Birding Adventure at Mount Banahaw

[Ely Teehankee]

I never gave it a thought of climbing up Mount Banahaw on foot because of my heavy gear. So when Ramon invited me to go up with him on an ATR (All Terrain Vehicle) to see the flock of Chestnut-faced Babbler it was like now is my chance to climb a mountain without having to carry my gear. It will probably take about 45-60 minutes to climb it but with the ATR it took us about 20 minutes. Although it was drizzling that morning, we thought that it would stop anytime. But it did not so it was slippery going up the mountain as the ground got soak in rainwater. The ATR goes over the rocks with ease but struggles to stay on the road when its slippery. At the end of the trail, there is no where else to go, but there is a red flowering tree which attracts the Chestnut-faced Babbler. Due to the weather we did not see nor hear any bird. For a while we thought we were going to be skunk at Mount Banahaw. After waiting for hours we finally saw our CFB at about 9:47 AM. Soon there were several of them. It was like someone was waving a magic wand as the bird started to appear one after the other with the Citrine Canary joining in. The Mountain White-eye also came. For 11 minutes it was a thrilling, like riding on a roller coaster. Here are some pictures of how the trail & place looks like and the birds that I was able to photograph.



This is Ramon driving the ATR right in front of me. I had my camera and lens in a bag that is strapped to the front end of the ATR.




The road was just wide enough for the ATR to pass thru. Ramon used to ride a horse to get up there. He decided to have a trail made and it took 16 men 3 days to do that. The people there are hard working and very efficient.




While waiting for the birds to show up I took a picture of Mount Cristobal that was covered with clouds from the rain with just the top showing.




Still no birds and its been more than 2 hours, I took a picture of Ramon's house with a point and shoot.




Still no birds showing themselves I took a picture with my 800 mm of Ramon's house down below.




Having reached the end of the trail and facing the side of a mountain the ATR would have to be manually turned around to go back to the trail.




Here lies the danger when the trail is slippery. With all the power of the four wheel drive running the vehicle can move sideways and into the ravine. It took 3 men to lift it out of the ravine. It is fortunate that it did not go down the ravine. It happened to both of us because of the slippery trail. Thank God we all got back safely.







Canon EOS 1D Mark IV, Canon EF 800mm f5.6L IS USM, Gitzo GT3530LS tripod, Wimberley WH200 head. Manual exposure in available light.



The first time I saw a Chestnut-faced Babbler (Zosterornis whiteheadi) was at the back of our room at the Banaue Hotel. The face looks familiar and what a delight to see this bird again. In this picture you can see another one on the upper left hand corner of the picture. There were several of them at the same time. Subject distance 15.8 meters.
1/800 sec., f/5.6, ISO 800




This one is looking straight at me but I just continued to take pictures of whatever bird that I see.
1/800 sec., f/5.6, ISO 800




The Citrine Canary-flycatcher (Culicicapa helianthea) being bright yellow was a contrast to the Chestnut-faced Babbler. It only stayed for a few seconds. Subject distance 19 meters.
1/800 sec., f/5.6, ISO 800




1/800 sec., f/5.6, ISO 800




The Chestnut-faced Babbler is busy eating something out of the flower and its amazing how they move so fast from flower to flower.
1/640 sec., f/5.6, ISO 800




1/1000 sec., f/5.6, ISO 800




1/1000 sec., f/5.6, ISO 800




1/1000 sec., f/5.6, ISO 800




The Mountain White-eye (Zosterops montanus) also came and joined the feeding frenzy.
1/800 sec., f/5.6, ISO 800




All the time this was going on it was drizzling and tiny droplets of water can be seen on top of the bird's head and back.
1/640 sec., f/5.6, ISO 800

[Mick Harris]

A brilliant documentation of a photographic adventure Ely, plus of course some fine shots.

[Ramon Quisumbing]

I'm glad I get to post my photos earlier than you, Ely, because my photos are not as good as yours even though our equipment is the same. Nice documentation of our wet adventure.

[Ely Teehankee]

Feb 9, 2012 13:27:23 GMT Mick Harris said:

A brilliant documentation of a photographic adventure Ely, plus of course some fine shots.

Thank you Mick. I am quite happy with what I got considering that it was raining. For a while it looked like we were not going to see any birds. Seeing the birds and the fun we had going up and down Mount Banahaw was all worth it. As they say, count your blessings and I am counting.

[Ely Teehankee]

Feb 9, 2012 21:03:55 GMT Ramon Quisumbing said:

I'm glad I get to post my photos earlier than you, Ely, because my photos are not as good as yours even though our equipment is the same. Nice documentation of our wet adventure.

Thank you Ramon. It is a learning process and eventually you will have just as good or even better pictures. It depends on how much time you can devote to this addicting hobby of ours. Some say the total quality of a picture is half on how you take the picture and the other half is how you process it. Let us keep on learning.

[Juan Manuel C. Del Prado]

Beautiful photo of Mt. Cristobal's tip peeking out of a fog-shrouded area. Reminds me of a photo I had seen of Mt. Fuji, Japan.

[Tirso Paris]

Great documentation and lovely shots Ely. Congratulations.

[Ely Teehankee]

Feb 10, 2012 0:18:16 GMT Juan Manuel C. Del Prado said:

Beautiful photo of Mt. Cristobal's tip peeking out of a fog-shrouded area. Reminds me of a photo I had seen of Mt. Fuji, Japan.

Thank you Poch. That picture was taken with a point and shoot camera. In this case I don't think an SLR would have made much difference. LOL.

[Ely Teehankee]

Feb 10, 2012 3:00:54 GMT Tirso Paris said:

Great documentation and lovely shots Ely. Congratulations.

Thank you Tirso. It is strange that even at this time of the year we are still experiencing intermittent rains. I hope it won't rain too much this coming summer.

[Lawrence Lo]

Nice documentary of the trip to Mt. Banahaw sir, looking at the pictures looks like it just stopped raining the flowers are still wet.

Congrats on the bounty captures of little frisky beautiful birds, which all I haven't seen yet.

From the picture of the house I can see somebody doing birding too at Sir Ramon's balcony.

[Ely Teehankee]

Feb 10, 2012 20:00:24 GMT Lawrence Lo said:

Nice documentary of the trip to Mt. Banahaw sir, looking at the pictures looks like it just stopped raining the flowers are still wet.

Congrats on the bounty captures of little frisky beautiful birds, which all I haven't seen yet.

From the picture of the house I can see somebody doing birding too at Sir Ramon's balcony.

Thank you Lawrence. You are the first one to see that there is a man on the viewing deck. He is Tito Poch the uncle of Ramon. He is using a Canon 7D with a Canon 400 mm lens mounted on a tripod. The distance indicated is 4294967295/1 and I don't know what it means. On other pictures it would indicate something like 172/10 which means that it is 17.2 meters.

[ka rene bajit]

awesome adventure, ely!! im sure there was a lot of adrenaline over you guys!^_^ nice bird, too. i thought the bird is just seen only in the north..

[Ely Teehankee]

Feb 11, 2012 11:56:35 GMT ka rene bajit said:

awesome adventure, ely!! im sure there was a lot of adrenaline over you guys!^_^ nice bird, too. i thought the bird is just seen only in the north..

That is the pleasant surprise of that place. We were at about 3,300 feet. I think the presence of a flowering tree makes the difference. What more if it is a fruiting tree. Dion & Ramon are doing a good job in conserving the place. No hunting, no cutting of trees, no slash and burn, and no informal settlers. This could be a bird watcher & photographer's paradise of birds. Thank you Rene for your appreciation.

[Ariel Matias]

Nice adventure! Looks like some areas here in Costa Rica. Nice photos inspite of the conditions.

[Renoir Abrea]

Super Like! very nice capture'

[Ely Teehankee]

Feb 11, 2012 23:43:00 GMT Ariel Matias said:

Nice adventure! Looks like some areas here in Costa Rica. Nice photos inspite of the conditions.

Thank you Ariel. I agree with you it could have been better but under those conditions we were just happy that we could photograph some birds.

[Ely Teehankee]

Feb 12, 2012 2:25:57 GMT Renoir Abrea said:

Super Like! very nice capture'

Thank you very much Renoir. First time I heard of Super Like and it sounds good. When are we going to see some of the beautiful birds that you have there?

[Steve Albano]

Love the images of the environ and the rare capture of the Chestnut-faced Babbler.
Thanks for sharing.. .

[Ramon Quisumbing]

Feb 13, 2012 1:53:18 GMT Steve Albano said:

Love the images of the environ and the rare capture of the Chestnut-faced Babbler.
Thanks for sharing.. .

Steve, we previously also thought that the Chestnut-Faced Babblers are rare. But if you go up 500 feet above BK Valley, you will be almost certain to see them.

[Ely Teehankee]

Feb 13, 2012 1:53:18 GMT Steve Albano said:

Love the images of the environ and the rare capture of the Chestnut-faced Babbler.
Thanks for sharing.. .

Thank you Steve. It was by chance that I saw the Chestnut-faced Babbler at the Banaue hotel before. I did not see it as Mount Polis but if I did it was far and skittish. Ramon is right, there are many in BK so it is not a rare bird in that area. I can imagine the wonderful birds that one will see this summer.