Dude-birding in Candaba

It has been quite a while since I last went birding. Last Saturday, I was able to join Adri and Trinket guide a group of grade schoolers, their teachers, and their parents in Candaba. A bit unexpectedly, it turned out to be a dude birding trip, having most of the birds staying put in one area in front of us, no need for a long walk which wasn't so enticing given the heat we've been experiencing lately.

We arrived ahead of the agreed upon meeting time, so we decided to do some birding by ourselves. We were a bit surprised to see how much the landscape has changed since the last time we visited. The large pond at the T-junction had large portions cleared of vegetation, exposing large parts of mud. Here we saw lots of birds: Philippine Ducks, Wandering Whistling Ducks, Purple Herons, lots of Common Moorhens, and  also some Black-crowned Night-herons all standing around and foraging in the exposed mud.

Large portions were cleared of vegetation exposing both mud and birds

Sadly though, the other side of the road which was on a slope was burned. No more perches for the noisy Clamorous Reed-Warblers.

This was the area where the Siberian Rubythroat was seen last month

We drove around the property, spotting more birds mostly on the road - lots of Barred Rails, White-breasted Waterhens, Zebra Doves, and Red Turtle Doves.

Barred Rail

White-breasted Waterhen

The other ponds surrounding the Mayor's house has also been mostly drained and planted with rice. Nothing much to see except for the grassland birds and more Common Moorhens and the occassional fly-by bitterns. We also spotted a Purple Swamphen sticking out of the water hyacinths.

Purple Swamphen - such a prehistoric-looking bird!

Before we reached the Mayor's house, we saw a group of men dragging a huge net, fishing in the pond. We stopped to inspect their catch and were amazed at the very large carps they harvested! They also had a good catch of tilapia for the morning.

Part of the morning's harvest

Manong lifted the huge fish for a photo-op

We rounded the road and found ourselves near where we started. Another group of birds foraged in this cleared area of the large pond and we decided to wait here for the participants. Aside from the ducks, we saw Black-winged Stilts, Great Egrets, Little Egrets, and beautiful Pheasant-tailed Jacanas in their breeding plumage.

Always a treat to see Jacanas!
We got great views of them even though they were quite far.

The convoy of participants arrived, led by a big, red tourist bus and we began the activity. After birding in the large pond, the kids spent time collection samples from the pond behind the mayor's house. They got to ride the banca to closer inspect the plants and animals in the water.

Teacher got to be the boatman for some of his students =P

 Adri was able to find a clump of bats in the coconut tree above where we were standing. (So, that was where the squeaky sounds were coming from!) We also saw a bigger clump in the tree beside it!

Bats!

We were done towards noon, the teachers and parents buying some freshly caught carp at 20pesos per kilo. Even though the migrants have gone, it was not a bad dude birding morning in Candaba. =)

Dressed To The Nines

... the birds, not me. It's breeding time for most of the birds in Candaba and us four birders found ourselves unofficially invited to the affair.

Jops, Trinket, Peter and I found ourselves exploring a new area in the Candaba wetlands last Saturday. We guided a group of students and their parents that morning and found ourselves wanting to bird some more. We've already seen hundreds of Philippine Ducks with the kids, together with a small group of Tufted Ducks and some Northern Shovelers, but we had the rest of the afternoon free to bird by ourselves.

The people and farmers in the area pointed us to the location where we could see the ducks. And ducks we did find! Thousands of them!

Part of the huge congregation of Philippine Ducks!

Among the ducks, we also saw lots of male Garganeys! The white stripes on their heads peeking out of the green reeds. Unfortunately they were too far even to digiscope. The other "well-dressed" birds in their breeding plumage were also among the reeds. Lots of Pheasant-tailed Jacanas walking around, sometimes only their long tails visible in the sea of green.

How many Jacanas can you spot?

One of the Pheasant-tailed Jacanas walking around, showing off its
long-tailed breeding plumage!

It was really amazing seeing a lot of these birds, most of them sporting the long tails and flying from one pond to the next, showing off its beautiful wing pattern when in flight. Beautiful, beautiful birds!

We were also treated to huge groups of Oriental Pratincoles, also in their breeding plumage. Some of them would just be standing on the road, flying when the car would approach but landing just a few meters further down the road.

Can you imagine seeing groups of this handsome bird dotting the road?!

We saw a group of around 30 Pratincoles, with their backs turned to us, in a brown patch of rice field. Among them were a couple of Oriental Skylarks running around!

Can you spot the two Oriental Pratincoles in this photo?

There were so many wonderful birds to see so... we decided to count. Out came the scopes and the notebooks and we recorded the numbers of birds we saw.

Birders counting birds.

After doing the counts, we walked further down the road. Before we reached the "end" of a long stretch, the ducks suddenly all took flight! Trinket and I literally didn't know which way to look! It was pretty awesome!

Jops and Peter and the huge flock of ducks flying overhead.

When the ducks finally settled down, a light rain began to fall. We headed back to the car but as we reached it, the rain stopped. We decided to call it a day. As we drove along, we encountered more birds dressed to the nines. We saw flocks of Cattle Egrets, their feathers turning from the "standard" all-white to orange buff which is their breeding plumage.

We passed the last rice paddies with the Cattle Egrets before driving into more populated areas. We saw so many birds, most of them in their "best" plumage of the year. I can safely say there won't be any bird in a "Worst Dressed" list, at least for this season.