Chasing Lifers: Another Owl...

A couple of weeks ago, Mary, the daughter of Kamote, the Infanta bird guide, messaged me that her father found an owl.  Not knowing what kind of owl and not wanting to waste a trip to Infanta, I replied asking what kind of owl but I never got a reply from her.  Knowing that Loel Lamela, my Team Culion teammate in 2019, frequented Infanta, I messaged him about it.  His reply to me was a shot of his camera LCD screen.  It turned out that he was there at that time shooting said bird.  My heart started beating faster when he said it was a Luzon Scops Owl.  I looked at the Kennedy Guide and Desmond Allen's new book to check if Loel's ID was correct.  To be sure I sent it to Djop Tabaranda and Maia Tanedo.  Djop said it looked like Luzon Scops Owl and not Philippine Scops Owl because of the yellow eyes, but he was not 100% sure.  I sent Loel's photo to Desmond and he said he could not be sure 

It took me another three days (June 29th), before I could find time to go to Infanta. Loel told me to be there by six am or earlier but as (bad) luck would have it, I slept late and woke up almost five am!  As a result I arrived at Kamote's house around 7:30am, was at the site by 7:40, and got my sixth lifer for 2021 before 8am.  Stayed only till 10am and was home before 1pm. If only all sorties could be that easy...

Here are the images I was able to create: 

Luzon Scops Owl, parent. Lifer #6 for 2021; #456 overall

Aside from my lifer, I was also blessed with a photo opportunity for two other birds that I have no decent photos todate - the Tawny Grassbird and the Philippine Fairy Bluebird.

Tawny Grassbird

Philippine Fairy Bluebird

The second sortie

The shot that I was pining for was that of the parent Luzon Scops Owl with its chick.  So being a greedy bird photographer 😁😁😁, I decided to go back eleven days after my first sortie. I had two main targets for this trip, namely, a mother and chick photo of the Luzon Scops Owl (or at least the chick), and the Yellow-breasted Fruit Dove.  The latter is not a lifer anymore, having seen it at Infanta in 2018, but I still did not have a good photo of it.  This was actually my main target for the day. 

Our party included Ed Santos, Steve Albano, Win Paler, and Homer Pialda (who was birding for the first time since our Canarem trip on January 29).  We set out early and hoped to be at the site by 6am or earlier but as the saying goes, all the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry... we got to the owl site past 6:30am.  In any case, I left the group at the owl site and went in search of my main target for the day, the Yellow-breasted Fruit Dove.

I found the fruiting tree described by Loel with almost no difficulty.  As I got out of the car, Adri and Trinket Constantino passed by and we waved at each other and they drove on.  Using my bins, I scanned the tree and I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw my target bird contentedly perched on top of one of the clumps (of berries).  And my camera was still in the car!!!  I slowly and quietly opened the car door and carefully reached for my camera which was on the passenger seat, didn't close the door for fear that it will spook the bird and using my car's hood as support, fired a few bursts as insurance.  Then I went to the back of the car to get my tripod, walked carefully back to the front, set up camera, and fire away.  

Yellow-breasted Fruit Dove

After a few minutes, the bird went inside the tree canopy.  I decided to go back to the owl site where I found the group waiting for the parent to appear.  They all asked me what I was able to photograph.  After seeing my photo of the Fruit Dove, Steve and Wins decided to go and check it out.  Homer had earlier left for Kamote's house and bird there.  Ed opted to stay since he wanted to photograph the parent bird.  Unlike my previous sortie when I did not see the chick at all, this time it was there on full display. Here is one of my shots.

Luzon Scops Owl chick

After about half an hour, I left Ed at the site and went back to the Fruit Dove area.  The bird had appeared while I was gone but it was not visible when I arrived.  Steve went back to the owl site.  Wins then found the Fruit Dove somewhere inside the tree under some leaves.  And with some maneuvering, (which included shooting in the middle of the road),  we were able to get views of its full body. 

Yellow-breasted Fruit Dove

The rest of the day was spent waiting for the owl and going back to check on the dove but since it was raining intermittently, there were not many photo opportunities.  Although at the owl site, a mixed flock featuring the usual suspects would come every now and then. Not even a sumptuous lunch of Ed's magic adobo could bring out the birds. Maybe I should have brought some Dr Pepper in can...hmmmm

It was while having lunch at Hungry Tummy that we bumped into and had a short and pleasant chat with other birders, namely, Trinity Gatuz, Linda Gocon and Bambi Martinez, whom we met for the first time. 

Feeling tired and sleepy, I decided to leave at around 4:10pm.  Homer had left earlier because his son had a meeting while the rest of the group left around 5pm.  I went home happy and contented that I got both my targets for the day despite the rain. However, as with any WBPP sortie, getting the birds is only half the story.  A big part of a successful trip is because of the camaraderie and fellowship that has become a WBPP trademark (including all the jokes and wisecracks 😆😆😆). 

Thank you Lord for another safe and successful birding trip.