Week ending 22nd August

Quite a wet week all round, with several shorts bouts of heavy rain, and more prolonged light showers. Quite a few Blue-tailed Bee-eaters arrived on the upland farm in front of the weather on 17th , mostly juveniles. Also the same day a single Slaty-breasted Rail showed itself on the lowland farm. The first Pacific Golden Plover of autumn was present on the same day, an earlier record than previous years.

The 18th was very wet, a White-browed Crake with 2 hatchlings was the most interesting sighting.

Slaty-breasted Rail. The movements of these birds are not well known in The Philippines. I have records on the farms from early May, mid-August (two consecutive years), late September, and late October regularly through to late November. That appears to indicate autumn passage and a regular winter population, but the lack of records from early December onwards is puzzling.

Slaty-breasted Rail

Fan-tailed Cisticola