Mindanao, At Last
Ever since I decided to spend time in the Philippines after my summer work in Ethiopia and my trip to Indonesia, it was pretty obvious that some of that time would be in Mindanao- I certainly wasn't going to be in the country for two and a half weeks without visiting my former home. I unfortunately only had limited time due to work and other commitments, so the main question was where to go. Ultimately, it wasn't a difficult decision: of course I was going back to my old haunts in Senator Ninoy Aquino, still my favorite birding spot in the Philippines and possibly in the world. Shortly after we returned to the Philippines from our trip to Indonesia , I hopped on a flight to General Santos on the morning of August 18. From GenSan, it was a bus ride to Tacurong City, where I met up with some of my old birding friends from Sultan Kudarat then got on the van to SNA. There's unfortunately still no such thing as a "nice" drive to SNA (unless perhaps you have a