Source : INQ7.net, Philippines, 17 Jan '05
By : Tonette Orejas
  

Migratory birds in Asia have once again shown signs of favoring the swamp as a winter refuge and breeding site, bird experts and enthusiasts said.

Three bird species have returned to several portions of the 32,000-hectare marsh, 50 km northeast of Metro Manila. These are the purple gallinule, coots and the Philippine mallard, according to Timothy Fisher, one of five authors of the book, "Guide to Birds in the Philippines."

The gallinule is similar to a large purple chicken, while coots are black birds with white feathers on their fronts. Mallards are actually ducks locally called dumara. Only five or six of these were seen in recent years, but Fisher counted more than 1,000 yesterday.

"I have not seen [these birds] for many, many years," said Fisher, a British expert, who began bird-watching here in 1979.

On Saturday and Sunday, Fisher, 57, joined the Asian Water Bird Census 2005, collaboratively done for the first time here by the Candaba municipal government, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, the Wild Bird Club of the Philippines, Haribon and some 100 Filipino, Chinese and Japanese bird enthusiasts.

Census in Africa, Europe, Central and West Asia, and Latin America were held at about the same time.

The rare, streaked reed-warbler (Acrocephalus sorgophilus), however, was not among the 35 species that Fisher saw during the two-day census. The Candaba Swamp is the only site in the country that the warbler visits, the Haribon said.

"We need to bring back the reed beds," Fisher said of plants that draw these birds to the swamp.

Farmer Ignacio Sagum, 69, said much of the bayakbak (a kind of water grass) and the tukal (lotus-like flower) which the birds feasted on were almost gone now because of increased agricultural activities at the swamp straddling the western boundaries of the provinces of Pampanga, Bulacan and Nueva Ecija.

Ducks to water

But here's another surprise: At a large pond in Sitio Doña Simang in the village of Vizal San Pablo, as many as 40,000 species of ducks were seen homing, according to Edwin Capulong of the DENR's Protected Area and Wildlife Bureau.

Fisher confirmed the number, which was 60 percent higher than what bird specialist Simplicia Alonzo-Pasicolan counted during the peak migration season (October-November) in 1987.

"They're extraordinarily many. They were never there before," Fisher said.

Also, the number of species this year was more diverse.

Haribon, citing a bird-watching trip in October 2001, mentioned only 10 species. The DENR counted only eight, most of them in the family of egrets.

For the birds

Why the birds began returning and growing in significant numbers could be traced to the efforts of the Pelayo couple, according to Fisher and to Ed Manangu, chair of the Candaba Swamp Migratory Birds and Wildlife Foundation Inc.

Lani and her husband, now Candaba Mayor Jerry Pelayo, had set aside 70 hectares of land in Vizal, San Pablo, as a "home for the birds."

In the last three years, or before Jerry won in last year's elections, Lani said she and her husband had stopped using their property as a rice farm or fishpond. "They're all now for the birds," she said.

Jerry, a private contractor, bought the property 10 years ago. As a Candaba native, he realized in between farming that the birds had diminished over time.

The birds he saw as a boy were no longer there, he observed. "Before, they darkened the horizon whenever they flocked and played in the fields," Jerry said.

Bird sanctuary

Since 2000, the couple had stopped draining the ponds, allowed the bayakbak and tukal to grow, and even threw in some tilapia fingerlings. They noticed that the birds started frequenting the place and, later, settled in the area from October to April.

Today, aside from the ponds, the birds' favorite places are the eucalyptus trees around them. On Saturdays at dusk, thousands of egrets and herons, many as tall as a man's leg, roost on the trees, giving them a snowy white hue from afar.

The birds are largely undisturbed in this part of the swamp because the Pelayos have banned bird-hunting for food. Volunteers from Manangu's group take turns guarding various sites against hunters.

While the Pelayos' land has become an established bird sanctuary, Manangu said other landowners cannot exercise the same option.

Many of them are agrarian reform beneficiaries of small plots from estates previously owned by the Limjoco and Alejandrino families of Bulacan, he said.

Manangu said the plan to acquire 500 hectares of land and develop them as a protected sanctuary went as far back as 1994 when experts gathered for an international conference and called attention to the destruction of the habitat of Asian waterfowl.

Where the fowl play

Municipal governments, like that of Candaba, are always trying to strike a balance between the needs of people and the birds. The town has recently passed a resolution declaring the Pelayos' property a private bird sanctuary.

But with conservation efforts in the last 10 years now taking shape, Manangu believes the swamp is "back on the bird map."

Fisher said the swamp had actually not been dropped from the Asian bird map but its viability had been reduced because agricultural activities and hunting expeditions had upset the fowl.

Certainly, experts said, it was going to take years before the swamp regained its original form, meaning as a habitat for 140 migratory species.

"It's definitely a good sanctuary but a lot of effort would have to be collectively exerted to return it to its (former) state," Fisher said.

Pelayo said the municipal government had tapped Japan's help in developing a large bird sanctuary.

This would serve as an education center for the local youth, getting them interested in bird-watching and hopefully, convincing them to be advocates of nature conservation.