No other birding trip has affected me emotionally like the trip I just completed to the Philippines with my companions Joseph Brooks and Garry George , led by Tim Fisher, co-author of Birds of the Philippines. Though several friends warned me ahead of time to expect to see little patches of forest, few birds, and extreme population growth, it did not prepare me for what I saw and experienced. In the rural "forested" areas that most of our trip focused, is a great influx of squatters. These are people with little means who cut back trees, build simple homes, have lots of children, and try to make a go of it. For some, making a go of it means to continuing to log (sometimes illegally) or hunting anything that moves for food. We not so fondly referred to these people as termites. I felt so crushed when I saw a dead Whiskered Pitta, snared in a trap, on our hike into Hamet Camp, in the Sierra Madre Mountains of North Eastern Luzon.

Time and time again on this trip, Tim commented on the increase in houses, or the cabbage patches that used to be forest just one year ago. Tim, who earns part of his income through organizing and leading bird tours, frequently mentioned he would have to find new places to take future bird tours, as the habitat in the places we visited is shrinking into non-existence. In some instances, we were frankly surprised how some of the birds continued to survive in their current locations.

The Philippines is one of the three most critically at-risk locations for endemic birds in the world, along with Madagascar and southeast Brazil. My traveling companions, who had previously traveled to both Madagascar and southeast Brazil, say nothing compares to what they saw in the Philippines. Each year, bird tours encourage participants to go to the Philippines as they say it may no longer possible to see certain birds. This is not a marketing ploy. This sadly, is the reality.

This sad situation was back dropped against the kidnapped Americans by the Muslim extremist Abu Sayyaf group, and the planned military exercises between the Philippines and the United States aimed at anti-terrorism. Some in the Philippines opposed any United States involvement and protested.

Our local guide on Negros, when hearing we were headed to Mindanao, asked, "aren’t you frightened to be going to Mindanao?" We responded "no, saying that our destinations were far away from the troubled areas." Then driving back through the forest after dark following our first full day birding in Mindanao, we came upon a "downed" tree and some people on a motor scoter yelling, "stop!" You can only imagine the thoughts going through our heads. I felt enormously vulnerable. Well this turned out to be just a "downed" tree. And the people on the scoter were indeed warning us so that we would not hit it. It’s likely that the tree was probably "downed" by tree poachers, to deter security from catching them, while they worked to cut trees at night.

From time to time, I would have some concerns for our safety. My companions and Tim reminded me that I was probably at more risk back in the United States. I appreciated their calming assurances. What they didn’t know was how accurate they would prove to be! On the final leg of my return trip, from Los Angeles to Tucson, a crazy guy on my flight tried to smoke in the lavatory and open the emergency exit. The police arrested him on his arrival to Tucson. Fortunately for me, I was blabbing in the front of the plane and was not aware this happened.

Our birdwatching trip visited 6 Philippines islands, Luzon, Cebu, southern Negros, Bohol, Mindanao, and Palawan, with 13 major birding stops, over 30 days. The original itinerary also included Mindoro. We choose to skip Mindoro to give us more time in the Katanglad Mountains to find the Philippines Eagle and to give us more time at Mt. Makiling to find endemic birds. In total, our group saw 298 birds of which 143 were endemic. From a birding perspective, we had an enormously successful trip. My personal total is somewhat less, as I missed a few sightings, plus missed some birding days at Hamet Camp where I discovered I have a serious phobia to leeches. That being said, the trip was nearly leech-free, except for one trail at Mt. Polis and Hamet Camp.

Another challenging aspect of a birding trip to the Philippines is the pace. Each day is long. A 3:30 or 4:00 a.m. breakfast is typical and necessary to allow the time needed to get into the field to either do some owling before the sun rises or be in the best habitat for the dawn chorus. Days do not conclude until after dark and lunch is frequently a picnic box lunch. To get to the habitat might involve hiking several miles in the dark or riding down a bumpy road in the back of a jeepnee, a low-roofed truck bed with benches on the sides, or both. Some days we stayed late to owl at the end of the day. We did what we felt necessary to maximize our chances to see the endemic species. Tim confided that he had us working harder than Birdquest. Birdquest tours are likely the most-aggressive tours to the Philippines.

Palawan, our first destination, turned out to be our favorite. It is still somewhat pristine; at least in the areas where we visited. After a quick stop at White Beach in Puerto Princesa to see CHINESE EGRET, we drove south to Raza Island. We took a boat trip Raza Island. It is known for its COCKATOO roost. The tide prevented us from actually going to the roost, though we had one very nice fly by and saw a number of birds perched at a distance. A landing at the northern end at the island at dusk enabled us to locate a MANTANANI SCOPS-OWL.

The following day, after a brief trip to the Raza Island in the morning, we drove north to Sabang, our base for St. Paul’s National Park. Early the following morning, we took a boat from Sabang to the white-sand beach of St. Paul’s National Park , arriving just as the sun rose. As we landed we marked the sand with our footprints as if for the first time. Long-tailed Macaque (monkeys), played in the mangroves lining the beach. St. Paul’s National Park netted us our prize, the PALAWAN PEACOCK-PHEASANT, and several other endemic birds: FALCATED BABBLER, BLUE-HEADED RACQUET-TAIL, PALAWAN SWIFTLET, PALAWAN HORNBILL, SULPHER-BELLIED BULBUL, PALAWAN BLUE-FLYCATCHER, WHITE-VENTED SHAMA, PALAWAN TIT, LOVELY SUNBIRD, and PALAWAN FLOWERPECKER.

Our final morning in Palawan we birded the Iwahig penal colony. Here we added PHILIPPINE CUCKOO-DOVE, PALAWAN SCOPS-OWL, YELLOW-THROATED LEAFBIRD, BLUE PARADISE-FLYCATCHER, and MELODIOUS (PALAWAN) BABBLER. Unfortunately, no sight or sound of a PALAWAN FLYCATCHER.

A plane ride, a taxi ride, and a long jeepnee ride up a long bumpy road, found us the next morning hiking into the Tabunan Forest on Cebu. Upon entering the forest we had our first endemic, the BLACK SHAMA. Our prime target, the CEBU FLOWERPECKER, was never located, though we did manage to find another target, STREAK-BREASTED BULBUL.

Late that afternoon, we took a ferry to Bohol, dined on "dogs TV" in Bohol, then drove to the Chocolate Hills Guest House in Carmen. The next morning at Rajah Sikatuna National Park turned out to be one of our two best birding days of the trip. It was my first ever "Pitta" day, and my first "two-Pitta" day, STEERE’S and Red-Bellied. This was the first day on the trip where we saw "flockage", flocks of birds. We found every target bird except for VISAYAN BROADBILL. Our target birds included: PHILIPPINE SERPENT-EAGLE, WHITE-EARED BROWN DOVE, AMETHYST DOVE, BLACK-FACED COUCAL, PHILIPPINE NIGHTJAR, RUFOUS-LORED KINGFISHER, SAMAR HORNBILL, YELLOW-BREASTED TAILORBIRD, PHILIPPINE LEAF-WARBLER, BLUE FANTAIL, YELLOW-BELLIED WHISTLER, STRIATED WREN-BABBLER, BLACK-CROWNED BABBLER, BROWN TIT-BABBLER, METALLIC-WINGED SUNBIRD, and PHILIPPINE FAIRY-BLUEBIRD.

From Bohol, we took the ferry to our next Island, Negros. We visited the southern portion of Negros, staying in the town of Dumaguete at the Bethel Hotel. I mention it in particular, because we liked this hotel better than any other hotel we stayed at on the trip for its good food and comfortable beds. One hitch is that this hotel does not serve alcohol. Our first day birding in Negros took us to the twin lakes in the Mt. Talinis range. This was one of those days that involved a long bumpy jeepnee ride and an even longer hike, 2 ½ hours to be precise. Once at the proper altitude, we found most of our target birds: VISAYAN HORNBILL, WHITE-WINGED CUCKOO-SHRIKE, PHILIPPINE TAILORBIRD, LEMON-THROATED LEAF-WARBLER, BLUE-HEADED FANTAIL, and WHITE-VENTED WHISTLER. The next day, we head to Casa Rora and the waterfall. We were successful in finding a FLAME-TEMPLED BABBLER and a RED-KEELED FLOWERPECKER (VISAYAN) so we called it an early morning and returned to the hotel for a nap.

In the afternoon, we returned by ferry to Cebu via Bohol, in order to catch a flight the following morning to Davao, Mindanao. At the Davao Airport, we hired a taxi for the 5-hour drive to Bislig, as our pre-arranged transport hadn’t arrived. Along the way we stopped at some ponds in search of SILVERY KINGFISHER. While this stop did not have the kingfisher, we found a flock of birds with several treats: PHILIPPINE WOODPECKER, SHORT-CRESTED MONARCH , RUFOUS-PARADISE FLYCATCHER, OLIVE-BACKED FLOWERPECKER, YELLOWISH WHITE-EYE, PHILIPPINE ORIOLE, and Violet Cuckoo. We arrived in Bislig with enough time to bird the airport marshes at dusk netting us both PHILIPPINE DUCK and Wandering Whistling-Duck. A near miss for us at the marshes was the Australasian Grass-Owl. Garry managed to see one owl flying in the dark, during one of our three tries at the marsh for this bird.

The next three and a half days we birded PICOP, a logging concession, on road 1, road 4A, and road ¼. We passed on a planned day birding to Mt. Paisan, when we learned that the bridge had washed out, and the only way involved at least 5 hours each way in the back of a jeepnee, in hopes of seeing a LINA’S SUNBIRD. Slowly we managed to see most of the target birds. However, CELESTIAL MONARCH has become my Snow-capped Manakin of the Philippines. We heard this bird every day in PICOP, but we were unable to find a single one that wanted to come out and play. Because we visited Bohol prior to PICOP, we had fewer birds to search for at PICOP, as we had already seen them. This was the case with RUFOUS-LORED KINGFISHER. One fruiting tree netted us several different species of doves, pigeons, and hornbills. Our PICOP sightings include: PHILIPPINE FALCONET, YELLOW-BREASTED FRUITDOVE, PINK-BELLIED IMPERIAL-PIGEON, SPOTTED IMPERIAL-PIGEON, GUIAIABERO, Blue-backed Parrot, PHILIPPINE DRONGO-CUCKOO, PHILIPPINE COUCAL, PHILIPPINE SCOPS-OWL (everetti), Brown Hawk-Owl (randi), PHILIPPINE FROGMOUTH, PYGMY SWIFTLET, PHILIPPINE NEEDLETAIL, PHILIPPINE TROGON, SILVERY KINGFISHER, RUFOUS HORNBILL, MINDANAO HORNBILL, WATTLED BROADBILL, BLACK-BIBBED CUCKOO-SHRIKE, BLACK-AND-WHITE TRILLER, YELLOW-WATTLED BULBUL, YELLOWISH BULBUL, PHILIPPINE LEAFBIRD, RUFOUS-FRONTED TAILORBIRD, BLACK-HEADED TAILORBIRD, Rufous-tailed Jungle-Flycatcher, LITTLE SLATY FLYCATCHER, PYGMY BABBLER, RUSTY-CROWNED BABBLER, STRIPE-SIDED RHABDORNIS, NAKED-FACED SPIDERHUNTER, RED-STRIPED FLOWERPECKER, BUZZING FLOWERPECKER, and COLETO.

Another prize waited for us, we hoped, at our next stop, the Katanglad Mountains. The journey to Katanglad returned us to Davao for an overnight stay, followed by a 6-hour drive to Dalwangan. From there, we hiked about 1 ½ to Katanglad Camp, donated by Del Monte for Eco Tourism – or so the sign says. The gentlemen stayed upstairs in the "lodge", which is an open building that has holes in the roof. Tim brings a tarp to keep out the rain. All our gear is transported up the mountain on horses. I had my own tent. By camping terms, the accommodations were posh, complete with a flush toilet. On our first full day of birding, we leave well before dawn to hike up the hill to go for such birds as BLUE-CAPPED KINGFISHER. While it’s missed the first day, it is eventually seen through the perseverance of Garry, Joseph, and Tim. As the heat rises, we begin scanning for PHILIPPINE EAGLE, our prize. Day 1 ends with no eagle sighting, and a long hike back to camp in the rain, down slippery muddy trails. On Day 2 from the upper eagle watch, Tim spots a large raptor soaring in the distance. It eventually comes closer. Then it disappears behind the mountain. It is the eagle! About 30 minutes later, it soars back over the mountain for a few minutes. This time it is close enough for us to see the white under the wings. Other birds seen at Katanglad: Black-shouldered Kite, PHILIPPINE HAWK-EAGLE, Peregrine Falcon (ernesti), BUKIDNON WOODCOCK, MINDANAO RACQUET-TAIL, PHILIPPINE SWIFTLET, MCGREGOR’S CUCKOO-SHRIKE, Eye-browed Thrush, White-browed Shortwing, RUFOUS-HEADED TAILORBIRD, MOUNTAIN LEAF-WARBLER, BLACK-AND-CINNAMON FANTAIL, SULPHUR-BILLED NUTHATCH, STRIPE-BREASTED RHABDORNIS, APO SUNBIRD, OLIVE-CAPPED FLOWERPECKER, BLACK-MASKED WHITE-EYE, CINNAMON IBON, APO MYNA, and WHITE-CHEEKED BULLFINCH.

We depart for Cagayan de Oro and fly to Manila. Let’s not mention the Muslim woman’s cell phone that received two calls during our approach into Manila. Safely on the ground, we loaded into our van for the drive south to Los Banos. The next morning at Mt. Makiling would prove to be our best day of birding on the trip. Very quickly we found all of our target birds, even some that can be very elusive.  The exception was LUZON BLEEDING HEART which we missed. We birded up to the picnic area and back. Upon our return, we found our jeepnee missing. Tim arranged alternate transportation to the agricultural fields for our end of day birding. Eventually the jeepnee is located along with some story about a flat tire. All and all, it was a great day of birding. Birds seen: SPOTTED BUTTONQUAIL, RED-CRESTED MALKOHA, SCALE-FEATHERED MALKOHA, PHILIPPINE HAWK-OWL, INDIGO-BANDED KINGFISHER, SPOTTED WOOD-KINGFISHER, LUZON HORNBILL, ASHY THRUSH, GRAY-BACKED TAILORBIRD, WHITE-BROWED SHAMA, FLAMING SUNBIRD, BICOLORED FLOWERPECKER, and LOWLAND WHITE-EYE.

After birding a day and a half at Mt. Makiling, we return to Manila and stay the night awaiting our flight to Tuguegarao that will be our base for Hamet Camp. At the airport, we that learn due to weather, the twice-weekly flight to Tuguegarao has been cancelled. Tim then suggests going to Mt. Polis before Hamet Camp. He arranges transport and off we head to Banaue. We lucked into Ricky, a driver who managed to get us to Banaue in just 7 ½ hours. At this point, there are now 3 active birding groups in the Philippines for which Tim is providing the logistics, Kingbird, another private group and us. He is very careful not to overlap any of the groups. However, with our recent itinerary changes, we overlapped with Kingbird one morning on Mt. Makiling, and will be overlapping again with Kingbird for one day at Mt. Polis. Tim assures Ben King that we will stay our of their way and we do.

For a change, we opt out of owling in the morning and plan to arrive with the sunrise. The mountain is rather foggy when we arrive, though it doesn’t seem to impact us in finding our target endemic birds. Very quickly we locate our target birds for this location. We then head across the ridge trail, newly dotted with bird traps and cabbage patches, where we encounter our first leeches of the trip. The guys sensing my discomfort agree to turn around so we can head down the hill and for the LUZON REDSTART. We lunch in this area and give a Benguet Bush-Warbler quite a go. This has to be one of the most elusive birds known to man. We decide we’ve done well with our target birds and return to the hotel in hopes of an early departure to Tuguegarao. Our Mt. Polis birds include Eurasian Buzzard, LUZON RACQUET-TAIL, WHISKERED PITTA (heard only), PHILIPPINE BUSH-WARBLER, RUFOUS-HEADED TAILORBIRD, GREEN-BACKED WHISTLER, CHESTNUT-FACED BABBLER, FLAME-CROWNED FLOWERPECKER, MOUNTAIN SHRIKE, and Red Crossbill.

Tim locates us transportation to Tuguegarao, he borrows Ben King’s bus for the night, and soon we are off once again. The drive takes just under five hours, and we stop in Santiago to pick up some McDonald’s and "Dogs TV" dinner to go. "Dogs TV" deserves an explanation. This is a term my friends Garry and Joseph use to refer to chicken that cooks spinning on a rotisserie. One can imagine a dog staring at it, like a TV, while it spins.

At breakfast the next morning, Tim explains that he is having trouble moving up our departure to Hamet Camp. Our hope was that we would be able to do this hike in the cool of the morning. Later that morning, we are met, by yet another jeepnee, for the drive to Baliwag, our starting point for the hike. A group of mountaineers will be our guides and 9 locals will carry our stuff up the mountain. The hike is long, steep, hot, and eventually turns muddy and slippery (remnants of the storm earlier in the week). Tim sets the three of us off early with one of the mountaineers and one of the locals who is carrying a big pack. The mountaineer forgot to bring water and we soon leave him in the dust. However, the local does not know exactly where the final destination is. He takes us to an area he thinks will be our camp. And we wait. Eventually, someone arrives and tells us we have gone too far and will need to return about 30 minutes hiking down steep muddy trails. Slowly the camp is set up and I elect to pass on dinner that is served later still.

The next morning we start birding around the camp one location with little success. The guys scramble up some muddy slopes to nab a FURTIVE FLYCATCHER. I save my energy for the hike to Hamet Camp. After breakfast we begin the slow hike to Hamet Camp. Soon the leeches appear. It’s difficult to stop and rest without finding a leech crawling up one’s boots. Further up the trail is where we find a WHISKERED PITTA dead in a snare. Everyone’s heart sinks. Tim has trouble locating the trail that goes down to the stream and Hamet Camp. It’s no longer maintained. Two locals with bolos (machetes) attempt to find the trail. The original trail has collapsed in spots and a new trail is forged. We arrive at Hamet Camp with just enough time to set up camp before sundown. We did very little birding along the hike to Hamet Camp. There were very few birds, and where there were birds, the trail edges had overgrown with tall pampas-like grass.

The next morning I choose not to go birding, for fear of leeches, and stayed in my tent all day. When the guys returned, Garry said it’s his worst birding day of all time. With the exception of Tim, who did see a WHISKERED PITTA, nothing was seen. The guys plan to bird as much as possible the next day, prior to the hike back to Baliwag. I’m encouraged to join them. I lasted with them for about one hour in the morning - 2 tape plays, no birds, and one leech. I choose to head out of the mountain with one of the local guys. That afternoon I arrived in Baliwag around 2 o’clock and visited with the locals under a beautiful shade tree overlooking rice fields. About 5:30 my companions returned and reported a much better day, though they still dipped on WHISKERED PITTA. However, they did report seeing LUZON BLEEDING-HEART, FLAME-BREASTED FRUIT-DOVE, RUFOUS COUCAL, RUFOUS HORNBILL (killer looks), BLACKISH CUCKOO-SHRIKE, BROWN-HEADED THRUSH, ASH-BREASTED FLYCATCHER, GOLDEN-CROWNED BABBLER, WHITE-FRONTED TIT, LONG-BILLED RHABDORNIS, and PYGMY FLOWERPECKER.

We spent the night in Tuguegarao and made the nine-hour drive to Manila the next day for our final night in the Philippines. The next morning, Tim met his next tour, Birdquest, and my companions and I caught our flights back to the United States. I was so thankful to return to this wonderful country.