Pocdol Time

Philippine Cuckoo-dove, possibly the most common bird of the Pocdol Mountains

We've taken things pretty easy since our epic trip to Tablas; in fact, we've been in Sorsogon ever since, although I'm about to head off on a few more birding adventures this June. This didn't mean we didn't go birding, of course! In fact, while we were in Manila in April I finally managed to find a contact for the geothermal plant up in the Pocdol Mountains, the group of stratovolcanoes in Sorsogon City that represents one of the largest remaining areas of primary rainforest in all of Bicol. I've done most of my forest birding in Sorsogon on the access road up to the geothermal plan, which has led to some very good finds, but for years I'd been hoping to get a look inside to see what birding was like on the inside, where the habitat was protected from hunters and most other disturbances. I managed to gain access through sheer luck- I happened across a biologist on Twitter who was doing bird surveys inside the geothermal plant, and he was kind enough to give me the contact info for the public relations person (thanks Jay!). Funny how social media can work out like that...

As we were waiting for final approval to enter the geothermal plant, Nikki and I did a morning of birding along the public access road. It proved to be a banner morning for fruit-eating birds, with the hagimit vines fruiting all along the road. We had several Cream-bellied Fruit Doves calling along the way, more distant Yellow-breasted Fruit Doves, a couple of very friendly White-eared Brown Doves, and a much-shyer Amethyst Brown Dove. The most common birds, however, were the Guaiaberos, with over a dozen of them festooning any hagimit we happened to find. We stopped by a small river on the way down to look for kingfishers, and while we didn't find any we did see a young Philippine Sailfin Lizard basking by the side of the water.

Cream-bellied Fruit Dove

White-eared Brown Dove

Guaiabero, one of the cutest Philippine endemics

Philippine Sailfin Lizard

Decorative Vleispider (Leucauge decorata)

Risiocnemis serrata, a beautiful endemic damselfly

Some kind of unknown hemiptera bug

Therates coracinus, an endemic tiger beetle

Sunrise over Sorsogon Bay as seen from the access road

Finally, we heard back from EDC Bac-Man, the company running the geothermal site, and got approval to visit for two mornings. Our first morning we planned to meet Neil, our contact in the plant and the required minder for our visit, at 5AM at the gate. We were delayed on the way up by torrential rains, which had me worried about the general success of our visit, but arrived around 5:30 along with a break in the rain. After putting on the required hard hats and reflective vests (not exactly ideal birding gear!), we headed to the far side of the mountains, far from the active plants and in the middle of some very nice forest. The drive there took us along twisty but very well-maintained mountain roads, where I managed to catch a glimpse of several Philippine Cuckoo-doves and a family of Red Junglefowl, which was a new Sorsogon bird for me. Finally we got out in an open clearing in the forest right after sunrise, with a few fog-covered extinct volcanoes looming over us.

Our first stop in the mountains

Things were rather quiet in the clearing, perhaps because of the heavy rain earlier, although I did hear a Plain Bush-hen growling from inside the deep undergrowth. We began walking uphill through some beautiful forest, and were treated to the Classic Luzon Birding Experience: being in the middle of absolutely pristine, lush, tropical forest with virtually zero birds around. Perhaps it was just an unusually quiet morning, but it was almost eery seeing as little birdlife as we did considering how well-preserved the habitat was. As far as I know the area is off-limits to hunters (and any other civilian), so the birds should be around in higher densities, but they just... weren't. Again, perhaps just a quiet day and I hope to return to this area soon to get more data, but also a little discouraging as someone who wants to be able to brag about the local birding areas in my favorite province.

This beautiful rainforest scene contains precisely 0 birds

That's not to say that it was completely devoid of birds, however. We had good looks at a pair of Sulphur-billed Nuthatches feeding in an agoho pine tree, and several Guaiaberos were once again flying back and forth over the road. A fruiting hagimit held a Cream-bellied Fruit Dove and a couple of Bicolored Flowerpeckers, and I had good looks at a female Flaming Sunbird and a few Yellowish White-eyes. More intriguing were the heard-only birds: a strange, unknown whistling sound that I managed to record but none of the expert birders online were able to ID with certainty- possibly either a White-lored Oriole or a Black-bibbed Cuckooshrike, either of which would be a mega bird for Sorsogon. Further up the road we heard (or rather Nikki heard- I almost missed it thanks to my cursed hearing loss) a pair of Bicol Ground Warblers, one of my most-wanted birds for Sorsogon and the first eBird record for the province despite the fact it has sorsogonensis as the second part of its binomial. I may have even heard a Whiskered Pitta calling from above us, though I wasn't confident enough to put it on my list.

Sulphur-billed Nuthatch

Guaiabero

Female Flaming Sunbird- sadly not nearly as flashy as the male

Xanthoneura telesinus, an endemic skipper butterfly

Some kind of ground orchid (spathoglotis sp.)

The very impressive Botong Twin Falls

The road narrowed and habitat got a little spotty by the time we reached the Twin Falls, so we decided to continue upwards to another spot. When we got up to a higher-elevation pass, I decided to get out of the car again and walk around to look for some high-altitude birds. This proved to be a very good decision, as we almost immediately happened upon a small flock of Chestnut-faced Babblers, a Luzon mountain endemic, and not only that but the Bicol-endemic sorsogonensis subspecies (another new sorsogonensis for the Sorsogon eBird list). A bit further along the road there was a calling White-browed Shortwing, also a Bicol-endemic subspecies. This bird shocked me by doing perfect imitations of several other bird calls- the first time I've ever heard a shortwing doing imitations before, and a behavior I haven't found any mention of anywhere else online. I sadly missed a picture of the shortwing, but we were able to photograph a noisy Rusty-breasted Cuckoo in the same area. We also heard the grunting of a small group of Philippine Warty Pigs in the undergrowth, though we never saw them.

The Bicol-endemic sorsogonensis subspecies of Chestnut-faced Babbler

Rusty-breasted Cuckoo

The mountain forests of Sorsogon

A bit further along I saw a huge cloud of black-winged shapes rising above me, which turned out to be the local colony of flying foxes that had gotten spooked by a raptor. Unfortunately by the time we got to the main viewpoint for the colony they had settled down so I only got distant views and mediocre pictures, but it was still a very good record, and two new mammal species for me in Sorsogon- Golden-crowned Flying Fox and Large Flying Fox.

This is a Large Flying Fox I believe

Roosting flying foxes

A rather bedraggled White-eared Brown Dove

Nepenthes gracilifloris, an endemic pitcher plant

The view over the flying fox colony

On the way out of the geothermal plant we stopped for a nice mixed flock of birds, with Blue-headed Fantails, Yellowish White-eyes, Lemon-throated Leaf Warblers, and Elegant Tits. We also got good looks at a couple of Grey-backed Tailorbirds, frequently heard but rarely seen. We ended the morning with 50 species at the new site, a respectable total for unfamiliar territory and forest birding in the Philippines in general. 

Grey-backed Tailorbird

Luzon Grass Dart

Our next visit was later that week, and it also got off to a later-than-hoped start as we had to get everything in order with our minder and the paperwork. We started off on an abandoned dirt road in the western part of the geothermal plant, which began promisingly with a couple of Oriental Dollarbirds flying overhead and a pair of Luzon Hornbills in a distant tree. Unfortunately it quieted down quite quickly, and there wasn't much calling or singing besides Philippine Cuckoo-doves, which are by far the most common bird within the geothermal plant. The road also got suddenly and unexpectedly muddy before we could get too far, so we decided to just turn around and try a new spot.

Oriental Dollarbird, the only roller in the Philippines

Yellow-banded Awl

Our next stop wasn't much more successful- we tried walking along the highest-elevation stretch of road in the plant in search of more mountain endemics, but it was windy and quiet. We did see another flock of Chestnut-faced Babblers and hear a Slaty-legged Crake, which was a new Sorsogon bird for me. There were also, once again, many many Philippine Cuckoo-doves around; probably the highest density of this species I've seen anywhere. 

Chestnut-faced Babbler

Philippine Cuckoo-dove

Medinilla mindorensis, an endemic flowering shrub

Our final stop was the lower part of the geothermal plant, near the border between Sorsogon and Albay. We got out of the car to look at the Inang Maharang lake ("inang maharang" literally means "spicy mama" in Bikol), a set of fumarolic pools that's one of the coolest local natural sights, albeit slightly spoiled by the locals cooking chickens in the boiling water. 

We then walked a bit along a little dirt road that went along the edge of the forest, outside the boundaries of the geothermal plant in a publicly-accessible area. Despite being theoretically the worst habitat this proved to be the birdiest area we visited, with quite a bit of activity. We got good looks at a Scale-feathered Malkoha and a pair of Brown-breasted Kingfishers, and there were some smaller birds like Flaming Sunbirds and Buzzing Flowerpeckers around, with a Philippine Serpent Eagle flying overhead and a Yellow-breasted Fruit Dove calling from up the hill. We wandered around there for a half hour or so, although we were told not to go too far due to the danger of toxic volcanic gases!

Brown-breasted Kingfishers

Scale-feathered Malkoha

White-eared Brown Dove

Spotted Dove

Philippine Serpent-eagle

Calomera lacrymosa, a beautiful endemic tiger beetle

Some kind of hoverfly (Ligyra sp.)

Crimson-tailed Marsh Hawk (dragonfly lifer!)

Common Evening Brown

Red Glider (another dragonfly lifer!)

Chalky Percher

The morning ended all too soon, and left me feeling like I still had a bunch of the geothermal plant to see. At something like 25,000 hectares it's a huge area of primary forest, and I very much hope to return soon to continue to document its birdlife. 

I'd thought that that morning would be our last in the mountains for a while, but it turns out that the very next day I was up there again! Fellow birder Ramon Quisumbing was visiting Legazpi and wanted to explore the Bac-Man access road, so I joined the next morning to show him around. After some rain showers, the morning started with a Cream-bellied Fruit Dove by the side of the road, as well as Buzzing Flowerpeckers and Orange-bellied Flowerpeckers feeding on the hagimit fruits. I've mentioned this before but it's amazing that Cream-bellied Fruit Dove has gone from being one of the most difficult Luzon endemic birds to one that I can see every single time I try for it just a 30-minute drive from my house!

Cream-bellied Fruit Dove

Orange-bellied Flowerpecker

Juvenile Buzzing Flowerpecker

White-eared Brown Dove

Bastilla joviana, a widespread Asian erebid moth

Some kind of endemic pygmy grasshopper (Misythus sp.)

Decorative Vleispider

Up at the top of the road, we sat and waited for a while to see if the local Purple Needletails would make an appearance. They never did, but it was a good excuse to practice swiflet photography and, later on, swiftlet ID. In Luzon swiftlets at lower elevations are supposedly Grey-rumped Swiftlets while swiftlets at high elevation are Ridgetop Swiftlets, which don't have grey rumps. I've seen a couple of likely Ridgetop Swiflets in these mountains before, but I've also realized that Grey-rumped Swiftlets, especially at higher elevations, seem to have varying degrees of grey on their rumps anyway. I wonder if it's just individual variation, or perhaps clinal variation between Grey-rumped and Ridgetop. Either way I'm honestly not particularly convinced that they really are two species, rather than just one lumped Glossy Swiftlet like they used to be.

I assume this is a "grey-rumped" type swiftlet due to the few white-edged feathers on the rump, but it's somewhat less distinct than others I've seen there.

Here's a more typical grey-rumped, with a very defined band of grey feathers

Another rather dark-rumped bird

It was also a good vantage point to look for raptors, and we had some close fly-bys from a Brahminy Kite and an Oriental Honey-buzzard.

Brahminy Kite, the commonest raptor in the Philippines but definitely a stunner

Oriental Honey-buzzard, for some reason the most common raptor in the Pocdol Mountains

The May that followed was a rather quiet month, but I expect I'll be out with another blog post or two about it soon before moving on to more exciting journeys. Good old summer in the Philippines!