Census Time

 

Flush from the success of our trip to Thailand, Nikki and I returned to Sorsogon on January 4, and I promptly stopped birding almost completely. This was mostly due to a mix of being burnt out from lots of birding travel and needing to attend to work and other hobbies, but also because January is simply the worst month for birding in Sorsogon. True, the migratory birds are here, but the weather conspires to make going outside absolutely miserable; intermittent rains that go from a light drizzle to a torrential downpour at a moment's notice, coupled with virtually nonstop wind that ranges from a stiff breeze to gale-force gusts, also changing at the drop of a hat. It's the sort of thing that makes venturing outside a risky venture that's almost guaranteed to turn miserable if you're out for too long. 

The only exception was actually to do some contributions to citizen science, more meaningful than my usual daily backyard eBird lists. Despite being risky weather, January is also the chosen month for the Asian Waterbird Census, an international collaborative effort managed by Wetlands International where countries all over Asia do counts of migratory waterbirds in the winter in order to monitor species numbers and density. In the Philippines the AWC is managed by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, with the support of the Wild Bird Club of the Philippines, of which I'm a member. 

Being one of the only WBCP members in the Bicol Region, I felt it behooved me to assist with the AWC this year. Thankfully I'm friends with a few people at the regional DENR office, and one of them, Cyrus, was nice enough to put me in touch with the relevant people to coordinate joining the AWCs in Sorsogon and Camarines Sur provinces. Although my home province of Sorsogon is rude enough to lie outside of the main shorebird migration routes in the Philippines, there is nonetheless an abundance of good habitat, and some very interesting birds are sometimes recorded. Thus, I was excited to see what we could find, despite the inevitable bad weather. I even went so far as to rent a car for the weekend, since getting between Sorsogon and Camarines Sur with a camera and spotting scope is no easy task.

The first census I participated in was on January 11, in the Preto Diaz wetlands in northeastern Sorsogon, along with the Sorsogon DENR. Nikki and I had stopped by the area in the past and not seen a huge amount, but the DENR had found some good records in years past, including, grippingly, a Great Cormorant. I met up with the Sorsogon DENR team early in the morning near my house, and we drove in a convoy to the fishponds in Preto Diaz. We arrived around 7AM, and were greeted with typically cheery Sorsogon January weather: blowing winds and intermittent rain. There were a few birds around, though nothing amazing; lots of the usual Brown Shrikes and Chestnut Munias, as well as a few shorebirds like Kentish Plovers, Lesser Sand Plovers, Red-necked Stints, Common Sandpipers, and Common Greenshanks. The most numerous birds were a gaggle of very bedraggled egrets of various kinds huddled in the rain. 

Brown Shrike

Chestnut Munias

Common Sandpiper

Some miserable-looking egrets

Kentish Plovers

We ventured out into the fishponds to look for more birds, and were rewarded for our troubles with driving rain and wind gusts that turned umbrellas inside-out and left us thoroughly soaked. On the other hand, we did get a small group of migratory Tufted Ducks, the sort of bird the AWC is meant to record.

Tufted Ducks

Censusing in the fishponds

We finished at the fishponds with a respectable 38 species of bird, including 18 that could conceivably be considered waterbirds. The next and final stop was on the coast, where we had a view of the mangrove islands off the shore of Preto Diaz town. The offshore islands are home to an impressive bit of mangrove habitat with some decent birds, but apparently the boat ride is a bit scary so an official decision was made to just look from shore. Using my scope I was able to pick up Philippine Ducks and a few Northern Shovelers flying around over the mangroves, as well as a Common Sandpiper in the nearby fishing boats and a flyby from a Whimbrel. We finished up the morning of census with a very tasty breakfast provided by the DENR, which I enjoyed along with a very friendly cat. 

Common Sandpiper

The edge of the Preto Diaz mangroves

My new friend

That completed the Sorsogon AWC, but that meant that I still had to head north to Camarines Sur for the next day's census work. After stopping at home for lunch and packing, I started the drive up to CamSur. There was still some daylight left, so I decided to stop by the famous mudflats in Donsol, which have a reputation for turning up some truly spicy rarities. I got there as the tide was rising just high enough to crowd all the shorebirds onto the small remaining sandbars, ideal counting conditions. Alas, there were no rarities around that I could pick up, just lots of Red-necked Stints and Kentish Plovers foraging on the trash-strewn coastline. I diligently checked the big roosting flock of Great Crested Terns, but annoyingly enough none of them had the dignity to turn into Chinese Crested Terns. 

Lesser Sand Plovers and some trash

Kentish Plover

Mostly Kentish Plovers in flight

Black-headed Gull

Great Crested Terns and Black-headed Gulls

From Donsol it was another three hours of driving to Naga City in CamSur, where I spent the night. My hotel was nice but I didn't get much time to enjoy it, as I was out at 3:45 the next morning to meet up with the DENR CamSur team to head to the Cabusao Wetlands Critical Habitat, the site of the day's census. I'd actually been to Cabusao before back in 2018, and was impressed at how well-managed the habitat and bird protection measures were, despite being so close to several population centers. I still maintain it's up there with the best-managed wetland sites in the Philippines (although, sadly, there's not a great deal of competition). 

I picked up Cyrus in Naga and we made the 90-minute drive to Cabusao along with the DENR convoy. It was just before sunrise when we arrived at the little town of Barcelonita near the wetland reserve, the site of an egret roost. We started counting egrets as they started flying out of the roost at sunrise- first in ones, then in fives, then finally in 20s as the egrets began streaming out. It was tough to count, and would have been easier if we had clickers (note to DENR staff reading this: I recommend purchasing clickers for more accurate bird counts in the future), but we ended up with almost 1500 egrets, mostly a mix of Cattle Egrets, Little Egrets, and Intermediate Egrets. There were lots of Whiskered Terns and Black-headed Gulls flying around offshore, and the famous duck roost of Cabusao was barely visible just along the coast. As we hung by to scope for more ducks, Cyrus and I saw a tiny bat of some sort land on a mangrove tree right in front of us and clamber into a crack in the tree- very cool, although frustrating as apparently it can't be IDed even with reasonably clear pictures. Yet another reason birding is superior to mammal-watching!

Black-headed Gull

Some kind of tiny vesper bat (vespertilioninae sp.)

The coast of Barcelonita

With the egrets counted, we headed to the headquarters of the Cabusao Wetlands Critical Habitat just a bit outside Barcelonita. Things started out with a bang: as we were getting out of the car, Cyrus and I saw a female Pied Harrier hovering over the nearby ricefields, a lifer for him and a new Philippines bird for me! We watched it cruise over the rice fields looking for mice and rats, then headed to the headquarters for the introductory info sessions. 

Pied Harrier!

Info session finished, we headed along the well-maintained wetland path of Cabusao until we arrived at the coast (there is an observation tower as well, but it's become surrounded by trees and now provides a view only of mangrove leaves). Unfortunately it was high tide, so Cabusao's excellent shorebird diversity wasn't much on display. On the other hand, it meant that the duck flocks were on display, and really they're the star of the show: Cabusao plays host to thousands of migratory ducks, mostly Northern Shovelers, Garganeys, and Tufted Ducks, during the wintertime, a truly amazing natural spectacle in a country where ducks are generally hunted and trapped into scarcity or extirpation. This is thanks to the strict enforcement of anti-hunting regulations by the local government, a really great example of what can be done by local actors. We got to enjoy lots of ducks, egrets, and other birds flying by in the rising sun, tallying numbers as we went. 

Garganey

Northern Shoveler

Intermediate Egret

Great Egret- a nice comparison showing the differences with Intermediate Egret

Rock Pigeons

Paper Kite (Idea leuconoe)

The coast of Cabusao

Perhaps one of the nicest street dogs I've ever met!

Back at the headquarters, we had a properly sumptuous breakfast (volunteering with official activities in the Philippines means you're guaranteed to be well-fed in the process), and got to play with the extremely friendly local street dog. As it was high tide, we then set out to explore the surrounding rice fields to look for shorebirds. As we set out we noticed a displaying Oriental Skylark high above us, along with lots of the usual Golden-bellied Gerygones. The first fields we stopped at had little but lots of Whiskered Terns and egrets of various type. When we finally spotted the roosting shorebirds, it was in very distant rice fields that were inaccessible from the road; I was only able to identify Common Greenshanks, Common Redshanks, and Wood Sandpipers by their call. Another field had a few more species, including some Marsh Sandpipers, but more interestingly I spotted a distant cobra swimming through the puddles! It was a bit too far to identify, though it was probably a Philippine Cobra (Naja philippensis). The final rice field we stopped at had almost 1500 roosting Black-winged Stilts.

Oriental Skylark

Whiskered Tern

Cattle Egrets, Little Egrets, and Intermediate Egrets- another nice comparison

Cobra!

Black-winged Stilts

We returned to the headquarters to eat lunch, and while most of the others were resting I decided to head out to the coast again with my scope as the tide was receding, in order to see if there any interesting shorebirds. The only shorebirds were some Lesser Sand Plovers and Kentish Plovers, but there were lots of ducks up and roosting on the exposed mudflats, and even more out to sea. As I was scoping I happened upon the best bird of the day- a pair of Greater Scaups floating around with the expected Tufted Ducks! Greater Scaup is an extremely rare vagrant to the Philippines, in part because it's often very difficult to distinguish from Tufted Duck. These were a pretty clear ID however, with big rounded heads, pale cheek patches, and giant white patches behind their bills. I immediately sprinted back to the headquarters to alert Cyrus and the others, and was able to get them on it in my scope. It was soon confirmed with the Philippine records committee, and stands as something like the 6th or 7th country record. Not a bad way to end the census!

Greater Scaup!

Northern Shovelers, Garganey, and Common Greenshanks on the mudflat

We finished the census with a total of 54 species, including 25 species of waterbirds, a country rarity, and two Philippines lifers for me- not bad for a morning's work! It was great to see the Region V DENR in action, and to be back again at the Cabusao Wetlands, which again has to be one of the best wetland bird site in the whole country. I have been (and will continue to be) critical of environmental policy and management in the Philippines, but this was a great example of the good work the DENR is capable of, and it was fun to meet some of the cool dedicated people working with them. Here's hoping for lots more future engagement and fieldwork!