Birding 2012-02-11

I went up the hill to Angono cave again. This time I brought with me a light 70mm scope for bird watching. Along the way, I saw some usual birds in the area and a lifer: a Golden headed cisticola.

White breasted wood swallow

White collared kingfisher at the Eastridge golf course

At the Angono Petroglyph site, I asked Roden, the guy in-charge, if the owl he mentioned during my previous visit was there and he pointed to me the location where it's usually seen. It's there and in a good spot - easy to see and photograph. The good thing about this Philippine eagle owl is it isn't alarmed by a small group of people (me, Roden , Dave the guard, and the janitor). It even stared at me as if tempting me to capture him, well at least on my camera. Hehe. One of them pointed another owl in a slightly hidden location.The trees there also have some very active small yellow birds which, at first, I thought to be Golden bellied gerygone. After seeing them on the scope, I changed my mind. The birds are yellow with black markings on the nape. I'm not sure what species they are. I could not capture them on my camera either - they're too active. When I arrived home, I searched my bird book and saw the closest match: Elegant tit. However, I'm still uncertain about this, my evil mind still thinks it is different from what I saw earlier. Maybe confirmation from other birders will help. :)

The list of birds I've seen and counted:

*Golden headed cisticola - 1
Yellow vented bulbul - 4
Pied Thriller - 1
Long tailed shrike - 6
White collared kingfisher - 1
White breasted wood swallow - 5
Scaly breasted munia - 1
Black naped oriole - 2 (1 seen, 1 heard)
Philippine eagle owl - 2
Brown shrike - 1
Zebra dove - 2
*Elegant tit (not sure) - >4
+ Some unique calls heard but didn't see the bird

* means life birds

Here are a few images of the Angono cave, the Petroglyphs and tunnel taken during my previous visit there.