Week ending 11th September - Makiling, IRRI

Another week with changeable weather, so my only birding window was saturday morning. I tried the Makiling trail starting at about 7:00 am. There were a few birds about, mainly calling, but overall it was quiet. A female Philippine Trogon was sunning herself in a clearing, and then calling in response to my tapes, but she was very shy of showing herself for photographs. A Scale-feathered Malkoha was also visible, but in a dark corner of the canopy. A brown bird in the canopy was exciting, until it revealed itself to be a juvenile Brown Shrike. Little else of note, so I went to the fields. More Brown Shrikes there, as well as the usual species. A Grey Wagtail back at the Staff Housing complex was another new migrant.

Female Philippine Trogon

Female Cinnamon Bittern 

Juvenile Common Moorhen ssp. lozanoi

The first migrant Brown Shrike of autumn

Juvenile Little Ringed Plover

Ixobrychus spp. at IRRI

A short gallery of the various Ixobrychus Bitterns that occur at IRRI.

After initially identifying this as juvenile Cinnamon Bittern I was this week corrected by Des Allen, who pointed out it was a classic female Schrenk's Bittern. Chocolate brown upperparts with large white spots, and creamy white underparts.

A female Cinnamon Bittern. Differing from the Schrenk's in having a buffier base colour to the throat, and the spots on the back edged buff.

Another Cinnamon Bittern, male
















A male Cinnamon Bittern, looking magnificent

Yellow Bittern

Week ending 4th September - San Juan, IRRI

Emboldened by the evidence of early migration underway at IRRI I decided to head to the fish ponds at San Juan on Sunday. Early birds there included a fly past Tabon Scrubfowl, and 2 Pink-necked Green Pigeons. Very few waders about; a small party of Pacific Golden Plovers and 4 or 5 scattered Greenshank was the sum total. No Nightjars yet, and no Rufous Night Heron either. The Philippine Duck population was the highest I've seen it however, with well over 200 birds.

Back at IRRI the Snipe numbers are on the increase, and there are still a scattering of Long-toed Stints, though no sign of Monday's Sharp-tailed Sandpiper which looks to have been a one-day bird.

On Sunday I went to the Botanical Gardens at UPLB on Makiling. Brief views of Red-crested Malkoha, Luzon Flameback (recently split from Greater Flameback), and Indigo-banded Kingfisher, but no decent photographable views of anything sadly.

Pacific Swallow

Clamorous Reed Warbler

A pair of Philippine Ducks, just before they exploded into the sky. San Juan is one of the strongholds for this species in Luzon, several hundred were here today.












Greenshank

Fiddler Crabs abound in the mangroves at San Juan

Back at IRRI, several more Snipe sp. have arrived.

29th August 2011 - Sharp-tailed Sandpiper at IRRI

Finally found a Sharp-tailed Sandpiper on the farms at IRRI. It's a passage migrant, and as such it should be annual, but despite extensive searching I've yet to find it, until today! In company with about 50 Wood Sandpipers and 4 Long-toed Stints, it didn't stand out at all size wise from the Woodies. It was only because I'd spotted the Long-toed Stints and was trying to get pictures that I was scanning through the flock more carefully than usual when there it was!

This looks to me like an adult moutling out of breeding plumage (a few brown chevrons visible on the underparts, upperparts still with white-buff fringes, rufous cap)

An interesting size comparison with the strikingly similarly plumaged juvenile Long-toed Stint

Week ending 28th August - IRRI

Another wet week, with more on the way. Despite this a fair bit of migration visible with the first flock of Pacific Golden Plovers, and another couple of Long-toed Stints. On Friday the first Snipe sp. of the autumn, as well as a large flock of Oriental Pratincoles.

Bird of the week however was encountered on Saturday morning, after rain had forced me to cancel my first Makiling excursion of the autumn and we had decided to go and do the weekly shop instead. A Slaty-legged Crake was prancing around in the middle of the road as we came down the back of the mountain, approaching the Calamba road. No camera of course, and the bird didn't hang around long enough anyway, but it enlivened an otherwise dreary day.

Painted Snipe

Long-toed Stint

Pacific Golden Plover

Chestnut Munia

Non-breeding adult and juvenile Oriental Pratincoles

Snipe sp. Looks like it'll be time to put some nets up soon.











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Week ending 14th August - IRRI

A drier week, so I got down to the fields on Wednesday. A few early flocks of Wood Sandpipers, and one small Stint on the main experimental farm. It was quite distant, but the pictures clearly show a Rufous-necked Stint. I decided to try again on Thursday, and found the bird on the same paddy. This time, however, it was a Long-toed Stint! Quite a coincidence seeing as there are at least 100 paddies to choose from, and also considering that neither species has occurred at IRRI in over 18 months!

The rest of the week was sunny, and I managed a few nice shots.

Long-toed Stint. Pale legs and a clearly, albeit only slightly, downcurved bill. Breast fairly heavily streaked, and a clear pale supercilium.

Rufous-necked Stint. Very small, dark legs, straight bill, faded rufous breast band, rudimentary supercilium.

Fan-tailed Cisticola

Wood Sandpiper

Yellow Bittern

Cinnamon Bittern

Juvenile Little Ringed Plover

Pacific Swallow

Spotted Dove

Collared Kingfisher

White-throated Kingfisher

Oriental Skylark

Week ending 31st July - IRRI

Several Tropical Storms/ Typhoons swirling around the Philippines made for a soggy week. I did get down once, and found some Blue-tailed Bee-eaters, as well as a flyby pair of White-bellied Munia, and several small flocks of Wood Sandpipers, but overall a bit of a washout - literally!

Blue-tailed Bee-eater

Tropical Storm Juaning, passing just to the north of us this week