We’ve now seen 89 birds at the farm! We had three new birds this weekend:
White-bellied Munia Lonchura locugastra
Ruddy-breasted Crake Ponzana fusca
Philippine Green Pigeon (formerly known as Pompadour Green Pigeon) Treron axillaris
I happened to bring a camera that weekend to take bird pictures. When I looked at my photos, I was surprised to see a Philippine Green Pigeon mixed in with the flock of Pink-necked Green Pigeons!
It was also the weekend of the Perseids meteor shower. The peak of the meteor shower, when you could view up to 50 meteors an hour, was supposed to be late evening up to early morning.
We set up early knowing that farm nights usually end very early for us! We had cold drinks, snacks, and a mat for Momo and Barkley. Bats danced overhead. Soon there were firelies around us and owls calling.
When it was dark a Grass Owl perched on the bamboo fence in front of us. I peered up at the sky through binoculars. The stars were beautiful and endless! Then one star would start moving and I would follow it with the binoculars! There was only a short window of time when the skies were clear. Later that evening, the skies in the north eastern part of the sky were covered in clouds.
photo by Tonji
Behind us there were still clear skies and even more stars. If you look closely at the photo, you can see a firefly coming in to land beside the lamp near the house.
Finally, a photo of a Hooded Pitta at the farm! Good job Tonji! We hear them calling frequently from different areas of the farm but hardly get to see them. They tend to stay inside the tree line walking on the ground and perching on branches.
There is a bamboo fence at the edge the field in front of the house that is very popular with the birds. Tonji thought it would be a good idea to set up the wildlife camera by the fence. He left it in place for more than a week. By the time he got it back, the camera had taken thousands of photos, mostly of grass swaying in the wind!
Note to self on wildlife cameras: Do not position your wildlife camera towards a field of swaying grass. If you do, you will have 17,000 photos of swaying grass.
Tonji very gallantly offered himself up to do the tedious work of sifting through the thousands of photos for the ones that have birds in them. Then I got the bird photos from him so I could post the interesting ones here!
Another note to self on wildlife cameras: If you are positive and optimistic, you will find some interesting shots among the 17,000 photos of swaying grass! Think positive!
Long Tailed Shrike with a frog! That’s a big catch!
Grass Owl. Why is it so overexposed though?
Not so sure what this is, but it looks interesting! Could it be a Philippine Scops Owl?
And the regulars. Striated Grassbird.
Paddyfield Pipit
Spotted Dove in flight.
Male and female Pied Bushchat.
The Spotted Dove didn’t want to make eye contact with the wildlife camera.
Unlike the Long Tailed Shrike!
What is the allure of that strip of bamboo? I assume that the birds like the elevated vantage point. We probably also just see the birds more easily when they are on the fence because they in plain sight and not covered by leaves. Could there be more to it than that? Why are all those different birds perched on the same spot? This experiment with the wildlife camera has made that bamboo fence look more interesting than ever!
Tonji and Sylvia's Wildlife Refuge 