SRP - Pre-Sinulog and Sinulog day :D

Saturday, day before Sinulog I had to go home to Tabunok to take care of something.  On my way home I always take time to check on the areas at SRP opposite of Lantaw Restaurant and the water hole adjacent to the exit to the UP SRP campus.  I saw one Philippine duck across Lantaw and then went on. At the water hole I saw a white bird which I found a bit odd. I took it for a domesticated duck but turned out to be a Black-headed gull. This bird must be the same one I keep seeing at the Pasil port. It probably wanted some peace and quiet since this was during the fluvial parade.





I've been seeing more Philippine ducks lately. I usually see three individuals- which I think are residents there. This was also on the same water hole. There were 24 ducks! This is the most number I have seen here so far. I will continue to check on them every week. A couple of days back I saw about 14 birds on the same water hole and 2 across Lantaw.
  

The next day, I just thought I'd make a quick stop at my local patch to see if I find anything new. Not much though but I did get close to a Pacific Golden plover. I consider them rare but I am seeing more of them now but only in few numbers. I saw two of them that day. After an hour, I left and decided to stop by the Peregrine falcon's usual perch. The bird was still there. I only took snap shots for documentation and then went home.

Brown shrike - was very obliging.

White-collared kingfisher - by far the most common kingfisher found here in Cebu. I've only been seeing two species so far. This and the Common.

This individual banked left and landed on the mud flats. 

A couple of minutes later two more came flying in and met up with the one above.

Javan Pond heron - getting more common. The first few months I birded at SRP I would usually just see one or two individuals. Lately, I am seeing more of them by the dikes. This guy stood still for a bit until I raised my camera. Was able to lock on him and managed this bif.

Fell in love with Cansaga bay and the bridge :D

Common Greenshank

I went back to Cansaga bay hoping for new lifers. I was just 4 birds short. On this trip I got lucky. I had 3. The first time was a blast. I got to see and shoot birds in flight. On this trip the sun was a bit shy and the clouds have been hogging the sky. The photos have not been so good but I still had a good time.

I did the same tactic - get on the bridge and just stand there and wait. Normally, you'll see terns fly by along with some and Egrets, and then some swallows beneath the bridge and some swiftlets too (which by the way are still not on my list due to the difficulty of identifying let alone photographing them). 

Every now and then I'd see lone long-billed birds like that of a Whimbrel but was not too sure if they were Whimbrel or Curlew- I took shots anyway. It was exciting for me knowing that the birds I just shot might be a new bird for me. I minimized chimping because almost everytime I did, a bird or a flock of waders would fly past me. I decided to just take shots now, wonder about the identification later.

Black-headed gull

Most of the birds that day flew solo or in two's. I don't know why, but that's what I noticed. There were a flock of sandpipers and Black-headed gulls though.

Anyway, I got home and started going over the photos. They were pretty bad due to the poor light coupled with the fast shutter speeds which only made them more underexposed.





Bird #97 - Curlew or Common Curlew.
Less barring on the under-wing more white and contrasting underparts.

Bird #98 - Far-eastern Curlew. Under-wing has more barring and less contrast on the underparts.
So far that's the only way I know to tell them apart. The FEC does tend to have a longer bill and is slightly bigger than the Curlew.

100% crops

 Bird #99 - Broad-billed sandpipers. I had help with the id on our Facebook group. These guys were a flock of about 9 or so birds. There was a Red-necked stint that came along, which is bird #3 on the photo - left.













Here's a different shot of them together. The Red-necked stint had a noticeably shorter bill:

Broad-billed sandpipers with Red-necked stint (top-right)

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.