Frogmouthing at La Mesa 2013-04-13

A few days earlier, a few of us planned to go to La Mesa Nature reserve during the weekend. As planned, we meet up at McDonalds before we proceed to the reserve. When we arrived there, a guide approached us and told us he was the one who guided our local La Mesa expert Jasmin to the birds. After a short introduction, Efren lead us to where he saw the frogmouth. On the way, we saw a guaiabero (a lifer for me), some yellow vented bulbuls, a gray streaked flycatcher, some noisy golden bellied gerygone and white breasted woodswallows.

Guaiabero

He lead us to a small clearing branching from the main trail and stopped at a cordoned off area. Then he pointed to us the Philippine frogmouth which looks a lot like a branch if you're not aware of its' presence. Everyone with a camera started shooting the bird which seems distracted by our presence and tries to follow our movement with its' eyes. The branch was a bit low that some of us have to lie down to get a good shot. After what seems like an eternity, we're satisfied with our shots of this very cooperative bird and left.

Philippine frogmouth

Mang Efren told us to rest a bit after we reached the main area on our way back. After a few minutes break, he lead us to where the nightjar can be found. When we reached the area, he made a quick peek and told us that the bird is on the ground. At first, we could not see it. The nightjar was able to blend with the surrounding and hide really well. It took us quite some time to find the location of the bird which was only a few meters from us.

Philippine nightjar

Group shot

After the usually shooting frenzy, we took off. It was still early, so we decided to go to Eco Park. There, we saw the previously reported birds in the area, like the ashy ground trush, the mangrove blue flycatcher plus the pechora pipit. We also saw a nesting emerald dove, black naped orioles and other common birds.

Ashy ground trush

Emerald dove

 Pechora pipit

After birding, we had lunch at Chic-Boy, a local chicken/pork grill restaurant, then go home. It was a nice birding experience for me and I was able to add 3 species to my life list.