Bacolod Twofer

 

The end of April found Nikki and I in Manila for a couple of weeks, and with no plans for our weekend. Obviously we weren't going to let a perfectly good weekend go unused, so we decided to do a quick trip to Bacolod City on Negros island so we could visit Gawahon Ecopark. I had visited there in February with Doug and Andrew and had a great (albeit extremely) morning of birding, but both Nikki and I were interested in visiting again. For Nikki, it was a chance to finally see Flame-templed Babbler, which she hadn't seen yet, and for me it meant another try for Negros Jungle Flycatcher and Southern Indigo-banded Kingfisher, which I'd missed in February.

It would be silly to visit the West Visayas without getting in touch with Bam and Olympus, who had joined me last time, and thankfully they were free and excited for another visit to Gawahon. Ricky the local guide at Gawahon was unfortunately busy guiding for others, but by that point we knew the way around the park and where to look for birds, so it wasn't a huge deal. For those who haven't previously visited, I highly recommend looking up Ricky Sobesta, as he knows all the local birds very well and is the best bet for finding the key targets.

Nikki and I flew into Bacolod on the evening of April 26, and Bam and Olympus were nice enough to pick us up from the airport (thanks as always guys!). At that point there wasn't much time for anything but sleeping, so they dropped us off at our hotel in Silay City and bid us goodbye. We saw them again very early the next morning, and we headed uphill toward Gawahon, arriving before sunrise. The park officially opens at something like 8 or 9AM, but for whatever reason the staff sleep there and don't seem to mind being woken up at 5AM by a bunch of crazy birders to let us in.

As usual, we parked by the beginning of the waterfall area, and started looking for some birds along the river. I could heard the whistled song of a flycatcher that I was pretty sure was one of our targets, but it was so hard to hear over the roar of the waterfalls that I wasn't sure. We got distracted by an extremely bold Citrine Canary Flycatcher perched at eye level in front of our face, possibly because we were getting close to its nest. I was finally able to locate the source of the singing, and confirmed my suspicions: it was a Negros Jungle Flycatcher! We were able to get great looks at the male as he sang his heart out for 5 minutes or so before he flew uphill. This was a bird I had heard only once before and had dipped on on our last visit, so it was awesome to start out the morning so well. It's admittedly not the most charismatic-looking bird (even its other name of "White-throated Jungle Flycatcher" takes some poetic liberties), but it has a great song and more importantly is one of the rarest and most difficult West Visayas endemics.

Citrine Canary Flycatcher

Negros Jungle Flycatcher!

A picture of the waterfall from my February visit because I know some people want me to post more scenery pics

With the jungle flycatcher successfully seen, we decided to hike the trails around the park to look for Flame-templed Babbler. It's a mixed-flock bird, which means that it's more a matter of finding a proper flock rather than staking out a specific spot. Unfortunately, even though we spent almost 2 hours doing a round trip hike through the park, it was one of the quietest mornings I've seen anywhere in the Philippines- we walked the length of the trail and barely saw a single bird, but for a single White-browed Shortwing that darted across the path. Our previous visit had been awful weather and lots of bird activity, while this time was nice sunny weather and practically no birds at all. It was very frustrating, particularly for Nikki who was really hoping for the babbler. It was annoying for me as well, although there were enough interesting bugs around to distract from the lack of birds.

Platymantis corrugatus

Some kind of freshwater crab

Dundubia vaginata

Some kind of giant millipede

Faun (Faunis phaon)

Some kind of tiger beetle (Therates sp.)

Some kind of robber fly

Luzon Striped Ringlet

Lexias satrapes

Some kind of geometrid moth

Brown Pansy

Acrophthalmia yamashitai, a rare West Visayas endemic

Common Mapwing

Rubus fraxinifolia

On my last visit I'd called this Begonia negrosensis, but apparently it might be an undescribed species of begonia instead

Back toward the beginning of the trail, we ran into Ricky who was guiding for a group of photographers. They were looking at a mixed flock, the first proper one we'd seen all day, but it had only the usual birds: Citrine Canary Flycatchers, Visayan Fantails, Elegant Tits, and Visayan Tailorbird. Ricky told us that the babblers were quite difficult this time of year, which was a bit of a relief to my wounded pride but still annoying as it was one of the main targets. 

Citrine Canary Flycatcher

We looked around the parking lot to see if there were any other mixed flocks, but didn't come up with much. Bam went down to the river to look around, and suddenly started gesticulating wildly for us to come down. We rushed down to where she was, and found that she was looking at a male Southern Indigo-banded Kingfisher that had just flown in! Ricky and the photographers came in and we were all able to get great looks as it flew from rock to rock hunting. This was perhaps my most-wanted bird from Bacolod, and a lifer for me (or at least it will be once it's split on the official lists). It definitely helped take the sting off dipping on the babbler, at least for me. 

Southern Indigo-banded Kingfisher!

It was late morning by then, so we started heading downhill toward civilization. We stopped at an area where Bam and Olympus had seen a kingfisher that looked suspiciously like a vagrant Sacred Kingfisher. We found the same individual, which looked much less buffy than last time although it still had more of a tinge on its belly than the usual Collared Kingfishers. Unfortunately, when it took flight it revealed greyish (rather than buff-colored) underwings, meaning that it was just a normal Collared Kingfisher that had gotten stained with something. Alas!

The deceptive Collared Kingfisher

We had lunch at Bam and Olympus' favorite seafood restaurant, and then headed back to Bacolod since both Nikki and I had to get work done. We met up once again that night for some Ilonggo food, which of course was delicious as always- probably one of my favorite cuisines, especially with locals to recommend the best spots! It was a great morning of birding despite the annoying dip on the babbler, with two lifers for us, so very much worth the trip. It was also great to see Bam and Olympus again, who are great birding buddies and way more hospitable than they have any reason to be. I expect I'll end up in Bacolod once again one of these days...

The birding team post-inasal