Pajareo sin fronteras

I was scheduled to leave the Philippines (at least for a couple of years) in mid-August, so by the time the first week of August rolled around I had plans to head to some of my usual birding spots for one last visit. Summer isn't a very good time of year to visit the salt pans in General Santos City, since most of the migrant shorebirds and other things won't be around, but it's still got a fun marsh area to visit, and the possibility of seeing some rare Australasian summer vagrants like Sacred Kingfisher- or something even more interesting, I suppose (spoiler alert: I didn't).  I took the bus to GenSan on the evening of August 4th, then spent the morning of August 5 in Barangay Buayan, at the moment probably the best spot for shorebirds and marsh birds in Mindanao. My first stop was the mudflats that the DENR is doing its best to destroy by putting in a mangrove plantation. Some good things can turn up there during the winter, but this was the late summer so the o...

After  a few days  in Michigan's Upper Peninsula for my friend Clayton's wedding this July, I had just a few days at home in Leelanau County before returning to the Philippines. Most of this was occupied by work, since even though I wasn't in the Philippines I was still working remotely. However, I did have one free day that I was able to spend visiting some of my favorite local birding places, as well as running errands of course.  My first stop was at Little Glen Park, an area next to a small pond near to the Sleeping Bear Dunes. It's a rather unassuming spot, but wth  over 200 species  of bird recorded there it's one of the best single birding areas in Northwestern Lower Michigan. Unfortunately, it was almost completely silent by the time I got there, probably because of the strong winds that kept any birds that were there hidden away in the bushes. A family of  Trumpeter Swans  in the pond was nice to see, as was a lone  Beaver , but afte...