greeted by the usual suspects - Collared Kingfishers on the big rocks, Little Heron, Black-crowned Night Heron, Egrets and Whiskered Terns, flying about.  Plus the ever present Eurasian Tree Sparrows, Yellow-vented Bulbuls, and a couple of Brown Shrikes. Here are some of our early captures:

Little or Striated Heron

Immature Rufous Night Heron

After about twenty minutes at the pier and no sign of the Whimbrel, we decided to transfer to the "beach" area to the left of the abandoned pier.  When we got there, we were dismayed at the amount of garbage. We already knew that there was a lot but seeing it up close just disgusts you.

Again, no sign of the target bird.  We did see some juvenile Black-crowned Night Herons on the rocks:

Immature Black-crowned Night Heron

Immature Black-crowned Night Heron showing already the black crown.

And a Grey-tailed Tattler...

Grey-tailed Tattled in a beach full of trash

Another bird scavenging in the trash, a Rock Dove (most likely, a domesticated pigeon)

Rock Dove

And some Sandpipers...

Common Sandpipers flying low over a sea of garbage

A fisherman came in from the sea and I showed him a photo of the Whimbrel on my phone.  He said it frequents the rocks along the shore of Long Island. So after a few more minutes, we decided to use our cars and bird along the road on Long Island. Driving slowly, I saw a Collared Kingfisher on one of the rocks but it flew away as soon as I stopped the car.  Further down the road, we saw a couple of Common Sandpipers on the rocks.

Common Sandpiper

A pair of Common Sandpipers

The area was not that birdy that day.   I had sent a message to another birder-friend, Caloy Pangilinan who was at LPPCHEA earlier in the week, asking for the location of the Whimbrel.  He finally answered that it was in "Stinky Island", referring to the garbage ridden part of Freedom Island.  So off we went to the other "wing".  After parking near the DENR station, I went to the bird watching "hide" in front of Pond 1 and saw a couple of birds hidden in the tall grass.  I took a couple of shots and when enlarged, it showed two Purple Swamphens which was later corrected by Maia Tanedo as a Common Moorhen (it looked purple to me! hehehe).

Common Moorhen

The DENR personnel stationed in the area greeted us and after logging in, I showed the Whimbrel photo to the guys there and they said that it was just there at the beach along Freedom Island flying back and forth.  So off we went to the beach area.   Again we saw the usual suspects. A few minutes later two large brownish birds came flying from our right.  It was only when they were near that I saw the long beak pointing down.  I blurted Whimbrel! But they were gone before we were able to take any shots. So we waited again. 

Ed watched a Little Egret for some time while I got bored so I started fiddling with my tripod.  Soon the Egret started catching something from the sea and in one of its "dips" it caught a fish and the bird sort of juggled it with its beak before swallowing it.  I was not able to capture the special moment because I was fumbling with my tripod and camera. All the while, Ed's shutter was clicking and clacking like a machine gun. Haaaaay....

A Little Egret, juggling the fish in its beak.  Awesome photo by Ed Santos. 

After some time, a lone Whimbrel came flying in.  This time, I was able to get some shots. 

Whimbrel, lifer # 255. 

The Whimbrel landed on a spot on the dirty beach too far for us too shoot.  After several minutes of waiting for it to comeback, I decided to go nearer.   

Me, walking amidst Metro Manila's garbage.  Photo courtesy of Ed Santos.

After walking about fifty meters, the bird flew and landed on a spot nearer to Ed. So I slowly walked back careful not to spook the bird. Stopping every few meters to take shots.  One of the shots showed another bird in the foreground.  It was later ID'ed by birder friends Bob Kaufman and Jose Limbaga as a Terek Sandpiper, another lifer!

Whimbrel with Terek Sandpiper, a bonus lifer!, #256. 

Whimbrel

Whimbrel in flight once again

After sometime, we decided to go to the foresty area near Pond 1.   

An adult Black-crowned Night Heron at Pond 1

After several minutes of not seeing much bird activity in the forested area (save for a couple of Fantails), we decided to call it a day.

A satisfactory morning of birding.

Close Encounters with Woody

A wild bird photographer's dream setting is probably:  a wild and colorful bird, (preferably endemic, and hopefully a lifer), perched in the open, (in a natural perch), with great bokeh (green being the preferred color), a distance of ten meters or less, in the soft and gentle light of the early morning hours, and the bird unmindful of the photographer. The problem is, more often than not, such shooting conditions remain in our dreams.  However, last September 28 and and again on October 1st, I was blessed with these conditions.

On the afternoon of September 27, I decided to go birding the following morning. But our Front Desk informed me that the van had to pick up guests arriving on a 7:30am flight.  It meant I can only bird for about an hour to an hour and a half.  Deep breath...and make do with the situation.  

So we, (our driver and I) were in the airport area before 7am but I had low expectations given the short time.  However the birding gods smiled at me that morning and gifted me with the endemic Spot-throated Flameback in ideal shooting conditions.  

Mr. & Mrs. Flameback

Spot-throated Flameback Woodpecker, male.

I was very very happy with these shots. I would have been perfectly contented with them. But on the morning of October 1st was again blessed with the same scenario.  Although this time, the female was a no show.

Spot-throated Flameback, male.

I was even able to shoot a video of it.

Needless to say, I was (still am), in seventh heaven after these two encounters. If only all birds behaved like this :-).  But that is probably asking too much :-)

Thank you Lord for the beauty of your creation!

Bangkong Kahoy Sortie (with a gang!)

I haven't had much time to really go birding especially in Metro Manila or the nearby sites. My last Luzon sortie was in February when I went to DRT in Bulacan to go and look for the White-browed Shama.  Sometime in early September, several Metro Manila based birders started posting photos taken at Bangkong Kahoy Valley in Dolores, Quezon.  Foremost among these were the Luzon Sunbird (previously called the Metallic-winged Sunbird), the Bundok Flycatcher (previously called the Snowy-browed Flycatcher) and the Mountain Tailorbird.  All of these would be lifers for me. Also included in the photos were BK regulars like the Citrine Canary Flycatcher, Elegant Tit, and Turquoise Flycatcher, among others.

With September 12 being declared a holiday, it meant that the weekend of Sept 10-12 was a long one.  A big group of WBPP birders was planning to go on the 10th (which was a Saturday), but I couldn't go with them due to a previous commitment. So I started asking around if there were people I could hitch with on Sunday, Sept 11th or Monday Sept 12th.  There were none.  So I started organizing a trip.  One good thing with WBPP is that it is never difficult to organize a sortie.  Soon there were plenty of birders who wanted to go.  In the end we were fourteen (!!!) in all - Anthony Balbin, Jonathan Tabisaura, Maia Tanedo, Arnel Macariola, Caloy Pangilinan, Lhem Dacuycoy, Gilbert & Wilma Go, Conrad Olayres, Pastor Dave (sorry don't recall your last name sir),  Nes Santiago, Ed and Bong (sorry guys, cannot remember your last names also) and myself.  We were joined in BK by Deo Hermosa so we were fifteen bird photographers in all.  Needless to say it was a large (and rather noisy) group.  Ten members of the party belonged to the group Tropang Birders and many of them are relatively new to birding and some would be making their first trip to BK Valley.  It was also my first time to bird with many of them.

We all met up in the Shell station near Tiendesitas and soon we were off.  We stopped for a short breakfast at a McDo along Slex. We were at BK around 6:30am.   And after a quick trip to the restroom, we all took out our bags and began assembling our gear.  Before long, Maia had her bins out and was scanning the trees.  Just goes to show who was the most veteran among all of us. :-)

Maia scanning the nearby trees

Soon we were off.  Photo courtesy of Caloy Pangilinan.

Ang mahiwagang cooler ni Jonathan :-)

Upon reaching the birding area, Cris, BK's resident bird whisperer, divided us into groups.  One group of five went to wait for the Luzon Sunbird, another group of four went looking for the White-browed Shortwing, and the rest went to the fruiting Lipa tree.  Since the Sunbird was my main target, I went with this group.

We set up our tripods and waited...and waited...and waited...

Photo courtesy of Caloy Pangilinan

Soon the Shortwing group, which included Caloy and Lhem, joined us (that's why we have these photos of us waiting).  Others in our group went to take their place in the Shortwing area.  But since I already had shots of it, I decided to stay and wait for the Sunbird. 

A photo of me and Caloy.  We share a common friend, a certain Mr. Sonny Torre :-)

A stolen shot by Mr. Caloy P., Maraming Salamat partner. 

We moved to another location on the other side of this hut. To prepare for the coming of the sunbird, I began taking photos of the likely perches. Soon I had plenty of shots of the flowers. Here's two of them.

And one with a butterfly...

While waiting, some Elegant Tits, a Turquoise Flycatcher and a Pygmy Flowerpecker showed up.  Unfortunately, I was not really able to get good shots.  Maybe it was "birding rust" from too little biridng, if there is such a phenomena.

The Tailor Bird and the Bundok Flycatcher both made brief appearances, if you can call hiding behind leaves and branches, an appearance. 

During our long periods of waiting, we were entertained by a horse tethered nearby and by the very jolly Lhem. We also enjoyed the yummy peanut butter cookies brought by Maia.

Here is the jolly Lhem Dakuykoy with his controversial lime green scarf.  Photo courtesy of Caloy P. 

The Sunbird finally came out at almost 11am.  And soon almost all had good shots except me and Maia. The one time that it perched on top of a flower in front of me, my camera didn't focus. Haaay! I was beginning to think that I will go home empty handed. So we waited again.  By this time almost all the fifteen birders plus four or five guides, have congregated at the Sunbird site.  So despite efforts to keep everybody quiet, it was an impossible task.  It was probably the noisiest (and jolliest), birding sortie I have been a part of (hahaha). In previous trips, we joke a lot while shooting (quietly, if I may add), but the Sept 12 trip was another level of noise altogether.  Hahaha.

When the Sunbird appeared again, I was at the front of the group and made made sure I got shots. At one point I even removed the camera from the tripod and risked shooting handheld because the bird was in constant motion.  Here are some of he images I was able to create. 

The Luzon Sunbird, Lifer #253.

The group photo after everyone had taken a photo of the Luzon Sunbird.

Band of Brothers (and sisters)... photo courtesy of Lhem D.

After this, Maia and I left the group and went to the fruiting, Lipa tree.  But since it was already almost noon and the fruits were almost gone, we did not see any birds.  A few minutes later, one of the guides called us to head back for lunch.  So we trekked for about fifteen minutes to Dion's Restaurant.  Soon after we sat down, it rained for about an hour and a half.  

We headed out again at around 2pm.  I was able to photograph a Pygmy Flowerpecker near Ramon Quisumbing's driveway.

Pygmy Flowerpecker

By 3pm, it started to rain again and when it stopped one hour later, we decided to pack up and call it a day.

Not many birds by BK standards but I went home very happy because I got my target bird.  And of course it was fun to bird with old friends (Maia, Anthony, Conrad, Nes, and Deo), and new ones (Jonathan, Caloy, Arnel, Lhem, Pastor Dave, Ed, Bong, and Gilbert and Wilma).

Looking forward to the next sortie with the Tropang Birders...