Matt Eade's Blog: The Philippines - Part 3 (Bohol): December 2024

30th November

On the 30th, we flew to Cebu and immediately got a taxi to the ferry terminal, knowing we'd missed our ferry due to our over optimistic timings. However, we clearly saw the right lady behind the desk as she charged us the equivalent of £1 to transfer our booking (in business class) to the next available sailing, only 30-minutes waiting time. We had the upper floor of the ferry to ourselves and enjoyed a gentle two-hour sailing (only terns seen) to Tagbilaran Port where a private taxi (via booking.com) was waiting for us. From the port to Camelo Farm (near to Bilar) was a 2-hour drive and we arrived in the dark where dinner was waiting for us on our porch... nice touch! Camelo Farm is a wonderful place, in the countryside and only a 45-minute swift walk to the nearby national park.

1st December

Due to our late arrival last night, we didn't emerge with much enthusiasm this morning, so we walked around the grounds comprising rice paddies, scattered trees and gardens. Brown Shrike, Collared Kingfisher, Brahminy Kite and Blue-tailed Bee-eaters were garden birds, while the paddies held both Common and Swinhoe's Snipe.

We then packed a day bag and walked the 45-minutes or so to the Raja Sikatuna National Park entrance, passing Bilar where we grabbed food and drink. We had to negotiate more paddies where we found Whiskered Tern, Wood Sandpiper, Barred Rail, Paddyfield Pipit and Eastern Yellow Wagtail. At the entrance, we were annoyed to find out we needed a guide accompanying us, so we asked for the best bird guide and pay our debts. He actually turned out to be very good so we were glad to have him along and over the next four hours walking slowly through lush forest along some very slippery paths, we found the following:

Black-faced Coucal - 2
Philippine Frogmouth - 1
Philippine Trogon - 3
White-bellied Woodpecker - 1
Philippine Falconet - 2
Pied Triller - 2
Visayan Blue Fantail - 1
Short-tailed Drongo - 5
Philippine Leaf Warbler - 1
Visayan Babbler - 5
Brown Tit-babbler - 2
Metallic-winged Sunbird - 2

We also came across lots of the Philippine Colugo (or Flying Lemurs as they're described as here) and we also heard Philippine Oriole. Despite turning up at the entrance late morning, we had secured some good birds, but a return visit was very much needed. We ambled back to our accommodation finding some Nankeen Night Herons plus the usual waterbirds, having walked a whopping 26,000 steps (this number per day was to be repeated for our time here).

Philippine Trogon

Black-faced Coucal

Philippine Colugo

Philippine Frogmouth

Short chairs

The campground within the park

Em watching the Philippine Trogon

Rice paddies leading to Raja Sikatuna NP

2nd December

Today was another mammoth walk, this time heading east along the Loboc Watershed road, another ebird hotspot and best of all, no entry fees, no need for a guide and the forest was incredible, with just a single dirt track running through the middle which became our home for the next nine hours. We left much earlier today and again collected our supplies in Bilar. The forest from the off impressed with numerous Black-faced Coucal, Coleto, Short-tailed Drongo and White-bellied Munia, and over the course of the next few hours, we also found the following:

White-eared Brown Dove - 2

Black-chinned Fruit Dove - 1

Black-faced Coucal - 6

Philippine Coucal - 1

Philippine Swiftlet - 10

Ameline Swiftlet - 20

Pygmy Swiftlet - 25

Whiskered Treeswift - 4

Philippine Serpent Eagle - 2

Chinese Sparrowhawk - 1

Samar Hornbill - 4

White-bellied Woodpecker - 3

Philippine Hanging Parrot - 1

Mindanao Cuckooshrike - 5

Short-tailed Drongo - 8

Brown Tit-babbler - 5

Coleto - 12

Purple-throated Sunbird - 1

Handsome Sunbird - 1

Metallic-winged Sunbird - 2

Garden Sunbird - 6

Paddyfield Pipit - 3

It was a relief to find the Samar Hornbills and these proved to be the only ones we saw on Bohol, plus our only confirmed sighting of Philippine Swiftlet and Handsome Sunbird, so today was very good and worth the effort. Just as we approached a village at the far eastern end of the road, a huge thunderstorm came over, therefore, I quickly got friendly with an old man and invited us in for coffee while the rain fell. As soon as we finished the coffee, the rain stopped and we released ourselves from the owner's property, feeling better after a sit down and light refreshment. Having seen lots, we were in two minds whether to scrounge a lift back, and rather fortuitously, a tuk-tuk bumped around the corner which we duly flagged down and got given a free lift to the starting point of the forest. We lingered for a short while before returning back to base, via our usual restaurant which served the typically disappointing quantity and quality of food, the latter we were now very used to in this country. We tried for a few owl species afterwards with no luck.

Black-bibbed Fruit Dove

Black-faced Coucal

Black-naped Oriole

Chinese Sparrowhawk

White-bellied Woodpeckers

The friendly man (Ronald) and his (now) coffee shop

Loboc Watershed Road

3rd December

As we still had many targets remaining in this area, today we arrived at the Raja Sikatuna entrance at first light, perhaps 5.30am, after a very early start to walk the three miles. In fact, too early for any staff to greet us and this meant we walked a long circuit without the mandatory guide! Our first two targets were ticked off almost straight away from entering the 'Broadbill' Trail, very aptly named as this is where we saw a trio of the quite spectacular Visayan Wattled Broadbill, although no photos, we obtained good views despite the low light levels. Also here we saw the stunning Yellow-breasted Tailorbird! We slowly walked the Trogon and Oriole trails but still no luck with any pittas, therefore we concentrated on the remaining few targets, and waiting within the camping area, a good view here enabled us to connect with Philippine Oriole and Philippine Drongo Cuckoo, plus the typical raptors being Crested Goshawk and Philippine Serpent Eagle. We even lucked into a beautiful Ruddy Kingfisher, this being quite unexpected here. Rufous Paradise Flycatcher was the final new bird during this successful session, though we did get repeat encounters with Philippine Leaf Warbler, Short-tailed Drongo, Mindanao Cuckooshrike, Philippine Trogon and both coucals.

We tried to escape without having to pay another extortionate fee but unfortunately the reception staff had arrived and another 750 in notes was taken from us, much to our dislike, especially as we didn't have a guide! Anyway, this didn't tarnish our quite excellent self-guided visit and we returned to Camelo Farm to relax and spend more time enjoying the grounds, and doing some washing etc. I went for a short walk out the very back and found two White-bellied Woodpeckers, heard a Plain Bush Hen which constantly refused to show and a few other nice bits.

White-breasted Woodswallow

Snake sp.

Nankeen Night Heron

dawn along entrance to Raja Sikatuna

Trogon Trail

Broadbill Trail

4th December

Our final morning before heading off from Bohol and continuing on our now non-birding part of The Philippines. We wanted to try the Bohol Biodiversity Complex as this area looked very good. It was again another walk from the accommodation but we made it, with the legs now severely stronger after only a few days on the island. Here we found a top target, this being the Northern Silvery Kingfisher and along the way we encountered a Cinnamon Bittern, but there wasn't a great deal else other than the typical species, so we called it and departed Camelo Farm to the ferry port, using a local bus and then a tuk-tuk for the remainder part of the journey.

Our final week of travelling this terrific country was mainly on southern Luzon, via Northern Samar (awful island... no trees left) from flying from Cebu to Calbayog, catching a bus to Allen and then a ferry to Matnog and then catching a bus through the island. After a few nights at Donsol (excellent snorkeling, Streaked Shearwaters and two adult Pomarine Skuas the best here), we were going to get an overnight bus to Manilla, but thankfully withdrew this idea and opted to fly from Legazpi to Manilla, which worked very well. We departed The Philippines on 11 December, flying from Manila to Kota Kinabalu to continue our time away in what is now one of the best places I've been to, Sabah!!