Chlidonias
Well-known member
OK the Philippines are now on my official list of places I'm going (at some stage)
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Bristol to Kagu ? (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Larry Sweetland
- Start date
Larry...Larry...Larry...that's not nice is it??!! 
Larry Sweetland
Formerly 'Larry Wheatland'
Negros
2 ferry companies connect Palawan with Iloilo on Panay. Milagrosa do it twice a week and Montenegro once. We returned to Iloilo on a Milagrosa ship, via the island of Cuyo (where we stopped to get crisps and saw a Pied Triller.) This took about 36 hours, and we arrived at dawn, took the next ferry to Bacalod on Negros, got in a jeep to the south terminal, and piled onto a bus for the 5 hour journey across Negros to the seaside town of Dumaguete, where it's been nice to stop for a couple of nights. I hadn't planned to do any birding on Negros until a few days ago, but we've ended up seeing a good few bits and bobs.
Yesterday's non-birding day included a trip in a jeep out to Valencia, and a 2km walk from there to a pleasant place where you can swim in secluded bubbling river pools called Forest Camp. There's some scrappy woodland around here, and this produced a couple of Philippine Coucals and a stunning male Black-belted Flowerpecker. Going through lots of Grey-rumped Swiftlets produced a single Pygmy Swiftlet, and other birds that day included an immature Large Hawk-Cuckoo, Pied Bushchat, Magpie Robin, Lesser Coucal, Crimson Sunbird, Philippine Bulbul, Grey-streaked Flycatcher, Chestnut Munia and Pied Fantail.
Today we set off at 5am for Twin Lakes. We'd "organised" transport for a pretty steep tenner, but weren't expecting it to be both of us on the back of one motorbike for the 25km ride, most of it uphill, to an altitude of c900m,and at times we had to get off and walk because it was too steep for 3 people on one bike! We just made it to the end of the road as it was getting light, having flushed a few nightjars en route.
There is a short trail to the lake, then it appears at first that the trail is now submerged, leaving only a tiny amount of forest accessible. There were a few interesting sounding birds calling, but after an hour I'd failed to see any of them at all, and I was seriously regretting the decision to come to this dappy site, and wanted to go home. And eat worms. But you can always rely on at least a Philippine Bulbul to finally appear, and soon afterwards birds started to pop up, and even in flocks, which was a nice change to our experience of Philippine birding so far. We also discovered that after scrabbling a bit round to the left, you can join a better trail, which we followed to a watchtower on a ridge between the 2 lakes. After birding in the forest we birded back down the road for about 5km before getting a lift on a passing motorbike back down the hill at about 3pm.
Note that some food is available at the building at the lake end of the road.
Swifts were well represented by Philippine, Grey-rumped and Pygmy Swiftlets, and what must be one of the world's most strangely shaped swifts, Philippine Needletail. Blue-headed Fantails were in all the flocks, and shockingly brighter than in the field guide. There were Mountain (common) and Yellowish (3) White-eyes, Lemon-throated Leaf- and Arctic Warblers, Bicoloured (1), Fire-breasted (1) and Orange-bellied (a few) Flowerpeckers, Philippine Tailorbird (4 seen and more heard), White-bellied Woodpecker (2), Coleto (c8), Blue-crowned Racquet-tail (3 down the road), Bar-belied Cuckoo-Shrike (several), and much more excitingly White-winged Cuckoo-Shrike (pair, including the female watched eating a mantis), White-vented Whistler (several), Philippine Serpent-Eagle, Flaming Sunbird, White-eared Brown-Dove, Balicassiaao (white-bellied form), Philippine Cuckoo-Dove, Sulphur-billed Nuthatch (2), Elegant Tit, and other stuff including Brahminy Kite, Brown and Long-tailed Shrikes, White-breasted Wood-Swallow, Yellow-vented Bulbul etc.
Many other tough specialities also occur on Negros, maybe even one of the world's most enigmatic birds, the diminuitive Negros Fruit-Dove, known only from one specimen. Does anyone know if anyone has done any DNA tests yet to try and resolve it's taxonomic status ?
1714 PYGMY SWIFTLET
1715 PHILIPPINE COUCAL
1716 BLACK-BELTED FLOWERPECKER
1717 BLUE-HEADED FANTAIL
1718 WHITE-VENTED WHISTLER
1719 PHILIPPINE TAILORBIRD
1720 COLETO
1721 PHILIPPINE SWIFTLET
1722 BICOLOURED FLOWERPECKER
1723 YELLOWISH WHITE-EYE
1724 PHILIPPINE NEEDLETAIL
1725 WHITE-WINGED CUCKOO-SHRIKE
1726 BLUE-CROWNED RACQUET-TAIL
2 ferry companies connect Palawan with Iloilo on Panay. Milagrosa do it twice a week and Montenegro once. We returned to Iloilo on a Milagrosa ship, via the island of Cuyo (where we stopped to get crisps and saw a Pied Triller.) This took about 36 hours, and we arrived at dawn, took the next ferry to Bacalod on Negros, got in a jeep to the south terminal, and piled onto a bus for the 5 hour journey across Negros to the seaside town of Dumaguete, where it's been nice to stop for a couple of nights. I hadn't planned to do any birding on Negros until a few days ago, but we've ended up seeing a good few bits and bobs.
Yesterday's non-birding day included a trip in a jeep out to Valencia, and a 2km walk from there to a pleasant place where you can swim in secluded bubbling river pools called Forest Camp. There's some scrappy woodland around here, and this produced a couple of Philippine Coucals and a stunning male Black-belted Flowerpecker. Going through lots of Grey-rumped Swiftlets produced a single Pygmy Swiftlet, and other birds that day included an immature Large Hawk-Cuckoo, Pied Bushchat, Magpie Robin, Lesser Coucal, Crimson Sunbird, Philippine Bulbul, Grey-streaked Flycatcher, Chestnut Munia and Pied Fantail.
Today we set off at 5am for Twin Lakes. We'd "organised" transport for a pretty steep tenner, but weren't expecting it to be both of us on the back of one motorbike for the 25km ride, most of it uphill, to an altitude of c900m,and at times we had to get off and walk because it was too steep for 3 people on one bike! We just made it to the end of the road as it was getting light, having flushed a few nightjars en route.
There is a short trail to the lake, then it appears at first that the trail is now submerged, leaving only a tiny amount of forest accessible. There were a few interesting sounding birds calling, but after an hour I'd failed to see any of them at all, and I was seriously regretting the decision to come to this dappy site, and wanted to go home. And eat worms. But you can always rely on at least a Philippine Bulbul to finally appear, and soon afterwards birds started to pop up, and even in flocks, which was a nice change to our experience of Philippine birding so far. We also discovered that after scrabbling a bit round to the left, you can join a better trail, which we followed to a watchtower on a ridge between the 2 lakes. After birding in the forest we birded back down the road for about 5km before getting a lift on a passing motorbike back down the hill at about 3pm.
Note that some food is available at the building at the lake end of the road.
Swifts were well represented by Philippine, Grey-rumped and Pygmy Swiftlets, and what must be one of the world's most strangely shaped swifts, Philippine Needletail. Blue-headed Fantails were in all the flocks, and shockingly brighter than in the field guide. There were Mountain (common) and Yellowish (3) White-eyes, Lemon-throated Leaf- and Arctic Warblers, Bicoloured (1), Fire-breasted (1) and Orange-bellied (a few) Flowerpeckers, Philippine Tailorbird (4 seen and more heard), White-bellied Woodpecker (2), Coleto (c8), Blue-crowned Racquet-tail (3 down the road), Bar-belied Cuckoo-Shrike (several), and much more excitingly White-winged Cuckoo-Shrike (pair, including the female watched eating a mantis), White-vented Whistler (several), Philippine Serpent-Eagle, Flaming Sunbird, White-eared Brown-Dove, Balicassiaao (white-bellied form), Philippine Cuckoo-Dove, Sulphur-billed Nuthatch (2), Elegant Tit, and other stuff including Brahminy Kite, Brown and Long-tailed Shrikes, White-breasted Wood-Swallow, Yellow-vented Bulbul etc.
Many other tough specialities also occur on Negros, maybe even one of the world's most enigmatic birds, the diminuitive Negros Fruit-Dove, known only from one specimen. Does anyone know if anyone has done any DNA tests yet to try and resolve it's taxonomic status ?
1714 PYGMY SWIFTLET
1715 PHILIPPINE COUCAL
1716 BLACK-BELTED FLOWERPECKER
1717 BLUE-HEADED FANTAIL
1718 WHITE-VENTED WHISTLER
1719 PHILIPPINE TAILORBIRD
1720 COLETO
1721 PHILIPPINE SWIFTLET
1722 BICOLOURED FLOWERPECKER
1723 YELLOWISH WHITE-EYE
1724 PHILIPPINE NEEDLETAIL
1725 WHITE-WINGED CUCKOO-SHRIKE
1726 BLUE-CROWNED RACQUET-TAIL
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Chlidonias
Well-known member
The coleto is one bird I've always wanted to see....
and now having looked in Opus, also the blue-headed fantail...wow that is a pretty awesome-looking fantail!!
and now having looked in Opus, also the blue-headed fantail...wow that is a pretty awesome-looking fantail!!
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Yep can empathise there, something worthwhile usually pops up in the end tho.
Needletail and Racquet-tail are top quality birds, as well as those Negros endemics.
Good luck on Bohol.
Larry Sweetland
Formerly 'Larry Wheatland'
Bohol
Thanks Gareth, we had ,as usual, mixed luck on Bohol.
Bohol is just a short ferry journey from Dumaguete, and we headed from the port to the bus station and then Nuts Huts. Nuts Huts is a pleasantly situated backpackers' favourite by the Loboc river, but we discovered that it was logistically inconvenient for birding Raja Sikatuna NP. It was however a good spot for seeing Philippine Nightjar and Silvery Kingfisher, as well as watching innumerable floating restaurants sail down the river , each with their own cover band entertainers within earshot of each other. The kingfisher was only seen early in the morning, opposite the huts, before the activity kicked in.
We set off up the not inconsiderable hill to the road at about 5am from Nuts Huts, after making ourselves a coffee with hot water from a thermos flask that they'd organised leaving for us. Apparently the first bus passing in the direction of the NP might be around 5.30, but it was nearly 6am before we got a lift from a passing pastor on a motorbike who sang hymns all the way, punctuated with gems, such as pointing out where he'd found the body of a woman in a rice sack down the bank. At Bilar we turned right at the sign to Logarito swimming pool (there was no sign for the NP), and the faster Pastor dropped us off at the Magasaysay clearing.
We had been warned that the birding could be slow at Bohol, but after a couple of hours of seeing pretty much nothing, we thought the phrase "could give a glacier a run for its money" might be more appropriate. When it gets like this Nicky pretty much stops birding altogether which by now tends to half our chances of finding anything. Luckily things started to trickle in enough to get Nicky back into it enough to spot a couple of the better birds of the day, Rufous-lored Kingfisher and Black-faced Coucal. Other goodies were a Yellow-breasted Tailorbird watched skulking about in the undergrowth, a couple of Samar Hornbills, a few Blue Fantails, an Amethyst Dove, Black-crowned Babbler, Metallic-winged Sunbird, Philippine Leaf-warbler, Brown Tit-babbler and whatever you want to call the drongo round here, Samar Drongo?
Other birds seen that day included White-bellied Woodpecker, Black-naped Monarch, White-eared Brown Dove, Everett's White-eye and Red-keeled and Orange-bellied Flowerpeckers.
Next day we moved to Simply Butterflies in Bilar which is conveniently located only about 5 km from the forest. This was one of our classier moves, a refreshing surprise and one of the most unexpected bargains of the trip. An idyllic 2 storey hut for less than a tenner, and staff that bent over backwards to provide very early breakfast, late dinner and early morning transport to the park complete with unsolicited advice about where to look for Philippine Scops-Owls. And indeed a Philippine Scops-Owl, or if you like, Everett's Scops-Owl was roosting in the most tangled collapsed section of the disused men's toilets near the beginning of the Brahminy Trail at Magsaysay Camp. Watch out for your feet going through the rotten decking as you look for this bird.
At the butterfly farm we met another group of birders, hearty Hertfordshire boys John and Tony with helpful Birding2Asia guide Stijn and local guide Ryan. We have them to thank for putting us onto where they saw Philippine Fairy-Bluebirds near the beginning of the Brahminy trail. As with so many of the birds here at this site, it took us a long time to get onto these birds despite hearing them calling for ages. Perhaps the worst other culprits in this department were Rufous-fronted Tailorbird and Philippine Oriole. Thinking about it, Philippine Drongo Cuckoo was worst of all because we didn't see any of the calling birds. Other birds seen on our second day included a Philippine Trogon, Bar-bellied Cuckoo-Shrike, Yellow-wattled Bulbul and Yellow-bellied Whistler. We also saw some birds I'd like more taxonomic advice on. What do you call the Scarlet Minivets on Bohol (leytensis)? Are they part of Philippine Minivet (if you follow tha Birdquest suggested split). And what would you call the flameback on Bohol, if that's ever a split? Birding Philippines, more than anywhere else so far, is making me pretty much give up on knowing what to call a species.
As with all the other sites we've visited in the Philippines we dipped several goodies, including such iconic birds as Visayan Wattled Broadbill, Steere's Pitta and Mindanao Bleedingheart. I felt unlucky to miss the Broadbill but the Pitta is pretty hard without a tape and the Bleedingheart is a bit of a long shot.
Stijn and his crew kindly put us onto another site for Silvery Kingfisher that gave us better views of this bird along the only river that you cross between Bilar and the NP. Follow the track to the right after crossing the bridge and continue along the footpath after the track bends away from the river. We also saw a Cinnamon Bittern here.
We're now about to head for Luzon, and the last area we're going to bird will be Mount Polis. If anyone's got any logistical tips for this site , they could be really handy.
1727 PHILIPPINE NIGHTJAR
1728 SAMAR HORNBILL
1729 BROWN TIT-BABBLER
1730 BLUE FANTAIL
1731 AMETHYST BROWN-DOVE
1732 PHILIPPINE LEAF-WARBLER
1733 BLACK-CROWNED BABBLER
1734 METALlIC-WINGED SUNBIRD
1735 RUFOUS-LORED KINGFISHER
1736 BLACK-FACED COUCAL
1737 YELLOW-BREASTED TAILORBIRD
1738 SILVERY KINGFISHER
1739 Philippine Drongo Cuckoo
1740 PHILIPPINE SCOPS-OWL
1741 PHILIPPINE FAIRY-BLUEBIRD
1742 RUFOUS-FRONTED TAILORBIRD
1743 PHILIPPINE ORIOLE
Thanks Gareth, we had ,as usual, mixed luck on Bohol.
Bohol is just a short ferry journey from Dumaguete, and we headed from the port to the bus station and then Nuts Huts. Nuts Huts is a pleasantly situated backpackers' favourite by the Loboc river, but we discovered that it was logistically inconvenient for birding Raja Sikatuna NP. It was however a good spot for seeing Philippine Nightjar and Silvery Kingfisher, as well as watching innumerable floating restaurants sail down the river , each with their own cover band entertainers within earshot of each other. The kingfisher was only seen early in the morning, opposite the huts, before the activity kicked in.
We set off up the not inconsiderable hill to the road at about 5am from Nuts Huts, after making ourselves a coffee with hot water from a thermos flask that they'd organised leaving for us. Apparently the first bus passing in the direction of the NP might be around 5.30, but it was nearly 6am before we got a lift from a passing pastor on a motorbike who sang hymns all the way, punctuated with gems, such as pointing out where he'd found the body of a woman in a rice sack down the bank. At Bilar we turned right at the sign to Logarito swimming pool (there was no sign for the NP), and the faster Pastor dropped us off at the Magasaysay clearing.
We had been warned that the birding could be slow at Bohol, but after a couple of hours of seeing pretty much nothing, we thought the phrase "could give a glacier a run for its money" might be more appropriate. When it gets like this Nicky pretty much stops birding altogether which by now tends to half our chances of finding anything. Luckily things started to trickle in enough to get Nicky back into it enough to spot a couple of the better birds of the day, Rufous-lored Kingfisher and Black-faced Coucal. Other goodies were a Yellow-breasted Tailorbird watched skulking about in the undergrowth, a couple of Samar Hornbills, a few Blue Fantails, an Amethyst Dove, Black-crowned Babbler, Metallic-winged Sunbird, Philippine Leaf-warbler, Brown Tit-babbler and whatever you want to call the drongo round here, Samar Drongo?
Other birds seen that day included White-bellied Woodpecker, Black-naped Monarch, White-eared Brown Dove, Everett's White-eye and Red-keeled and Orange-bellied Flowerpeckers.
Next day we moved to Simply Butterflies in Bilar which is conveniently located only about 5 km from the forest. This was one of our classier moves, a refreshing surprise and one of the most unexpected bargains of the trip. An idyllic 2 storey hut for less than a tenner, and staff that bent over backwards to provide very early breakfast, late dinner and early morning transport to the park complete with unsolicited advice about where to look for Philippine Scops-Owls. And indeed a Philippine Scops-Owl, or if you like, Everett's Scops-Owl was roosting in the most tangled collapsed section of the disused men's toilets near the beginning of the Brahminy Trail at Magsaysay Camp. Watch out for your feet going through the rotten decking as you look for this bird.
At the butterfly farm we met another group of birders, hearty Hertfordshire boys John and Tony with helpful Birding2Asia guide Stijn and local guide Ryan. We have them to thank for putting us onto where they saw Philippine Fairy-Bluebirds near the beginning of the Brahminy trail. As with so many of the birds here at this site, it took us a long time to get onto these birds despite hearing them calling for ages. Perhaps the worst other culprits in this department were Rufous-fronted Tailorbird and Philippine Oriole. Thinking about it, Philippine Drongo Cuckoo was worst of all because we didn't see any of the calling birds. Other birds seen on our second day included a Philippine Trogon, Bar-bellied Cuckoo-Shrike, Yellow-wattled Bulbul and Yellow-bellied Whistler. We also saw some birds I'd like more taxonomic advice on. What do you call the Scarlet Minivets on Bohol (leytensis)? Are they part of Philippine Minivet (if you follow tha Birdquest suggested split). And what would you call the flameback on Bohol, if that's ever a split? Birding Philippines, more than anywhere else so far, is making me pretty much give up on knowing what to call a species.
As with all the other sites we've visited in the Philippines we dipped several goodies, including such iconic birds as Visayan Wattled Broadbill, Steere's Pitta and Mindanao Bleedingheart. I felt unlucky to miss the Broadbill but the Pitta is pretty hard without a tape and the Bleedingheart is a bit of a long shot.
Stijn and his crew kindly put us onto another site for Silvery Kingfisher that gave us better views of this bird along the only river that you cross between Bilar and the NP. Follow the track to the right after crossing the bridge and continue along the footpath after the track bends away from the river. We also saw a Cinnamon Bittern here.
We're now about to head for Luzon, and the last area we're going to bird will be Mount Polis. If anyone's got any logistical tips for this site , they could be really handy.
1727 PHILIPPINE NIGHTJAR
1728 SAMAR HORNBILL
1729 BROWN TIT-BABBLER
1730 BLUE FANTAIL
1731 AMETHYST BROWN-DOVE
1732 PHILIPPINE LEAF-WARBLER
1733 BLACK-CROWNED BABBLER
1734 METALlIC-WINGED SUNBIRD
1735 RUFOUS-LORED KINGFISHER
1736 BLACK-FACED COUCAL
1737 YELLOW-BREASTED TAILORBIRD
1738 SILVERY KINGFISHER
1739 Philippine Drongo Cuckoo
1740 PHILIPPINE SCOPS-OWL
1741 PHILIPPINE FAIRY-BLUEBIRD
1742 RUFOUS-FRONTED TAILORBIRD
1743 PHILIPPINE ORIOLE
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Hey Larry,
I think maybe the Minivet split suggested is just nigroluteus on Mindanao. The Flameback is now sometimes split into the four groups suggested in the field guide with rufopunctatus as Buff Spotted Flameback. I would call the Drongo’s Spangled Dicrurus bracteatus samarensis, haven’t read any further on this one being a full split. You may want to get further clarification though, I don’t particularly keep up to date with these things. ...and Visayan Broadbill is a tricky bird!
Luzon:
Mt Polis, first the good news – the mountain still appears to hold populations of the following birds:
Whiskered Pitta - few actually see it here, but can be heard; from Virgin Mary statue/Police station* at top along mud trails and into forest which is on steep slopes, should be calling more heading into march? Maybe if you are feeling adventurous you could go off trail after one, its steep sided tho! Sounds like: http://www.xeno-canto.org/asia/browse.php?query=whiskered+pitta
(*as in anti terrorist rather than local plod office!)
Flame Breasted Fruit-dove - also from the top, again probably would be lucky to see.
Luzon Scops Owl – stake out used to be the summit where the statue and ‘police station’ is located. I don’t think it has been seen much here recently, but is no doubt still around the forest trails if you are adventurous and wish to get to the top pre-dawn.
Luzon Jungle Flycatcher - get the prayer mat out for this one.
Luzon Water-redstart (should be straightforward along the valley rivers, popular stake out is the rapids near Bayyo rice terraces), will need a scope from the main road, but there is a road going into the valley there.
The following are still present and also possible along the mountain road/track:
White Cheeked Bullfinch, Luzon Racquet-tail, Mountain Shrike, Metallic-winged Sunbird, Long-tailed Ground Warbler, Benguit Bush Warbler (tricky!) Luzon Bush Warbler, Chestnut Faced Babbler, Green Backed Whistler and Flame Crowned Flowerpecker, check flocks of Eyebrowed Thrush for Brown-headed, Island Thrush, Philippine Swiftlets, Mountain Tailorbird, Mountain Verditer, Golden Crowned Babbler etc
And the bad news: Just for a change. Forest loss is extensive, and like elsewhere the birds can be tricky – but it’s a lot more active than R-S on Bohol in my very limited experience so you should see a few goodies - give it all you’ve got for your final destination in Phils!!!! I wish I was heading back up there. The rice terraces are interesting too. It'll probably take a good 10hours from Manila.
Accommodation is available in Banaue (the Banaue Hotel for one has internet and you can peruse the rows and rows of carved statues for sale that were once rainforest). Banaue is a few kms away, so there may be something closer.
It may be worth considering an early drop off at the summit if you can find someone to take you, then walking down the track back to main road. We went for a 4am start (which helped us properly dip the scops owl ;-). Also, as to be expected, its cold on the mountain before the sun comes up. This info is a lot from memory rather than detailed notes, and a few years old, maybe someone else will help with more exacting gen. If not:
Screen shot below – assuming that Google have the location of Polis as correct. You can just make out a dirty looking zig-zag and I presume that is the road/track upto the summit where the statue is? The vaguely discernable straight-ish yellow line with big bend, is where google have deemed to overlayed the main Polis-pass road onto the aerial photograph. Sorry, that’s the best I can do, hopefully if that isn’t quite correct the places will be discernable on the ground.
I think maybe the Minivet split suggested is just nigroluteus on Mindanao. The Flameback is now sometimes split into the four groups suggested in the field guide with rufopunctatus as Buff Spotted Flameback. I would call the Drongo’s Spangled Dicrurus bracteatus samarensis, haven’t read any further on this one being a full split. You may want to get further clarification though, I don’t particularly keep up to date with these things. ...and Visayan Broadbill is a tricky bird!
Luzon:
Mt Polis, first the good news – the mountain still appears to hold populations of the following birds:
Whiskered Pitta - few actually see it here, but can be heard; from Virgin Mary statue/Police station* at top along mud trails and into forest which is on steep slopes, should be calling more heading into march? Maybe if you are feeling adventurous you could go off trail after one, its steep sided tho! Sounds like: http://www.xeno-canto.org/asia/browse.php?query=whiskered+pitta
(*as in anti terrorist rather than local plod office!)
Flame Breasted Fruit-dove - also from the top, again probably would be lucky to see.
Luzon Scops Owl – stake out used to be the summit where the statue and ‘police station’ is located. I don’t think it has been seen much here recently, but is no doubt still around the forest trails if you are adventurous and wish to get to the top pre-dawn.
Luzon Jungle Flycatcher - get the prayer mat out for this one.
Luzon Water-redstart (should be straightforward along the valley rivers, popular stake out is the rapids near Bayyo rice terraces), will need a scope from the main road, but there is a road going into the valley there.
The following are still present and also possible along the mountain road/track:
White Cheeked Bullfinch, Luzon Racquet-tail, Mountain Shrike, Metallic-winged Sunbird, Long-tailed Ground Warbler, Benguit Bush Warbler (tricky!) Luzon Bush Warbler, Chestnut Faced Babbler, Green Backed Whistler and Flame Crowned Flowerpecker, check flocks of Eyebrowed Thrush for Brown-headed, Island Thrush, Philippine Swiftlets, Mountain Tailorbird, Mountain Verditer, Golden Crowned Babbler etc
And the bad news: Just for a change. Forest loss is extensive, and like elsewhere the birds can be tricky – but it’s a lot more active than R-S on Bohol in my very limited experience so you should see a few goodies - give it all you’ve got for your final destination in Phils!!!! I wish I was heading back up there. The rice terraces are interesting too. It'll probably take a good 10hours from Manila.
Accommodation is available in Banaue (the Banaue Hotel for one has internet and you can peruse the rows and rows of carved statues for sale that were once rainforest). Banaue is a few kms away, so there may be something closer.
It may be worth considering an early drop off at the summit if you can find someone to take you, then walking down the track back to main road. We went for a 4am start (which helped us properly dip the scops owl ;-). Also, as to be expected, its cold on the mountain before the sun comes up. This info is a lot from memory rather than detailed notes, and a few years old, maybe someone else will help with more exacting gen. If not:
Screen shot below – assuming that Google have the location of Polis as correct. You can just make out a dirty looking zig-zag and I presume that is the road/track upto the summit where the statue is? The vaguely discernable straight-ish yellow line with big bend, is where google have deemed to overlayed the main Polis-pass road onto the aerial photograph. Sorry, that’s the best I can do, hopefully if that isn’t quite correct the places will be discernable on the ground.
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Selsey Birder
Well-known member
halftwo
Wird Batcher
Pure poetry, Larry!
And as for that last paragraph: don't you know it's pioneers like you and Nicky that we mere mortals rely on for taxonomic insights, pointers and new info to make life easier if we ever get out to those far-flung birding outposts and hotspots you've been tramping over for years now?
I'll be dipping (ooh, wrong word, surely?) into the Thailand part of your Big Trip to see if you touched upon any of the spots that I'm going to in April.
Yes! H has booked his next trip (Chiang Rai area) - so fingers crossed that Mrs.H remains well enough to make it a go. B
EDIT: Having revisited the great trek I see you zoomed past the area with a brief stop at a bat cave, before heading off to the coast. I'll let you know what you missed, if anything.
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Larry Sweetland
Formerly 'Larry Wheatland'
Banaue
Thanks for the gen and taxonomic pointers Gareth, we'll put the flameback in then in bold lower case, as it's not an IOC split yet I think, so:
1744 Buff-spotted Flameback
Interesting to also note the range of opinions possible within the West Sussex birding community when it comes to aesthetics.
Hope you and Mrs H get to Thailand H. It'll be after we get home, so it's over to your shift.
From Bohol we took a ferry to Cebu, then the daily Superferry from Cebu to Manila, which takes about 24 hours. We walked from the jetty to Mabini Pension in Manila, but a bloke who wasn't laden with heavy backpacks overtook us at the door and grabbed the last room. It was now about 6pm. The bloke at the hotel then told us that if we were going to Banaue next, then the buses only run at night now, so we took a taxi to Sampaloc, the area where Autobus and Florida are based, and arrived just in time to get the last 2 seats on a bus to Banaue. We arrived in Banaue at about 7am, and took a room at the Stairway Lodge.
At 9.30am we set off on a touristy trip to see the famous rice terraces at Batad. There was little bird activity late morning at Batad, but when we decended to the waterfall we had great views of 3 rather tame Luzon Water-Redstarts near the waterfall itself. I've got a bit of a soft spot for birds that live on rocks in fast-flowing streams, and it was great to see this bird that I'd heard of for so long but thought I'd never get round to seeing. Nice to see it at a different spot to "the site" at Bay-yo too, and I'd very much recommend this spot if you're traveling with a non-birding companion.
On the walk up to the road above Batad in the afternoon there was more bird activity. Highlights were a Handsome Sunbird (just discovered it's a split from Lovely S), a few Chestnut-faced Babblers and Luzon Bush-Warblers. Others included Metallic-winged, Olive-backed and Purple-throated Sunbirds, Island Verditer Flycatcher, Pygmy and Red-keeled Flowerpeckers, Mountain White-eye, Mountain Tailorbird, Philippine Bulbul, Glossy Swiftlet, Striated Grassbird and Pied Bushchat. Red-rumped Swallow and Blue Rock Thrush were present in Banaue.
We'd had such a good start without even visiting the prescribed birding spots, that I had high hopes for Mount Polis. We set off on the 21km journey at 4.30am the next morning in a 3-wheeler. The road was pretty good and it took less than an hour to get to the army checkpost, so we made it before dawn. In spite of this however, Mt Polis ended up being perhaps the most disappointing site of the whole trip so far. We failed to find a single one of the remaining target birds. We didn't go birding the next day, but this morning we took a 3-wheeler to 10km up from Banaue, and started birding our way along the road towards Mount Polis, as a recent trip report mentions finding most of the specialities along the road between Mt Polis and Banaue in forest patches. Again we failed to find a single new bird for the trip, and after about 9am it became very hot, and what little bird activity there was petered out to almost nothing. We trudged dejectedly back to Banaue, bewildered as to how anyone finds the specialities here, and totally understanding why people don't bother going birding countries like Philippines without tapes and guides any more, if they don't want to look like total duffers.
What we did see was plenty of Chestnut-cheeked Babblers, Luzon Bush-Warblers, Elegant Tits, Island Verditer-Flycatchers, Mountain White-eyes and Metallic-winged Sunbirds, a Whiskered Tree-Swift (unusually high ?), an Island Thrush, 2 Blue-headed Fantails, 2 Scale-feathered Malkohas, 2 Little Pied Flycatchers, and some Mountain Leaf-Warblers that look nothing like Mountain Leaf-Warblers that I've seen anywhere else (is this a split by anyone yet?).
We did hear plenty of interesting calls that were never resolved, including what I strongly suspect were Long-tailed Bush-Warblers, at one point to within about 2m and still invisible in very dense undergrowth. Rather sadly, the only Flame-crowned Fruit-Dove that Bram found when he was at Mt Polis recently, was one that he managed to rescue from a bird trap on a forest trail. Good on you Bram!
So that's about it for the Philippines. Flying to Hong Kong on the 3rd.
1745 LUZON WATER-REDSTART
1746 HANDSOME SUNBIRD
1747 CHESTNUT-FACED BABBLER
1748 LUZON BUSH-WARBLER
Pic: Luzon Water-Redstart
Thanks for the gen and taxonomic pointers Gareth, we'll put the flameback in then in bold lower case, as it's not an IOC split yet I think, so:
1744 Buff-spotted Flameback
Interesting to also note the range of opinions possible within the West Sussex birding community when it comes to aesthetics.
Hope you and Mrs H get to Thailand H. It'll be after we get home, so it's over to your shift.
From Bohol we took a ferry to Cebu, then the daily Superferry from Cebu to Manila, which takes about 24 hours. We walked from the jetty to Mabini Pension in Manila, but a bloke who wasn't laden with heavy backpacks overtook us at the door and grabbed the last room. It was now about 6pm. The bloke at the hotel then told us that if we were going to Banaue next, then the buses only run at night now, so we took a taxi to Sampaloc, the area where Autobus and Florida are based, and arrived just in time to get the last 2 seats on a bus to Banaue. We arrived in Banaue at about 7am, and took a room at the Stairway Lodge.
At 9.30am we set off on a touristy trip to see the famous rice terraces at Batad. There was little bird activity late morning at Batad, but when we decended to the waterfall we had great views of 3 rather tame Luzon Water-Redstarts near the waterfall itself. I've got a bit of a soft spot for birds that live on rocks in fast-flowing streams, and it was great to see this bird that I'd heard of for so long but thought I'd never get round to seeing. Nice to see it at a different spot to "the site" at Bay-yo too, and I'd very much recommend this spot if you're traveling with a non-birding companion.
On the walk up to the road above Batad in the afternoon there was more bird activity. Highlights were a Handsome Sunbird (just discovered it's a split from Lovely S), a few Chestnut-faced Babblers and Luzon Bush-Warblers. Others included Metallic-winged, Olive-backed and Purple-throated Sunbirds, Island Verditer Flycatcher, Pygmy and Red-keeled Flowerpeckers, Mountain White-eye, Mountain Tailorbird, Philippine Bulbul, Glossy Swiftlet, Striated Grassbird and Pied Bushchat. Red-rumped Swallow and Blue Rock Thrush were present in Banaue.
We'd had such a good start without even visiting the prescribed birding spots, that I had high hopes for Mount Polis. We set off on the 21km journey at 4.30am the next morning in a 3-wheeler. The road was pretty good and it took less than an hour to get to the army checkpost, so we made it before dawn. In spite of this however, Mt Polis ended up being perhaps the most disappointing site of the whole trip so far. We failed to find a single one of the remaining target birds. We didn't go birding the next day, but this morning we took a 3-wheeler to 10km up from Banaue, and started birding our way along the road towards Mount Polis, as a recent trip report mentions finding most of the specialities along the road between Mt Polis and Banaue in forest patches. Again we failed to find a single new bird for the trip, and after about 9am it became very hot, and what little bird activity there was petered out to almost nothing. We trudged dejectedly back to Banaue, bewildered as to how anyone finds the specialities here, and totally understanding why people don't bother going birding countries like Philippines without tapes and guides any more, if they don't want to look like total duffers.
What we did see was plenty of Chestnut-cheeked Babblers, Luzon Bush-Warblers, Elegant Tits, Island Verditer-Flycatchers, Mountain White-eyes and Metallic-winged Sunbirds, a Whiskered Tree-Swift (unusually high ?), an Island Thrush, 2 Blue-headed Fantails, 2 Scale-feathered Malkohas, 2 Little Pied Flycatchers, and some Mountain Leaf-Warblers that look nothing like Mountain Leaf-Warblers that I've seen anywhere else (is this a split by anyone yet?).
We did hear plenty of interesting calls that were never resolved, including what I strongly suspect were Long-tailed Bush-Warblers, at one point to within about 2m and still invisible in very dense undergrowth. Rather sadly, the only Flame-crowned Fruit-Dove that Bram found when he was at Mt Polis recently, was one that he managed to rescue from a bird trap on a forest trail. Good on you Bram!
So that's about it for the Philippines. Flying to Hong Kong on the 3rd.
1745 LUZON WATER-REDSTART
1746 HANDSOME SUNBIRD
1747 CHESTNUT-FACED BABBLER
1748 LUZON BUSH-WARBLER
Pic: Luzon Water-Redstart
Attachments
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halftwo
Wird Batcher
Crikey, not long then, Larry - what's the plan from HK?
Chlidonias
Well-known member
I expect you've already seen the spoonbills in Hong Kong by now Larry?
I think you should try to make the thread post count tick over past 1000 before you get home.....
I think you should try to make the thread post count tick over past 1000 before you get home.....
Larry Sweetland
Formerly 'Larry Wheatland'
Leaving Philippines
Bit of a plan hopefully coming together for and from HK, but that would be telling, H One thing I'm hoping for though, is another 6 new birds for the magic 700 lifers for the trip, twice as many as I'd originally hoped for!
Thanks for pointing out the post count Chlidonias, I hadn't noticed that. That's not just my responsibility of course! We were lucky enough to twitch the 2 vagrant Black-faced Spoonbills in Thailand on our outbound Journey. Mostly thanks to Johnraven's artwork depicting a nearby unfinished building.
A few words on the Philippines. We've both really enjoyed being here and found it a fascinating country. It woke us up a bit out of being totally jaded with traveling in general. At the moment we're staying at the Mabini Pension in Manila, and I'd recommend this as a budget place to stay, as the staff are very friendly and helpful and it's cheap.
Birdwise we saw far more species than I expected, with about 80 lifers, all but a couple of them endemic. It is possible these days though to see more than twice as many endemics as we did, in even less time! This would certainly require a lot of internal flights, mountains of really accurate site gen (or guides), lots of time playing tapes, hired vehicles (or motor bikes?), and of course more money. I hope to be able to visit this incredible country again one day, to do it more justice. We didn't even visit Mindanao, which holds a large proportion of endemics, and is where everyone sees the eagle these days. For such a tiny place on the map, Philippines is HUGE when it comes to birds, and I can't believe I've pretty much ignored it and known next to nothing about it's birdlife until now.
Last few hours here, and all being well, we'll then touch down on mainland Earth, for the last leg of the trip.
Bit of a plan hopefully coming together for and from HK, but that would be telling, H
One thing I'm hoping for though, is another 6 new birds for the magic 700 lifers for the trip, twice as many as I'd originally hoped for! Thanks for pointing out the post count Chlidonias, I hadn't noticed that. That's not just my responsibility of course! We were lucky enough to twitch the 2 vagrant Black-faced Spoonbills in Thailand on our outbound Journey. Mostly thanks to Johnraven's artwork depicting a nearby unfinished building.
A few words on the Philippines. We've both really enjoyed being here and found it a fascinating country. It woke us up a bit out of being totally jaded with traveling in general. At the moment we're staying at the Mabini Pension in Manila, and I'd recommend this as a budget place to stay, as the staff are very friendly and helpful and it's cheap.
Birdwise we saw far more species than I expected, with about 80 lifers, all but a couple of them endemic. It is possible these days though to see more than twice as many endemics as we did, in even less time! This would certainly require a lot of internal flights, mountains of really accurate site gen (or guides), lots of time playing tapes, hired vehicles (or motor bikes?), and of course more money. I hope to be able to visit this incredible country again one day, to do it more justice. We didn't even visit Mindanao, which holds a large proportion of endemics, and is where everyone sees the eagle these days. For such a tiny place on the map, Philippines is HUGE when it comes to birds, and I can't believe I've pretty much ignored it and known next to nothing about it's birdlife until now.
Last few hours here, and all being well, we'll then touch down on mainland Earth, for the last leg of the trip.
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Larry Sweetland
Formerly 'Larry Wheatland'
Hk
Thanks Shi Jin, and for the directions to the good spot for the nuthatch in Beijing.
It may not be the best time of year to be in Hong Kong birdwise, but birderwise it's been just great. We headed to Kowloon from the airport and have been staying in the Great Wall guest house in Mirador Mansions, where we have a very small room with attached bathroom and a window (rare) for 15Q. It's pretty crazy outside, but we're getting used to it and loving it.
On our first day we popped into the nearby Kowloon Park where by getting on all fours and peering under the low manicured hedges of the little maze, it was possible to get great views of my first Masked Laughingthrushes., a pretty common bird throughout Hong Kong. We also chanced into a local birder, Ray, who invited us to join him and his mates on their birding day out the next day. Brilliant! In the small busy Kowloon Park we also saw Chestnut-tailed Starlings (thought to be of dodgy origin), Black-collared Starling, Asian Koel, Japanese White-eye, Black-eared Kite, Yellow-browed Warbler, Oriental Magpie-Robin, Spotted Dove, Tree Sparrow and Cinereous Tit, as well as groovy but dodgy Alexandrine and Ring-necked Parakeets.
That evening, BF's very own MKinHK had kindly arranged a birder's curry night (apparently a not uncommon occurrence in HK), so we had a wonderful time finally meeting Mike and some other HK birders (a cracking bunch), and learnt a lot about birding and birds and other things in Hong Kong, all of which made me think it would be a great place to live as a birder.
Getting around HK is pretty easy due to an effiicient transport system. Next morning we met Ray and his mates, who turned out to all be ecology students at the university. They were wonderful company and took us to 2 birding areas. The first was an area called Shek Kong, where a narrow concrete waterway passes through housing areas and alongside a military airfield. The habitat was such that it felt like birding around , say, Milton Keynes. We saw plenty of birds though, including our first black and white Magpies for more than 2 years. These birds, more than anything else we saw, made us feel all wobbly and almost home. This area also produced Plenty of Olive-backed Pipits and Yellow-browed Warblers, leucopsis and ocularis White Wagtails, Grey Wagtails, Common and Green Sandpipers, the stuff we saw the day before, Greater Coucal, House Swift, Barn Swallow, Dusky Warbler, Chinese and Red-whiskered Bulbuls, Red-billed Blue-Magpie, Japanese Buzzard, Common Tailorbird, Large-billed Crow, Red-billed Starling, Scarlet Minivet, White-breasted Waterhen, and something a bit more special:-
As a British birder I can't help but call grosbeaks "grozzers". This meant that when we were in China earlier in the trip, the Chinese Grosbeaks that we saw ended up being called "Chizzers", the Japanese Grosbeaks that we hoped to see (but never did) ended up being called "Jazzers", and ones we saw too poorly to identify specifically just had to end up as "Jizzers". At the edge of the airfield at Shek Kong we bumped into a couple of parties of Jizzers, that allowed close approach, and we had fabulous views of these great birds, even though they ended up being Chizzers. Shortly after looking through the second bunch of Chizzers however, a whopping cracker of a Jazzer appeared, and stuck around for us all to ogle at while it fed on small berries in the small trees above us. I discovered when we broke for lunch that this individual Japanese Grosbeak had been in the area for weeks, and may be the only reported sighting in Hong Kong this winter. A great bonus.
After lunch we headed for Long Valley, where we saw several new birds for the day, including 2 live Greater Painted-Snipe and 2 dead ones, Little Ringed Plover, Wood Sandpiper, Black-winged Stilt, Common Snipe, Moorhen, Blackbird, Crested Myna, Plain Prinia, Zitting Cisticola, taivana Yellow Wagtails, Richard's and Red-throated Pipits, Siberian Stonechat, Long-tailed Shrike etc.
Unfortunately there was no sign of a long-staying Dusky Thrush that had been about, but at least our new birder friends got some amusement out of watching me jump every time one of them would call a Dusky....Warbler, or Dusky ....morph Long-tailed Shrike. Which they did loudly at every opportunity when they saw my reaction to it!!
We've had to change our plans here in HK as there's no way we're paying 200Q each for a quick delivery China visa, and 140Q each for a Russian one. This could mean longer in HK, so hopefully we'll get a chance to see more of the lovely birding ecology students, and we've something planned for tomorrow too......
1749 MASKED LAUGHINGTHRUSH
1750 JAPANESE GROSBEAK
Thanks Shi Jin, and for the directions to the good spot for the nuthatch in Beijing.
It may not be the best time of year to be in Hong Kong birdwise, but birderwise it's been just great. We headed to Kowloon from the airport and have been staying in the Great Wall guest house in Mirador Mansions, where we have a very small room with attached bathroom and a window (rare) for 15Q. It's pretty crazy outside, but we're getting used to it and loving it.
On our first day we popped into the nearby Kowloon Park where by getting on all fours and peering under the low manicured hedges of the little maze, it was possible to get great views of my first Masked Laughingthrushes., a pretty common bird throughout Hong Kong. We also chanced into a local birder, Ray, who invited us to join him and his mates on their birding day out the next day. Brilliant! In the small busy Kowloon Park we also saw Chestnut-tailed Starlings (thought to be of dodgy origin), Black-collared Starling, Asian Koel, Japanese White-eye, Black-eared Kite, Yellow-browed Warbler, Oriental Magpie-Robin, Spotted Dove, Tree Sparrow and Cinereous Tit, as well as groovy but dodgy Alexandrine and Ring-necked Parakeets.
That evening, BF's very own MKinHK had kindly arranged a birder's curry night (apparently a not uncommon occurrence in HK), so we had a wonderful time finally meeting Mike and some other HK birders (a cracking bunch), and learnt a lot about birding and birds and other things in Hong Kong, all of which made me think it would be a great place to live as a birder.
Getting around HK is pretty easy due to an effiicient transport system. Next morning we met Ray and his mates, who turned out to all be ecology students at the university. They were wonderful company and took us to 2 birding areas. The first was an area called Shek Kong, where a narrow concrete waterway passes through housing areas and alongside a military airfield. The habitat was such that it felt like birding around , say, Milton Keynes. We saw plenty of birds though, including our first black and white Magpies for more than 2 years. These birds, more than anything else we saw, made us feel all wobbly and almost home. This area also produced Plenty of Olive-backed Pipits and Yellow-browed Warblers, leucopsis and ocularis White Wagtails, Grey Wagtails, Common and Green Sandpipers, the stuff we saw the day before, Greater Coucal, House Swift, Barn Swallow, Dusky Warbler, Chinese and Red-whiskered Bulbuls, Red-billed Blue-Magpie, Japanese Buzzard, Common Tailorbird, Large-billed Crow, Red-billed Starling, Scarlet Minivet, White-breasted Waterhen, and something a bit more special:-
As a British birder I can't help but call grosbeaks "grozzers". This meant that when we were in China earlier in the trip, the Chinese Grosbeaks that we saw ended up being called "Chizzers", the Japanese Grosbeaks that we hoped to see (but never did) ended up being called "Jazzers", and ones we saw too poorly to identify specifically just had to end up as "Jizzers". At the edge of the airfield at Shek Kong we bumped into a couple of parties of Jizzers, that allowed close approach, and we had fabulous views of these great birds, even though they ended up being Chizzers. Shortly after looking through the second bunch of Chizzers however, a whopping cracker of a Jazzer appeared, and stuck around for us all to ogle at while it fed on small berries in the small trees above us. I discovered when we broke for lunch that this individual Japanese Grosbeak had been in the area for weeks, and may be the only reported sighting in Hong Kong this winter. A great bonus.
After lunch we headed for Long Valley, where we saw several new birds for the day, including 2 live Greater Painted-Snipe and 2 dead ones, Little Ringed Plover, Wood Sandpiper, Black-winged Stilt, Common Snipe, Moorhen, Blackbird, Crested Myna, Plain Prinia, Zitting Cisticola, taivana Yellow Wagtails, Richard's and Red-throated Pipits, Siberian Stonechat, Long-tailed Shrike etc.
Unfortunately there was no sign of a long-staying Dusky Thrush that had been about, but at least our new birder friends got some amusement out of watching me jump every time one of them would call a Dusky....Warbler, or Dusky ....morph Long-tailed Shrike. Which they did loudly at every opportunity when they saw my reaction to it!!
We've had to change our plans here in HK as there's no way we're paying 200Q each for a quick delivery China visa, and 140Q each for a Russian one. This could mean longer in HK, so hopefully we'll get a chance to see more of the lovely birding ecology students, and we've something planned for tomorrow too......
1749 MASKED LAUGHINGTHRUSH
1750 JAPANESE GROSBEAK
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Larry Sweetland
Formerly 'Larry Wheatland'
Ng Tung Chai and Mai Po
A couple of overlooked additions to the trip list. Richard's Pipit at Long Valley was a new one, and a flick through the East Asia field guide revealed that the form great tit we saw at Beidaihe are now include within P. minor, making Japanese Tit a new armchair tick for me and the trip.
1751 JAPANESE TIT
1752 Richard's Pipit
Yesterday morning we met up with MKinHK who took us for a spin round his local patch, a wooded valley known as Ng Tung Chai. Mike's been keeping a long running thread together on BF for this site, here: http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=66653
In spite of the rather damp and chilly weather we were in high spirits and thoroughly enjoyed our morning at this verdant oasis. As with HK in general, our timing was rather off in terms of catching the place at it's best. We're a bit too late for some overwintering specialities, and too early for the migrant passerines that make Ng Tung Chai particularly exciting. Highlight for us was seeing a few Chestnut Bulbuls, a species we'd missed near Kunming early in the trip. Other goodies included Grey-chinned and Scarlet Minivets, Black-winged Cuckoo-Shrike, Black Bulbul, and the briefest glimpse of a Pygmy Wren-Babbler. Silver-eared Mesias and Blue-winged Minlas looked not at all out of place, but Mike informed us that the HK populations of these species are of captive origin. We look forward to being gripped off by Mike in a couple of weeks when the migrant goodies start popping up.
Mike was busy for the rest of the day, but I don't know what we'd have done without his help in planning our afternoon. We wouldn't have been able to phone a taxi in Cantonese, or known how to get the taxi to drop us off at the visitor's centre at Mai Po, or already have our permits for Mai Po ordered with just one day's notice, or known how and at what time of day to get to the best hide in this large reserve, or had his scope to look at the birds with, or have his field guide to use, or been able to stay in the hide for long as the weather turned cold (we'd had to borrow warm clothes from Mike as we'd left home in just T-shirts!), or had marmite on toast before leaving his house. So, er, ..thanks Mike!
Mai Po was mindblowing, and is best visited when the tide is round about the 2m mark, which for us happened around midday. We had between about 11.30am and 4pm of great birding, when big numbers of gulls, ducks and waders were pushed up reasonably close to the hide. We were lucky in this respect, as there can be periods of days when no decent tide falls within daylight hours. Inspite of it being a weekend there was plenty of room in the hide, with an even split of birders and photographers. The birders were experienced locals, and were very helpful in answering my dumb questions even though they were busy seriously counting everything. Every time one of them found something of note they would very efficiently describe it's location so everyone could get onto it. What made it more exciting was that regular fly-by raptors would put everything up, so the birds would resettle in different places, each time with different goodies being at closer range. This also meant however that sometimes everything would go up shortly after a goodie was found. We were very fortunate to see the bird we most wanted to see shortly after we arrived, a 1st winter Relict Gull, as the whole lot went up not long after we got a good look at it. It was not seen again all day until just before we were leaving, and then by only one person, who hadn't finished describing its location before they all went up again! A magic bird indeed for the 700th lifer of the trip.
Other much hoped for goodies which appeared were 2 1stw Slaty-backed Gulls, and 1stw Black-tailed Gulls into double figures. There was much informative discussion of the LWHGs present, with Heuglin's G being the common species, but Vega and Mongolian Gulls thought not to be hybrids also being picked out. Black-headed was the commonest gull present, and a pure white bird was involved. There were also several Saunder's Gulls, including very snappy breeding-plumaged adults.
The wader number were very impressive, and included some 6000 Avocets, which was an incredible sight when they all went up. The Marsh Sandpiper count was some 1100, and the 200 or so Greenshank included a Nordmann's Greenshank. Other waders included Common and Spotted Redshank, Bar- and Black-tailed Godwits, Grey Plover, Curlew Sandpiper, and Great and Red Knots. We noticed about a dozen Black-faced Spoonbills, but I guess there would have vbeen far more around.
There were big numbers of Shoveler, and plenty of Garganey and Wigeon, with lots of Tufted Duck on the lagoons too. I just didn't know where to look!
Just before we left the hide, an imm male lugens White Wagtail, which at least used to be treated by Clements as a full species, Black-backed Wagtail, appeared right in front of the hide. Another first for me.
One of the birders that we had met at the curry night, Richard, then kindly offered to give us a lift to the nearest train station.
What a day.
1753 CHESTNUT BULBUL
1754 BLACK-TAILED GULL
1755 RELICT GULL
1756 SLATY-BACKED GULL
1757 Black-backed Wagtail
pics: 1. Japanese Grosbeak, 2. Mai Po, 3. gulls including a Saunders's, 4. gulls including a Slaty-backed and a Black-tailed
A couple of overlooked additions to the trip list. Richard's Pipit at Long Valley was a new one, and a flick through the East Asia field guide revealed that the form great tit we saw at Beidaihe are now include within P. minor, making Japanese Tit a new armchair tick for me and the trip.
1751 JAPANESE TIT
1752 Richard's Pipit
Yesterday morning we met up with MKinHK who took us for a spin round his local patch, a wooded valley known as Ng Tung Chai. Mike's been keeping a long running thread together on BF for this site, here: http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=66653
In spite of the rather damp and chilly weather we were in high spirits and thoroughly enjoyed our morning at this verdant oasis. As with HK in general, our timing was rather off in terms of catching the place at it's best. We're a bit too late for some overwintering specialities, and too early for the migrant passerines that make Ng Tung Chai particularly exciting. Highlight for us was seeing a few Chestnut Bulbuls, a species we'd missed near Kunming early in the trip. Other goodies included Grey-chinned and Scarlet Minivets, Black-winged Cuckoo-Shrike, Black Bulbul, and the briefest glimpse of a Pygmy Wren-Babbler. Silver-eared Mesias and Blue-winged Minlas looked not at all out of place, but Mike informed us that the HK populations of these species are of captive origin. We look forward to being gripped off by Mike in a couple of weeks when the migrant goodies start popping up.
Mike was busy for the rest of the day, but I don't know what we'd have done without his help in planning our afternoon. We wouldn't have been able to phone a taxi in Cantonese, or known how to get the taxi to drop us off at the visitor's centre at Mai Po, or already have our permits for Mai Po ordered with just one day's notice, or known how and at what time of day to get to the best hide in this large reserve, or had his scope to look at the birds with, or have his field guide to use, or been able to stay in the hide for long as the weather turned cold (we'd had to borrow warm clothes from Mike as we'd left home in just T-shirts!), or had marmite on toast before leaving his house. So, er, ..thanks Mike!
Mai Po was mindblowing, and is best visited when the tide is round about the 2m mark, which for us happened around midday. We had between about 11.30am and 4pm of great birding, when big numbers of gulls, ducks and waders were pushed up reasonably close to the hide. We were lucky in this respect, as there can be periods of days when no decent tide falls within daylight hours. Inspite of it being a weekend there was plenty of room in the hide, with an even split of birders and photographers. The birders were experienced locals, and were very helpful in answering my dumb questions even though they were busy seriously counting everything. Every time one of them found something of note they would very efficiently describe it's location so everyone could get onto it. What made it more exciting was that regular fly-by raptors would put everything up, so the birds would resettle in different places, each time with different goodies being at closer range. This also meant however that sometimes everything would go up shortly after a goodie was found. We were very fortunate to see the bird we most wanted to see shortly after we arrived, a 1st winter Relict Gull, as the whole lot went up not long after we got a good look at it. It was not seen again all day until just before we were leaving, and then by only one person, who hadn't finished describing its location before they all went up again! A magic bird indeed for the 700th lifer of the trip.
Other much hoped for goodies which appeared were 2 1stw Slaty-backed Gulls, and 1stw Black-tailed Gulls into double figures. There was much informative discussion of the LWHGs present, with Heuglin's G being the common species, but Vega and Mongolian Gulls thought not to be hybrids also being picked out. Black-headed was the commonest gull present, and a pure white bird was involved. There were also several Saunder's Gulls, including very snappy breeding-plumaged adults.
The wader number were very impressive, and included some 6000 Avocets, which was an incredible sight when they all went up. The Marsh Sandpiper count was some 1100, and the 200 or so Greenshank included a Nordmann's Greenshank. Other waders included Common and Spotted Redshank, Bar- and Black-tailed Godwits, Grey Plover, Curlew Sandpiper, and Great and Red Knots. We noticed about a dozen Black-faced Spoonbills, but I guess there would have vbeen far more around.
There were big numbers of Shoveler, and plenty of Garganey and Wigeon, with lots of Tufted Duck on the lagoons too. I just didn't know where to look!
Just before we left the hide, an imm male lugens White Wagtail, which at least used to be treated by Clements as a full species, Black-backed Wagtail, appeared right in front of the hide. Another first for me.
One of the birders that we had met at the curry night, Richard, then kindly offered to give us a lift to the nearest train station.
What a day.
1753 CHESTNUT BULBUL
1754 BLACK-TAILED GULL
1755 RELICT GULL
1756 SLATY-BACKED GULL
1757 Black-backed Wagtail
pics: 1. Japanese Grosbeak, 2. Mai Po, 3. gulls including a Saunders's, 4. gulls including a Slaty-backed and a Black-tailed
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Chlidonias
Well-known member
that Japanese grosbeak is cute. I like that one.
Gulls.....
Gulls.....
Larry Sweetland
Formerly 'Larry Wheatland'
F%#@*!!!!!!!squared
Thanks guys. Surely at least you've got to admit that the Saunders's Gull's pretty cute Chlid? And yes, as DMW says, Collared Crow is easiest in HK, but we did get lucky with a couple from the train travelling through China earlier on in the trip. Saw some today too.
There is no way on Earth that we could have guessed what today would have in store. Certainly weren't planning on any birding. It turned out to be one of the most exciting days of the trip.
We had arranged the previous night to meet Mike on a street corner at 8am, so we could go and say goodbye over coffee ,and return the stuff he'd generously lent us. Little did we know that Mike had had a really tough choice to make. Over coffee Mike told us that news had just broken of a serious mega, a first for HK, at Mai Po. Mike could have gone for it and left us standing on the corner (we have no cell phone), but instead he came to meet us. Not long into the coffee, Mike received a call informing him that the bird had been refound today. It became clear that we had to change our plans and go for this bird. For us it wasn't just any old first for Hong Kong, it was much more than that. It was a Philippine Duck. There are only a couple or so records of this species away from the Philippines, including Taiwan. Wild origin seems very likely. We'd not seen it properly in Philippines, but had see a distant flock of what was almost certainly this species in southern Luzon. Nicky was keen too, but only because it was that bird and nothing else.
Mike had to go to work, but a couple of phone calls and he'd sorted out permits for us, and a place where we could leave his scope etc at Mai Po. He then sketched some maps to negotiate public transport, and wrote some chinese characters for us to show to bus drivers /people on the street on the way.
We tried ringing Ray, but he was in class. Then we were off. Mike's maps and words got us to Mai Po, and we walked the 2km to the visitor's centre. As we left the building after paying the 12Q each for permits, Richard was passing by in a car heading out of the reserve. He stopped, and it was bad news. He'd been searching with other birders, mainly at pit #20, with no joy. He had to go to work. Nicky and I carried on into the reserve, stopping to check out a Grey-backed Thrush and a Japanese Thrush near the visitor's centre. We hadn't gone far when Richard reappeared. Surely this could only mean...... He picked us up and told us that he'd just discovered that they'd been looking in the wrong place. We sped towards pit#23, but 2 birders we met on the way said they'd already checked it. We went there anyway, had no luck, and Richard really really had to go. The other birders had to go to work too, but one of them stayed a while taking us to other likely nearby pits. It looked bad, but a couple of Oriental Pratincoles were nice.
Nicky and I wandered around for a few hours, bumped into another couple of disgruntled birders, and things were looking pretty grim for us. We couldn't stay long. An Imperial Eagle was a nice new one for the trip, but it didn't do a good enough job of putting all the ducks up out of the grass !
At about 2.30ish we were walking back towards pit #20 and I was a bit ahead of Nicky. At one point I turned round and she was frantically waving her arms about. I legged it back, and she was onto a group of 3 fairly distant ducks, 2 of them Chinese Spot-billed Ducks, and one hiding behind them. Nicky had only glimpsed the bird behind, but said it looked interesting, might have a rusty head. I tried using the scope on Nicky's shoulder (no tripod), but it was all rather wobbly. I had to head down the bank to a tree with a fork in it to steady the scope. As I did so, the ducks all swam up a channel, and disappeared into vegetation on the left. Aaaaaargh! It really was getting late for us, but we figured it was worth waiting around for 5 minutes before we really should be going.
Much to our surprise the 3 ducks swam back out again, just before we were about to give up. One of them was noticeably smaller, which was interesting, and certainly looked rusty-headed. Looks through the scope increasingly created images that seemed to only fit Philippine Duck, but it was still really dodgy views. I decided in the end we should go get other birders, and risk looking daft if we were wrong. I'd only ran c200m before seeing a group of 4 birders up ahead. I started jumping up and down and flapping my arms about, and pretty soon they started running. When we got back to where Nicky was there were 4 ducks there, and our bird was asleep and looking disturbingly small. ooops I thought, and I was glad that I'd already said to the others "sorry if I've made yo run for nothing, but we're 99% sure we've got it". The other birders said that the image they'd seen of the bird on the internet showed it to be the same size as the spotbills, so maybe this couldn't be it. No-one else had a scope or tripod, but someone had a prey huge camera. Someone started contacting other birders and I started to panic. It's one thing getting people to run a couple of hundred yards, but it's quite another thing getting them to down tools and get in a car! Fortunately a couple of seconds later the guy with the huge camera got a picture of the bird as it raised its head, and we were finally convinced we were definitely looking at a PHILIPPINE DUCK! The news was widely put out, and all was well.
It was about an hour's walk from duck to bus stop, but it was nice to impart positive news to passing arriving birders. Somehow we managed to make it right across Hong Kong, over to the island and up the peak tram before dark, to achieve our original goal for the day of looking down over the city for the spectacular view. We then ended with beer and Indian curry, and of course the joy of babbling all this to you lovely lot.
One AWESOME day.
proper pictures of this HK Hypermega can be found on the Hong Kong birding website here:-
http://www.hkbws.org.hk/web/eng/index_eng.htm
our pics: 1. roughly what the bird looked like to us through our optics, but it's much bigger and clearer in this pic! 2. Hong Kong at dusk
We can't thank MKinHK enough for his hospitality while we've been here, and boy do we hope you see this duck Mike!
1758 Imperial Eagle
1759 PHILIPPINE DUCKBB
Thanks guys. Surely at least you've got to admit that the Saunders's Gull's pretty cute Chlid? And yes, as DMW says, Collared Crow is easiest in HK, but we did get lucky with a couple from the train travelling through China earlier on in the trip. Saw some today too.
There is no way on Earth that we could have guessed what today would have in store. Certainly weren't planning on any birding. It turned out to be one of the most exciting days of the trip.
We had arranged the previous night to meet Mike on a street corner at 8am, so we could go and say goodbye over coffee ,and return the stuff he'd generously lent us. Little did we know that Mike had had a really tough choice to make. Over coffee Mike told us that news had just broken of a serious mega, a first for HK, at Mai Po. Mike could have gone for it and left us standing on the corner (we have no cell phone), but instead he came to meet us. Not long into the coffee, Mike received a call informing him that the bird had been refound today. It became clear that we had to change our plans and go for this bird. For us it wasn't just any old first for Hong Kong, it was much more than that. It was a Philippine Duck. There are only a couple or so records of this species away from the Philippines, including Taiwan. Wild origin seems very likely. We'd not seen it properly in Philippines, but had see a distant flock of what was almost certainly this species in southern Luzon. Nicky was keen too, but only because it was that bird and nothing else.
Mike had to go to work, but a couple of phone calls and he'd sorted out permits for us, and a place where we could leave his scope etc at Mai Po. He then sketched some maps to negotiate public transport, and wrote some chinese characters for us to show to bus drivers /people on the street on the way.
We tried ringing Ray, but he was in class. Then we were off. Mike's maps and words got us to Mai Po, and we walked the 2km to the visitor's centre. As we left the building after paying the 12Q each for permits, Richard was passing by in a car heading out of the reserve. He stopped, and it was bad news. He'd been searching with other birders, mainly at pit #20, with no joy. He had to go to work. Nicky and I carried on into the reserve, stopping to check out a Grey-backed Thrush and a Japanese Thrush near the visitor's centre. We hadn't gone far when Richard reappeared. Surely this could only mean...... He picked us up and told us that he'd just discovered that they'd been looking in the wrong place. We sped towards pit#23, but 2 birders we met on the way said they'd already checked it. We went there anyway, had no luck, and Richard really really had to go. The other birders had to go to work too, but one of them stayed a while taking us to other likely nearby pits. It looked bad, but a couple of Oriental Pratincoles were nice.
Nicky and I wandered around for a few hours, bumped into another couple of disgruntled birders, and things were looking pretty grim for us. We couldn't stay long. An Imperial Eagle was a nice new one for the trip, but it didn't do a good enough job of putting all the ducks up out of the grass !
At about 2.30ish we were walking back towards pit #20 and I was a bit ahead of Nicky. At one point I turned round and she was frantically waving her arms about. I legged it back, and she was onto a group of 3 fairly distant ducks, 2 of them Chinese Spot-billed Ducks, and one hiding behind them. Nicky had only glimpsed the bird behind, but said it looked interesting, might have a rusty head. I tried using the scope on Nicky's shoulder (no tripod), but it was all rather wobbly. I had to head down the bank to a tree with a fork in it to steady the scope. As I did so, the ducks all swam up a channel, and disappeared into vegetation on the left. Aaaaaargh! It really was getting late for us, but we figured it was worth waiting around for 5 minutes before we really should be going.
Much to our surprise the 3 ducks swam back out again, just before we were about to give up. One of them was noticeably smaller, which was interesting, and certainly looked rusty-headed. Looks through the scope increasingly created images that seemed to only fit Philippine Duck, but it was still really dodgy views. I decided in the end we should go get other birders, and risk looking daft if we were wrong. I'd only ran c200m before seeing a group of 4 birders up ahead. I started jumping up and down and flapping my arms about, and pretty soon they started running. When we got back to where Nicky was there were 4 ducks there, and our bird was asleep and looking disturbingly small. ooops I thought, and I was glad that I'd already said to the others "sorry if I've made yo run for nothing, but we're 99% sure we've got it". The other birders said that the image they'd seen of the bird on the internet showed it to be the same size as the spotbills, so maybe this couldn't be it. No-one else had a scope or tripod, but someone had a prey huge camera. Someone started contacting other birders and I started to panic. It's one thing getting people to run a couple of hundred yards, but it's quite another thing getting them to down tools and get in a car! Fortunately a couple of seconds later the guy with the huge camera got a picture of the bird as it raised its head, and we were finally convinced we were definitely looking at a PHILIPPINE DUCK! The news was widely put out, and all was well.
It was about an hour's walk from duck to bus stop, but it was nice to impart positive news to passing arriving birders. Somehow we managed to make it right across Hong Kong, over to the island and up the peak tram before dark, to achieve our original goal for the day of looking down over the city for the spectacular view. We then ended with beer and Indian curry, and of course the joy of babbling all this to you lovely lot.
One AWESOME day.
proper pictures of this HK Hypermega can be found on the Hong Kong birding website here:-
http://www.hkbws.org.hk/web/eng/index_eng.htm
our pics: 1. roughly what the bird looked like to us through our optics, but it's much bigger and clearer in this pic! 2. Hong Kong at dusk
We can't thank MKinHK enough for his hospitality while we've been here, and boy do we hope you see this duck Mike!
1758 Imperial Eagle
1759 PHILIPPINE DUCKB
B Attachments
Last edited:
Larry Sweetland
Formerly 'Larry Wheatland'
Anyone got any recent (or any) logistical gen on seeing the Crested Ibises at Yangxian ?
