Chasing Lifers: The Pamarawan Sortie

chiwitchronicles
Mar 27, 2022
4 min read

About two or three years ago, I saw a photo of a big flock of Black-tailed Godwits posted on Facebook. Since this bird would be a lifer for me, I messaged the poster and asked for details on how to get there. Nothing concrete came out of the conversation so I ended up nòt going. Fast forward to January 2021, during random chat with Jonet Carpio, he mentioned going birding to a place along the Pampanga River Delta near Malolos. I knew that this was the place with the Godwits and expressed my willingness to go. I organized and scheduled a trip twice and only to cancel it both times. I was finally able to join the February 28 sortie.

Our party included Joel Dayao, Loel Lamela, Liza del Rosario and hubby Nilo, Nelson Sibal (Nel Si in FB), Homer Pialda, Trinity Gatuz, and Bogs Guevara, (who just came from Coron with Henrick Tan and Delio Tolosa, a week earlier). We were supposed to meet Jonet at a McDonald's Guiguinto, along McArthur Highway, (or so we thought). On the evening of the 27th, Loel posted a waze screenshot of said McDo and Joel confirmed it. So that was what I keyed in on waze the following morning.

I took NLEX as directed by waze and exited at Tabang. After I passed through a sort of underpass, I saw a McDo up ahead. I went there but waze was telling me to go someplace else. Not sure what to do, I decided to go drive thru, bought something and asked the girl if this was McDo Guiguinto. She said that this was McDo Tikay, and that the McDo that I was looking for was along McArthur Highway (and gave me directions). As I was exiting the drive thru lane, I saw a white pick-up parked. But I proceeded to the other McDo. After turning right to the highway, I had a nagging feeling that I just came from the correct McDo because Ed Santos, who went three days before, said that it was just near the Tabang exit. So I called Jonet who said he was already at McDo and confirmed that he was in Tikay, made a U-turn and joined Jonet after several minutes. (He was the guy in the white pick-up). The others in the group (except Joel), all headed to McDo Guiguinto and it took another half-hour before we were all complete at Tikay. Then we convoyed to the Panasahan Fishport where we were to board a banca.

We arrived at Panasahan, parked our vehicles with the help of friendly tanods, gathered our gear, took the obligatory selfie, and boarded our banca.

And soon we were off...

There were lots of birds flying about - mostly egrets, herons, and terns. I took out my camera and started snapping some photos.

Whiskered Tern

A juvenile heron, probably Black-crowned

We were treated to a spectacular sunrise. One of the sides benefits of birding is being treated to beautiful sunrise and sunsets.

And get to see some local activity...

After about twenty minutes, we reached Pamarawan, an island village on the Pampanga river.

We docked and transferred to smaller bancas because the bigger boat cannot manage the shallow waters of our final destination. Only two birders per boat and I was paired with Loel.

The Flotilla

Here are some of the images I was able to create on that day:

Kingfisher on a basket - White-collared KF at the Pamarawan port

Black-headed Gull

Upon disembarking, the first two birds we saw were a Little Egret and what looked like a Greenshank. I immediately took photos and sent the Greenshank for ID because the rare Nordman's Greenshank was spotted and photographed in the site by Jonet, a week or so earlier. Sadly, my was only a Common Greenshank.

Little Egret

Common Greenshank

Black-headed Gull chasing a Crested Tern which had fish in its beak

A plover in breeding plumage, most likely a Lesser Sand Plover

We kept looking for the large flock of Godwits and finally spotted them in the distance, maybe a hundred meters away with a wide mudflat in between. We all took insurance shots which were the super duper docu variety. You cannot even properly ID the birds. Then we took ten steps forward then stopped to shoot again. We did this several times and was very challenging because we kept sinking in the mud. At one point I sank almost up to my knees and had to be pulled out by two boatmen. The same thing happened to Joel and most of the rest. We had already walked, maybe thirty meters, and still so far from the birds, when they all took flight, probably spooked by some locals who were nearer to them. And that was our last sighting of the Godwits that day. But the photos confirms that they were indeed Black-tailed Godwits.

Black-tailed Godwits, Lifer # 475; Philippine List # 335; and #3 for 2022

After getting a photo of the Godwits, we all headed back to higher ground and spent the rest of the morning shooting whatever birds remained in the area.

Caspian Terns with a Great Crested Tern in the foreground and most likely a couple of Whiskered Terns

Crested, Whiskered and Little Terns (upper left, and lower middle). Aside from its smaller size, the Little Tern has a yellow bill with a black tip). This is Lifer # 476; Philippine Lifer #336; and # 4 for 2022

Great Crested Terns

Two fighting Little Egrets, a Eurasian Whimbrel, and a Ruddy Turnstone

Whiskered Tern

Grey-tailed Tattler

After shooting the Tattler, my memory card ran out. My bag was left in the boat so I took it as a signal to stop shooting and board the banca already.

On the way back to Panasahan, we saw some birds perched on bamboo poles so I took out my camera and snapped some quick photos.