An Unexpected Lifer

Last Sunday morning, September 11, we went to a birding patch somewhere in Imus, Cavite.  Our target was the Asian Blue Quail (if you go by Desmond's new book) or Blue-breasted Quail (if you follow the older Kennedy guide).  Whatever the name is, birders know what bird I am referring to. Said bird was seen and photographed in this site several months ago.  There were one or two subsequent sightings.  So full of hope, Ed Santos and I met up with Romz Lopez somewhere in Imus.

Upon our arrival, we saw several birds - Cattle Egrets, Brown Shrike, Long-tailed Shrike, Oriental Skylark, Zebra Dove, and Spotted Dove. One bird sprung out of the grass and flew across and around us.  I was able to let out one burst of maybe five to six shots and got two decent ones.

Snipe

Looking at the LCD screen of my camera, I knew away that it was a Snipe.  But knowing how difficult it is to correctly identify a Snipe, I mentally filed it as another "Snipe sp" entry.

We continued to wait.  Romz said he could hear our target bird making a call.  And it did make a couple of appearances but true to its nature, it was very difficult to get a decent photo.  Sharing two of my better shots.  These are severely cropped, enlarged, denoised, and sharpened. And still, one can hardly distinguish the bird.  Romz, who was nearer and has sharper eyes, said it was the male.  Birder friend Conrad Olayres is disputing its gender because not much blue is visible.  In any case, I am not yet including this in my Life List, although technically, I already could (some even list with just hearing the call).  So the search for the Blue Quail continues...

Blurry image of what we believe is the Blue-breasted Quail

The unexpected twist to this story happened when I sent my photo of the flying Snipe to Rob Hutchinson for ID.  I was expecting that he would say that it was difficult to ID without having the bird in hand.  I sent it late last night and didn't read his reply until this morning. Needless to say, I was pleasantly surprised when he said that said bird is a Common Snipe.  Lifer 9 for 2021; #321 for the Philippine List and #461 over-all.  Yay!!!