Wildlife Week: Birding in the City (1)

The fourth week of the year was full of surprises and amazing wildlife encounters. It’s mind-boggling and surreal to meet face-to-face magnificent creatures even in disturbed, hostile and highly-polluted environment.  Beauty really exists wherever you go.

Kicking off the wildlife week: birding at the La Mesa Eco-park (LMEP). LMEP is one of the very few mini-forests in Metro Manila and a favorite weekend destination of families, friends and students.

Arriving at 7:00am, we were first greeted by LMEP’s full-time residents: the kilyawan (black-naped oriole), tariktik (barred-rail), kasaykasay (white-collared kingfisher), common moorhen and white-breasted waterhen. Then migrant birds started to show up; tarat (brown shrike), tagak (little egret), susulbot (common kingfisher) and yellow wagtail. 

Above us, pair of Chinese goshawks and ospreys flew in circles.

Inside the park’s forest trail, we saw the two recently discovered residents of LMEP: the Luzon-endemic ashy ground-thrush and the scaly ground-thrush. Both birds are uncommon, inconspicuous  and very hard to see in the wild.  Thanks to the tip of fellow birding friends, we stationed ourselves near the bird's “hang-out” area. After 30 minutes of waiting patiently, we were rewarded... 

The ashy ground-thrush playfully hopped around us.

The scaly ground-thrush kept on feeding while blending itself magnificently into its surrounding.

For almost an hour, we watched these beautiful winged-creatures. We also saw a green tree-frog and another beautiful bird, a mangrove blue-flycatcher.

A wonderful Sunday morning indeed.

Bird photos by Anne Larracas


LMEP, Quezon City

01-20-13

xOxOx

Also check the next story: Birding in Las-Pinas Bird Sanctuary.

Amihan and Mt. Pulag

One of the fun activities that we look forward every Christmas season is the chilly, casual walk on a windy night. The soothing effect of the cold northeastern wind propagates good vibes and jolly mood.

But Amihan season can be more exciting when you visit the coldest region in the country, the Cordillera. And within this mountainous region, the best destination to be during the peak of Amihan (December-February) is definitely Mt. Pulag. Here are my five reasons:

Breath-taking sunrise. This split moment between darkness and light, when the sun slowly rises up in the sea of clouds and in glowing red-orange backdrop, is one of the most spectacular views that I've seen. No camera/video will be enough to capture this awesome experience. Since less typhoons (I wish) and rains during this period, higher chances of encountering this wonderful moment.

Sub-zero. Experience the butt-freezing below zero temperature in Mt. Pulag. Even the three degrees Celsius (and lower) in a high-altitude mountain is already a major pain in the ass, and an experience to die for. Those thick fleece and jackets gathering dusts in your closets will really be handy.  The lowest record that I knew in Mt Pulag is -6 degrees Celsius, December 2010.

Walk above the Clouds. Experience a beautiful trek above the clouds. The other major peaks of Cordillera such as Mt. Tabeo, Mt Ugo and Mt. Napulauan looked like islands in the sea of clouds.

Amazing wildlife. Mt. Pulag National Park is home to some of the country’s unique fauna and flora like giant cloud rats, boars and Philippine deer.  Amihan season also coincides with bird migration season. Rare sightings of extremely rare migratory birds such as yellow bunting and little bunting were recorded in this mountain. The peak also provides a good spot to view the travelling raptors.

Wonderful culture. Visit to Pulag can also means interaction with the indigenous Ibaloi. Interact with the rosy-cheeks children in their fleece school uniforms, or have quick chat with the women and men in their galvanized roofs walled houses. The freezing weather will encourage you to try the traditional delicacies such as hot-meal of pinikpikan, few shots of tasty tapuy (rice wine) or maybe try the nganga (mixture of beetle nut, lime and tobacco leaf) for dessert.

Mt Pulag is definitely the best place to be this season... :)

 

squek squek

just came back from a 10-days backpacking trip in Region 11. during the trip, I visited my friend EJ who works in Tagum and she and her family hosted my stay in the said busy city. 

brief stay but still we managed to visit one of the city's remaining forested areas and here we saw groups of long-tailed macaques, wild boar and suprise, suprise... a tree squirrel.

reviewing the Field Museum database of Philippine Mammals (by far the best online guide) I was astonished to learn that we saw a Philippine Tree Squirrel, a Mindanao-Visayan endemic!

yes!!! already in my "lifer mammal list" are Busuanga Tree Squirrel and Northern Palawan Tree Squirrel, both species can only be found in Palawan.

two tree squirrel species left...