The spoon-billed sandpiper (Calidris pygmaea) is a small wader which breeds on the coasts of the Bering Sea and winters in Southeast Asia. This species is highly threatened, and it is said that since the 1970s the breeding population has decreased significantly. By 2000, the estimated breeding population of the species was 350–500. (wikipedia)
Desmond Allen's book lists this bird as a potential vagrant. Which means that at the time the book was written (2020?), there was no recorded sighting in the Philippines. Last March 7, Bob Natural made history by being the first to positively spot this bird in the Philippines. He and his companions saw it at the mudflats of Balanga, Bataan. I was still in Coron at that time and would be there until March 22nd so I wasn't very hopeful of seeing this bird, much less photographing it. But by March 21st, the bird was still around so on March 23rd, I went to Balanga with a group composed of Ed Santos, Steve Albano, Ramon Quisumbing, Floyd Bermejo, and Albert and Dahlia Abadicio.
I met with Albert and Dahlia at the McDonald's at Centris where a group of birders from WBCP also converged. The Abadicio's and I then met up with the rest of the WBPP contingent at the Total station along NLEX. After a quick breakfast (peppered by the usual WBPP wisecracks), we all convoyed to Balanga. There were probably twenty five birders at the mudflats that day. And it was nice to see three familiar faces namely Cel Tungol, Bambi Martinez, and Ravi Iyengar. The large number of birders also meant more eyes to search, giving us all a better chance of seeing our target bird.
The firing line, cameras and scopes positioned
I was warned by Maia Tanedo that the distance between birder and target bird will be far. That it is almost impossible to spot the bird using a camera or binoculars. A spotting scope is more ideal. So I brought along my seldom used spotting scope, binoculars, and of course, my camera. We also borrowed a scope from Djop Tabaranza for Ed to use. . True enough, the distance, the heat haze, and its color (white/brown/grey), made it very difficult to spot. It is also a rather small bird unlike the more famous "kutsara", the Black-faced Spoonbill, which is a large bird.
After more than an hour of searching and scanning the mudflats, Bambi Martinez was the first to spot the bird for this day. Soon others were able to see it in their scopes. Ramon was even able to get one photo. But I had no such luck. I just couldn't find it in my scope or binoculars. I just kept shooting with the hope that I will get lucky but nada... I had almost given up seeing it until Capt Floyd gave a shout, "yay, spoonbill!". He saw it through his 800mm lens (w/tc). Though we were tracking it for maybe thirty (or more) minutes, the bird was in constant motion and all I could manage was a very poor docu shot. I have seen the photos of my fellow photographers and I will be the first to admit that my shot is the worst of the bunch.
Normally, I will not post photos as blurred as these, (not even when I was a newbie), much less write a blogpost about it. BUT it is a highly endangered species and it is the first official sighting in the Philippines, so I consider it a MEGA Lifer, and my first for 2024! Hence this blogpost to mark the milestone. Who knows if I will ever see it again here? Thank you Lord for this opportunity!
The group hug just before we boarded our bancas for the short trip back to the Balanga Wetland Park
The celebratory lunch. Salamat Capt Floyd!!!
And as with any WBPP sortie, there was an abundance of jokes and wisecracks which make birding always fun. Till the next sortie!
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