Last day of Palawan birding

We've had two excellent days of birding with Rommel and his steady, flashlight-wielding driver. This morning was our last walk through portions of the park less traveled, which means better for birds. Our first stop this morning was in search of an endemic woodpecker, the Spot-throated Flameback. A group of three individuals gave us a good look through the spotting scope, but I do need to work on my digiscoping skills.

Woodpeckers have been elusive during most of our travels, although different species can be found everywhere we've travelled. The north American woodpeckers that are most familiar to me see quite tame relative to the woodpeckers in southeast Asia, mainly because they are vocal and will let you have a good look! 

Ryan was especially good with the GoPro this morning. We see lots of lovely birds, but we don't have that many photos of us actually birding! This is one of my favorite shots because of the landowners' expressions. I know Rommel has visited this place several times with other birders, so people with binoculars ooh-ing and ahh-ing is probably not new. It is probably not all that common either, and I get many of the same looks in Okinawa. Truthfully, I suspect birders all over the world get these looks from non-birders.

Another endemic was the Lovely Sunbird. It was lovely, indeed, although very difficult to photograph from below. Again, I had excellent looks through my binoculars, but the photo merely proves that I saw it. There are much better photos available on Google, most of which have been provided by Rommel.

Rommel took us to a new place for him, an area recently cleared for what seems to be a solar panel farm. I applaud all efforts at green energy, especially in an area where so many people live without clean water. Apparently, there is a hold-up in funding, and so the removal of forest served to only remove some trees. The effect on birding was to create an "edge" habitat that didn't seem to support too many birds, although it was getting close to noon.

I have to commend Rommel for being an excellent tourguide who knows his clients! Ryan and I are not hardcore birders. We are truly happy to see whatever it is we encounter. If I can get a good photo, all the better. We both appreciated looking for birds when the time for seeing was best: early morning for most birds and dusk/night for the nocturnal species. The breaks throughout the day helped to keep us excited and rested while avoiding the heat and bugs.

The last place we visited was very near our hotel, a small bungalow-style hotel for travelers. Had I known of this place, I might have elected to stay here for the remaining two nights of our time in Palawan. The grounds are beautifully kept, with a freshwater stream running towards the ocean, plenty of flowering shrubs, and tall trees to keep things cool. It was here that we finally saw Palawan Fairy-bluebirds. There were several individuals, I think six in all, that were foraging in the trees just overhead. One female was especially cooperative in that she gave me the best photo of the trip.

On this brightest of notes, we bade farewell to Rommel and our driver, whose name we never quite got but who was always by our sides. Rommel was heading back to Puerto Princesa's main city, which is on the complete other side of the island from the park, to prepare for another week-long tour. The bird guide's life never quite ends when you live on an island with this many endemic species. We were left to our own to enjoy the area around the park by ourselves, which for Ryan meant sleeping in. For me, it would mean pondering just which places I needed to revisit in order to get a decent shot of the Yellow-throated Leafbird, and I still needed to find postcards...

Underground River NP

Our quest for birds endemic to Palawan continued early this morning. Rommel arranged for us to visit the Puerto Princesa Underground River National Park (PPURNP) before the official hours in hopes of seeing the Palawan Peacock-pheasant: half peacock, half pheasant, all awesome. There are six species of peacock-pheasants (Genus Polyplectron) in the world, and I have seen none of them. I've been hopeful about catching a glimpse of this bird since we started planning this trip, so I awoke this morning very optimistic and ready to go. Unfortunately for Ryan, who is not a morning person, I was really ready to go.

There was plenty of light when we left the marina, but the thick understory of of the park made it seem like we could have slept in for another hour or two. We went to the main office for the rangers of the park, which was a bit away from the primary trailhead that most visitors see. The place seemed overrun with water monitors and long-tailed macaques, the latter giving me more unease because of some unfortunate encounters in Malaysia. We admired from a safe distance, waiting for the macaques to retire back to the trees as sunrise ensued.

Shortly after our arrival, Rommel beckoned us into the brush where a lovely male Palawan Peacock-pheasant was calmly walking around. He came very close to us, within 1-2 meters, allowing for excellent views without binoculars and plenty of photos. The encounter was exquisite, and my expectations for seeing this lovely bird were exceeded by how pretty he was. Not to sound too overwhelmed, but there are organisms in nature who are indeed living jewels. The only sad thing for me is that there wasn't enough light for good photos without a flash. The flash gave me crisp images, but all of the bird's blue hues were turned green. Definitely a first-world birder's problem!

Rommel told us that this individual is perhaps the loneliest Palawan Peacock-pheasant in the world. He has been hanging around the rangers' office for close to 20 years, and has always made an appearance for the birding groups that Rommel brings to the park. Rommel joked that he wasn't sure what he would do if/when this individual ceased to come around. Palawan Peacock-pheasants require primary forest, the availability of which has been decreasing for years. 

We said "see you later" to the Peacock-pheasant and continued to look for birds elsewhere in the park. Rommel had arranged for us to take the tour of the underground river in one of the first boats, and we wanted to take advantage of the early hour and the quiet of the park. There was also the chance that we could try to find the bird again when the light was better, for a good photo.

Tabon scrubfowl, or Philippine Megapode, was another species that we hoped we would encounter. These are ground-dwelling birds that bury their eggs in the ground and allow the soil to incubate the eggs. This is a different strategy from most birds that use their body heat to incubate. While probably freeing for the megapode, it does mean the eggs are vulnerable to other ground-dwelling organisms that might love to dig and find an easy source of protein, like this monitor lizard.

The park offers a small network of trails that take visitors to the accessible extremes of the park. We trusted the construction of these natural timbers to take us up the karst cliffs that have been a common feature in the landscape since arriving in El Nido. We were told that the locals scale these in flip flops. We were thankful for the stairs and handrails.

The higher elevations allowed for glimpses at birds, but the increasing temperatures sent us back down the stairs to the forest floor. We followed the paths until they seemed to parallel a small stream, where Rommel said we might see the Palawan Fairy-bluebird. No such luck, but we did run into another endemic: Palawan blue flycatcher!

This male perched for a good long time, allowing for many photos and long looks through binoculars. Nearby was a female, who I was only able to catch briefly in the binoculars as she flitted through the understory. I learned why after she perched on what seemed like a bulbous branch, which turned out to be a nest! Once I saw the nest, I trained my camera on the nest in hopes of catching her next visit. Ryan and Rommel waited patiently for about five minutes, which can be a very long time when you are sweating and being mobbed by mosquitoes. She never returned, and it was finally time for our tour of the Underground River.

We donned the appropriate PPE and joined a boat of daring-but-safe explorers.

Our tourguide had one flashlight, which he gave to one of the younger members of our boat to handle. He would provide instructions on where to shine the light, and she would place the beam as instructed so that we could see the particular marvels of the cave. This worked "ok," as the instructions were given in English, which was not the first language of either our guide or the tourist! The beam often flickered as more of a strobe light than a solid beam on one area at a time, making photographs nearly impossible. If permitted, I recommend bringing your own headlamp for flashflight so that you can "help" with the tour or linger further on items that interest you or that you want to photograph.

I was most interested in the bats. Once we got into the cave where the darkness overwhelmed us, the bats were everywhere. You could hear them, and when the beam from our boat's flashlight happened to pause for more than a moment, you could see more of their behaviors. I was curious about the number of bats, species, and some of their ecology, but I think I'll have to investigate those scientific details on my own. Our tour was focused more on entertainment than cave biology, which has its own appeal, I guess:

The tour lasted less than half an hour. I'm not sure how much tickets cost for the tour, as ours were included with our 3-day birding tour with Rommel. Although this cave is certainly one of a kind, I think we both felt a bit disappointed. I'm not entirely sure what we expected, but I think I was expecting something similar to the add-on tour I experience when I visited Carlsbad Caverns: knowledgeable guides, adequate time, and just the right balance of technical information to explain the wonder of what you're seeing!

After having some time to ponder the tour, what "national park" means depending on where you are in the world, and how government resources are allocated to both protect natural areas and promote tourism, I am happy to have visited the Puerto Princesa Underground River National Park. The cave and the surrounding land deserves protection, and I am thankful that the people who live nearby and the government both seem to have a sincere interest in making the park as accessible as possible. This can't be an easy task, with the inherent dangers of caving and a constantly changing water level.

The park does not suffer from too few visitors, that's for sure. In fact, I wonder if the opposite is true? Our visit to the park began at least an hour before the park officially opened, so that we could look for birds without the crowds. We literally had the place to ourselves:

And here is the photo of our departure from the same beach, taken just before lunchtime:

Couple this image with the noise of the motors of these little boats, and perhaps it is possible to imagine too many visitors.

We returned to our bungalow for a snack and a quiet afternoon. Ryan and I were free to walk around, have coffee, nap, or do whatever. After the early morning start, Ryan took a quick nap. I made a new friend.

When the evening came, we set out just after dinner to look for more Palawan endemic species. I saw Palawan Hornbills, always fun to see, and was surprised by a good look at three Palawan Tits. The hornbills I expected and have been keeping an eye out since we got here. I had no idea just how many species were endemic to Palawan till meeting Rommel and going over the list of likely to see, if we're lucky we'll see, and no chance in hell species. I don't like getting my hopes up, and usually try to keep an open mind and be thankful for whatever flies in my field of view. This evening was a great evening for birding. No photos of the hornbills or tits, but I got a decent digiscoped pic of a pair of Dollarbirds:

After the sun set, we went on the hunt for another nocturnal species: the Palawan Frogmouth.

Not only did we get excellent looks, but we believe that this individual was sitting on a nest! It's difficult to tell from this photo, but the the small assemblage of moss and other leaf litter arranged just so on the branch underneath this individual looked very much like a nest, especially when viewed on the other side of the branch. Good photos were more difficult this evening, but excellent looks through binoculars seemed to confirm that this was a nesting individual. Rommel suggested we not disturb the bird, so we took in some long looks and retired for the evening.

El Nido to PPURNP

We didn't arrange to spend too much time in El Nido, which we now know was a mistake on our part. Look at those cliffs! 

Other than a quick breakfast and some walking around in the morning, El Nido remains a mystery to us. We can only imagine the hidden places in and among the natural walls. There are plenty of videos taken from El Nido and shared by other adventurers. We know this because we have since explored the videos and our kicking ourselves for not actually exploring the area! However, birds beckoned, and after a solid six days with TAO, we thought we should savor the many things we did explore rather than lament missing the mysteries that have merely been saved till a later date.

We arranged for a few days of birding. Palawan, like many islands, has species of birds that are found only on Palawan. These island endemics are always fun to find, but I am looking forward to seeing anything that will allow me to get a good look and a halfway decent photo. During our recent expedition with TAO, all my fellow explorers made sure that I saw whatever birds we encountered on our trip. Some of my explorers really got into it, noticing pretty songs of birds or interesting behaviors. I love that about birds: even if you know nothing, you tend to know what a bird is which promotes easy observation for just about anyone willing to try.

Our guide, Rommel Cruz*, naturalist and the most knowledgeable birder on Palawan, coordinated our transportation from El Nido to the area of Puerto Princesa's Underground River National Park. In this area we would be able to find most of the island endemics, as well as ample lodging and meal options. Our driver was the best. He stopped at pretty vistas for photos,

found a roadside lunch option with coffee and snacks and kitty cats,

and had the best soundtrack for our drive south.

We met Rommel at another roadside cafe stop, exchanged greetings, and then were off to find one of Palawan's endemics: the Falcated Wren-Babbler. We followed Rommel down a "trail" through some of the lowland forest that is rapidly disappearing from Palawan and that is also this species' preferred habitat. Although we would find the wren-babbler later, it was a no-show on this day. I knew that watching birds here would be challenging with thick understory and persistent mosquitoes.

Rommel then recommended that we pause for the rest of the afternoon and start again at dusk. We thought that an excellent idea. I have never understood charging through the day, birding at the same intensity throughout the day while the birds are certainly not as active as in the mornings. Some of my birding friends may disagree and find this lazy birding. I like to think of it as leisurely birding, because while I do like to see birds, I also like the opportunity to take in everything about an area. We checked into our lodge, got a bit of a rest, and then took off just as the sun was setting to see what we could see.

Three Philippine Cockatoos - check! - made a brief appearance flying across this bay:

Next, Rommel took us to land that was privately owned but being managed by a family while the owner was away. The property was perfectly situated at a high point that had been cleared to a basin, leading up to another hillside across the way. While the clearing of mature forest was sad, it did make for good scanning of birds that might be flying over or foraging in the canopy across the way. It was at this spot that we had a good chance of seeing Palawan Hornbill.

Apparently, the hornbills were at the same party as the wren-babblers, leaving me hopeful that we might see them at some point. However, thanks to Rommel's trusty scope, we did get some excellent looks at Blue-headed Raquet-tails:

As night fell, we headed towards one of the more remote areas within the boundaries of the national park to look for some of the nocturnal endemics of Palawan. I love searching for nocturnal birds. I don't do it enough and have no real good explanation as to why. Part of the reason is that I'm a bit frightened to go out at night. The idea that "something" might "get" me is palpable, and laughable, I know. Another reason is that nocturnal birding takes a bit more resources. Yes, you could go out with your binoculars and hope that you hear something or that something swoops and lands in just the spot where your flashlight is. More successful searching for nocturnal wildlife involves playbacks, or the use of audio recordings of birds in hopes that the territorial ones will respond, come in close, and give you a good look. Finding good audio recordings takes a bit of research and then some equipment for the field. Once in the field, you must be ready to play the recording, pause long enough to listen, look all around for movement, use the flashlight to highlight the individual, and then somehow balance the flashlight and the binoculars for a good look. For a good photo, you need two people!

Rommel had clearly rehearsed all of the above-mentioned elements, and then some. He asked his driver to join us down a long, dark path so that we could have a fourth person to handle the flashlight while Ryan, Rommel, and I could have our fill of photos and looks through binoculars. He had some excellent recordings, nearly free from the hiss that goes along with recording in the elements. And the bird responded! In this case, a sleepy but curious Palawan Scops-Owl flew in and absolutely posed for the camera.

When I get close to owls, I always remind myself to get inspired about more nighttime birding opportunities.

Back at our lodge, Ryan pointed out the long history of the US-Philippine relationship as commemorated on the back of the 500 pesos bill. I guess it could be a mother and her child interacting with members of their country's militia, but apparently some people interpret this as a scene between the US military and the Filipino people. I'm always fascinated by other currencies anyway, why some countries put people or wildlife or anything on their monies. This is an old bill - the newer pesos are much more colorful and feature wildlife or protected natural areas. 

* UPDATE, June 2017: Rommel Cruz has since started his own Eco Tour Agency, WILD Expedition Palawan. The list of trips and opportunities has grown well beyond birds and now includes some locations that would be difficult to reach on your own, including the Tubbataha Reefs Natural Park. Check him out if you find yourself in The Philippines!

Tao New Year's Expedition, Day 6

Our final morning with Tao, our last day of boating, and our last day with new friends. Where did the time go?! Last night, most of our crew celebrated new friends and a successful liveaboard with rum and pineapple juice well into the night. Ryan and I turned in shortly after our evening massages. After being lulled into a state of comfort, the most appealing activity for me was snuggling into my little mattress beneath the mosquito netting and listening to the waves.

After breakfast, we had several hours to ourselves at this last stop of the expedition. The children were given the task of collecting coconuts and bringing them to the area where they would be harvest for coconut oil. The children made a game of their chores, perhaps not a bad strategy for all things work-related? I enjoyed watching them learn that they could make short work of the chore by working in pairs or groups of three.

Once the coconuts were transferred, Serena agreed to play a game with them. She said that the rules seemed to change with each round, but it was fun to watch the kids laugh and squeal. It is always fun to put one over on the adults.

The breeze off the water and some coconut tree shade helped cool the afternoon heat. Ryan found a sweet spot for reading and fresh air.

Swimming offers its own distractions while cooling off.

We swam out to the boat and began our last voyage with Krisolo 2 and her crew. Happily, our journey to El Nido was punctuated with a few stops along the way, each one giving us more insight into the life and fun to be had in Palawan. Our first stop was a boat-building village and a meeting with one of the builders of boats used in TAO Expeditions, who also happens to be the father of our excellent Captain.

We toured the village, which helped us to dry off after our swim ashore.
No dinghies with TAO, but why book a liveaboard if you wish to remain dry?

One of my favorite stops was the school. No classes on this day, as it is the holiday season. The outsides of the buildings were decorated with sayings and educational lessons, which I thought was an excellent use of the space. 

Tox set the tone for the next leg of our trip, which included a balance beam battle and other liveaboard shenanigans. A new twist on the "chug" competitions using masks and snorkels. Ann Christine helped out to keep things fair and equitable. Turns out that Wasoy and Eric, aka Buckling my darling, were evenly matched in this quaffing competition.

We also visited the village where Eric grew up, which also has its share of boat builders and repair persons.

Not long after, the cliffs of El Nido greeted us, and I knew that our TAO expedition was going to end soon. We were excited about the prospects of a real shower, or at least one that was more familiar to us than the bucket showers we'd been using. At the same time, I was so sad that this amazing trip, something we'd been looking forward to for the better part of the year and something that more than lived up to our hopes and expectations, was nearly over. Full disclosure: I was a little teary. I like to think that these were tears of joy more than sorrow, for we had increased our global family by 17 individuals and four countries in six days! Efficient, we are.

Clockwise from the top left: Shona, John and Sarah, Edward, Ann Christine,
Narice, Colin (top), Rob (bottom), Sirina and David, and Martin.

Captain Panoy