Subdivision Surprises

July was a period of hectic and exhausting travel for me: after my epic trip through Mindanao, I returned to Luzon, where I spent a week working in the province of La Union. I had no time to do any proper birding there (sadly- lots of spots that seem as if they'd have potential), but I did have a free morning the following weekend, when Nikki was also going to be in Manila. News in the Philippines birding network travels fast, and soon birding friend Gwen invited us to join her and others on a trip up to the Palo Alto subdivision in Rizal province, an hour or so away from Manila.

The word "subdivision" doesn't usually conjure up images of amazing birdwatching sites, but as it turns out Palo Alto is still very much in the beginning stages of construction, which means there's vast amounts of empty land in the foothills of the Sierra Madre mountains where houses will eventually be put in, but for now is some decent forest edge and open country bird habitat. Not the most uplifting place to bird in, but then again few birding sites in the Philippines are all that uplifting. Most interesting for me was that Palo Alto is one of the best-known sites for Savannah Nightjar, a bird I've seen before in Indonesia, but never in the Philippines. It's damn difficult these days for me to get a new bird for the Philippines so that was reason enough to want to visit, but more importantly some recent research has suggested splitting the Savannah Nightjars in Luzon as a separate species, which means eventually it may be yet another Philippine endemic.

Gwen picked us up from our hotel in Quezon City very early in the morning of the 24th, and drove us to BGC, where we met up with Ravi and carpooled out to Palo Alto. At the entrance, we met with Bambi (who had joined us in our last trip to Rizal along with Gwen and Ravi), along with Helen and her young nephew Caleb, one of precious few properly young birders in the Philippines. We arrived right about at sunrise and the bird activity was starting, most notably with a nice group of Whiskered Treeswifts perched on the wires and occasionally flying around and even mating. Treeswifts are one of my favorite "common" birds in the Philippines so it was great to watch them from up close for a while.

Whiskered Treeswifts doing their thing

Further into the subdivision Bambi was the first to hear a calling Philippine Pitta (Gwen's nemesis bird!), which unfortunately stayed deep inside the forest as they usually do. Hooded Pittas were calling as well, though we didn't put as much effort into seeing them. Near a little waterfall we had a tree full of Luzon Hornbills, always nice to see again after time away from Luzon. As the others went off to find different birds, Nikki spotted a little bird foraging on the ground which she was able to point out to me just as it flew back into the woods. It eventually flew out and I realized what it was- an Ashy Thrush! The only endemic thrush in the Philippines and a gorgeous little bird, these are very rarely seen outside of La Mesa Ecopark in Manila, so it was great to catch up with it again. We were eventually able to get the others on the bird as it skulked in the deep forest. This proved to be the first record for the subdivision, and the bird has been hanging out since then which is great as La Mesa has been rather difficult to access lately.

Female Luzon Hornbill

Male Luzon Hornbill

Ashy Thrush!

We got back into the car to head to a different part of the subdivision, but stopped suddenly for a Plain Bush-hen crossing the road, giving unusually good views. It was my first time getting relatively good pictures of this secretive endemic, and Nikki's first time seeing it properly, so we were all happy about that. In the same spot we had a very aggressively-singing young male Black-naped Monarch and a nice perched male Pied Bush-chat.

Plain Bush-hen

A rather ratty-looking Black-naped Monarch

Pied Bush-chat

The farthest bit of the subdivision from the entrance went along a ridgeline with a decent view of the Sierra Madre foothills. There were still lots of birds around when we arrived, though apparently much of the area is better during migration season when it tends to collect vagrant birds. There were lots of Red-keeled Flowerpeckers and a surprise Bicolored Flowerpecker, and all three species of resident munia were around- Chestnut Munia, Scaly-breasted Munia, and White-bellied Munia. Whiskered Treeswifts and Pygmy Swiftlets were flying around close enough I was able to attempt some flight pictures, and Philippine Coucals and White-browed Shamas called from the deep foliage, as always difficult to see. 

Juvenile Red-keeled Flowerpecker

Scaly-breasted Munias

Whiskered Treeswift

Pygmy Swiftlet

Philippine Coucal

Birding in the Palo Alto subdivision

We drove back to the center of the subdivision mid-morning so that we could search for the Savanna Nightjar, my main target for the day. The local nightjars roost in their favorite type of habitat: bare dirt ground, where they can blend in perfectly. In Palo Alto, this means an area next to a stream that had probably once been cleared of vegetation but to build a house, but has since been more or less left alone as apparently not that many people want to buy houses a 2-hour drive from Manila. The nightjar area has become somewhat overgrown as of late, which makes finding the nightjars even more difficult than it would be otherwise. Some photographers appeared to have planted flags nearby the exact roosting spots (since apparently they always return to the same patch of dirt to sleep), but this time there was nothing to be found in the usual spots. 

I wasn't about to come all this way just to not see a potential addition to my Philippines list, so I set out walking around a different bit of dirt in hopes of stumbling across a nightjar. Surprisingly enough, it worked: as I scanned with my binoculars I suddenly happened upon a Savanna Nightjar sitting motionless on the ground. Annoyingly enough it flushed as soon as we made eye contact, and the others only saw it flying away from us into deeper brush. Still, I was selfishly pleased to get a new Philippines tick, which is extremely difficult for me these days. Hopefully it will someday be a proper lifer if the recommended split is accepted by the checklist gods, and yet another good Philippine endemic.

Prime nightjar habitat, apparently

We continued birding for another hour or so, but didn't see much as it began to heat up. We did get a good look at a Lesser Coucal by the side of the road, an uncommon resident that's always nice to see. Ravi and others saw a surprise Striped Flowerpecker as part of a mixed flock near where we had seen the Ashy Thrush, and I saw a female Grey-throated Sunbird, which was a nice addition to the site list. Eventually things got too hot and we made our way back to Manila, braving the weekend traffic.

Lesser Coucal

White Tiger

The subdivision birding area

   

It was a great little morning session with old and new birding companions, and I'll look forward to returning there in the fall and winter when the migratory birds go through. After that birding we returned to Manila, then headed back to Sorsogon where we promptly caught Covid and had to isolate inside for weeks. I've had many, many adventures since then (which are still ongoing), but that will be for the next blog post when I get some time to edit pictures and write things up.