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Date:
December 8-9, 2004
Site: Nogas Island, Antique
Trip report and birdlist by : Leni Sutcliffe
I
went island-walking with friends and the provincial Tourism
Officer on Nogas Island on 8 December 2004 between 12.30 and
3.30 and went back without them the next day, birding from
6.30 to 9.15 am. On both days, it was clear and calm, with
the sea - sometimes gun-metal-blue, sometimes deep turquoise
- heaving slightly. Nogas Island, with its fringe of white
sand and its crown of thick vegetation is about 3 km offshore
from Anini-y, Antique’s southernmost town.
Ruel Castillo (‘Wewe’), of the Philippine National
Police and police officer of Anini-y, owner of Chen2 (a motorized
outrigged banca) was our soft-spoken boatman, birding guide
and security officer (he carried a gun on his belt)
on both days.
According to a signboard on the island, the Nogas Island Fish
Sanctuary covers an area of 65 ha, including 24 ha of mangrove
and a coral reef. It is a protected conservation area, and
the law forbids one from taking anything off the island. A
legend supports the law: it says that the forest and the sea
will “hold” anyone who tries to leave with even
a small thing like a pebble or a seashell.
The path from the shore to the lighthouse in the middle of
the island is lined with kalachuchi puti (Plumeria obtusa
L.) and its flowers perfume the air. On both sides of the
path (and all over the island) are an amazing variety of wild
trees, shrubs, vines, plants and grasses: a botanist’s
delight, more so as the island is apparently snake-free. Ficus
trees of
various species (I saw several that were 3-4 metres wide),
talisay (Terminalia catappa L.), anan (Buchanania arborescens),
payhod, kalapini, kamachile (Pithecellobium dulce) are everywhere.
Mangrove grows on one side
of the island, and fruiting pandan (probably Pandanus tectorius)
on another.
The interior is sandy. Nearer the sea, coral fragments are
everywhere and the surface is lined with rough stones.
| On
the kalachuchi path, I got my first glimpse of the
Tabon Scrubfowl (Megapodius cumingii): three small,
probably young, birds scurried across. In the interior,
the birds were elusive, running away as soon as they
sensed our presence. But their nests were everywhere:
buried deep in the sand, these were either freshly
made (as evidenced by the pile of leaves on top),
or had been dug out by humans (the holes were 2-3
feet deep). From afar, we heard the Tabon’s eerie
drawn-out wailing. Then suddenly, as we emerged on
the first day from the interior onto the shore, we
saw a plump, fairly large Tabon, pecking at the sand,
oblivious to our presence for about five |
Pied Triller
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| minutes
before it, too, hurried away. It seemed to me that
it had a grey-brown back, becoming grey in the underparts;
it had a thick body (rounder than that of the Tikling,
for example, which is also present on the island)
and long legs. Its short tail was up in the air as
it foraged for food in the sand. We were to glimpse
several groups of Tabon throughout day one and day
two, but never as clearly and for as long. |
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Magrove Blue Flycatcher
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In
the interior: I saw a bird slightly bigger than a
sparrow, and broader and more solidly built, sitting
quite still in the middle story of a low tree. It
had a blue-grey back; rufous throat and breast band;
a distinct white streak on each side of the face;
a longish blue bill; dark feet and legs; white underparts,
longish blue-grey tail. I reckon this was a Mangrove
Blue Flycatcher. In fact the bird I saw looked so
much like Jon Hornbuckle’s Oriental Bird photograph
of a bird taken in Boracay (which is off the island
of Panay, where Antique is located) that I am tempted
to venture that it was a female Cyornis rufigastra
philippinensis. |
Again in the interior, in a leaf-strewn open space on the
sandy ground between the trees, was an all-brown bird about
the length of a grassbird but wider of body and shorter of
tail. I did not see much detail as it flew quickly into the
low shrubs nearby. I guessed it was a Nightjar, but had second
thoughts when Wewe said it had a “big mouth”. I
opened Kennedy’s book to the page on frogmouths. “Not
those,” he said. “It could be either one of these,”
he continued, pointing to the Philippine Nightjar and the
Savanna Nightjar, and settling for the latter. Caprimulgus
affinis griseatus? Possibly. Nogas certainly has the features
of its habitat: sandy ground, beaches, occasional open scrub.
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A
heavy flapping of wings drew our attention to a flock
of about 40 Pink-necked
Green Pigeons (Treron vernans), punay to Wewe. There
were about 5 males; the rest looked like females.
The birds had yellow-orange/red feet and legs; a yellow
wing band, followed by a dark (black) wing band just
before the yellow-green underparts; yellow-green thighs;
darker olive-yellow upperparts; grey bills. The males
had pink-orange breasts and what seemed to be dark
undertails. We saw these birds several times as we
moved around the island: they perched conspicuously
on tree tops and they flapped their wings loudly as
they flew from perch to perch. Wewe pointed out their
nests: these were bowl-shaped baskets of twigs built
on forking tree branches. He says the island has about
80 of these birds.
So in addition to the:
1. Tabon Scrubfowl (Megapodius cumingii): about 15
2. Savanna Nightjar (Caprimulgus affinis griseatus):
perhaps 1
3. Mangrove Blue Flycatcher (Cyornis rufigastra philippinensis):
1 female
4. Pink-necked Green Pigeon (Treron vernans): 5 males
and 35 females
We
also saw the following:
5. Pied Fantail or Maria Kapra (Rhipidura javanica):
about 15
6. Yellow-vented Bulbul (Pycnonotus goiavier): maybe
101
7. Black-naped Oriole (Oriolus chinensis; kee-yaw to
the guide): 2 seen, 5 or more heard
8. Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica): about 20
9. Pacific Swallow (Hirundo tahitica): maybe 20
10. Olive-backed Sunbird (Cinnyris jugularis), male and female: common; also seen feeding on coconut flowers. According to Wewe, this sunbird builds narrow pitcher-shaped nests which hang from branches of trees. (If he is right, then one of the nests I've seen in my garden at Westgrove belongs to the sunbird.)
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Pink-necked Green Pigeon
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| 12. Swiftlets (Collocalia spp.), possibly Glossy Swiftlet
(Collocalia esculenta) (because of their white underparts):
maybe 20.
13. Pied Triller (Lalage nigra); male and female; common;
a flock of about 10 was feeding on a kamachili tree.
14. Barred Rail (Gallirallus torquatus): 2
15. White-collared Kingfisher (Todirhamphus chloris):
3 seen among the mangrove, many more heard. In addition
to their usual ka-ka-ka-kak, the kingfishers of Nogas
had another call which the guide pointed out to me:
a repeated tik-rek, tik-rek. I had not noted this
call before nor associated it with the kingfisher,
but have heard it since in Westgrove right after the
ka-ka-ka-kak. |
Heard
but not seen:
1. Coucal (Centropus spp.)
2. Zebra dove (Geopelia striata)
Seen and heard, but not identified:
A small bird like the golden-bellied flyeater (it had dirty
yellow underparts, grey upperparts and a short bill; its call
was similar to, but not quite the same as that of the Gerygone).
I thought I had the ID down pat, until I checked Kennedy,
whose map shows that Panay is one of three islands where the
Gerygone cannot be found.
One last note:
Antique is a beautiful (if somewhat dusty and grubby in its
towns and along its horrendously bumpy main roads) and underdeveloped
province. Having seen how “development” in the Philippines
often produces the ugliest of urban areas, I hope I can be
forgiven for wishing that Antique can long remain rural in
character and aspect. It is bounded on one side by the lovely
Cordillera range of mountains, and on the other by the (Sulu?)
Sea. They tell me that the Sibalom Natural Park on the Cordillera
is home to the rare Visayan Hornbill, among other birds (and
also, for example, the endangered cloud rat, the palm civet
and the Rafflesia Manillana with its enormous flower). They
also tell me that birdwatching is an exciting experience in
Pandan, a town in northern Antique.
I have names and telephone numbers of contact persons to suggest
to anyone interested in venturing into the Antique wild bird
land.
Leni Sutcliffe
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