by
Nilo Arribas, Jr.
Location: Sta. Elena Golf and Country Club
Date: November 26, 2003
Time: 6:30AM to 3:15PM
Weather: Overcast skies early in the morning with
hot sunny skies throughout the birding day
Birdwatchers: Michael Lu, Kitty Arce, Andrew Galano,
Mads Bajarias, Lu-Ann Fuentes, Nilo Arribas Jr., Mr. Edgardo de
Vera (Audubon consultant, Sta Elena Golf and Country Club), Ms.
Tinky Cabanatan (host)
The
Petron gasoline station at the Manila South Super Highway was chosen
as the group's meeting place for this trip. So there I was with
Mike at 4:30 in the morning sitting outside the Petron's convenience
store waiting for the others. The meeting place was just a 30-minute
drive from Manila. It was around 5:30 am when we touched base with
the group of Mads, Lu-Ann, Andrew and Kitty. A short meeting, and
we were off the road heading towards Cabuyao, Laguna. The first
stopover was the Sta Elena main gate where the usual visitor's verification
is conducted.
On the way to the Club house, we were astounded by the wide open
field of grass and trees. In fact, this open field may offer some
birding potentials depending on its accessibility/availability since
it's a privately owned real estate. I hardly noticed the 5-7-minute
ride to the club house since my eyes were locked on the rows of
trees and the neat carpet of grass.
The club house:
The group arrived at the Sta Elena club house at around 6:00am.
While looking for a place to park the cars, we were greeted by a
lone YELLOW-VENTED BULBUL perched on one of the smaller trees adjacent
to the
parking area as if saying "welcome to our place" :). One
thing that caught our attention was its relatively large build (a
healthier variant of the Manila residents?).
The Sta Elena club house has a large open receiving/resting area
overlooking two (2) swimming pools. An open walkway that cuts across
one of the Smaller pool serves as the only access to what appears
as secluded garden carpeted with bermuda grass surrounded by shrubs,
flowers and other plants. This is an interesting spot, but we were
still "feeling" our way around and the sight of a separate
walkway with a nicely built trellis leading to the second pool to
our left was also an attractive place to start birding.
It was Andrew who led us into this four-storey viewing deck which
offers a 360-degree vantage point of the whole club house area.
It was a good thing that none of us decided to check the first pool
through the walkway earlier, otherwise we could have spoiled the
sight of two (2) large WHITE-BREASTED WATERHEN loitering around
the secluded garden. Their size and playful behavior suggests an
abundance of food and/or undisturbed habitat. While we are enjoying
the sight of these cute pair of water hens, Mads noticed an unusually
large brown bird which turned out to be a STRIATED GRASSBIRD in
the company of two (2) colorful LONG-TAILED SHRIKES on the same
tree just outside the larger pool. Just like the other birds in
the area, we had to take a closer look for positive identification
since they are relatively bigger in size compared to their city-based
(Manila) relatives. Of course, their relatively tamed behavior makes
the identification easier for us. Having a bird's eye view from
the view deck also has its downside, we found ourselves trailing
our binoculars down to a small bird crouching on the pavement near
the edge of the parking lot. It took us sometime to positively identify
this bird since it was not moving and it blended well in the crevices
of the pavement. After consulting the Kennedy bird guidebook and
after the bird started to move, we realized that it was a lone YELLOW
WAGTAIL.
About 20 minutes in the view deck, Andrew, Kitty and Mike decided
to go down and check the surrounding areas of the club house. Lu-Ann,
Mads and I stayed in the viewing platform and noticed about three
(3) ZEBRA DOVES hopping from one tree to another. Due to it's abundance
in the area, we never lost sight of these doves up until we left
Sta Elena in the afternoon.
Turning our backs from the zebra doves, Mads saw a WHITE-THROATED
KINGFISHER perched on a tree near the larger pool of the club house.
We were about to advice Mike and Kitty downstairs about the new
find, but it turned out that we were simultaneously looking at the
same bird from different vantage points. Not far from the tree where
we saw the kingfisher, we noticed two (2) BROWN SHRIKES in a leafless
tree, facing the slowly rising sun. A few seconds later, Lu-Ann
called our attention to what appears to be a RICHARD'S PIPIT in
the roof of the club house. It was a strange sight for us and personally
for me since all of my past encounters with this bird is on the
ground/grass but the proud posture, the feet and the Kennedy guidebook
tells it all. There are lots of birds flying around (maybe some
type of swift or swallow) but we can't positively identify them
from where we stood. Within thirty minutes on the same location,
we managed to log a total of 9 birds. Not bad for a start !
We saw Andrew chasing a crow from a distance while Mike and Kitty
were on their way to the same road, so we decided to go down and
join the group. Our intention was to get closer to the crow for
identification but we were attracted by a call from a kingfisher
on the other side of the road. This guy turned out to be a lone
WHITE-COLLARED KINGFISHER. Andrew joined us later with a LARGE-BILLED
CROW to add to our list. While we re-grouped and exchanged notes
on our bird lists, another group of doves caught our attention.
After checking, it turned out to be the abundant Zebra Doves. It
was at this point where we noticed the car of Ms. Tinky Cabanatan,
the project manager of Sta Elena's Fun farm/Kinder Zoo.
Around
7:30am, Tinky got us golf carts which will serve as our only mode
of transportation inside the golf course. It was not long before
Mike was able figure out the levers and pedals of the our cart and
off we went trailing behind Tinky, Kitty and Andrew. Our next stopover
was the Veranda of the main Club House to get our provisions (packed
meal/breakfast). While waiting for our first packed meal for the
day in the lounge, the bulletin board with postings of Audubon activities
in Sta Elena caught our attention. Apparently, Sta. Elena is pursuing
accreditation/certification from Audubon Society. This was confirmed
later that day. After getting our food and drinks, we headed straight
to the "bahay kubo" which is a facility being rented out
for over-night stay. It was past eight o'clock in the morning and
we felt that we can forgo breakfast and go straight birding otherwise,
there might not be any bird left. Ms. Tinky gave us final instructions
on the areas we were allowed to go to and the
restricted areas. There was an on-going golf tournament at that
time so we had to be careful not to cross their path.
The mini forest:
Tinky escorted us in one of the mini-forests (secondary growth)
before she left for her office. It was about 8:45am and we decided
to leave our golf carts and follow a trail. The LONG-TAILED SHRIKE
is a common sight along the trail. The first 100 meters, we were
looking high up in the sky distracted by a silhouette of an unidentified
object that could have been a kite, raptor or something similar
circling above beyond positive identification. Some patches of rain-water
along the trail kept my hope of finding rails but the sound of mechanized
transport ahead certainly led us to frustration. The group decided
to leave the trail and explore the the mini forest. Looking at the
relatively clean floor of the mini forest and the lack of fruit-bearing
trees in that particular area explains the absence of birds... or
maybe we came late... well, whatever ... we decided to go back to
the trail/road and move on. While we were looking at the colorful
long-tailed shrikes, someone saw a pair of PIED FANTAILS, a new
addition to our list after more than an hour with nothing! While
I was writing down the pied fantail in my list, Mike pointed to
what appears to be a stretched wing of a brown bird about 150 meters
away. As we slowly approached the area to investigate, a LESSER
COUCAL flew past across our path and disappeared as fast as it came.
Going back to Mike's bird, we realized that there were actually
two (2) birds stretching and drying their wings in sun on the waist-high
grasses. And yup, it was a pair of LESSER COUCALS which disappeared
as we moved closer. We reached the Fun Farm area where Lu-Ann saw
a small Sunbird high above a tree behind the Amphitheater. We then
had to move closer in order to positively identify this small and
fast-moving subject. It turned out to be a male OLIVE-BACKED SUNBIRD
which was later joined by a female. Mike and Mads led the way to
a parking area for trucks where they saw a brown bird near the parked
trucks. Further investigation revealed it to be a female PIED BUSHCHAT.
Further away was a male PIED BUSHCHAT. The Radio antenna in one
of the buildings served as resting place for eleven (11) Pacific
swallows. We also noted a lot of Eurasian Tree Sparrows in this
part of the property. It was around 10:10am when Kitty got in touched
with Mr. Edgardo de Vera also known as "The Chief" who
is the Audubon consultant of Sta Elena Golf and Country Club. He
joined our group several minutes later and toured us around the
mini-lakes they established as habitats for the different bird species.
Our first bird in the mini-lake was a BLACK-CROWNED NIGHT HERON
partly hidden in the undergrowth of a tree near the waterline. We
went back to our golf carts and proceeded to a bigger lake. Mike
saw the first Common Moorhen near the edge of the lake. Our excitement
was cut short because we had to give way to the golf tournament
players so we readily moved back but was instead treated to an awesome
view of a PURPLE HERON in flight. Mike moved closer to the common
moorhen and we realized that there were two (2) of them about 5
meters from each other. While we enjoyed the sight of the two birds,
Mike's attention was caught by a strange small bird about 10 meters
from the moorhens which looked like a COMMON SANDPIPER but its characteristics
is different. It is only after moving closer to about 35 meters
from the bird that Mike was able to established positive ID.
The Chief led us to the other side of the lake and we saw two (2)
YELLOW BITTERNS as we walked/drove slowly along the banks of the
lake. We had to keep moving in order to avoid the golf tournament
players. While in the same side of lake, we noticed a LARGE-BILLED
CROW and according to Mr. de Vera, the crow has a nest somewhere
in one of the large trees. While resting in the shades of the trees,
Ed positively identified the small fast birds as GLOSSY SWIFTLETS..
It was around 11:40am when we decided to return to the< Bahay Kubo
(nipa hut) for our breakfast or should i say, Brunch :) It was in
the Bahay Kubo where Mr. de Vera shared his experience and thoughts
about the efforts of Sta Elena in building a habitat for Birds and
other wildlife. We had lunch while the Zebra Doves and Long-tailed
Shrikes circled around the bahay kubo. After our brunch, Mr. de
Vera left us and the others took a short nap while Mike and Mads
were discussing the WBCP plans for the next year. Lunch was delivered
at around 12:30pm but everybody was more interested in a pair of
Olive-backed sunbird just outside our bahay kubo Around 1:30pm Kitty
called our attention to a group of BLACK-NAPED ORIOLES in the large
tree in front of the bahay kubo. This signalled the start of our
afternoon bird watching activity where we saw two (2) BUZZING FLOWERPECKERS
added to our bird list. At about 3:15pm, Mike and I decided to call
it a day for bird watching and return to our base (bahay kubo).
We left Mads, Kitty and Lu-Ann for the late afternoon session while
Andrew drove us (golf cart) to the parking lot.
On our way home, we received messages from the group who stayed
behind and added the following to our list:
Red Turtle Dove (2), Pied Triller (1), a Barred Rail and a Plain
Bush Hen.
STA. ELENA GOLF & COUNTRY CLUB BIRD LIST
==================================================
1. Purple Heron [Ardea Purpurea] - 1
2. Black-Crowned Night Heron [Nycticorax nycticorax] - 2
3. Cinnamon Bittern [Ixobrychus cinnamomeus] - 1
4. Yellow Bittern [Ixobrychus sinensis] - 2
5. Barred Rail [Galliralus torquatus] - 2
6. Plain Bush-hen [Amaurornis Olivaceus] - 1
7. White-breasted Waterhen [Amaurornis phoenicurus] - 2
8. Common Moorhen [Gallinula chloropus] - 3
9. Common Sandpiper [Actitis hypoleucos] - 2
10. Red Turtle-Dove [Streptopelia tranquebarica] - 1
11. Zebra Dove [Geopelia striata] - many
12. Lesser Coucal [Centropus bengalensis] - 3
13.Glossy Swiftlet [Collocalia esculenta] - many
14. Common Kingfisher [Alcedo atthis] - 1
15. White-throated Kingfisher [Halcyon smyrnensis] -2
16. White-collared Kingfisher [Halcyon chloris] -1
17. Philippine Pygmy Woodpecker [Dendrocopus maculatus] - heard
only
18. Pacific Swallow [Hirundo tahitica] - 11
19.Pied Triller [Lalage nigra] - 1
20. Yellow-vented Bulbul [Pycnonotus goiavier] - many
21. Black-naped Oriole [Oriolus chinensis] - 4
22.Large-billed Crow [Corvus macrorhynchos] - 2
23. Pied Bushchat [Saxicola caprata] - 3, (2 female & 1 male)
24.Golden-bellied Flyeater [Gerygone sulphurea] - 1
25. Striated Grassbird [Megalurus palustris] - 4
26. Pied Fantail [Rhipidura javanica] -2
27. Yellow Wagtail [Motacilla flava] - 1
28. Richard's Pipit [Anthus novaseelandiae] - 1
29. Long-tailed Shrike [Lanius schach] - many
30. Brown Shrike [Lanius cristatus] - 2
31. Olive-backed Sunbird [Nectarinia jugularis] - 2
32. Buzzing Flowerpecker [Dicaeum hypoleucum] - 2
33. Eurasian Tree Sparrow [Passer montanus] - many
