Luzon & Palawan 3 – 19 March 2017 Rob Gordijn & Helen Rijkes ([email protected]) - http://www.penguinbirding.com Introduction A 2 week independent trip to the Philippines, visiting Luzon and Palawan. When we booked our flight we planned on doing Mindanao but naively we had not counted on peak birding season and when we enquired about Picop and Mt. Kitanglad both where booked during our times. Luckily the Philippines have lots of places to go birding. For some photo’s see: https://goo.gl/NyNrYB Itinerary Day 1 Friday March 3 Flight Amsterdam - Manila (via Hong Kong) Day 2 Saturday March 4 Arrival at Manila (10am) - drive to Subic Bay, birding from 4pm Day 3 Sunday March 5 Birding Subic Bay Day 4 Monday March 6 Early drive to Manila - birding La Mesa Ecopark - drive + birding Los Banos Day 5 Tuesday March 7 Birding Los Banos/Mount Makiling Day 6 Wednesday March 8 Drive to Manila - 10am flight to Tuguegarao - 2pm walk to camp 1 Day 7 Thursday March 9 Sawa camp - Walk to camp 2 + birding above camp 2 Day 8 Friday March 10 Sawa camp - Birding above camp 2 Day 9 Saturday March 11 Sawa camp - Birding above camp 2 Day 10 Sunday March 12 Sawa camp - Birding above camp 2, walk down - night in Tuguegarao Day 11 Monday March 13 Flight at 11:30 to Manila Day 12 Tuesday March 14 06:40 Flight to Puerto Princesa - Drive to + birding at Sabang Day 13 Wednesday March Sabang - river park + Sabang road - drive to P. Princesa - Ecopark Day 14 Thursday March 1615 Birding Ecopark, Penal Colony, Zigzag - drive to Narra Day 15 Friday March 17 Mount Victoria - arrive at 3pm at striped babbler camp Day 16 Saturday March 18 Mount Victoria - morning birding, walk down - drive back to P.Princesa Day 17 Sunday March 19 11:50 flight to Manila, evening flight to Amsterdam All the endemics of Palawan can be seen in a 4 to 5-day trip (of which Palawan Striped Babbler requires a 2-day trekking up Mount Victoria. The male Palawan Peacock-Pheasant is still present at the Underground River but who knows for how long he will survive. On Luzon there are several options of sites that can be combined in 10 days (or more). We decided to visit northern Luzon and do a trekking to Sawa camp for the Whiskered Pitta (having read about this adventure in the Jewel Hunter by Chris Goodie). We combined this with a few more often visited sites around Manila: Subic Bay, La Mesa Ecopark and Mt Makiling near Los Banos. With more time a good place to include would have been Mount Polis for some extra endemics. Other birders We met no other birders during our trip. Practicalities Guiding We organised the trekking to Sawa camp (North Luzon) and the trekking to Mount Victoria (Palawan) with local guides and birded all other places on our own. Literature We used the book a guide to the Birds of the Philippines (Kennedy), the only available option, but note that the taxonomy used in the book is quite outdated. Furthermore we used information from several tripreports (mostly obtained from www.cloudbirders.com): Radstaak [2013] and Dwarshuis [2016] for both Luzon and Palawan (Dwarshuis is not on cloudbirders, but dayreports on www.dutchbirding.nl and sightings on observado.org). Furthermore Van der Laan [2013] and Campbell [2014] provided extra information for Luzon and Gallardy [2016] and Hottola [2015] were most helpful for Palawan. In addition, some reports of BirdTourAsia and Birdquest provided some general feel and birds seen in an area. Also used observado.org, ebird.org and igoterra.com during trip preparation. Travelling To and from North Luzon (Tuguegarao) and to and from Palawan we used internal flights (unfortunately there are no direct flights from Tuguegarao to Palawan so we had a short stop in Manilla in between). We rented a car for the first 4 days around Manila and for the entire stay on Palawan (arranged in advance). Manila has a Number Coding system which means that on a certain day of the week your car is not allowed to drive during rush hours. This came as a surprise for us when we received a text message on our final morning that we had to be back at the airport no later than 7am or otherwise would risk a penalty. In general Manila traffic was terrible. At Tuguegarao our guide Aquilino took care of the transportation to and from the airport. For those who would like to travel with public transport Radstaak [2013] offers very detailed information. Eating & Sleeping We payed between 600 – 1500 pesos for a reasonable double room with bathroom. Except from the two trekkings (Sawa Camp & Mount Victoria) we did not book any accommodation in advance. Weather Mixed clouds and sunny and dry in Luzon, some afternoon showers in Palawan. Health and safety Luzon and Palawan have no safety concerns (and Mindanao can be visited with care). Outside Manila some lowland areas malaria can occur so we took pills for the entire duration of the trip. Money ATM's where plentiful but not all ATM's worked for us. BDO proved to be a reliable option. The Lonely Planet mentions that on Palawan there are no ATM's outside Puerto Princesa (although we did see a few banks/ATMs at Narra but never tried if they worked for us). Costs Flights: We booked our flight Amsterdam – Manila with Cathay airways for 480 euro per person (short stop over in Hong Kong). For the flight from Manila to Tuguegarao we used Cebu Pacific and for Manila - Puerto Princesa we booked with Air Asia. In total we paid 225 euro per person for the 2 flights. Car rental: We paid 1500 pesos per day in Manila (booked through [email protected]) and 1800 pesos per day on Palawan ([email protected]). Visited Sites Here we briefly discuss our experience per site, based on trip reports we assessed the most important targets per site. We took a few GPS points of sites and specific birds, those are available here goo.gl/HGrqS6, and can also be requested in e.g. .kml (for Google Earth), .gpx (for GPS devices and GPS software) format. Luzon Subic Bay This former U.S. Navy base is a popular birding destination close to Manila. Because logging was prohibited on the base (and it still is), quite intact lowland forest holds quite some species that are very hard to find elsewhere. Subic bay is easily reached by car. We slept 2 nights at Crown Peak Hotel (14°47'16.15"N, 120°16'48.64"E) choice near the birding sites is limited, but there is lots more options in Olongapo. Access road for Hill 394: We spent most time along this road where we parked the car at the gate at the end (14°45'31.50"N, 120°18'7.29"E). From there we walked up and down the paved road and shortly explored the side- road that goes off to the left (coming from the entrance), the complete loop of this road is overgrown (White-lored Oriole). All target birds were seen in this area. Walking along the road seemed a good strategy since it provides good open views in clearings for fly over parrots, woodpeckers (Sooty and Luzon Flameback common) and Cuckoo-shrikes. White-fronted Tit perched in a tall tree next to the gate. We did not try for a permit to enter the closed of area. Hospital area (14°46'46.19"N, 120°18'30.88"E): We also made a short after lunch stop at the Hospital area (we walked the road just before). Green Racket-tail seemed more common here than at the Botanical Garden road. Road to Nabusan beach: We tried here one late afternoon and beginning of the evening for night birds. Driving in we had a Spotted Buttonquail (14°45'55.70"N, 120°16'55.12"E) in the side of the road and walking for a few hundred meters from (14°46'2.97"N, 120°15'53.81"E) provided several views of Rufous Coucal and Rough-crested and Scale- feathered Malkoha. After dusk several Luzon Hawk-owl called (one briefly seen) and also a Philippine Scops-owl was heard. La Mesa Ecopark We left Subic Bay at 5am and drove back to Manila, arriving around 8am at La Mesa Ecopark. We walked to the end of the park where for the next 3 hours slowly walked the forest trails finding several Ashy Thushes (14°42'39.60"N, 121° 4'40.80"E) , Lowland White-eye, Grey-backed Tailorbird (in the bamboo) and Golden-bellied Gerygone. We heard Hooded Pitta (failed to see it) but no sign of any Philippine (Red-bellied) Pitta. Mt Makiling We stayed for 2 nights at the Trees Lodge just next to the entrance of the mountain road. The lodge is mostly used for students and researchers of the campus. We did not make any reservation and it seemed we were lucky that they had a room available for 2 nights. Several food options are available on and around the campus, alcohol is prohibited on campus. Botanical Garden: Most important target here is the Indigo-banded Kingfisher (14° 9'21.23"N, 121°13'59.85"E) that can be seen along the main rocky stream. The garden closes at 4pm and on the first day we birded here from 3-4pm, luckily finding the Kingfisher briefly sitting on one of the rocks.