I just spent 2 weeks in the field in the province of Bukidnon, the northernmost province in Mindanao. We lived in a house in a Barangay (small village) and during the day we would observe Tinuy-an, a released eagle. We are trying to collect behavioural data to see how the released birds act compared to wild ones. Life in the field is pretty simple. Wake up early (mostly due to the roosters...), observe during the day and then come home, have dinner, hang out for a bit and get to bed around 7. It is dark by 5:30 and since there is no electricity there is not much to do except read or go to bed. I was out there with Roselyn, a Filipina biologist and we also had the help of a local guide, Jesse.
Roselyn and I in the observing post
I am an exceptionally good observer
The necesities: data sheets, compass, tons of snacks
One day Tinuy-an got a little curious as to why we are always watching her and decided to come check it out. She flew right up to our post and stood there glaring, screaming and flapping her wings at us. We tried to scare her off with firecrackers and sticks but these had no effect so we basically had to beat it for the rest of the afternoon. One of the little boys that lives in the village had an even closer encounter with Tinuy-an. He and his brothers had been bathing in the stream nearby and Tinuy-an came near to investigate. The boys, being boys, started teasing her and tugging on her tail feathers. She got mad and tried to pick one of the little boys up by the back of his neck (like a monkey). He was way too heavy and she couldn’t do it but he still has scars on his neck from where her talons cut in. His family didn’t seem particularly worried (his dad was laughing when he told us the story) but I still have no desire to get that close to her.
Big crazy bird
I think Tinuy-an kind of looks like a cowboy here. It looks like she is wearing chaps and about to pull out some guns or something. At the very least she looks like she wants to kill us.
The little boy whose neck she took a chunk out of
We spent a day taking readings from their house but I mostly just watched these two shoot spitballs at each other... one is running away while the other reloads.
Tinuy-an got supplemental food because we don't want her to starve while she learns to hunt in the area. Every third day at 3 a.m. we would get up, pack up a couple of rabbits and hike for half an hour to the feeding site. It is incredible the number of stars you can see out there on nights when it’s not cloudy. If the moon is out you don’t even really need a flashlight. At the feeding site we would tie up the poor defenceless little bunnies and leave them for morning when Tinuy-an would wake up and eat them. We put the food out at night so she wouldn’t associate it with humans but I think our little encounter might be proof positive that she knows we are the ones handing out the bunnies.
There was one day of observing that the weather was really beautiful. Most days it would rain either all day or at least by about 1 pm. Roselyn was really surprised that it didn’t rain on this particular day because she says it rains everyday in this area of the mountains. I was like “Every day? It can’t rain every day all year.” She thought that it probably did but asked our guide Jesse to make sure. He replied (in Visayas which was translated for me) “No, not everyday. It doesn’t rain some days in April.”
Same view: sunny and rainy on the same day.
