Balaring Silay and back to Thailand

Wood Sandpiper

Tringa glareola

Balaring Silay

Negros Occidental, Philippines

15.04.11

On a recommendation received from The Philippine Bird Photography Forum I paid a visit to Balaring Silay, a coastal site a little north of Bacolod City, on Friday 15th April 2011. I saw three Chinese Egrets there feeding together and I was so surprised to see as many as this that I took a long careful look at them. Conditions, light, time and the position of the sun meant digiscoping was impossible but I am sure these were Chinese egrets.

In addition to the Chinese egrets there were enough birds around to make me think this site definitely warrants serious attention in the future. My photographs are an indication of the poor light conditions plus the distance between the camera and the birds.

White-browed Crake

Porzana cinerea

Balaring Silay

Negros Occidental, Philippines

15.04.11

I watched an entertaining territorial dispute in a salt pan between a barred rail and a white-browed crake. Again conditions were far from ideal which is a pity as both birds are highly photogenic. Also present a Little heron. In an adjacent pond a common moorhen, black-winged stills, a wood sandpiper and a number of little egrets. There were other birds including a collared kingfisher but conditions just didn't favour photography.

Little heron

Butorides striata

Balaring Silay

Negros Occidental, Philippines

15.04.11

I am pretty sure I will be back here as it appears to be an extensive area and one which warrants a lot more time. Basically I had about one hour here towards the end of the day. I also had a very decent meal in one of the many sea food restaurants in the area so that is a further attraction.

That ends the Philippine trip, too short really! I touched down back in Bangkok late Saturday 16th April 2011 and headed home from the airport. At about 02:30h as I approached home I took a shortcut to avoid local roadworks near our home and close to the local rice paddy my headlights picked out a Barn Owl near the road. I managed to stop and watched it take off and land nearby on a hoarding board where it perched and we had a good look at each other, my view aided by my car's headlights. What a beautiful bird and lifer ⌗ 301. I never included in my list the poor Barn Owl which died near my house a few months ago.

Sunday 16.04.11 I decided to head to Pak Thale in the afternoon in the hope of catching a final sight of Spoonbill Sandpiper for this "winter". I was encouraged by recent reports of the bird being seen in the area during the last week. Sadly I was in poor form and didn't manage to see SBS and in fact managed to scare off most of the groups of birds I approached! As far as I could see it was largely the case of the usual suspects, most of which were sporting breeding plumage.

Chinese Egret: The Movie

Well here it is: the video of last Sunday's Chinese Egret at Punta Taytay. Amazing what you can do when you combine a camera and telescope! I need to apologise for the uploaded quality, not sure if it is my inexperience or blogger or a bit of both.....

Chinese Egret at Punta Taytay, Bacolod City, Negros Occidental

Chinese Egret

Egretta eulophotes

Pta Taytay, Bacolod City, Negros Occidentales, Philippines

10.04.11

I have to confess to feeling dismayed when I arrived at the mudflats at Punta Taytay this morning just before low water at 08:15h. There were swarms of folk scouring the mudflats for oysters and I feared their presence would have scared away most of the waders. So I was not exactly optmisitic as I headed out.

There were a lot of Terns as always,  a few Grey-tailed Tattlers and Greater Sand Plovers, birds which I would expect to see here along with Collared Kingfisher but no sign of Whimbrels, Curlews or Turnstones which I have seen here before. There were also a number of Little Herons flying around too.

Chinese Egret

Egretta eulophotes

Pta Taytay, Bacolod City, Negros Occide

ntales, Philippines

10.04.11

I managed to get a couple of decent shots of a few birds and was reasonably content with that. I was heading off the mudflats in a homeward direction and I thought I would photograph a Little Egret that was nearby. Once I had this bird in my sights I realised the dagger like bill was wrong as was the colouring at the base of the bill. I thought it was too small to be either Intermediate or Great and then I saw it move, neck skewed to one side, see picture above, and I felt pretty sure it was a Chinese Egret.

Chinese Egret

Egretta eulophotes

Pta Taytay, Bacolod City, Negros Occidentales, Philippines

10.04.11

I think this species is slightly more common in the Philippines than they are in Thailand where they are a real trophy bird. However they are listed as "Vunerable"  by the IUCN. I don't have a field guide with me so I can't really say much more about its range and distribution in the Philippines. But this is a great bird for the area and I am very pleased with it. I have a short video clip of it which I shall attempt to load when I have a stronger internet connection.

Pacific Golden Plover coming into breeding plumage

Pluvialis fluva

Pta Taytay, Bacolod City, Negros Occidentales, Philippines

10.04.11

Collared Kingfisher

Todiramphus chloris

Pta Taytay, Bacolod City, Negros Occidentales, Philippines

10.04.11

So a good day became a really good day and I went home a very happy camper.

Back in The Philippines

Eurasian Tree Sparrow

Passer montanus

Punta Taytay, Bacolod City, Neg Occ, RP

04.09.11

I am back in the Philippines in Bacolod City, Negros Occidental and I even managed an hour or so at the Punta Tay Tay sea wall this afternoon but light to some extent and tide, expecially, were against me plus very strong winds. Lots of black-naped terns and the undoubted highlight was a good view of a White-browed Crake in a pond adjacent to the sea wall. I didn't manage a shot of it but I did with this Eurasian Tree Sparrow. Also a very nice Barn Swallow showing all its colours: its Thai counterparts are all a bit worn right now. I am hoping to get down tomorrow for low tide and better light so hope to get a few more shots.

I photographed this Chinese Pond Heron in the local rice paddy back in Ratchaburi, Thailand during last week. It was shot in poor light and I had rather dismissed it but it is not such a bad shot really. Better than a mere  record shot and nicely it  shows this bird in breeding plumage. I suppose I was a little bit away too so all things considered pretty good. In real terms this was just an exercise in seeing what I can actually shoot with the digiscope rig.

Chinese Pond Heron

Aredeola bacchus

นกยางกรอกพันธุ์จีน

Ratchaburi, 06.04.11

Even More Punta Taytay, Bacolod City, Negros Occidental

Whiskered Tern

Punta Taytay

Bacolod City

Negros Occidental

13.10.10

This was in many ways a very satisfying afternoon's birding.

I was able to show Don Sausa the mudflats at Punta Taytay this afternoon and he had a great time with his big telephoto lens, hardly had he set foot onto the mudflats than a common kingfisher posed for him as he was saying: "I wish I could get closer to this bird!" I think Don got a lot of other good shots too. I got this bad light shot of a whiskered tern cleaning his toes as it were!

What a relief to spot a solitary gull-billed tern amidst the whiskered terns! This bird had an appreciably wider wingspan, was much whiter, had a more pronounced forked tail and had a biggish black bill; in fact it really stood out. Elsewhere there must have been up to 200 intermediate egrets in the mangrove which appears to be a sort of pre-roost as the birds gathered there and then flew off in the fading light of the day. I can only surmise these must be migratory birds. And just as the light was going a small flock of about 12 unidentified shorebirds flew in and I really didn't know what they were. I didn't feel happy with tattler on account of size, I didn't think they were common greenshanks, I don't think they were Nordmann's, I didn't think they were a bird I had ever seen before.  Now I have managed to look at the field guide I am wondering if they maybe were red knot in non-breeding plumage: stout birds, I would say "fat", greyish on top,  white supercilium; I have asked Don to check his photos to see if they can provide some assistance.

Additonally there were plenty of Pacific Golden Plovers, Sand-plovers, and a fair few whimbrels plus a few collared kingfisher.

The downside: the guy in the photograph is carrying a dead fish killed as a result of dynamite being used. He came up to talk with us and was pretty angry that this type of illegal fishing is going on. This is the sad part of the story: I have heard people say on a lot of occasions in the last few days that the Philippines has great conservation laws but no enforcement. The funny side of the down side: I got very dirty in the mudflats and nearly lost my shoes, stuck in the mud, in the fading light as I struggled to get back to the car. There was no real danger, just inconvenience and great entertainment for the locals looking at this "'cano" ("American" ) covered in mud!

I think there might be a few interesting things happening here on the bird front over the next few weeks. I think Punta Taytay would be an area worth watching and I would if I was going to be here.

Birds of Bacolod City,Negros Occidental

Don Sausa took me out today for a drive round Bacolod City today and  we saw some nice birds. Sadly no photographs as it was raining hard though I may add some from Don as he was shooting with his 500 mm telephoto lens, a real monster! The highlight however was the barred rails in the Town & Country estate, including a family with three chicks. Beautiful birds with very distinctive markings and good to know that they are breeding and to all intents and purposes in good shape. [Edit 14.10.10: I omitted the small matter of a beautiful lifer, namely a java sparrow in the same estate, in fact there were four of them, quite distinct, in among the barn swallows below.....no less a lifer! I don't know much about the provenance of these sparrows but their counterparts in Bangkok are thought to be from once captive birds; they are beautifully coloured birds and would make ideal caged birds for those of that ilk.] Elsewhere we spotted a pied bushchat in the estate and probably an olive-backed sunbird and plenty of barn swallows all looking rather ragged. Just outside the estate a lesser coucal was in the tall grasses and lots of scaly-breasted munias plus a striated grassbird or two and of course the ubuquitous collared kingfisher. On the estate near Don's house more brown shrikes and a number of white-breasted woodswallows. In the nearby mudflats at high tide there was a common sandpiper and many whiskered terns. We drove downtown, near to the shopping malls and there is a significant area of mudflats nearby and there were lots of little egrets to be seen and who knows what else. Conditions very wet so really only a half-hearted attempt. Clearly there are a lot of good birds in and around Bacolod City and thanks to Don  I am getting to know where to find them.

More Punta Taytay,Bacolod City, Negros Occidental

Whiskered Tern

Punta Taytay, Baclod City

Negros Occidental

06.10.10

Where else to go but to revisit the tidal flats and mangroves of Punta Taytay? Another happy afternoon with the shorebirds, Wednesday 6th October 2010. There were only a couple of tattlers today. As always plenty of whiskered terns including the above which is in transition to non-breeding plumage. Below we have a ruddy turnstone and I now understand why it is called a turnstone. I watched this bird for a while and it uses its bill to turn over stones on the shore in search of food. It was very difficult to photograph because it is a very industrious fellow and rarely stands still. The field guide says they are fairly common in the Philippines. A good number of pacific golden plovers, little egrets and an abundance of barn swallows.

Ruddy turnstone

Punta Taytay, Baclod City

Negros Occidental

06.10.10

Little heron

Punta Taytay, Baclod City

Negros Occidental

06.10.10

The little heron always cuts a swathe, with his striking good looks and perfect colour co-ordination, again a common bird around water and below two more common birds, some whimbrels and a common greenshank.  I make the former whimbrels on the basis of the black and buff stripes on their heads.

Whimbrels

Punta Taytay, Baclod City

Negros Occidental

06.10.10

Common Greenshank

Punta Taytay, Baclod City

Negros Occidental

06.10.10

Later in the day I met up with  Don Sausa a local birder and photographer and we are heading into Mt Kanlaon early Sunday morning. Tomorrow I am heading south for an overnight strip to Danjugan Island and into next week we are heading south to Dumaguete for a few days to finish off our holiday.

Punta Taytay, Bacolod CIty, Negros Occidental

Grey-tailed Tattler

Punta Taytay, Bacolod City

Negros Occidental

05.10.10

I had a couple of hours on the mudflats at Punta Taytay today......very muddy and dirty but great fun as there were some nice birds about: a lot of grey-tailed tattlers in particular which surprised me as they are relatively rare in Thailand, very much passage migrants. The field guide indicates records of tattlers from August to May in the Philippines and there must have been a small flock feeding on the mudflats this afternoon.

 

Intermediate Egret

Punta Taytay, Bacolod City

Negros Occidental

05.10.10

I rather like this intermediate egret which was hanging out with some little egrets, quite distinct with its shortish, yellow bill. A few collared kingfishers and an abundance of whiskered terns, a handful of whimbrels, possibly some curlews but I would need to take a closer look. Some pacific golden plovers and lesser and greater sand-plovers too. I hope to be back over the next few days.

Greater Sand-plover (top)

Grey-tailed Tattler (bottom)

Punta Taytay, Bacolod City

Negros Occidental

05.10.10

I think it is a greater sand-plover but it could easily be a lesser. I think this bird has longer legs and a bigger bill. Please correct me if I am wrong.