...slightly pulling up
and diving; and unafraid of any developing traffic jam.
The Way They Are:
Tweet… tweet… tweet, a flock of birds noisily zoomed through the sky,
fast as a Stealth Bomber, swerving left or right, slightly pulling up
and diving; and unafraid of any developing traffic jam as they flew in a
free and scary formation towards their targets – their airports, those
big acacia trees just nearby the town hall and the old brick church.
These countless birds were in a dash and
honking as if telling someone to keep out of their way because they
were in great hurry to land and have the nicest place on a tree branch.
While combat squadrons fly consistently in strict order of formation
more so in attack battle positions, flock of birds never fly that way,
but do it even in much tighter formation, unafraid of mid-air collisions
and speeding fearlessly, and where the lead pack would go, the main
pack and the tail-end follow, too. Nature has provided them with superb
eyesight and keen auditory signals, which they used in communication. As
such, while in flight we seldom noticed a flock silently flying. Tweet
or any birdie noise made is indeed a way of communication. This is
directed either to their own species or to other species. Birds are
excellent fliers; some migratory birds would fly thousands of kilometres
non-stop to their breeding and nesting grounds. They have efficient
navigation and guidance system that surpass modern airplanes, the former
relay on natural senses for navigation, while planes do it with the aid
of GPS and computer guidance system and without it they fly blindly.
Oftentimes, we hear it from our mothers
during their preaching time this old proverb which says, “Tell me who
your friends are and I will tell you who you are” or if expressed in an
avian way “birds of the same feather flock together.” Well, the idiom
does not imply that one should choose the rich and famous as playmates
and associates, so he could get something from them materially. Simply
it only reminds one to be always in the right tract. When one is not
choosy of his “would be” friends and he is within the company of
durugistas, expect that in not much longer time he would follow soon
because of influence by association.
The above axiom is really
true to birds, because as always similar species flock together, even
during non-foraging time, or resting time during night if they are not
nocturnal like owls. However, the in-depth message of the idiom does
not apply to birds, but only to men.
As we observed,
black-feathered birds with red-eyes or commonly known as tusing grouped
themselves at all permissible time. By nature birds are essentially
territorial; they live in small family groups while others formed large
flocks. Living in small family groups or in flock is an advantage for it
may give them some security against common natural enemies such as
other predatory big birds, reptiles – tree snakes or animals, and
including men. There is safety in numbers because many eyes could watch
everyone and in a flash the alarm could be raised if there is an arising
threat. However safety in numbers has one drawback, it may create or
lessen their foraging efficiency since many mouths want to eat, and what
if there is not enough to forage, nourishment would not be good and it
directly affects their health and fertility. So, it could be a reason
that at the first opportunity flock of fruit eating birds visit trees
which fruits are already ripe and everyone would feast on its abundance.
Our place basically has a vast expanse of plains before one
could reach the hills or mountains. The mountains are not so nearby, so
one would still travel the most at five kilometres to reach them. These
vast expanses of plains have diverse trees; and when there are trees,
there would be always birds. Even at the heart of the poblacion, birds
are many; nevertheless, species are no longer as diverse as it had been
before.
The Passing of Time:
In my younger days
when our town has still plenty of centenary big acacia trees in its
heartland (near the Roman Catholic Church, municipal hall and plaza) in
addition to the fruit trees, which we still have today like macopa,
santol, tamarind, mango trees, few lanzones, balimbing, jackfruit,
handful of duhat trees and other non-edible for human fruit trees such
as kanding-kanding, gemelina, kalo-ot, alum, dol-dol and so on, birds
always abound.
As I can recall there were big acacia trees on
the west side of the church across the street. These big trees were
planted in intervals in the mid-part of the 19th century and stretched
out perpendicularly along at one side of the road from where the church
is, and farther extended up to the where the seashore or the old mooring
place is. The straight and stretch-line of big acacia trees seemingly
formed a figure of Letter “L” or “esquala” i.e. because they could be
found from the church’s western side and going west along the roadside
fronting the municipal hall towards the seashore.
But that
was before because only one or two acacia trees remain today, the rest
were all cut-down since people believed that those were hazards to lives
because many used to pass by below these old trees since they stood
towering over some of the main town’s thoroughfares. Those trees were
cut in the 1970’s and be as it may (the area however was replanted with
mahogany, narra, and antipolo-today these trees are likewise giving
shades) they had served well as wind-breakers, shades and most
importantly as haven of diverse species of birds. Aside from these
trees, other trees in the poblacion or town serve also as shelters of
the black-feather tusing (Colornis Panayensis); ol-ola; humming-bird or
tamsi (Cynniris ruber); it-it or pygmy hawk (Macrohierax
herythrogenis); maya pakin (Pada minuta); maya-maya; swift or sayao
(Macropteeryx comatus; sungkulangit (Sarcops calvus); and so on.
Other birds like crows or uwak (Corone philippina); dove or tukmo -
punay (Osmotreron armatica & Osmotreron vernans); oriole or tiulao
(Oriolus chinensis): sparrow-hawk or silo (Baza magnirostris); eagle or
banug (Halistur ponticerianus); bee-eater or amuloy-puloy (Merops
bicolor); parrot or periko and small green parrot or kulasisi; white
heron or talabun; turtledove or limokon (Columba humilis); kurachea;
baud (Columba pacifica and Columba littoralis); manatad; kalaw or
tungkago (Buceros hydrocorax); owl or mang-ak (Strix candida); and so on
live much farther away from the poblacion. There are also flightless
birds such as the tikugas, tikling and karao whose habitats are usually
in rice fields similarly with the white heron or talabun, while the
daily bather of them all, the kingfisher or tambulatok (Chrysocolaptes
lucidus) frequented always near brooks, streams and rivers to catch
their prey.
Bird’s characteristics since then have not
changed; the concept of territoriality is extremely expressive and
strict. Thus, a group of tusing or maya-maya flies solidly as tusing or
maya-maya group and they grouped together respectively even in foraging
and retiring. So it is not unusual that a tree would be occupied only by
a single species of bird when the sun sets.
Out of curiosity I
happened to observe a family of white herons or talabun in a rice
field, about 15 birds were there and busily foraging for worms because
an area more or less a hectare-wide was harrowed by a hand tractor. So,
earthworms were bountiful.
Not much longer from where I stood
of about 20 meters away from the birds, a lone white heron or talabun
coming from nowhere glided smartly towards their positions. Before even
she could touch down fully, the resident birds reacted vehemently of her
presence. So, she flew away and territoriality was best demonstrated by
those birds which occupied the foraging area ahead.
Near that
area, two pygmy hawks or it-it were cruising just above the standing
rice crops whose grains were nearly ripen. The pygmy hawks were flying –
diving and lifting up along the columns or lines of the standing crops
not to feed on the grains, but certainly were hunting for small ground
birds and worms as well, since these are predatory birds. But they prey
only on birds smaller than their sizes because they too are small but
daring, indeed pygmy hawks, unlike the maya-may and maya pakin, which
are grain-eaters that loved rice grains and always welcome strong winds
so the standing rice crops would give way, fall or sag (mataba) to the
ground.
As it had been before and would follow always as a
cycle till time unless otherwise altered by natural phenomenon, these
common birds in town would flock together, except those which are
solitary hunters, such as the crow, eagle, owl and other predator birds.
The rest feed in group, in group the fly, in group they reproduce and
raise their young, and in group - in security of numbers they would
spend the night in tree branches together, unmindful what the night may
bring them.
Trees with thick foliage could be good cover
against wind and coolness of the night, but in stormy time followed by
seemingly a hurricane force wind, tree tops are no guarantees of
survival. Like one storming night in late 1960’s when Tropical Storm
Ening hit this place and washed away a densely populated area in Old
Kibanban near the Balatukan Range, people and livestock died. Not
exempted of the wrath of nature were birds though they rested or had
sought refuge at trees near the old-brick church and town hall, yet many
dropped dead from their footings on the branches as a consequence of
that dreadful storm. It was a pitiful sight; many did not survive the
onslaught of the strong winds, heavy rains and coolness of the
hypothermic night. The following morning when the storm passed, the
hallowed ground was littered greatly with dead red-eyed tusing,
maya-maya, tamsi, and ol-ola. However, not everyone died during the
storm because similar bird songs echoed late at dusk at the place where
the previous massacre took place.
Despite, birds lost their
families and mates; they continued to be as joyous as if nothing
happened, because birds are birds, and are not capable of lamentation
unlike humans.
The cycle of life shall always move, old birds
die, new ones come, old trees fallen and young trees are planted or
grown; and birds would happily occupy whatever available tree, which
probably their predecessors once had dangled acrobatically and
romantically sung their lullabies. Aside from the narra trees near the
old brick church and town hall, which in the month of February each year
defoliate naturally, there are mahogany, antipolo, and acacia trees,
just all adjacent to the old brick church and town hall. These trees may
have been used also by their ancestors to pass the night and greeted
the new day with the noises of tweets in unison, or just one after the
other.
Moreover, at the park the trees, which we planted
during our Boy Scouting days in 1964 while in Grade School have long
been fully grown, and flock of birds are likewise retiring on these
trees. They would either spend the night here, or at nearby trees the
one fronting the old-brick church and town hall. Despite, the park is a
public place and many people are there, yet birds continue to retire at
night time thereat though these trees are not so thickly clothe with
foliage because agoho tree leaves are like fine tree leaves.
Nevertheless, it seems that the birds are unmindful whether their covers
are of thick foliage or not as long as they could spend the night
safely against slingshot and air guns. This area has nothing of that
sort.
Personally the way I see things are, these town birds or
common birds would continue to live in these environs - the trees in
the poblacion and nearby areas, because they may have felt and proven
that they are safe here. They are secured and away from harm of naughty
children, who like to target shot birds with their slingshots just for
fun and not much for meat.
But for other species like the
crow, eagle, owl, sikop, baud, or the pato del monte or wild duck, it is
regretted to note that we seldom see them here now. Although I know
they are not extinct, we could not find them as often as before even in
the rural areas such as in sitio Sulo in Barangay Samay. What would be
the cause of their scarcity or disappearance? Could it be valid to say
that wildlife diminishes because men tried to cross the threshold of
their domain? Untouched or uncultivated areas before are now being
farmed, so logically wildlife has been affected. Perhaps, this is one of
the considerations; why we seldom see these species nowadays because
they moved to the hinterlands or maybe now within the territory of the
Philippine Eagle in Mt. Balatukan Range Natural Park near our place,
which has an area of 9,645 hectares and proclaimed as forest reserved
per Proclamation No. 1249. Like the pato del monte or wild ducks, these
migratory birds in certain months or season of the year could not be
seen here because maybe they are somewhere in the marshland of Agusan
Sur, or probably in places where breeding is so conducive for them.
The presence of birds in town denote several things, it may mean that
they like to live here because food is plentiful – Balingasag rice the
endemic variety called Red 18 are much in the rice fields, and fruit
trees too are there; people are friendly; and most of all, the
atmosphere is not too polluted yet. We believe that our place has less
accumulation of toxic gases in the atmosphere – there is less emission
of carbon dioxide, despite more vehicles and motorcycles cross and roar
the streets today than it was ten years ago. There might be less
methane, nitrous oxides and halocarbons in the atmosphere because there
are no factories that may contribute to the increase of accumulation of
these gases, which could alter the echo system. But if the greenhouse
gas theory would be altered and it could no longer effectively absorb,
filter or regulate the heat coming from the ground towards the
atmosphere, problems may inevitably come.
We likewise believe
that so long as there would be plenty of trees, and no pollutant
factories or industries in town, at least a nice ecosystem could be
preserved. Let us remember that there would always be a corresponding
prize for any development through industrialization. The prize could be
good at the start as it would generate employment; therefore, money
comes in and circulates. While clearly it is not our view or intention
whatsoever to oppose or deter any honest effort for the town’s or
community’s development, but at least our officials and technical
planners shall be able to design some safety nets or measures to
safeguard and protect the town’s ecology against deterioration or abuse
because of the entry industrial development if ever there would be. If
ecology is compromised, it would not mean misery only to birds, but to
people and all living things as well, who are living nearby any factory,
which could be an environmental hazard.
Let there be factories and industries here, but of course, the town must be vigilant that they must be environmental friendly.
If the townspeople would ever neglect their responsibility and
involvement to the preservation of ecology or environment, perhaps it
would not be remote that our children’s children would not be able
anymore to identify what a tusing, maya, tamsi, uwak, and an ol-ola is.
We hope that day would never come as the skies would certainly be too
silent without Those Birds in Town singing as they passed by.
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