In my previous entry, I mentioned about the field trip of my College of Saint Benilde Students in San Juan, Batangas. At the latter part of that same trip, we took the students to a fishpond where we went bird watching. At first, I wasn’t really keen on doing this activity but I went along for the sake of my students. While walking to the site, we spotted a couple of crows. This brought memories of my stay in Penang, Malaysia where these big black birds, with feathers more elegant than tuxedos, would block the road. A little later we spotted egrets and some little birds I was unfamiliar with. By this time, I was getting excited. It was quite a thrill to see all these species of birds, so I decided to move further. We went to another spot. Along the way we found more egrets and a couple of kingfishers posing for us. The best of it was our sighting of a flock of Philippine Mallard. Not only did we see them in flight but also as they were swimming in a pond. Wow! These magnificent ducks, endemic to the Philippines, looked more like brown swans. This experience makes me want to go to more bird watching trips.
Tags: Bird watching San Juan Batangas, PERSONAL
