Ashy Thrush comes good

Arrived La Mesa 05:35 and marched up to where I heard it sing some days ago. As usual there were a lot of people jogging etc, so I kept going up into the East corner of the mini forest. A Grey Streaked Flycatcher alighted briefly over the Orchidarium, then another showed quite well, then I heard my first Mangrove Blue Flycatcher, sadly it sang only briefly towards the far East corner. A Philippine Pygmy Woodpecker called and perched just long enough to get an okay shot.

Back Naped Oriole sang quietly, Pied Fantail, Brown Shrike, Philippine and Yellow Vented Bulbul, Golden Bellied Flyeater, Arctic Warbler, Lowland White-Eye, plus 2-3 calls remain unidentified. But a squarky one I kept hearing, this and other times, turned out to be Philippine Fairy-Bluebird.

I was passed by some cyclists 2-3 times and decided it was going to be one of those mornings, but as it seemed quiet anyway, I was determined to give the Ashy Thrush a good go.

Another mountain biker seemed determined to annoy me by passing by 3 times in 5 minutes, then climbed the high ground above where I was heading and I thought "well that's blown it". I headed for the path towards the amphetheatre and stopped when I saw a tiny movement, a pause, a squint.....it was a Brown Shrike.

I waited thinking there was a lot of leaves here on either side and only 5 minutes went by when something shot across the path so quickly I thought it was a a tiny bird perhaps a Tailorbird? I crouched and lifted my bins and side on an Ashy Ground Thrush stood 12 feet from me for about 3 seconds, it moved so quickly, I got another 2-3 seconds on it before it moved deeper into the vegetation. I could hear the occasional leaf movement, so I know it was still there, but could not get onto it properly before I decided my time was up, but felt totally relieved and happy to have found it myself and what a great looking thrush it is.

Ashy Thrush Path just above Amphetheatre

As I left I picked up a pair of Blue-Throated Bee-Eater and eyed up the flowers thinking I wonder where the Naked Faced Spider Hunters get?

As I walked out the entrance I took some scenery shots, then 2 Pacific Swallows perched on wires for me.

La Mesa Entrance

Heavy colds stop play.....I mean birding

The constant in and out of air con cars, taxis and shops has again taken its toll on me and now my family, we al have colds and I am shaking off a chest infection, so not able to rise early for La Mesa, maybe tomorrow.

In the meantime, I took more shots of my favourite housing estate bird

The Thailand visa trip

After finding out too late to get a more than 21 day visa for the Philippines we would need to leave and go somewhere...we chose Bangkok. So whilst there I planned in a visit to Pak Thale, probably the best place to try and see Spoon-billed Sandpiper.

We were staying at a friends apartment in Bang Na to the East and spent 3 of our 5 day trip just relaxing and eating, but on the 24th I tried but failed to even get out of Bangkok in a hire car using sat nav, leaving me just the morning of the 25th to get there and see it, plus hopefully Nordman's Greenshank and Great Knot.

Our friend had a contact who had a van and drivers who could take me, all I had to do was part with 3500 baht ($110) and I'd be taken there for 06:00.
So obviously I did this and despite a false start due to lack of understanding as to which building to meet me by, was at a salt pan before dawn............just not the right one.

I spent 20-30 minutes de-misting my scope due to the air con, which everyone has up so high and this was really annoying as scoping the numerous waders and other birds during this time was virtually impossible.
As I stood mopping my scope, the sky was filled with Black Drongo, I have never seen so many, there were tons of Marsh Sandpipers and Black Winged Stilt, it was simply amazing, almost too many birds to look at and I wasn't even in the the right place yet.

Having shown the driver my guide book and pointing to Spoon Billed Sandpiper, he then proclaimed he knew where to go, I thought "why bring me here, what did you think I wanted to see then?"
We left and drove another 3-4 km past what looked like an oil refinery on the left, then turned right at the sign marked 'Pak Thale Wader Sanctuary'.

Just a few hundred yards on the bend we turned off the tarmac road right onto a dirt track and stopped in a small parking area about 1km which was a dead end. Salt pans in all directions and the driver said "we are here". "Where do I look" I said, he motioned his arm in an arc to suggest everywhere and my heart sank, already seeing large flocks of terns, herons, waders and gulls everywhere. Good stuff for a Brit to see any day of course, Greater & Lesser Sandplover, Marsh Sandpipers, Terek Sandpipers, uncountable numbers of Stilts, large noisy locks of Common and Whiskered Terns, Great White Egrets, Greenshank, Wood Sandpiper, many groups of Red-necked Stints.

I stood there scoping in all directions thinking "I am screwed, there is too much to look at nobody else here and I only have 3-4 hours. But my resolve kicked in, "well get on with looking properly" I said to myself and walked towards a dilapidated hut, where a woman with bins sat. Suddenly noticing the big sign with a lovely photo of my target bird, I said "is this here?"..."yes" she said, "today?"...."yes"..........."where?" .....the same arm arcing motion followed and I walked on thinking "does no-one speak darn English here?"

I turned left at the first junction of bund wall, got to the next junction about 60 yards further and noticed two photographers sat very low down along the bund wall 120 yards to my right, with cameras pointing to my left, so sat down and began scoping and less than 10 minutes of panning around, my eyes fell on this fantastic little wader, as my brain realised what I was looking at, I had a sharp intake of breath and a massive warm tingle all over, "there it is, oh wow".

Spoon-billed Sandpiper with Marsh Sandpiper Pak Thale 25th Nov 2012

I took about 120 pics with my iphone, but again the air con had played havoc with the clarity of the lens and ability to capture anything in focus. Either way I found a second bird about 40 yard further along the same bund wall. Also present were Terek Sandpiper, Greater Sandplover, Kentish Plover, Red-necked Stint, untold Black Winged Stilt, Spotted Redshank, Greenshank and Pacific Golden plover, amazing how light conditions make waders look so different, plus when you patch bird the UK, or even twitch rarities you only see one bird, so seeing flocks of everything is very cool, but takes getting used to.

A local guy walked up to me as I pointed the two birds out and he said there were actually 5 there, but he said he could not believe my luck in finding 2 on my own on my first visit and seemed flabbergasted I had to leave in 2-3 more hours to return to the Philippines. He was a ringer and actually more interested in the leg tagged Red Necked Stint nearby, which he had ringed in Taiwan, so he was very chuffed with that.

On getting back to the car parking area, I chatted with him some more and was told Nordman's Greenshank wasn't in yet, because the winter winds had not happened so far. I can vouch for that as was over 90 at 07:45. He did direct me to the best spot for Gtreat Knot and seeing these I also took distant snaps of some Terek Sands, Temminck's Stint, Sandplovers, Broad-billed Sandpiper and afew other bits.

Great White Egret 25th Nov Pak Thale

Terek & Marsh Sandpiper, Red-Necked Stint 25th Nov Pak Thale

Sandplover flock & Broad-Billed Sandpipers 25th Nov Pak Thale

Multitude of waders including Great Knot 25th Nov Pak Thale

Gull Billed Tern 25th Nov Pak Thale

Pacific Golden Plover 25th Nov Pak Thale

Painted Stork 25th Nov Pak Thale

Marsh Sandpiper 25th Nov Pak Thale

Pacific Golden Plover & Temminck's Stints 25th Nov Pak Thale

2 Purple Needtails with House Swifts over Bloomfields

I was just collecting laundry from around the corner, when I looked up and saw 2 very large swifts, but foolishly had left my bins at home. As it was only 150 yards, I shouted "I'll be back in a minute" and ran back home, grabbed my bins and rushed outside again. Looking from my drive I could see them still and grabbed my scope, not wasting any time extending the tripod legs I crouched down and looked up to confirm my immediate thoughts, 2 Purple Needletail with about 40-50 House Swift, which they dwarfed.

As Bloomfields is as good as a second home, then that is a pretty darn good garden tick! And a better view than at Subic.

Bloomfields housing estate birds

I like a pre dawn little walk around Bloomfields housing estate, firstly it a cooler and quiter than at any other time of day....but not for long, the kids here have to leave stupidly early to battle with the traffic just to get to school on time.

First thing you see around 05:30 is hundreds and hundreds of Swallows and Pacific Swallows heading out West from the roost at SM Fairview. I have seen the roost on the advertising hordings for the last 3 visits since 2008, so no reason to believe this will change, I haven't checked it properly for other hirundines, so will do that when we are back from a 2 day trip into Makati.

As soon as I got out this morning I had an Osprey over and the usual Glossy Swiftlets.

Tree Sparrow and Yellow Vented Bulbul are abundant, but my favourite estate bird, the Brown Shrikes are always on show, all ages, very confiding, often squabbling with Pied Fantails and giving their rattling call:

 

 

Today I had my first perched Olive Backed Sunbird on the estate, as I generally only see them going over.

The Straited Grassbird is obviously local too, not seen this here in the previous two visits.

The joys of La Mesa Ecopark

First piece of advice is go early, obviously as that is the best time, but the Ecopark does not charge for entry until much later, so you can get in and out before, if you chose.

So, finding an Ashy Thrush it seems is harder than expected, another visit yesterday resulted in two bursts of song, but no views.

It is also vital one goes to the right part of the park, which is beyond the Petron Amphitheatre and orchidarium, in an area called the mini forest. If you are anything like me you will want to be away from the nearby Petron Fitness Trail as many Philippinas will be there from long before sun up chatting loudly as they train. Try the link below and maybe print a copy for your visit;

http://www.metromaniladirections.com/2010/05/how-to-get-to-la-mesa-eco-park.html

Here I had a crake flush from under my feet hear and am told Slaty Legged is here, but the little critter bolted away so quick I didn't even get a chance to raise my bins.

I did see flocks of noisy Lowland White Eye and a Cuckoo, which I initially thought was Brush, but further reading and reflecting on the fact it was somewhat bigger than a Black-naped Oriole, I have to conclude it was a hepatic plumage female Oriental Cuckoo.....but I could be wrong of course. I had to read up on the term 'Hepatic' too.

I saw Arctic Warblers with 2 wing bars, their sharp ticking calls all around, I read that there are 5 sub species that visit the Philippines. This form is pale undereath, has a strong eye stripe and huge pale supercillium that wraps around towards the nape.

Again there were 4-5 calls and songs where I could not get onto the bird, a rising warble from I think a small bird, but not a Golden Bellied Flyeater, not that they are easy to see either. No sign of any calls of Pittas, Tailorbirds, or Flycatchers. Asian Mapie Robin song is a rather sweet sound, I'll try and get a picture of one of them too.

I delayed and delayed leaving to hope for the thrush, then struggled with other ticking calls, which were probably all Arctic Warblers and Flowerpeckers, briefly seeing one of the latter, could it have been an Olive Backed?

On a loop via what they call the fishing wharf the Lowland White Eyes were much more visible in the low trees there, then I noticed a life just walking around, Common Emerald Dove and nice they are;

It is impossible to search for a finite list of birds seen at La Mesa, no one seems to have compiled one, perhaps I should trawl Facebook, plenty of people talk about the place on there.

To prepare anyone who has not visited Manila before, it takes some getting used to how many people are out and about making a lot of darn noise at 05:30, jogging, cycling, you name it and even the karaoke starts around 07:00. Shopping malls are insanely noisy, but one must buy water and supllies, so no avoiding it.


Final piece of advice, if you are white and ask a taxi driver how much to go anywhere, I suggest offering half anything they say, or just opt for the meter, which might just be easier than haggling, unless you like to.

Subic highlights

2 more or less dawn starts at Subic were very hard work and I thought I had prepared more this time. Alas not, one spends most of the time hearing calls all around, sometimes very near, but still seeing nothing. I got pretty frustrated and told myself "think on the positive side, you could be hearing exactly the same calls and paying for a guide at around $350 for the day". I got used to hearing Philippine Bulbul, Black naped Oriole, Bar Bellied Cuckoo Shrike, Guaiabero and probably Colasisi too but never saw the last two on the deck...ever.

In hindsight I beleive a guide would be worth it for a small group, local knowledge of the area, haunts of the endemics and without doubt the calls would be invaluable. Being a grumpy old bugger I would prefer to hand pick such a group, but unless I win the lottery and pay for my friends, like everyone else I'll have to take what I get when I come back, hopefully in 2014.

So, I managed to get to the bunker area of Hill 394 and had high hopes, even started well with a perched female Taritric Hornbill, but as before call after call without seeing most birds takes its toll on the morale. But just when you are about to lose faith, something good happens....albeit briefly, a Red Jungle Fowl ran across the road.

After much more walking and stopping I did manage to catch up with some species I've only seen once before, plus a rather brief 3-5 second view of 2 Purple Needtails, which were awesome. Below are my best snaps using my iphone thru my Swaro scope, not bad in my opinion:

Blue Naped Parrot

Whiskered Treeswift

White Throated Kingfisher

 

My third trip to Manila

As I contemplate how I might be able to develop a bird guiding business out here, I realise I have a mountain to climb just finding the birds, identifying calls and coping with the heat (about 90 degrees) and the humidity.
A fun and very challenging trip to La Mesa Eco Park at first light this morning, so I thought I'd make a new blog for my trips to the Philippines. Birding here is much harder than the UK, forest birds just hardly show and many only briefly, or not at all. For now I will post the best pictures I could grab with my iphone, perhaps sharing my experiences later on;

Barred Rail

Black-naped Oriole

Brown Shrike Adult

Brown Shrike Juvenile

Common Kingfisher

Yellow Vented Bulbul (goiavier)