War of Hearts and Minds

Birds of Coastal Lagoon

3 ISLANDS

FREEDOM ISLAND

LONG ISLAND

LOST ISLAND

BIRDS

RAILS – TIKLING

LITTLE EGRETS

CHESTNUT MUNIA

NIGHT HERON

STARLING

LITTLE HERON

COLLARD KING FISHER

The team (Rianne Leong, Bianca Diego, Aldrin Jacinto, and Travis Maglutac) were the ones who joined to the bird watching requirement. We first went to Chowking Blue Wave at around 330pm as our meeting place and meet up with our tour guide, Mr. Mike Lu, he’s the founding member and former President of the Wild Bird club of the Philippines. He generously offered his time for the four of us to tour us to the site.

Mr. Mike told us to ride with him to the site, while on the way, he told us some stories about how bad the situation of the place is right now for the birds. There are people sneaking out to do illegal things to the mangroves to make properties/lands in the area. Those people dont care about the things that are important in the area. Birds live in those mangroves, there are migratory birds from cold countries who stays in those mangroves until its time for them to leave and go back to their homes. Its like, the mangroves in the Philippines are their second home for them. But then, because of the illegal things that people do for their own likes, from the 25,000 birds of different kinds of species that we’re supposed to see there, now becomes 3,000 birds every year.

We arrived at the site, it was very smelly, you’ll know that there are a lot of garbage around the area. Before we start the tour, Mr. Lu told us the story of the place. It was originally only 3 Islands and there are no pathways to go to to those islands, the pathways were just created because of the garbage around the area and they need to put land to cover those garbage. The names of the islands are freedom, long, and lost (I made up the last one because Mr. Lu said that it doesnt have a name). I called it the lost island because that island cannot be seen anymore because it is already surrounded by water.

We first went to the freedom island, while walking, we saw mountains of garbage at the side, some are already in the sack, because the people who are cleaning divide them depends on their type such as slippers, shells, plastics, etc. We walked again and we saw in the beach area, instead of sand it is replaced with more garbage (if ever there’s no garbage, we would have our own beach in Manila). Mr. Lu said that those garbage came from other parts of some nearby places such as the Manila Bay and other Asian countries because the water cycle goes around clockwise. The garbage from our place also goes to other places (we can see that we dont preserve or save our own land because of the mountain of garbage around the beach area).

We walked again and we got a little bit excited when Mr. Lu reacted excited, we thought that he saw a bird but instead, he showed us footprints of birds. We laughed for a while and then he told us that those are rails/ticklings, those birds are noisy when they hide and very quiet when exposed. We walked again and then on the way, we saw our first bird, the little egrets. They are white long neck and long beak birds who are migrants from Mainland Asia. We walked again and we saw birds flying around the area, those birds were called the night herons, starling, little herons andchestnut munia. Then we saw a bus like vehicle with stairs, we went up the stairs and we saw a bigger view of the location. We saw more birds flying and others are perching in the trees.

Mr. Lu then asked us if we want to go deeper in the place because we might see the Philippine Duck if ever. We went deeper in the place and we ended up in a muddy place because Mr. Lu saw a bird quietly swimming in the water but then, It heard us and flew away. We stayed for a while because there are some birds flying in the area. We left after we took some pictures, it was a long wa back from where we started.

Because that its starting to drizzle, we immediatel went back to the car. Mr. Lu decided to drive us to the other island which is the long island because we might see some birds there while he’s driving. We did saw some birds, the new bird that we saw was the collard king fisher, its a bird with blue wings. We were able to see its wings because Mr. Lu made us use his super cool binoculars.

We were about to get out of the gate of the bird watching site, but then all of a sudden we saw more birds flying around and we decided to stop. There were more birds flying, perching, and getting food in that area. We used Mr. Lu’s super binoculars (i dont know what’s it called but its super cool) and peeked on it and saw lots of birds around the area. It was very exciting because the birds are kind of nearer in our view.

At around 530pm or 600pm, we ended the bird watching exercise. We went back to our meeting place and we said thank you to mr. Lu for a wonderful experiece in our bird watch.

Garbage around the Freedom Island.

Rails/Tikling footprints we saw while walking in Freedom Island.

First bird that we saw. Little Egrets.

Birds perching.

Night Herons flying. 

More birds came out when we’re about to leave. so we stopped and took pictures.

Taking pictures and listening to Mr. Mike Lu’s lectures.

The Bird Watching Team! Mr. Mike Lu, Bianca, Travis and Aldrin.

I dont like the idea of the people who are going to make the bird watching site a place for condo’s or casinos just for the sake of other people’s happiness. The people should know that that place is very important too for the other species living in our world. Those mangroves are part of God’s creation for the species who needs those creation. We should not ruin those things because those things are made with a reason, and the reason, those are homes of our birds.

I hate the fact that those greedy people are sneaking out to put lands and destroying the mangroves for their own sake. Eventhough they dont have the papers yet to own that land, the are still doing it illegally. Why cant they understand that there living things who are living in those places? I guess they know but they really dont care at all. Those places needs to be preserved, it also a place where we can see other kinds of species that we dont know. When i was there, that was the only time that i learned about the other species living in our country, they look so unique to me and their names sounds unique and different too, not like other birds that we already know.

If the people doesnt want these species to be extinct, they should learn how to protect and not do anything bad on the location. If thery want something for their own needs, think of other options and stop destroing the places where other living creatures live. Every living specie needs a home.