SINCE she bagged the National Schools Press Conference 2011 photojournalism (English category) championship title in the Elementary Level, in Butuan City, budding shutterbug Suzanne June has been obsessed with taking photographs of birds.
Armed with a full-frame Nikon D3S digital single-lens reflex (DSLR) camera mounted with a versatile wide-range 28-300mm VR AS-F Nikkor zoom lens, taking bird photographs in split seconds makes it easier for the young wildlife photographer to freeze even the wildest bird into the compact flash (memory) card.
During the last quarter of the year, migratory birds escaping winter become prominent in many potential sanctuaries up north, either uphill or wetlands.
In Nueva Vizcaya the peak of the legendary Dalton Pass in Santa Fe has been long identified as home to nearly all breeds of wildlife ranging from deer, spring eel to exotic birds.
There used to be a lot of game fowls roaming the roadside like labuyo (wild chicken), kalaw (hoirnbill), monkey-eating eagle, brown-bested hawk and the mythical owl.
Surprisingly, while other wild animals indigenous to the locality gradually vanished to extinction, new breeds of exotic birds find the Dalton Pass apparently a convenient stopover point during the international flights.
These are migratory birds coming from as far as Japan and the rest of Asia.
In 1980 it was reported that a bird with a leg band identified to have originated from Korea was accidentally captured. In return, the captor was rewarded with a book, which he now uses to identify his catch.
Identified birds taking refuge in the jungles of Santa Fe are green-winged ground doves, cuckoo doves, pompadour pigeons, imperial pigeons, bleeding heart pigeons and red breasted pitas. Just before the beginning of winter, migratory birds would fly to tropical countries like the Philippines. Like the commercial planes, they follow a flight route and Dalton Pass happens to be their refuge grounds.
Natives of Santa Fe claim that, more often, the birds would come in flock of thousands.
“They land like locust!” says Percival Tindaan, Kalanguya bird trapper from Barangay Imugan who found livelihood in bird trapping called akik. How does akik work?
When hit by spotlights flashed from carbide fuel lamps, during their night flights, the birds would unconsciously nose-dive into a waiting net laid a few meters above the ground and get trapped.
Akik then became a source of food and livelihood for the natives. Locals believe that the creatures from the sky where God-given, a source of life for many families.
The history of akik in Santa Fe was traced to a woman farmer who used to frequent forest areas to gather fruits from her kaingin (slash and burn) farm. Once, the old woman went home after dark so she used a fine torch to light up her path. The torch allegedly attracted a lot of birds. She caught some and relayed the story to other tribespeople in the village. This started the trapping of birds at night in the mountainous town.
But while bird trapping could generate income for some, they should understand that it is destructive and could create ecological imbalance.
Locals used to have birds for food because the meat is very much like a chicken’s. But more enterprising ones display them along the road to attract buyers from as far as Metro Manila. Others would peddle their catch door to door in the neighboring towns of Nueva Vizcaya up north
It is with a reason that a congressional resolution was passed for the creation of a bird sanctuary at the Dalton Pass area.
Nueva Vizcaya Rep. Carlos Padilla projected that the bird sanctuary would eventually make the visiting birds “citizens” of the Philippines.
Originating from this upland town (Santa Fe), the legendary Magat River that stretches up north to Isabela is now home to wild ducks, kingfishers and cranes.
The amphibious birds find the Magat Dam reservoir in Ramon, Isabela, as a convenient sanctuary to catch easy prey during summer months, when the water reaches extremely low levels.
A flock of thousands of ducks would normally fill the rim of dehydrated riverbeds, naturally creating picture-perfect images.
Image credits: Suzanne June G. Perante