Raptor Counting in Tanay 2013-03-17

There will be a group going to Tanay to do some raptor counting. Unwilling to get up at 4 in the morning, I decided to just go there on my own. When I arrived at the Tanay PAGASA tower, not one birder can be seen. I was told by the PAGASA staffs that a few minutes earlier, the birders just left. Since I regularly do birding solo, I decided to just count raptors one my own.

It was a warm sunny day but strong wind was blowing at the mountain side. I stayed at the shaded area to enjoy the fresh mountain air while scanning the sky with my bins. After a few minutes there without a single raptor in sight, I decided to scan the trees beside the tower. The first bird I spotted, aside from the striated swallows flying around the tower, is a Brown shrike followed by a Pied thriller.

 

About half an hour later, I saw my first raptor for the day, an Oriental honey buzzard.

Then a group of 24 raptors at a distance. A few minutes later, another group of 5 then several individuals.

After my 31st raptor, I didn't see anymore raptors for quite some time, I decided that it's time for me to leave. When I was about to leave, I saw the group of Alex coming back to the tower. They called me to join them back at the tower and so I did. This time with the official raptor counter and more pair of eyes, we managed to count a lot more than my solo count. We ended the counting at around 2 in the afternoon and head back home.