Black crowned night heron
Black crowned night heron Nycticorax nycticorax News
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Checking Out Candaba
Last week, Adri and I went on a quick trip to check out the road conditions at Candaba and found ourselves walking under the hot morning sun!
Upon arriving, we stayed on the highway straight towards Brgy Paligui to check out the back way, which turned out to be under water! The farmers were already preparing some of the fields and large flocks of Wood Sandpipers were moving around. Egrets and Black-winged Stilts were also a-plenty. We were hoping to get a glimpse of a pair of recently sighted Glossy Ibis but no luck.
With the back way unavailable even by foot, we back tracked to Brgy Ba ... -
Saturday Morning At The LPPCHEA
I was happy to be back at the LPPCHEA (Las Piñas-Parañaque Critical Habitat and Ecotourism Area) for a bit of Saturday morning birding with some members of the WBCP.
I had not been back for a few years and I was curious to see the beach we once dubbed as "rubber slipper beach" when I was just starting out birding. All sorts of trash littered the beach, from your usual plastic packaging to styrofoam boxes, discarded nets and rope, furniture, handbags, clothes, toys... ANYTHING you can think up, including A LOT of rubber slippers. Well, there was still a LOT of the city's trash washed up o ... -
The Birds Of UM Matina
Only a few campuses in the Philippines can boast of a natural biological laboratory. One of them is the University of Mindanao-Matina campus.
Within the school grounds is a colony of not just your usual birds but the Black-crowned Night Heron (Nycticorax nycticorax).
Maa residents may have noticed a flock of birds flying high every late afternoon towards the area of Calinan. These are the Black-crowned Night Herons leaving their nesting area to go to bodies of water where they feed on fish at night or early morning. They are fairly stocky and large, reaching more than half a meter in len ... -
9th Philippine Bird Festival Zamboanga City
This year's festival themed "Pajaros: Bula sin miedo, sin lingasa"??"Zamboanga's Spanish-based Chavacano for "Birds: Fly Without Fear, Without Worries"??"coincides with the presence of wintering Barn Swallows or layang-layang, a migrant from northern Asia which roosts in hundreds of thousands in downtown Zamboanga.
The Barn Swallow??"a symbol of peace and cultural understanding??"was chosen as the flagship species of the festival to highlight the popular hopes for better ties among the peoples of the region, starting with a common interest in birds and nature conservation.
Zamboanga City ... -
Candaba To Start The Birding Year
Candaba is always a good idea to start the birding year. A few days into 2016, Adri and I wanted to check out the roads leading to the ponds. A late December storm had flooded most of low lying Bulacan and Pampanga and Adri wanted to check out accessibility for his upcoming trips.
We started out at the back route at Brgy Paligue where the dirt road leading down from the highway was obviously not passable to most vehicles. The first 10 meters or so was sticky mud, deeply rutted by tractor tire and still soft. After that the road was quite dry and hard - but it hardly mattered since the fi ... -
A Tale Of A Bird Guide
One of the country's last lowland forest frontiers, Mt. Siburan in Sablayan, Occidental Mindoro, is a sanctuary for thriving biodiversity. Its base is home of the most unlikely guardians as there lies the Sablayan Prison and Penal Farm (SPPF). The vast land houses more than 3,000 inmates, some from National Bibilid Prison for decongestion purposes.
Out of these inmates, a group was trained by Haribon Foundation to become bird guides. One, who is called Charlie (not his real name), is still active in service. Incarcerated in 2006, he was chosen by the SPPF management to help around the offic ...