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The geographic location and geological history of this amazing place has conspired to create a suite of fascinating endemic species – birds, mammals, reptiles, plants and so on. Wedged between China, Japan, Malaysia and Indonesia and consisting of over 7000 islands, successive invasions from different biogeographic zones and a complex geography has seen an adaptive radiation of a myriad of species. Of the almost 600 bird species in the Philippines an extraordinary 169 to 172 species are endemic, depending on which taxonomy you choose. I visited the Philippines with my Sulawesi travelling companions, Chris Lester and Jan Smith. With limited time available we decided to restrict our travels this time to Luzon, Bohol, Cebu and Mindanao. In order to make optimal use of our time we decided to enlist the help of Tim Fisher (who else?). Unless you have plenty of time I would strongly recommend this course of action as travel between sites is arduous and complicated and it is not possible to stay on site in many places. The logistics of visiting some of the important sites seem difficult and would have been virtually impossible to arrange without the necessary contacts. In our three week visit we recorded 213 species, over 100 of which were endemic. Despite the fact that we visited well outside the accepted season for birding, I was very happy with our results. We missed a couple of things of course, notably Short-crested and Celestial Monarchs and Blue-capped Kingfisher. We had excellent weather throughout except for one morning of rain at Mount Makiling and a day of heavy rain as the tail end of a typhoon came through Luzon. Fortunately this was a travel day. Daily Itinerary 20 July - Arrived in Manila from Kota Kinabalu at Terminal 2 in a typhoon. Went to Terminal 1 to meet Chris arriving from Melbourne. Headed off with Freddy Peres and Nonoy to Mount Makiling arriving after dark to find that our accommodation at the Tree Lodge was locked up and empty! So we backtracked and stayed at the City of Springs Resort Hotel in Los Banos. 21 July - Woke to find the weather still bad but improving after a very windy night. Tim Fisher met us at the hotel at 4.30 and we drove up to Mount Makiling, transferred to the Tree Lodge. Birded with Tim until about 10am, then set off up the road on our own. After the rain stopped, the birding improved considerably and we encountered a few mixed flocks. A number of excellent, close views of both Red-crested and Scale-feathered Malkohas were unexpected given the difficulty that many people have with these species. Maybe they are more active at this time of year? In the afternoon we walked around the university campus to the dairy research centre in an unsuccessful search of Spotted Buttonquail.
22 July - Early morning birding at Makiling with a few more mixed flocks but no sign of the Spotted Wood-Kingfisher.Departed for Quezon at about midday. The drive through Manila and the rather depressing built-up areas to Quezon took about 6 hours. "Quezon - home of the Citizen-friendly Policemen" (sic). The afternoon was spent at Pagbilao fish farm, which was rather quiet outside the migratory season. Overnight at Ouan's Farm - very pleasant with cold beer! 23 July - 3am departure to get to Quezon National Park. Great habitat but no birds! The best bird was a male Spotted Wood-Kingfisher at last. Later we had excellent looks at a small group of Rufous Hornbills. Looked for and found Indigo-banded Kingfisher at the river near the entrance of the park. Returned to Manila for our departure the next day for Banaue in the central north. We overnighted at the charming Malate Pensionne, which had a handy internet cafe in the lobby. 24 July - A travel day. Manila to Banaue took a long and arduous 8 hours. 25 July - We departed early for Mount Polis. (Polis is Tagalog for police - the mountain is named after the police station at its summit). The drive takes about an hour and a half along a very dodgy road showing plenty of evidence of land slides. I admit I would be wary about travelling this road in heavy rain! We walked the length of the road until all signs of forest disappeared. Again, bird density was low but occasional mixed flocks contained plenty of interest. Plenty of White-browed Shortwings were calling but they were exceptionally elusive only showing themselves briefly. This is a very different looking bird to the one I am used to. A Eurasian Buzzard was well out of season. Later we drove to the town of Bay-yu where Freddy asked permission from the town leader for us to go in search of Luzon Water Redstart. The walk down to the river is rather steep and the whole area very picturesque. We found a pair of redstarts almost immediately and were able to watch them for almost an hour. 26 July - This morning we returned to Mount Polis and walked the forest trail behind the police station. This was very rewarding with very close fly-by views of Luzon Racquet-tail, Red Crossbill and, best of all, three Tawny-breasted Parrotfinches. Not surprisingly, there was no sign whatsoever of Whiskered Pitta. We returned to Banue and departed for Subic Bay. Another very long drive of about 10 hours! We had the added stress of not being sure whether we would even be able to get to Subic as a typhoon had again passed through the south of Luzon and many roads were impassable. Eventually we made it through the traffic and floods, though with no time for any birding. 27 July - Today we birded Hill 391 with Tim Fisher. This was arguably our best day's birding with some great sightings. The weather was not great and we had a bit of rain at times but the birds were remarkably active. We parked the car at the base of the hill near some bunkers and walked to the top of the hill. The walk would take about an hour if you weren't birding. For some reason there were woodpeckers everywhere and we had excellent, close views of Sooty, White-bellied and Greater Flameback although Philippine still evaded us. This was really our last chance to catch up with Sooty so I was pretty happy to complete the set of Mulleripicus! Also of note was a confiding Bush-hen perched in a bush, a couple of gorgeous Yellow-breasted Fruit-Doves, great scope views of Green Racquet-tail and a group of skulking Rufous Coucals. Later we drove to a couple of other sites but the best result was a fantastic Spotted Button-quail crossing the road. 28 July - Another morning birding at the Hill was a lot slower but still very worthwhile. Best spots were White-lored Oriole and White-fronted Tit. At midday we departed for Manila to meet Jan and catch our flight to Bohol. At Tagbilaran we were met by Chito, our driver and set off for the Chocolate Hills. The contrast between this island and Luzon was amazing. Although most of the island has been deforested, the general atmosphere was so much more pleasant. We stayed at the Choclate Hills Inn - a strange looking place with pleasant rooms and and very good food. 29 July - After an early breakfast we met Chito and set off to Rajah Sikatuna National Park for a full day. It takes about 30 minutes to travel from the lodge to the park. This wonderful park represents the only remaining primary forest on the island of Bohol. The trails are signposted and in excellent condition. This was easily my favourite site for the trip. We walked the Steere's Pitta Trail and almost immediately found both the pitta and Wattled Broadbill! A great start. Here we encountered our first Blue Fantails. They turned out to be common but what a fabulous bird! The unusual and distinctive call (unlike any other fantail I have heard) was heard throughout the park. During the heat of the day we returned to the park HQ, where the park staff kindly allowed us to make use of all the facilities. We ate our lunch and sat around for a few hours in the heat of the day picking up Samar Hornbill. In the afternoon we walked the Steere's Pitta Trail through to the Brahminy Trail and out at the swimming pool (which looked very well kept and inviting) and back up the steep road to the HQ. The forest in the valley on the Brahminy Trail is excellent and had some of the nicest forest I saw in the Phils. We encountered an excellent mixed flock here with some nice things like the cracking Black-faced Coucal. We also found one of my favourite mammals, the exceptionally unusual Philippine Colugo. In the park, as with everywhere in the Phils, the density of birds was low and the birding was challenging but I found it to be rewarding and pleasant, mainly due to the high quality of the forest itself.
30 July - Fortunately, we had another morning's birding here and this time we walked the Steere's Pitta Trail to Tarictic Trail and out at the swimming pool again. It was very quiet with the best sighting being a fabulous Red-bellied Pitta working its way up a gully and another adult Colugo. After a rest at the pool we all split up and I walked back up the Brahminy Trail. This time I met with great success, immediately encountering a group of confiding Striated Wren-Babblers. Definitely one of the birds of the trip! Continuing on the trail I met a super Amethyst Brown-Dove, close Brown Tit-Babbler and more Black-faced Coucals. We returned to the Chocolate Hills for lunch and to see the hills in daylight. They are quite a remarkable sight - seen from the top of the hill behind the lodge, hundreds of symmetrically-shaped conical hills rolling out to the horizon. We then drove back to Tagbilaran to our ferry to Cebu. The ferry terminal had all the mod cons with the ubiquitous cable television blasting out and an internet cafe. The ferry (the fast ferry) itself is brand new and fully fitted out with safety equipment. The ticket to Cebu costs about $A15. The only birds were saw on the crossing, which takes about 2 hours, were Crested Tern. We overnighted at the somewhat suspect Tonros Arpartelle. 31 July - We departed very early this morning with Catherine from the Cebu Conservation Foundation. It took a couple of hours to reach the Tabunan Forest Reserve where we planned to look for Cebu Flowerpecker and Black Shama, the two endangered Cebu island endemics. An astounding 99.7% of the island's forest cover has been cleared, only a few small patches of forest remain. After meeting with the rangers (Oking would meet us later on his return from his home village), we walked in to the forest first through fields and then through very rocky forested terrain. The remaining forest is on a limestone outcrop and could hardly be used for agriculture. There are two lookouts for the flowerpecker, both are on top of limestone karsts. Getting up to the first lookout involves a bit of rock climbing, while the second has a ladder in place. We put in a few hours at the first lookout without success before deciding to spend some time looking for the shama, which we found without drama. Eventually we got a couple of brief views of the flowerpecker at the second lookout. Afterwards we walked back to Oking's house where his family very kindly invited us in for tea and some dinner - the best meal I enjoyed in the Phils! 1 August - We arranged for a taxi to pick us up at 6am for our flight to Davao in the south of Mindanao. On arrival we were met by Zardo and drove directly to Bislig where we checked in to the comfortable Paper Country Inn. Zardo works at PICOP in security and takes time off guide birders when they visit. The late afternoon/early evening was spent at the airport but the grass owl refused to put in an appearance. 2 August - Today we had a full day birding at PICOP. We started off at the top of the famed 1/4 Road before dawn and soon had some good sightings including Philippine Drongo-Cuckoo, Black-bibbed Cuckoo-shrike, a couple of stunning Rufous Paradise-Flycatchers, Olive-backed Flowerpecker and Yellowish Bulbul. We then continued walking along the road but soon found that the rumours are true - the state of this forest is absolutely terrible. Really, it can hardly be called a forest any longer. After the initial morning activity, the birding became exceptionally hard going with very high temperatures due to the lack of tree cover. The only other birds of note we encountered were Black-headed Tailorbird, Mindano Hornbill and Steere's Pitta. Later we visited a very sad and sorry looking pond where Silvery Kingfisher duly put in an appearance. Later in the afternoon we returned to Bislig and searched for the owl, again without success, and other open country birds in an area of padi fields near the town. 3 August - Another full day of somewhat demoralising birding at PICOP. We walked the 1/4 Road again with the best sightings being a beautiful perched Barred Honey-Buzzard, Azure-rumped Parrot, a group of 5-6 Violet Cuckoos, Purple Needletail, Philippine Trogon, Rufous-lored Kingfisher and Philippine Fairy-bluebird at last. Spotlighting in the evening was not greatly successful except for a cracking Philippine Frogmouth that allowed us to watch it from a metre away for over half an hour. 4 August - We had another morning's birding at PICOP before returning to the inn for lunch. The only new things we saw this morning were Philippine Leafbird, Naked-faced Spiderhunter and Pygmy Babbler. We then left for the long drive to Davao where we overnighted.
5 August - A six o'clock departure for Mount Kitanglad was very relaxed. We arrived in the small town of Dalwagan at the base of the mountain. Here we loaded up the horses with our luggage and set off on foot through the fields to the lodge, which took us about 45 minutes. We met Jimmy here who had already organised our food and tents for the next three nights. With a couple of hours of daylight remaining we walked with Danny to a patch of forest overlooking the adjacent valley and soon came to grips with some of the Mindanao montane specialities including the striking Black-and-Cinnamon Fantail, McGregor's Cuckoo-shrike, Grey-hooded Sunbird, Stripe-breasted Rhabdornis and Cinnamon Ibon. 6 August - I woke this morning to see a Bukidnon Woodcock circling past my tent. We decided to walk to a higher altitude today to look for the Philippine Eagle, of course, as well as some of the endemics found at higher altitudes. The eagles put in a very distant appearance as we watched them soaring over the valley below. As we walked and walked through clearings and fields I realised that most of the land had been cleared already and we were never going to found any large areas of contiguous forest. It was depressing. There were some good birds though, such as Mindanao Racquet-tail, Olive-capped Flowerpecker, Mindanao White-eye and the remarkable Apo Myna. The latter reminding me of the close biogeographical relationship between the Philippines and Sulawesi. As we walked back to the euphemistically named lodge we heard a raptor calling in the narrow valley below and quickly realised that it must be a Philippine Eagle. After some tense moments we spotted the bird calling from a perch in the distance. Then we heard another and another, realising that it was a juvenile bird calling to its parents we were then treated to fantastic views of the birds as they flew from perch to perch and then down the length of the valley. A great end to the day! 7 August - Another full day at Mount Kitanglad saw us again trekking higher up the mountain through thick, almost impenetrable stands of cane grass and scrub. It was raining so that we were soon drenched. The trails were also dangerously slippery and we had to watch every footfall. All in all it was not pleasant but we were keen to find the Apo Sunbird and White-cheeked Bullfinch as well as Blue-capped Kingfisher, which we still had not connected with. We found the sunbird without too much difficulty but the bullfinch was more problematic. The distinctive call was heard on the high reaches of the mountain but we only succeeded in a fleeting view as the bird took off over the canopy like a rocket. I had a couple of consolations in the form of a Mountain Shrike and Red-eared Parrotfinch. I was most disappointed not to find the kingfisher. It rained all evening again putting paid to our chances of nightbirds.
8 August - This morning we birded around the lodge and I again connected with the eagle. Earlier in the morning I was pleased to get good views of the woodcock as I put the spotlight on it as it roded the clearing. The best bird for the morning was a Cryptic Flycatcher in a mixed flock at the lodge. Later the horses and their handlers came to collect our luggage and we trekked back down to the village to meet our lift to Cagayan de Oro. After waiting for three hours we decided we should get a jeepney back to the main highway. Of course, as soon as we did this the vehicle came trundling down the road. The orginal car (a brand new Mercedes van) had broken down en route! Arriving in Cagayan we overnighted at the rather idiosyncratic VIP Hotel. 9 August - Went with Jimmy to the airport and caught our flight to Manila. I then travelled on to Kota Kinabalu. |
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The Philippines, 20 July – 12 August 2002
