Coastal cleanup 2012-05-20

 Together with other members of the bird club, we went to LPPCHEA to attend the Ocean month event. When we arrived, the place was already packed with people, particularly members of the other conservation organizations and other volunteers. The event was supposed to include the following activities: coastal cleanup, birdwatching, stargazing and other events organized by the other groups.

After the introductory speech from different VIPs, the program ended and signalled the start of the actual activities. First, the cleanup. It was a hot day for cleaning and the place is already crowded, a few of us decided to just take a walk to the usually restricted parts of the peninsula. After walking about a kilometer of dirt road, we reached a mangrove forest. We continued walking along the mangrove forest and reached the area where the volunteers from the police force were planting more mangroves on the depleted area. After staying a few minutes and watching them finish planting all the plants they carried, we were invited to hitch a ride with them back to the assembly area.

Upon our arrival, the cleanup must have ended as well, faster than we expected. Then it's time for the birdwatching session. We didn't see a lot of species, but we saw many egrets and terns. After the bird watching session, the sky was getting dark. However, instead of packing some of us wanted to do a tree walk, so we followed the group until it's time to return home. We had dinner at the Pancake house along Macapagal Blvd. before we went our separate ways.

Here are some pictures from the activites.