Pajareo sin fronteras

  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 w...

Although I tried very hard to get one more new Philippines bird, I ended my trip to Ilocos Norte with exactly 499 birds on my country list. I had a couple more weeks in the Philippines to try and boost that, although given that it was all going to be spent in Sorsogon in the rainiest part of the year, I wasn't particularly optimistic.  Surprisingly, an opportunity presented itself as we were on our way back to Sorsogon: the morning I was transiting through Manila on the way to Sorsogon, an Ashy-breasted Flycatcher was reported in the Palo Alto subdivision a couple hours out of the city! It had originally been posted on Facebook the day before, but once people realized what it was some birders rushed out that morning to re-find it. I arrived in Manila to amazing pictures from Ens of one of the Philippines' rarest and most elusive (although certainly not most spectacular) endemics.  I spent far too much time wasted hemming and hawing over what to do,  but I eventually bit...