Cansaga Bay 12/22/14 and Bird #96

I'm 5 birds short for my  "100 birds run", kinda like a big year thing but for 100 birds and restricted to the Cebu main island only. Rules are: 
1. Must be spotted within the main island of Cebu (Made exceptions for Red-necked pharalope and a White-winged tern seen at the Mactan channel).
2. Must be photographed. (but might have to change this to at least a recording of the call or at least really seen the bird and positively identified)

Whimbrel. One of three birds.

So, so far only 95 birds and the year is about to end already. I have 3 birds which I really can't quite put in there yet. First one is the Philippine nightjar. Seen and heard at Cantipla, but since they are nocturnal, taking a photograph will be a problem. Second is the Philippine Hawk-cuckoo. They are loud but I haven't really seen one. Most of the time, they are flying away and all you see is a blur. Third, Hooded pitta. Only a recording of a calling bird in Alcoy. Never heard it anywhere else but there.

In the quest to get the last 5 birds, I decided to go to Cansaga bay where just last February I had a snap shot of 3 long billed waders - I suspected were either Curlews or Whimbrels. But they were already too far away and too small in the frame (not to mention back-lit) to positively identify.  I thought it would be a good idea to go back there but with a strategy. Last time, the birds were already flying back east towards Olango as the tide came in. I thought to myself, if I went there at dawn, well before sunrise and at low-tide I might be able to catch the birds as they fly in towards the bay to feed - while I am on the bridge!  I was right. As the sun came up, birds started flying in from the east, mostly egrets and terns.  It didn't really turn out as productive but I got what I came for...another lifer, bird #96: Whimbrel. I was aiming at some egrets when I noticed three dark colored birds, were flying towards me from the southeast marsh, they were just a few feet from me as they went past and I was lucky to have gotten one good frame!

After a few minutes I went down north end of the bridge, and took a walk on the shore west of the bridge. I was still too far from the birds T_T. Anyway, it was still a great day for me.

Other birds:
Brahminy kite - 1 - adult
Whiskered tern - flocks of them
Yellow wagtails - in twos and three/fours
all three sp. (L/I/G) of egrets in small groups.
Little/Striated Herons - 2 juv.
Common sandpiper - 2
Common greenshank - wasn't able to count- too far but they were there.
Kentish plover - 1
Common Kingfisher - 1
There were Brown Shrikes and Zebra doves and heard a Golden-headed cisticola and Red-keeled flowerpecker and Chestnut munias from a small patch of green right along the shore.

Bird #95 12/21/14

Osprey

The next day I decided to head out again but this time I decided to go for SRP (South Reclamation Project). But on my way there, something came up and changed my mind - made a turn and went to Tayud (near Co Jordan Resto), Lilo-an instead. Took pictures of the birds and saw what I thought at first were a different species of terns which turned out to be just Whiskered sp - pretty common here. Then took a few snaps at a flying egret which was headed towards my general direction - not realizing what it really was until I got home.  Then from quite a distance I saw something not quite like an egret and had some black on it. I trained my camera towards it and woah! Osprey!
my second one! (first sighting was in San Remegio, northwestern cebu) I hoped it would turn round and head towards me but to my dismay - it kept flying northeast - oh well...still great to have seen one. I've only been seeing birds like it on tv when I was still a kid. And to see it in person and in the wild is a real treat!

Black-headed gull

After that I headed back south and went to my usual birding spot at SRP. Nothing unusual except for the large flock of Whiskered terns that day.  The usual migrants were there, Little Ringed plovers, Yellow Wagtails, Black-winged stilts, Common greenshanks, Wood sandpipers and - oh yes! I just remembered, a flock of Black-headed gulls came flying by! I managed to snap a few of the lead bird. This was my second sighting. First time was mid January `14, there were a lot of them that time.

Great egret

Ever since I started birding all the yellow billed egrets with black legs turned out to be Intermediate egrets. I've been looking for Great egrets since then and was disappointed every time since they all turned out to be Intermediate.  I had the impression that Great egrets were noticeably larger compared to Intermediates. That wasn't the case. So, this whole time I may have mistaken them for Intermediates since I just didn't bother to take a closer look - since they'll just turn out to be Intermediates anyway. That was my biggest mistake. It's funny now that this bird ended up as bird #95 when it could have been easily one of my first 20 birds in my Cebu life list.


As it turns out, they were more common than I expected. But can only be found in Cansaga and Tayud (for me so far). When I got home and went over the photos in Lightroom, I saw that the bird had a rather bigger wingspan than the usual egrets I take BIFs with. I then took a closer look at the head and I was able to confirm it. Bill was bigger in proportion to head, gape extends past eye, tapered head compared to Intermediate. 

My first Peregrine Falcon...

One of the "Ok" photos I got that day.

12/20/14 - Saturday. It was my wife's day off and a chance to go out and bird. I quit my job just recently since we no longer had the luxury of being able to choose our work shifts. My wife and I used to work for the same company under the same department and we could request to have our shifts set alternately. When she goes to work, I should be at home watching over our little 2 yr. old and vice versa. Recently, she got hired at another company and this posed a big problem for us. We no longer had control over our shifts. Anyway, I had to quit and be a full time "house-band". It was my first day out birding since I quit my job - which I don't necessarily miss except for the fact that I do need to earn a living. I could get a home-based job though, but I guess we weren't ready for that since I could barely get my hands on my laptop, not when you have a 2 yr. old who would throw a tantrum whenever you try to get your hands on it because he's watching cartoons on youtube. The only time I could use it undisturbed is when he's napping or already asleep for the night.  Anyway, I had to go out since I have not been out for a while. I decided to go to Mountain view Nature's park. It's the closest place I could go to bird whenever I didn't have the luxury of time to travel farther. All was well, until I got there. I didn't realize that it was Saturday until I noticed that there were a lot of people already. One section of the park even got closed for a private party. This meant that I will probably not have good views.

Peregrine Falcon - ernesti sp.

It was already mid morning when I thought it was going to be a dull day until I saw a young Brahminy kite flying low as I was ascending one of the stairs that lead to the top part of the park. I ran to get a better look but was too late. The bird already had its, well, vents when I got it on my view finder and it disappeared among the trees as it kept circling north. Then, just a little over a minute, I saw a shadow just where I saw the previous bird. I thought it was the same one, however, something was odd about it.  The wings didn't have the pale patches that Brahminy kites have and were narrower. I aimed and got it in frame, but was under exposed and backlit against a bright white overcast sky. But I was glad it was in focus when I chimped at my lcd. I was able to discern a black hood over the bird's head which told me that it was a Peregine!! It was too soon to celebrate but I was hopeful.

 I spent the rest of the morning with some Elegant tits and a pair of rather pesky Pied fantails which kept driving the tits away just when I had a good shot. The weather started to get worse as it began to drizzle. Sun came out a bit and went to make a few stops before I headed home. I was able to confirm the id of the bird and yes! Peregrine Falcon!

Everette's Whiteye

Other birds that day:
Everett's Whiteye -a lot but usually in the canopy and/or flying by
Philippine Bulbul -I lost interest in counting
Olive-backed Sunbirds - quite a number of them there
Brahminy Kite - one juvenile
Elegant Tits -about 3 birds, feeding.
Magnificent Sunbird - one male driven away by Pied fantails
Pied Fantails - a pair
Philippine Coucal - heard
Grey-streaked Flycatcher - one individual
Brown shrikes - about 4 to 5.
Yellow-vented Bulbul - 3
Pied Triller - one female/juvenile
And some swiftlets that I really really really still need to identify.

How I got into Birding...

I have always had this fascination with wildlife. When I was a kid I used to go over my paternal grandparents' collection of encyclopedias. My particular favorite was "The Golden Book Encyclopedia of Natural Science". And that's how I really got introduced to the world of animals. From Aardvarks to Zebras. I used to love drawing and I would draw the animals with the encyclopedias as reference. I was never really particular with birds as there are so many species (but i did love raptors) and I lived somewhere where you don't really get to see much of them. There's always the Goryon (Eurasian Tree sparrows) which you see almost anywhere here in Cebu and the Pati (domesticated rock pigeons) that my grandmother kept. When we were able to afford cable tv I would be glued to the Discovery channel or National Geographic, if not watching cartoons that is.

As I got older I got into other stuff. My attention got diverted to other interests.  I did keep pet fish numerous times.  I used to sit next to the pond or aquarium just watching and observing the fishes.  My father would usually tell me "di na mabuhi ang isda kung lawgan lang ug tan-aw" ( fish won't survive if you just feed them with stares/if you just keep staring at them), because I would literally just stay there observing them. In High school, I got into music and aspired to become a musician. By College, I was playing in a band. Later on, I was in the Cebu Hip hop music scene and realized that it was just not for me. I also got into Computer gaming,  and I think I spent more of my time in Cyber cafes than in school that time. For the last few years, I have been looking for a hobby that I would really enjoy. I still kept playing online games, but wanted something more productive,  something that would really fit me or that I can benefit from.  I got into Airsoft for a short time, and that transitioned me to Birding.

A lot of my relatives are into Photography.  There was a time where I almost jumped in on the bandwagon.  I was interested in photography but I didn't want to appear like just "naki-uso" (getting into the trend).  When I was into Airsoft I would be on Youtube watching reviews of airsoft guns and videos of airsoft games.  You know how Youtube sometimes would give you suggestions, right? From airsoft, I got interested in airguns. So I watched airgun videos and even started my own homemade pvc airgun project (I just love shooting things).  From there, I bumped into one of Mr. Romy Ocon's videos and that's how I got hooked.   From then on, I was interested in Birding and did a lot of research.  I was quite surprised to see the diversity of our birds here in the Philippines.   One hurdle I had though, was the need for having at least a spotting scope or camera.  But since I wanted to document and keep records, I opted for a camera.  And I realized that Bird photography was not something cheap.  This kept me at bay for a couple of years.  I kept researching for other options and learned about digiscoping. But it still required a bit of money to get.  My other option were the superzooms.  Read a lot of reviews and comparisons and later decided to get the Canon SX50 HS.  But it was not available then since it just got out.  Last year, me and my wife happened to stop by a Canon store and was so glad to see that the SX50 was already here.  I went around to different stores and found one that sold it the cheapest.  It was late November and our 13th month pay came in early.  So I bought the camera.  And since then, I could shoot birds without harming one. And my Birding adventures officially began...