Spring migrants

An interesting weekend, for some nicely non-birdy reasons which I'm not going to go into. Filthy weather meant ringing was out of the question, so we took a wander around Slapton and Beesands Leys with N. An easterly wind was howling through, with steady rain, yet despite this we managed to note Reed Warbler, Blackcap and Chiffchaff singing, with a Willow Warbler and plenty of vocal resident Cetti's in addition. Swallows were feeding carefully over the ley surface, with a House Martin and a handful of Sand Martins picked out from amongst them, as well as a slightly surprising Swift - first of the year for both of us. Bird of the day was a nice spring Yellow Wagtail flushed from the line, keeping company with a handful of cracking Wheatear; always a pleasure to see. Beyond that, there was little out of the ordinary, although the resident female Marsh Harrier was seen briefly before she dropped into the reeds at the back of Stokeley bay - perhaps trying to end it all in the face of the conditions: I wouldn't blame her!

Some of my Philippines photos are now up on www.jerbarker.co.uk so feel free to have a look. A first-draft trip report is also on there, though there will need to be some changes and a bit of editing.

Negros Oriental

Greetings from Dumaguete, Negros Oriental; somewhere just belw left centre of the main Philippine islands group. Just a filler for the moment to while away some time before I get back to the airport to fly back to Manila. I've finished off a rapid-fire birding trip round the three main islands in the Phils: Luzon, Palawan and Mindanao, and have spent a couple of days unsucessfully chasing Negros endemics. The four of us who were on the trip managed to see approximately 120 of the 170-odd endemic birds of the Philippines, which looks better when you consider that many of the unseen species are possibly extinct, restricted to islands we didn't visit, or found in inaccessible parts of those islands we did visit!

Not content with birds, I've managed to photograph a good selection of dragonflies and damselflies, some of which I have been able to identify already (hoorah!) and a hatful of butterflies, none of which I have been able to ID. Watch this space for further updates when I get back home... I'll publish some photos on here and a stack more on my website, space permitting.

Been a pleasant trip overall, with generally good food, nice enough people and fine weather (boy have I tanned up!), but with some significant frustrations as well - particularly the field guide to the birds of the Philippines. I shall explain at a later point!

Oh, and as for the previous post, yes, we saw Palawan Peacock-pheasant... Tres bon!