The March Bird Tours

The gradual easing up of travel requirements coupled with the success of our February Bird tour prompted several inquires. Out of these, two trips materialized - a group of seven from WBPP (5 birders and 2 wives) followed by a solo birder a day later. The first group was composed of Ed Santos, Homer Pialda, Trinity Gatuz, Joel and Gemma Dayao, and Loel and Tinette Lamela, all of whom are friends and somewhat frequent birding companions when I am in Manila. Everybody knew everyone else so it was a jolly and sometimes boisterous sortie, full of jokes and wisecracks, a trademark of most WBPP sorties. First stop was Capayas Creek Kingfisher Preserve, unquestionably the premier birding site in the Calamianes.

Here are some photos showing this group in action:

The obligatory "group hug". Photo courtesy of Ed Santos

At the welcome dinner at Darayonan...

After dinner, Loel shared some of his post processing methods...

On Day 3, the group toured Coron Island...

Anong kinukunan mo pre...

By my count, the bird list for this trip totaled 30 species, which is what one can expect from three days birding in Coron. Here are some of the photos that I took during this sortie.

Some of the birds at Capayas....

Blue-eared Kingfisher

Rufous-backed Kingfisher

Ruddy Kingfisher

Ashy-fronted Bulbul, Tabeleklek in Cuyonon, endemic to Palawan

Palawan Flowerpecker, male, endemic to Palawan

Spot-throated Flameback, male, endemic to Palawan

Blue-headed Racquet Tail parrot, male, endemic to Palawan

Palawan Drongo, Chichibiao and Tambeliligaw in Cuyonon, endemic to Palawan

White-vented Shama, Saya-saya in Cuyonon, endemic to Palawan

Black-chinned Fruit Doves, male, Punay in Cuyonon

During the island hopping, we saw the White-bellied Sea Eagle, Pacific Reef Egrets and a Little Heron. And on their last day in Coron, I brought them to one of my roadside birding spots hoping that we will something that we have not yet seen. Fortunately, the birding gods were with us that morning. We were able to photograph a juvenile Plaintive Cuckoo (Loel's target), a couple of Green Imperial Pigeons, a couple of Hill Mynas, a male/female pair of Palawan Fairy Blue Birds, a very friendly Philippine Duck (three of them actually), and a Crested Goshawk as our farewell bird.

A friendly Philippine Duck, endemic to the Philippines

Crested Goshawk in flight

All in all a very fruitful and fun-filled trip.

Two days later, I was back in Capayas with Randy Ladaga who was going to do a three day solo birding trip. Here he is in action on the first day of his bird tour.

The Capayas bird list of Randy's tour was practically the same as the previous group. I was not able to bird with him all three days because I had meetings to attend to. Nevertheless, it was also a fruitful trip based on the report of Erwin, the resident birdguide of Capayas Creek Kingfisher Preserve.

Thank you Lord for these fun-filled trips. Till the next birding tour!