Pajareo sin fronteras

  When I was putting together an itinerary for Andrew and Doug's trip to the Philippines, a big part of it was gritting my teeth and cutting out lots of sites that I would have liked to visit that would have gotten us some very cool birds. A month might seem like a long trip, but in the Philippines that's barely scratching the surface of what the country has to offer, particularly in terms of restricted-range species that require special trips to see. One of the hardest sites to take off the table was Mount Tagubud in the province of Davao de Oro (formerly known as Compostela Valley or ComVal). It's a really excellent birding spot and the only place to see some species like Lina's Sunbird and Mindanao Brown Dove, as well as the best spot for others like Bagobo Babbler, Red-eared Parrotfinch, and Bukidnon Woodcock. But alas, sacrifices had to be made in order to maximize the overall trip list and, especially, our chances of seeing Philippine Eagles.  Plans changed, howev...

  After birding in Negros, Doug, Andrew and I flew to Cebu where we had a brief overnight layover and then flew onwards to Cagayan de Oro City in northern Mindanao. This was to be the first stop on Mindanao, which was actually the longest leg of Doug and Andrew's Philippines journey, taking up 10 days of the month-long trip. This is partly because Mindanao has the most (and some of the best) endemics of any island in the Philippines, and partly because as a former resident of Mindanao I was more familiar with the sites there and excited to show them to newcomers.  The plan was to take the first flight of the day to CDO and arrive in the early morning, with enough time to head to Mapawa Nature Park south of the city for a bit of birding before continuing on to Mount Kitanglad. Unfortunately, the universe had other plans: we boarded the plane, made it out to the tarmac, and were promptly turned around and ushered out of the airplane as the flight was abruptly canceled due to "te...