Lightning Philippines

 

After my work trip to Japan and Indonesia in February, I had just a couple weeks in DC before returning once more to Asia–barely enough time to unpack and get over jet lag. This time it was a trip to the Philippines, where I had fieldwork for a new project under preparation and then a week of meetings and presentations in Manila. It was a classically hectic work trip, but I did still have a few chances to get out birding while I was there. 

The trip started with a truly unpleasant 36-hour journey that involved sitting on the tarmac in DC for 6 hours as United Airlines provided updates that changed from "brief delays thanks to a minor equipment issue" to "lengthy delays as the equipment issue is resolved" to finally "please get off the plane and try to schedule a new flight as we have no idea what's going on with this plane." One missed connection, several conversations with customer service, and a 16-hour flight in the middle seat of the middle aisle later I made it to Manila at last, with just enough time to drop my suitcase at a hotel and get on yet another flight, this time to Ilocos Norte in northern Luzon where I would be doing a few days of fieldwork. 

I've been to Ilocos Norte twice before and it's one of my favorite places to bird in the Philippines thanks to its unique climate and penchant for collecting vagrant birds rarely or never seen elsewhere in the country. Unfortunately this visit was a proper work trip and I had very little time for birding and no way to get myself around to the usual birding spots so I didn't see anything particularly interesting as I had hoped. On the bright side my hotel was right next to Paoay Lake, a big lake I'd visited previously, and I was able to spend my evenings and early mornings walking around that area. I didn't see any particularly unusual birds there but I did manage to pick up some decent migrants such as Great Cormorants and Tufted Ducks and some relatively uncommon resident birds like Little Grebes, Philippine Ducks, a Lesser Coucal, and a Peregrine Falcon along with the usual open country birds. 

Little Grebe

Peregrine Falcon, this one of the migratory calidus subspecies rather than the more common resident race.

Brown Shrike, possibly the single most common migratory bird in the Philippines

Black-naped Oriole

Lake Paoay

My final evening in Ilocos I took a tricycle out to the Paoay Dunes, an area of coastal dunes between Paoay Lake and the West Philippine Sea. It was a spot I'd been wanting to visit for a while but I wasn't particularly impressed. The dunes themselves were nice (though not nearly as spectacular as the Sleeping Bear Dunes near my hometown), but the whole experience was somewhat ruined by the fact that the preferred method of exploring them is on big, noisy dune buggies that leave the dunes criss-crossed by ugly tire tracks and wreak havoc on the native vegetation. It's a unique habitat barely found elsewhere in the country, but there's precious little of it left. I did see a Java Sparrow in the dunes (an introduced species, but globally endangered and uncommon in the Philippines), and on my walk back to the hotel happened on a little wetland area next to a rice paddy with some water birds like Common Moorhens, White-breasted Waterhens, Philippine Ducks, a Yellow Bittern, and a singing Philippine Magpie-Robin.

The Paoay Sand Dunes

The beach by the dunes

Dusk over rice paddies

Java Sparrow

Back in Manila I spent most of my time in government offices or my own employer's office in the business district–not really ideal for birding. I did have one meeting on the campus of UP Diliman, and took the opportunity to arrive a bit early and do some birding in the little forest area behind the Marine Sciences Institute. The last time I birded there I had point-blanks looks at a Narcissus Flycatcher, but this time the only migratory birds were the usual Arctic Warblers. The most interesting bird sighting was a befuddled but very determined Coppersmith Barbet that spent 20 minutes attacking its reflection in the window of an academic building. 

Arctic Warbler

Coppersmith Barbet attacking its mirror self

Garden Tent-web Spider (Cyrtophora cicatrosa)

Jamides cleodus

Dark-branded Bushbrown (Mycalesis mineus)

I had of course been in touch with my usual birding friends in the Philippines once it was confirmed I was heading back, in hopes I could tag along on a birding trip like I usually do. The stars aligned once again on this trip, and I got an invite from Cheta to join him and Angel on a trip to northern Panay to look for Walden's Hornbills. We had done exactly that trip back in 2023, but Angel hadn't been able to join and the hornbills were supposedly showing particularly well. There was also the chance for a couple of lifers for them like Visayan Shama and Visayan Rhabdornis. For my part getting a lifer was unlikely, but I'm loathe to turn down a birding adventure, especially one to see hornbills–Critically Endangered hornbills at that. 

Logistically this trip was a little bit nuts. I flew to Kalibo airport on the eastern end of the Panay the evening of Friday, March 6, and at 3AM the next morning hitched a ride with a local driver to Caticlan Port where we picked up Angel and Cheta, who took the ferry over from the island of Boracay where they were staying for a friend's wedding. (Incidentally that was the closest I'd ever been to actually visiting Boracay, and I'm okay if I never get closer than that.) From Caticlan it was another 3 hours to the town of Sebaste, in the province of Antique on the other end of Panay Island. In Sebaste we met with Roland the local guide and transferred from the car to motorcycles that took us the rest of the way to Alegre, where the trail began. 

While the motorcycle ride on my first visit had been uncomfortable thanks to a bruised tailbone it was objectively easy going, to the point where a normal car could have driven most of the road. This time it was much, much worse, with a new wet river crossing and several areas of the road completely washed out and replaced by scarily narrow dirt paths barely navigable by motorbike. Apparently a series of severe floods had come through and wrecked most of the road, making it a much dodgier journey than we were expecting. The views on the way in as we rode from the coast to the base of the Alegre Hills were still gorgeous, and there were a number of birds seen and heard along the way including Visayan Tailorbirds, Philippine Magpie-Robins, Brown-breasted Kingfishers, and a Plaintive Cuckoo. 

The dodgy road on the way in

Once we arrived at Barangay Alegre we dropped our bags and met the rest of the local guides. There's a convoluted backstory behind the Walden's Hornbills in the Alegre Hills. It was the site of a nest protection program run by a local NGO, which paid locals to identify hornbill nests and monitor them to make sure that the nests weren't raided by poachers (hunting and trapping being one of the main reasons the hornbills have disappeared from their native range). Unfortunately the funding for the nest protection program dried up a while back, and it hasn't been taken over by any other organization. The local forest guards have continued doing the work as volunteers, despite receiving no pay and little recognition and sometimes being scolded for publicizing instances of poaching. It's an uplifting story on one level, but also a microcosm of the dysfunctional conservation system in the Philippines.

The hike to the hornbill area started out with a wet river crossing. I knew this was involved but had still forgotten to bring flip-flops with me, so I just had to suck it up and deal with unpleasantly wet shoes the rest of the day. After the river crossing it was a relatively flat walk up the river valley through rice fields and forest edge until we started to climb uphill along a little creek toward the nearest ridge. As we made our way uphill the open country birds were replaced by forest birds and some of the more common endemics like Elegant Tits, Black-belted Flowerpeckers, and Purple-throated Sunbirds. Midway up the creek we came across our first really good bird of the day, a beautiful male Visayan Shama that we were able to tempt into the open for great views and what are some of the only clear pictures of the species that I know of. That was a lifer for Angel, so it was a nice way to start the hike.

Visayan Shama!

Purple-throated Sunbird

Black-belted Flowerpeckers used to be considered conspecific with Red-keeled Flowerpeckers until someone pointed out that they're obviously not Red-keeled Flowerpeckers

Jamides schatzi

Some kind of butterfly moth (Callidula sp.)

Some kind of daddy long-legs

A pair of mating red bugs (Dindymus pulcher, I think)

A cool long-horned beetle (Oberea seminigra, I think)

The walk up the river valley

The trail along the creek

The path got steeper and more treacherous until we reached an open area along the top of the ridge. That offered panoramic views up the valley and down to the coast. and Roland said that sometimes the hornbills could be seen from there. There were none to be seen, so we made our way down the other side of the ridge and further into the hills. After another half hour of hiking we got to a patch of young saplings (probably secondary growth in an old farm clearing) where Roland said that he had recently been seeing Visayan Rhabdornis. Sure enough, after a bit of waiting a pair of Visayan Rhabdornis came in and started feeding right in front of us! It was difficult to get a good picture with the many branches in the way but it was still a much better view than I'd had the last time I saw them, and a lifer for both Cheta and Angel. There are only slightly more observations of the rhabdornis on eBird than there are of the hornbill, so this was a proper mega bird.

Visayan Rhabdornis!

Blue-tailed Bee-eater

Sibalom Sun Skink (Eutropis sibalom), a Panay-endemic skink

Therates coracinus, an endemic tiger beetle

Some kind of stick insect

Looking west toward the ocean

Looking east into the Alegre Hills and West Panay Mountains

It was late morning by the time we got to the area where the hornbills had been hanging out, and starting to get bloody hot. Roland said that they would most likely be beneath the canopy feeding, which meant that we had to get deeper into the forest and off the beaten path–literally. We headed inside the forest, where we had to pick our way carefully around jagged outcroppings of karst limestone. It was nice to be out of the sun, and one of the guides even found a tiny Philippine Blunt-headed Tree Snake which was pretty cool. Eventually the trail petered out in a spot where the hornbills were apparently coming in to feed regularly, so we put our stuff down and lay down to wait. We got excited when a big bird came in, but it turned out to be a Visayan Hornbill–another cool endemic hornbill, but not the one we were looking for.

Philippine Blunt-headed Tree Snake (Boiga angulata)

Visayan Hornbill

We waited for about an hour for the hornbills to come in, and at some point I ended up dozing off on the forest floor as I had my first time in Alegre. I was awoken by the goat-like baah-ing calls of a Walden's Hornbill! We rushed to find it, but we were deep in the forest and even though we knew almost exactly where it was we never managed to see the damn thing. Eventually we decided to bushwhack a path down the hill to try and get closer to the hornbills. It was slow, treacherous going down a steep slope with lots of spiky vines and jagged rocks, but eventually we got to another little clearing further down where we could look up into the tree where they had been hanging out: a fig tree of some kind laden with little white fruit. We had to wait a bit more but finally a little flock of Walden's Hornbills came in and started feeding directly overhead! It was mostly at an awkward angle but still much closer views than we'd had last time, and a very good lifer for Angel.

Walden's Hornbill!

Post-hornbill selfie

Tanaecia lupina

Our main target bird had been seen, but we still had to find our way back to the village. That was another 3 hours of hiking, first bushwhacking downhill to the river then on the main trail on the other side of the valley, with some more steep up and down. We heard more Visayan Shamas and a Philippine Magpie-Robin and added some other birds to our list like Magnificent Sunbird and many Visayan Bulbuls, but we were mostly concentrated on making it back before it got dark. 

The stream on the way down

A cool bee fly (Ligyra tantalus) along the stream

Some kind of pygmy grasshopper (Tagaloscelimena sp., I think)

A gorgeous false tiger moth (Dysphania subrepleta)

Mycalesis teatus

A beautiful metalmark moth of some sort (Choreutis sp.)

Some kind of jewel weevil (Metapocyrtus sp.)

Some kind of wolf spider or huntsman spider

Some kind of click beetle (Cryptalus sp.)

A local boy who passed us carrying a huge honeycomb

A grumpy carabao along the way

Back at Alegre we gathered our things and had a much-needed cold drink. Roland also showed off his improvised digibinning set-up, made up of a broken fan stand, wire, and duct tape–possibly the most impressive low-cost birding innovation I've ever seen! We got back on the motorcycles and drove back to the main road as the sun set. 

Roland's MacGyvered digibin setup

The Alegre Hills at sunset

Our hike had taken long enough that I barely made it to the Kalibo airport in time for my flight, basically getting out of the car and walking straight through security and onto the plane. I arrived back in Manila past 11, and spent most of the following day catching up on sleep and work things. 

On Monday I didn't have meetings until the afternoon which meant I was able to accept an invitation to join Enrico, Gwen, and Moleen on an outing to Palo Alto in Rizal. Despite being little more than a housing development with some patches of remnant forest, Palo Alto is home to some surprisingly good birds–most dramatically the Green-faced Parrotfinch we discovered there a couple years ago. Access for birders has been touch and go for the past while but Gwen and others are putting in the hard work of dealing with the management to figure out a permit or permission system, so hopefully it will continue to be good, accessible birding into the future. 

I met Ens at 4AM nearby my hotel and we made the 2-hour drive east to Palo Alto, arriving just before sunrise. We stopped at the waterfall area to wait for it to get light and for the others to arrive. Things were pretty quiet at first, with just the usual Philippine Bulbuls and Balicassiao calling in the woods. Gwen and Moleen arrived soon after, joined by Moleen's birding bodyguards and Susan and Isa who were new birders I hadn't met before. As the sun rose the birds started showing themselves; bulbuls and drongos, but also a Coleto building a nest inside a utility pole, a Common Emerald Dove crossing the road in the distance, a small flock of Luzon Hornbills, and a trio of weird and gorgeous Rough-crested Malkohas. I was also able to get the others on the resident Indigo-banded Kingfisher hanging out in a distant, shaded part of the stream. 

Indigo-banded Kingfisher

Philippine Bulbul

Common Emerald Dove

Coleto with a stick for its nest

Rough-crested Malkoha, one of the coolest Philippine endemics

Luzon Hornbill

Once the sun was up further we decided to go uphill to one of the areas where the Chirruping Nightjars, a Palo Alto specialty, had been hanging out recently. That area was a patch of bare ground where a new house is being built, which apparently is just the sort of place the nightjars like. It took us quite a while to find one, and when we did see a single Chirruping Nightjar it was only a quick view as it flushed from the ground and flew down the slope, never to be seen again. There was also a flyover from a migratory Oriental Honey-buzzard, a showy Balicassiao, and the full suite of local munias including Chestnut Munias, Scaly-breasted Munias, and White-bellied Munias. Further uphill we looked for a Blue Rock Thrush that had been hanging around, but instead saw only a few Philippine Cuckoo-doves feeding in a fruiting tree. 

Oriental Honey-buzzard of the long-necked migratory subspecies

Balicassiao

Philippine Cuckoo-dove

We then headed downhill to a different part of the subdivision where Ens had seen Spotted Buttonquail a few times. To my surprise almost as soon as we got to the spot I spotted a Spotted Buttonquail skulking in the undergrowth! The three of us in the front car had good looks as it made its way uphill, though only a couple of the others saw it. This was the first time I'd seen one since 2016 and my first time getting a picture–the sort of sighting that feels like a lifer even if it technically isn't. There was also a little mixed flock with Arctic Warblers, Black-naped Monarchs, and Philippine Pygmy Woodpeckers.

Spotted Buttonquail!

Female Black-naped Monarch

Our last stop was the bridge over the creek in the middle of the subdivision. As expected there was a Green Sandpiper hanging out in the creek, a rare bird in the Philippines but one that has been returning to Palo Alto every winter for some years now. It was joined by a Little Ringed Plover and a Brown-breasted Kingfisher, and there were some other open country birds around like Pied Bushchats and Striated Grassbirds. I had fun photographing the local Eastern Red-rumped Swallows as they flew past eating bugs and collecting feathers for nesting material. 

Green Sandpiper

These used to be called Striated Swallows but last year they were rather vexingly lumped with their stripeless cousins in mainland Asia as Eastern Red-rumped Swallows

Female Pied Bushchat

Little Ringed Plover

Brown-breasted Kingfisher

That was all we had time for, as both Ens and I had to be back in Manila by lunchtime. The rest of the week for me was spent in Manila traffic or inside office buildings, and I flew back to DC that Thursday. It had been a hectic week and a half but I'm always happy for a chance to be back in the Philippines and connect with friends and some of my favorite birds to boot. I'm already looking forward to returning sometime later this year...