Home for the Last Time

 

The theme of my life for the past year or so has been my long, slow move from the Philippines back to the US. It started because of a change in my employment that forced me to be based out of Washington DC, and it was as extended as it was because Nikki still, somehow, doesn't have a visa so that she can join me. Just one of the many, many joys of interacting with the American immigration system.

That whole process seems to be finally (finally!) drawing to a close, but the long wait meant that I decided to do one more visit home to Sorsogon this spring to spend some time with Nikki, and help move yet more things from the Philippines to the US. Conveniently I timed my visit for the absolute hottest part of the year- in an El Niño year at that, when the Philippines has been breaking all-time temperature records left and right. It's the sort of thing that instills a healthy amount of existential dread if you think about it long enough, and spending lots of time in an apartment with sub-par air conditioning doesn't help (yes, yes I know, tiny violins and all that). 

Unfortunately, I also managed to time my visit for the absolute craziest time in my work year, which meant that I spent most of it huddled in front of a computer working on spreadsheets and reports rather than out enjoying my last extended visit to Sorsogon for a while. Most days my birding was restricted to doing my usual balcony lists, although I'd been out of the country for long enough that it was surprisingly nice to see even the common birds like Tawny Grassbirds, Barred Rails, Brown Shrikes, and Black-naped Orioles (I will die on the hill that Old World orioles are vastly superior to New World orioles).

Tawny Grassbird

Brown Shrike

One afternoon I did manage to finish work on time for a quick visit to my old patch at the Cabid-An fish ponds. I got there with barely an hour before sunset so it really was just a quick walk around to catch up with the common wetland birds and pad my year list. Wandering Whistling Ducks were everywhere, and I was happy to see that the local Little Grebes are still doing well- not always a common species in the Philippines. The biggest surprise was a migrating Middendorff's Grasshopper Warbler, which was nice enough to very briefly poke its head out of the thick swamp vegetation- actually a photo lifer for me, something I didn't expect to happen in my home province. 

Wandering Whistling Ducks

Middendorff's Grasshopper-Warbler!

Sunset over the fishponds

I did manage to get out of the house a little bit on the weekend of April 27, and I rented a car to be able to get farther than I'd be able to with my motorcycle. Saturday morning I did a quick outing to the geothermal access road up in the Pocdol Mountains, which was a chance to reconnect with some old endemic favorites. I managed to sleep past my alarm and got there late so it wasn't quite as birdy of a morning as it could have been, but I did still get great looks at a male Spotted Wood Kingfisher that was calling right next to where I had parked the car. Mixed flocks had some of the usual birds like Elegant Tits and Grey-backed Tailorbirds, plus lots of unidentifiable Phylloscopus warblers. Some of them were nice enough to vocalize, allowing me to add Arctic Warbler and Kamchatka Leaf Warbler to the list. Down a little path I heard calling Cream-breasted Fruit Doves that never showed themselves, and got nice looks at a Yellow-breasted Fruit Dove right above me. Another surprise was a pair of Bar-bellied Cuckooshrikes, a bird that I have absolutely never seen in Sorsogon before and had thought might not even be resident in the province. 

Spotted Wood Kingfisher, surely one of the best kingfishers in the world

Arctic Warbler

Yellow-breasted Fruit Dove

Jagor's Sphenomorphus

Subic Bay Sun Skink (very far from Subic Bay)

Philippine Five-Ring

Common Line Blue

Hesperus viridisplendens, a shockingly colorful endemic rove beetle

A flowering Salincogon tree (Cratoxylum formosum)

That weekend I did a little trip with Nikki and her mom to the eastern part of the province. Saturday afternoon we visited a little cave in the town of Gubat where our birding friend (and now environmentalist influencer) Celine had had some good bird sightings. It was late afternoon and we mostly just saw people enjoying a dip in the pools near the cave, but the valley had some remnant forest left where I saw my first-of-year Common Emerald Dove and Balicassiao. 

The pools at Liyang Cave (picture by Nikki)

We spent that night in the hill town of Irosin, and the next morning I spent birding around Bulusan Lake, since it would be silly to come all the way to Sorsogon and not do that. That proved to be an excellent decision. I met kuya Noel, the usual guide, at 5AM, and we started walking up the access road before sunrise, with Luzon Hawk-Owls and Philippine Scops-Owls calling in the darkness. The sun was just rising when I heard the booming calls of my main target- Luzon Bleeding-Heart! After years of looking for bleeding-hearts I've finally realized that if they're singing they're likely sitting still on an elevated perch, so with some luck and the help of my thermal scope, I was finally able to find it! It was a bit far away and practically in pitch blackness so my pictures weren't anything special, but given that the number of people who have photographed this species in the wild away from a nest can probably be counted on two hands, I'm not complaining! This was also my first time getting a properly extended look at it- perched up on a branch and alternating between preening and singing away. Certainly one of the best pigeons in the world. 

Luzon Bleeding-heart!

The bleeding-heart was a much-wanted find, although not a huge surprise as it was almost exactly a year ago when I photographed one for the first time in the same place. April and May seem to be the ideal time of year to look for them in Sorsogon- and sure enough, my sightings inspired my birding friends Gwen and Leo to visit Bulusan and they ended up having great looks at likely the same bird. I'm always happy to be a good influence... 

As expected, there wasn't anything nearly as eye-poppingly good the rest of the morning on Bulusan Lake, although I was pleasantly surprised to see that the population of small birds seems to be slowly recovering- I saw Blue-headed Fantails and Lemon-throated Leaf Warblers for the first time since 2018. Bulusan Lake is the site of possibly my most tantalizing and frustrating bird find- a Cyornis flycatcher that was initially identified as a Mangrove Blue Flycatcher, but which habitat-wise and appearance-wise may be a better match for the mysterious Rufous-breasted Blue Flycatcher, the only Bicol endemic and a bird I have spent years looking for in Sorsogon without success. That particular bird was seen when I had been birding for all of about 3 weeks and had no idea blue flycatchers even existed, and remains an infuriating missed opportunity on my part. Kuya Noel says that mixed flock birds on Bulusan were devastated by a typhoon that came through in 2020, but this particular visit gave me some hope that they may be rebounding- hopefully bringing ghostly blue flycatchers with them...

Mixed flocks aside, I did get a chance to see some of my usual favorite Luzon endemics. Doves were calling everywhere, including Yellow-breasted Fruit Doves, Cream-breasted Fruit Doves, White-eared Brown Doves, and Amethyst Brown Doves, and a few flocks of Luzon Hornbills came through. There was a Brahminy Kite perched in a tree next to the visitor's center, and a had great looks at a Scale-feathered Malkoha and a more distant Rough-crested Malkoha on the way out- in my opinion the two best-looking cuckoos in the world. Near the parking lot there were the usual sunbirds in the flowering palm trees, including Grey-throated Sunbirds, Purple-throated Sunbirds, Flaming Sunbirds, and Garden Sunbirds.

Apparently this particular Brahminy Kite has become accustomed to humans and hangs around the visitor center waiting for people to drop food scraps

Luzon Hornbill

Scale-feathered Malkoha

Rough-crested Malkoha

Garden Sunbird- this would have been called Olive-backed Sunbird a year ago...

Some sort of giant millipede

Some sort of beautiful leaf beetle, probably Aplosonyx philippensis

Narrow-banded Velvet Bob

Tailed Jay

Bulusan Lake

That morning was all the birding I had time for, and I returned to Irosin to pick up Nikki and her mom and head slowly back to Sorsogon- although we did stop for an unusually clear view of Mount Bulusan. It was a bit bittersweet to be going around the province for what will be one of my last visits for a long while, but I seem to keep getting drawn back there so I'm sure it's only a matter of time. Hopefully the birds are still good next time I visit...

Mount Bulusan- I already miss my backyard volcano...