Pajareo sin fronteras

As Monty Python might say... and now, for something completely different! There are many things I love about living in the Philippines, but not included in the list is the fact that it's so darn far away from Michigan. Not that I necessarily miss things like Donald Trump or getting blizzards in mid-April, but it is hard not being able to see family nearly as much as I'd want to- it's a long and expensive flight for me to visit there, and the same for family to come here and visit me. Thankfully, as it turns out there's a little speck of US territory that's pretty much directly in between Michigan and the Philippines, and much cheaper for all to fly to. When my parents suggested Hawaii as the destination for one of our rare whole-family meet-ups, it was a pretty easy decision to make. I've wanted to come to Hawaii ever since I was a kid suffering through Michigan winters and dreaming of living in a tropical place. Now that I'm living the dream down by...

Few events have shaken the birding and bird photography world in the Philippines in the past year like the discovery of a freshly built road through primary mountain forest in Infanta, Quezon, just a couple of hours southeast of Manila. Suddenly, endemic birds that were previously extremely difficult, such as Flame-breasted Fruit Dove, Bicol Ground Warbler, and Olive-backed Flowerpecker are now accessible along the side of a nicely-paved road, just a quick trip from home. It's hard to know long it will stay like that- new roads in the Philippines also tend to mean new settlers and new land opened up for illegal logging and slash-and burn agriculture. But for now, it really is a fantastic spot for even the laziest of birders. This meant less for me as a Mindanao-based birder, as all those birds are still a long plane-ride away, but I still welcome the chance to visit the site on my rare visits back to Manila, especially since every time I go good sightings of the best birds tend t...