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...