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Philippines: Mindanao, Cebu, Bohul, Luzon and Palawan (1 Viewer)

Bananafishbones

Bananafishbones

Incoherently Rambling .....
United Kingdom
Planned for over 8 months and sure enough its crept up on us. Myself and fellow BF member Jeff (Goyter) set off to Manila on Wednesday with a five islands hop over the course of 17 days. I obviously took great interest in Dave & Sarah Blair's recent trip updates and will attempt to update this thread in the same vein if time allows, they of course have whetted the appetite just a little.

We fly to Mindanao and travel to Mt Kitanglad first for a 3 night stay at Del Monte Lodge. A flight and short (late arrival\ early departure) 2 night stay on Cebu with a visit to Tabunan before ferrying across to Bohol for a 3 night stay.

Then we do a little birding on our own whilst spending 5 nights on Luzon primarily talking in Subic Bay, Mt Makiling, Candaba Marsh areas before flying to Palawan for the last leg of the tour.

Plenty of new birds for us both in the vast number of potential endemics, but will still enjoy any overlap with species we saw a few years ago in Malaysia.

Dave
 
Last edited:
Bananafishbones said:
Planned for over 8 months and sure enough its crept up on us. Myself and fellow BF member Jeff (Goyter) set off to Manila on Wednesday with a five islands hop over the course of 17 days. I obviously took great interest in Dave & Sarah Blair's recent trip updates and will attempt to update this thread in the same vein if time allows, they of course have whetted the appetite just a little.

We fly to Mindanao and travel to Mt Kitanglad first for a 3 night stay at Del Monte Lodge. A flight and short (late arrival\ early departure) 2 night stay on Cebu with a visit to Tabunan before ferrying across to Bohol for a 3 night stay.

Then we do a little birding on our own whilst spending 5 nights on Luzon primarily talking in Subic Bay, Mt Makiling, Candaba Marsh areas before flying to Palawan for the last leg of the tour.

Plenty of new birds for us both in the vast number of potential endemics, but will still enjoy any overlap with species we saw a few years ago in Malaysia.

Dave
Click to expand...

Good luck and looking forward to another great Philippine trip report!
 
Well here goes, I will post up a full day by day report when we get back but for now safe to say things are going well. The journey out to Mindanao was long, very long. But we were met by our driver as planned and a 4 hr journey started which would take us to mt Kitanglad. We Picked up our guide Carleto (what a man) and his wife who would cook for us (what a lady), then we drove to the village at the base of the mountains to meet the rest of the family and most importantly the horses. Things happened very quickly as the horses were loaded up with our luggage leaving me a little unprepared with no sun cream to hand... Camera was though! Now we walk, up hill and long, no sleep for over two days, jet lagged and bloody tired, this was going to be tough... As we climbed we were met with multiple fires along the trail, must have been farmers preparing land for cultivation however it must have sent the insects up into he air, perfect for the dozens of Purple Needletails that swooped at incredible speeds over our heads and often only just at head height taking their prey, the sound just brilliant and what masters of the skies, sOmehow I wasn't that tired anymore.

The walk continues later but first a beer is calling from an Irish bar just around the corner from our hotel here in Cebu. As you can tell we have moved on abit, but all will be reviewed soon
 
The horses were soon to overtake us as we cxontinued to climb, two and a half hrs and we would reach our base at Del Monte lodge. First appearance of a large wooden and rusty corrugated building didn't look appealing but it was as comfy as anything you would find on any mountain side, and of course when tired it seems like the Hilton! Mountain verditer flycatchers, sulphur billed nuthatches, buzzing flowerpeckers, elegant tits, mountain whiteye and colosisi amongst others were all our residents and easy to pick up from the lodge. We found enough energy to walk part of the nerby trail while we still had light which brought us a bird wave including the wonderful black & cinnamon fantail, Cinnamon Ibon, mountain leaf warbler, yellow bellied whistler and Stripe Breasted Rhabdornis, of which a pair perched in the open for a few minutes. We could smell the cooking as the sun dropped but we had a rather rare bird to see.... Carleto took us to a small clearing in the forest, overgrown with ferns and thick vegitation. Firstly the Phil Nightjar called then flew a few times before settling down and continued to call to a mate some distance away. Some "roding " noises from Carleto then brought out the Bukidnon Woodcock, only a quick fly past but a show nonetheless! Happy indeed and then stunning views of the Phil Frogmouth. We now settle down for some home made cooking and a beer. Bed was 8.30 pm and not a moment too soon. Tomorrow we climb and look for the rarest eagle on the planet!
 
BFB
Sounds a bit soft to me, toughen up man!!!! Nowhere near as hard as the Pool.

Trust its going well, looking forward to the images over a coffee.

Phil
 
Day 2 and we set off early for a rather smart bird before climbing to the Eagle view point, Carleto says that timing is important for this first bird, he had found a new feeding patch and was excited while telling us about his views the few days before. Well he didnt let us down, 5 Red-Eared Parrotfinch feeding, we would never have found these without a guides knowledge and just for good measure 2 Tarictic Hornbills on the same site. As we climbed the mountain we had plenty of Mountain Shrikes and the stunning Long Tailed Shrike. Grassbirds, streamed flycatchers and the wonderful Fire Breasted Flowerpecker all showed well before we saw our first Montane Racketails. We arrived at the Eagle viewpoint at 8.30 am and waited..... Carleto had gone to another spot when jeff and myself spotted two raptors in front of us, confirmed, two Philippine Eagles and even better they were interacting with each other, certainly a pair in breeding! Carleto was excited as we were as we watched them fly together for the next 5 or 10 minutes. The day couldn't get any better oils it?
 
Day 2 and we set off early for a rather smart bird before climbing to the Eagle view point, Carleto says that timing is important for this first bird, he had found a new feeding patch and was excited while telling us about his views the few days before. Well he didnt let us down, 5 Red-Eared Parrotfinch feeding, we would never have found these without a guides knowledge and just for good measure 2 Tarictic Hornbills on the same site. As we climbed the mountain we had plenty of Mountain Shrikes and the stunning Long Tailed Shrike. Grassbirds, streamed flycatchers and the wonderful Fire Breasted Flowerpecker all showed well before we saw our first Montane Racketails. We arrived at the Eagle viewpoint at 8.30 am and waited.S.... Carleto had gone to another spot when jeff and myself spotted two raptors in front of us, confirmed, two Philippine Eagles and even better they were interacting with each other, certainly a pair in breeding! Carleto was excited as we were as we watched them fly together for the next 5 or 10 minutes. The day couldn't get any better Could it?
 
After our evening meal we heard a load screech that made me ask what owl, needless to say Carleto knew that it wasn't anything worth persuing.... But he did know of a rather special owl that frequents the lodge area, within minutes we were out with ears pierced (that's not entirely correct is it! But you know what i mean). Sure enough we heard it and after a short downhill walk we came close to one mighty beast of a bird.... Ready, torch on, Wow.... Omg it was 5 meters in front of us and perched on a single dead tree trunk looking right down at us Giant Scops Owl, it's huge and blooming awesome! Will live long in the memory for sure and rates highly along side the Buffy fish Owl in Malaysia, only this time I have the photo to go with the memory, you don't go to bed much happier as a birder than that..... Paris Hilton would be a close second!
 
dandsblair said:
Glad to hear you got the Phippine Eagle and some other great endemics so early in the trip.
Click to expand...

Cheers David and Sarah, indeed some special birds already. I won't give the game away to others yet but I have to say big respect to you two for the climb to the flowerpecker tower in the soaking conditions, we had it easy in the dry yours hit home to me today!
 
Day 3 would be an even higher climb, this time for a few very high elevation species. A few surprises occurred along the way, firstly we spotted a Dollarbird, nothing too unusual unless you have birded this mountain for 40 yrs and never seen one, that's what happened to our guide Carleto, his face was a picture. Not long after we heard a Blue Capped Wood Kingfisher, we got onto it quickly but we spend another hour trying to get a better view, it was worth it. We passed the Eagle view point and carried onto even higher elevations where we would find McGregors Cuckoo-shrike, a lovely bird and in good numbers, add 2 Black Masked Whiteyes and things were turning out just fine. Yet we climb still higher for some specialities.
 
I think I will be asking for some help from more knowledgable philippine birders on our return as some of these species / splits / island races etc are confusing. Just a for instance the Elegant Tit on Mindanao looks (no, IS different) on Cebu, and so it goes on, at least it keeps us on our toes
 
Dave
You do know there is a road on the other side of the mountain!.. You could go to the top and walk down!!!!!!

Sounds great. Hope its not going to spoil you for NW birding when you get back.

P
 
We continued up for the final few specials, we had a long wait and dipped on the Apo Myna but caught up with a favorite bird from my Malaysia trip of a few years ago a very confiding Mugimaki Flycatcher. Danny once again arrived with lunch, he carries a large box of goodies up and just keeps walking until he finds us! Not much time to rest and it's higher for the Apo Sunbird which we find within seconds as it flitted around its fav tree, I guess it's the fav tree as Carleto told us where to stand and look up, we got a few minutes before it flew off, we saw it once more in the next hour. On the way down we found 2 distant Philippine Eagles perched, scope views only but good enough to see the head crest. Next stop was the White cheeked Bullfinch. It called and Carleto edged forward and pointed it out just in time for me to witness a brown blob fly over my head never to be heard or seen again. The disappointment was soon gone as we found 6 Apo Myna a little further down the track. A proper funky looking thing! So all in all mt Kitanglad holds some incredibly rare birds of which I was lucky to see virtually all of them. Cebu next
 
Not sure of count yet as some splits etc however pretty much most things are new, 120+ at a guess. Last bird (s) M+F rufous lored kingfishers down to 20ft away, blooming mega half hour. Silvery Kingfisher yesterday evening, just brilliant birds, can be hard work though. Will try to add Cebu report tomorrow. Fingers can't keep doing this on my iPod
 
Whistle stop tour for Cebu, would have been better if our arrangements were more organized for an early start for the hawk Owl, anyway our driver our guide and ourselves all had differing meet times! We did arrive in time to see a stunning Crimson Sunbird. The Black Sharma (s) were displaying well and I got an added bonus with a bird I
Missed in Malaysia 3 yrs ago, Mangeove Blue Flycatcher.
We climbed to the amaZing look out tower built by our guide. Of course it would have been an amazing bit of luck to see the Cebu flowerpecker but we tried for more than a few hours. I did get onto a Philippine hawk-cuckoo flying over. Rumour here at the moment (subic) is that the guides are using the flowerpecker to keep the area alive as a hotspot and that the bird may well be extinct.... Again! Our guide by his own admission said he has t seen one for over a year and only heard one since. He reckons 6 birds left at the most, who knows. We catch the ferry to Bohol.
 
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