Wet and Windy

It's rainy season again in the Philippines. And typhoon season. We've just had a particularly powerful  cat.5 typhoon (Odette or Usagi to use its international name) pass over the north end of Luzon. Thankfully it didn't pass directly over the Philippines because the fallout from it missing the place was bad enough.  Olongapo was completely flooded, as were most of the surrounding towns and villages. Sadly too many people died as a result of the flooding and a large landslide killed 23.

Subic Bay was largely unscathed but then that's probably a legacy of good infrastructure left courtesy of the Americans.  It says volumes that the drainage systems still work as effectively today as it did when they it was installed.  The drainage system doesn't seem to work anywhere else in the Philippines.

Manila floods every year but it gets reported like it wasn't expected.  The only thing that's unexpected is the fact that it wasn't expected.

Our wages clerk went to the bank the other day to pay in some cheques.  Some of the banks wouldn't accept them.  When I asked why, I was told because it was raining.  To clarify I asked if the banks were closed because it was raining but no, they were open but just wouldn't accept any cheques because it was raining.  Work that one out if you can because I can't see any logic to it.

Philippine or Crested?

This handsome dude seems to be a regular visitor to my garden.

At first I thought it was a Crested Serpent Eagle but further research suggests it might be a close relative, the Philippine Serpent Eagle, if only because it's in the Philippines.

This raises two questions: is my garden overrun with 'serpents' and has it been responsible for the cats going missing?

Photos were captured on my Panasonic Lumix FZ18, which is a super-zoom camera bought for me by my sister around 5 or probably 6 years ago.  It's a hugely versatile camera and one that produces photos of amazing quality for what it is.

Flying Blind

I'm not sure why but birds seem to have a problem with seeing the windows on the house I live in.  On several occasions I've been startled by a loud bang on the window when a bird has crashed into it.  My guess is it's because the windows have a solar coating on them that makes them mirror like on the outside. I think this confuses birds because the house is surrounded by forest and so the windows reflects the forest and the birds fly towards it.

Below is a kingfisher that smacked into the window and stunned itself so I was able to take a photo.  It sat there for a minute blinking, looking like it was trying to remember where it was and where it was going. One of the cats approaching soon focussed its attention and it flew off at high speed so it would appear it was unharmed.

A while back it wasn't such a happy ending.  A flock of bright green parakeets flying in formation weren't so lucky and were killed as a result of smacking into the window.  I have a photo of around six of them all lined up on the ground dead as a door nail, and if I can find the photo I'll post it here.