Sorsogon, briefly

 

Spotted Wood Kingfisher is always a crowd pleaser

Following my amazing trip to Cambodia, I returned to Manila and then very quickly to my home in Sorsogon. Even as soon as I got home I was already planning to leave again, as I knew I had a trip to Manila the following week. Still, it was peak migration season in the Philippines, so I tried to squeeze in as much birding as possible, continuing my project to document as many bird species as possible in my grievously underbirded province. 

The first stop was to the Cabid-an fishponds just a few minutes from my house, my go-to spot for when I want to go birding but don't have a lot of time to do it. Nikki came along with me and we managed a decent list, the best of which was a small flock of Garganeys flying overhead, a nice uncommon migrant for this area. There were also some great views of the sunset.

Male and female Garganey

Sunset over the fishponds

The weekend of March 26, we finally managed to return to Bulusan Lake, the OG birding destination in Sorsogon (and one of the only spots that's been well-traveled by birders other than Nikki and I). Nikki and her cousin Vitto had been there the previous weekend and gotten some great records, so I was excited to finally be there. The lake had been closed since the start of the pandemic, ostensibly for renovations and safety reasons, and I'd been itching to return ever since. The spot holds sentimental value for me, as it was the first place I ever blogged about birding in the Philippines, as well as where I got some of my favorite lifers, including Luzon Bleeding-heart, Philippine Trogon, and Spotted Wood-kingfisher. 

We arranged with the guide to meet a half hour before sunrise, which meant leaving from Sorsogon City at 4:30 in the morning. Vitto drove Nikki and I, and we were joined by our new birding friend Celine and her photographer husband Dennis in their camper van. Our guide kuya Noel was waiting for us at the parking lot while we arrived, and I was able to add calling Luzon Hawk-owl to our Bulusan list as we waited for everyone to arrive. Kuya Noel had guided us before and has practically supernatural bird-spotting skills, despite the fact he doesn't use binoculars- I assume there's about a 110% chance he was a hunter before he started birding guiding. 

The new Bulusan Volcano Natural Park rules required us to park at the visitor's center and walk up to the lake, which is fine because the road went through some very nice forest. It was still dark when we started walking, and we heard a Philippine Scops-owl which I unfortunately missed getting a picture of. Just as the dawn chorus started, a new chorus came in to drown it out- hundreds of cicadas screaming at the top of their lungs, one of the most annoying birding nuisances. We could barely hear anything with all the cicadas, meaning that we probably missed out on some good birding during the peak hours. We did hear a Cream-bellied Fruit Dove calling near the road, and got a decent look at a Stripe-headed Rhabdornis perched at the top of a tree.

Stripe-headed Rhabdornis

At the lake, there was as usual a cloud over Mount Bulusan, but there were a few birds around, including a Rufous Night Heron and a Striated Heron in the lake, and a noisy flock of Balicassiao that didn't feel like posing in the open for a picture. My favorite was a huge Palm King butterfly in an undescribed endemic screw pine vine. 

Bulusan Lake

Palm King in an undescribed Freycinetia vine

We started on the trail along the lake, and our string of good but frustratingly heard-only birds continued; we heard Cream-bellied Fruit Dove and Yellow-breasted Fruit Dove calling but never managed to get a good view, while a pair of calling Philippine Trogons proved to be unusually skittish. A small flock of Amethyst Brown Doves was calling and I was able to tempt one in for a record shot. Further along the trail we ran into another pair of Philippine Trogons and after a great deal of effort we were able to get good looks at a female perched in horrible light. Philippine Fairy-bluebirds and a Philippine Pygmy-woodpecker were calling but we never got a proper view of them. I consoled myself by getting pictures of the cool bugs and lizards in the area.

Amethyst Brown Dove

Female Philippine Trogon

Aplosonyx philippensis, a nice endemic beetle

Jagor's Sphenomorphus, a cute Luzon-endemic skink

Some kind of little jumping spider

A beautiful Callidula butterfly-moth

Some kind of cup-shaped fungus (Cookeina sp.)

Frustrations continued when we flushed a Luzon Bleeding-heart off the path- the third time I've seen one at the lake, suggesting they're really rather common in the area. It responded to playback but never came back into view. A little further along Noel managed to spot a male Spotted Wood Kingfisher perched silently in the deep foliage. It flew off as soon as he pointed it out to us, but I was able to tempt it back in, where it perched for a good 5 minutes calling- definitely one of my favorite Luzon endemic birds. 

Male Spotted Wood Kingfisher

There were some more birds as we finished the trail around Bulusan Lake, including a calling Flaming Sunbird, a few more kingfishers and trogons we never laid eyes on, and a relatively bold Balicassiao. As we walked back to the parking lot I managed to get a good look at a Yellow-wattled Bulbul as it passed across the road. We ended the morning with 40 species, which is decent but not great for forest birding in Luzon. I suspect that the noisy cicadas and time of year may have had something to do with it, but I'll certainly have to be back at some point, if nothing else to get better pictures. Especially since Celine had the nerve to return the next day and get a photograph of Luzon Bleeding-heart! Very impressive, but also extremely gripping.

Balicassiao

Yellow-wattled Bulbul

Some kind of colorful endemic weevil (Pachyrhynchus sp.?)

Some kind of Falcerminthus cricket, probably a new species as apparently this has never been recorded in the Philippines before

Some kind of robberfly with a small wasp

Diacamma viridipurpureum, a very large endemic ant

Some kind of impressive assassin bug

Gymnogyplax walkeri, an endemic froghopper- interestingly enough there are only 3 records of this on iNaturalist and they're all mine

Faun (Faunis phaon)

Commander (Moduza urdaneta)

Some kind of leaf insect (Phyllium sp.)

On March 28 I headed to the Buhatan Fishponds (the #1 hotspot in Sorsogon species-wise) and had an enjoyable morning with some good species. Philippine Ducks and Wandering Whistling Ducks were flying overhead in good numbers but I never saw them landed- typical for this site which unfortunately is also a popular spot for the local hunters. I had surprise open views of a distant but still very impressive adult male Watercock, and later much closer views of the much drabber female. White-breasted Woodswallows were always fun to watch, as were the noisy Clamorous Reed Warblers. Oriental Reed Warblers and a couple of Middendorff's Grasshopper-warblers were nice migratory additions to my year list.

Philippine Duck

Wandering Whistling Duck- this one was missing some wing feathers, maybe from a close call with a predator

Male Watercock

Female Watercock

White-breasted Woodswallow

Clamorous Reed Warbler

Lowland White-eye

Philippine Brown Shrike

Wandering Pennant

Brown Pansy

Kolla suturella, an endemic leafhopper

Some kind of sharpshooter (Cicadellinae sp.)

The morning was only slightly ruined by me sinking almost up to my thighs in mud on the way back to my bike, which seems to happen every time I visit there. Sometime I'll learn to just stick to the usual paths, but apparently not this time. 

After that I had just another day at home, and then it was back to Manila where I had a 2-week work trip. Never a dull moment this year!