Bird Watching 101

I participated in Bird Watching 101 thanks to the UP OICA 2019 UP Lakad Gunita program #UPDLakadGunita2019 on Diliman fauna this 18 February 2019 triggered by a post on Facebook.

With Professor Bert Madrigal, a bird watcher resource expert facilitating the program assisted by courteous AIT tour escorts, the 3-hour session #hunimondays opened a whole new world.

What I thought was relatively easy was stimulating but challenging and demanding.

To appreciate bird watching, specific skill sets are essential to:

• See the bird with your naked eye which is straining
• See it detailed using a binocular, difficult if one is not familiar with framing
• Capture the bird with your telephoto camera which must be done quickly as the bird is constantly in motion
• Know the species and its characteristics requiring memorization
• Hear the sound, demanding concentration
• Be conscious of your safety which one tends to forget considering the 5 steps to be done
• Have the stamina for the physical activity

What made it easier for a first timer to adapt after a few minutes were:

• The guidelines provided by the two AIT female tour escorts including insect repellants, bird literatures, certificates
• The lectures and high-end equipment and binoculars of Professor Bert 
• Multi media supplements as tablets, printed copies and Professor Bert’s camera display
• Expertise shared by the resource including trivia and historical perspective on the bird’s migratory patterns
• A cooperative and eager to participate group
•  A fascinating science complex which is more than its structures as it housed a wealth of actual fauna and flora

Towards the end, my interest in bird watching was heightened especially when I could easily spot the bird with my naked eye, view it up close with a binocular, picture it, listen to the sound it produced and learn a little of the birds’ characteristics.

Seeing and documenting birds in their natural habitat is indeed a joy. Best of all, the university presented this experience at no cost to the participants but whose value is priceless.

There is still a lot more like spotting more birds, knowing what endemic means and subscribing to bird related advocacy on protection.

Influencing Fortune

Getting drowned with the frenzied activity, floods of goods and food, blinding bright colors, deafening noise and a sea of crowd seeking favorable dispositions on health, career, wealth, family, relationship in the year of the earth pig this 2019

Pop Art in the City

Texture

Remote Escape

Life of PI Sikap. Takot. Pagasa. Suko

Lifted quotes from the movie Life of PI that resonates with me.

Life of PI is about PI, an Indian boy who survives 227 days on a lifeboard in the Pacific Ocean after a shipwreck which killed his family and friends. He applied survival skills. Through the help of a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker (though a threat) who he learned to tame but did not change and his deep faith, he lived.

He was devastated that while he survived, the Bengal tiger, his friend and a how a mirror of himself simply walked away without saying goodbye.

A novel of Yann Martel, it was made into a movie by Ang Lee in 2012.

"Sariling Sikap"
“I had to stop hoping so much that a ship would rescue me. I should not count on outside help. Survival had to start with me. In my experience, a castaway’s worst mistake is to hope too much and to do too little. Survival starts by paying attention to what is close at hand and immediate. To look out with idle hope is tantamount to dreaming one’s life away.”
― Yann Martel, Life of Pi

"Takot at Buhay"
“I must say a word about fear. It is life's only true opponent. Only fear can defeat life. It is a clever, treacherous adversary, how well I know. It has no decency, respects no law or convention, shows no mercy. It goes for your weakest spot, which it finds with unerring ease. It begins in your mind, always. One moment you are feeling calm, self-possessed, happy. Then fear, disguised in the garb of mild-mannered doubt, slips into your mind like a spy.”
― Yann Martel, Life of Pi

"Walang Saysay Dito"
“People move because of the wear and tear of anxiety. Because of the gnawing feeling that no matter how hard they work their efforts will yield nothing, that what they build up in one year will be torn down in one day by others. Because of the impression that the future is blocked up, that *they* might do all right but not their children. Because of the feeling that nothing will change, that happiness and prosperity are possible only somewhere else.”
― Yann Martel, Life of Pi

"Pagpupusigi. Milagro. Pagbuo ng milagro sa kinasanayan. Pananampalataya"
“I was giving up. I would have given up - if a voice hadn't made itself heard in my heart. The voice said 'I will not die. I refuse it. I will make it through this nightmare. I will beat the odds, as great as they are. I have survived so far, miraculously. Now I will turn miracle into routine. The amazing will be seen everyday. I will put in all the hard work necessary. Yes, so long as God is with me, I will not die. Amen'.”
― Yann Martel, Life of Pi

There's a line on separation, letting go and goodbye which I will not quote for the moment.

https://youtu.be/3mMN693-F3U -Trailer
https://youtu.be/wCCcRSmeHwc -Interviews with Director Ang Lee, Actors Suraj Sharma and Irrfan Khan
https://youtu.be/CQTL1wESx9w -Lessons on Life and God

Suraj Sharma, the actor who plays the teenage Pi says what he hopes the audience takes away from the movie is believing in yourself. “First of all, which is more evident is hope. Just to believe in yourself and to believe in something bigger than yourself will come to take you out of your situation. Because every human being goes through what Pi went through in their own ways.”

View to the New Year's Horizon

Sunlight Rain and 2019

Ray of sunlight to fuel our hopes and dreams this 2019

Rain to refresh and nourish our jaded selves

After darkness comes the light

Facing the challenges and surprises of the year with courage and faith

With hopes that 2019 is kind to most of us especially to us

Fruits Grains and New Year

New Year is about tradition passed on from generations to generations

Round fruits auger prosperity and good luck, grains bind the family

Feast for physical strength, turn on lights for a cheerful celebratory mood

Hope to believe that 2019 brings in good health, prosperity, positive relationship, opportunities and solidarity

Images of 2018 Christmas Season

Without the mass, nothing to write about
Without food, no review
No film fest movie, nothing to lose
No climb, nothing to document
Without the season, no reason to feast
Nevertheless, my images for this season

Sharing in our humanity makes possible to share in His divinity. Promise of Christmas

Advent prepares us for Christmas.

9 days of Simbang Gabi make us better understand the significance.

Day by day, we deepen our faith with a prayer that this season transforms our hardened heart into a heart of flesh.

When the Messiah is born, there is a burst of joy.

Angels herald it in a grand scale: ”Joyful, all ye nations rise Join the triumph of the skies With angelic hosts proclaim. Christ is born in Bethlehem Hark! the herald angels sing" Glory to the newborn King!"

Here on earth, there is an outburst of colors in celebration. As there is no other joy of this magnitude, that Christ became man to embrace our humanity and our mess so we can accept him, turn around and find our true home transforming our hardened heart into a heart of flesh.

Indeed, there is reason for joy!

-Posted before the Christmas Eve mass of the Solemnity of the Nativity of Our Lord Church of the  Gesu 2018

"By sharing in our humanity, He makes it possible for us to share in His divinity"

Danger lurks. In the light of recent events, we experienced fear, anger, despair. We fear pain. We fear the dark (and the internet). At the night sky, it is dark. Even with the stars and the galaxies, there is darkness. Because the universe is finite, finite in size and in age, with a beginning and an end. The internet is a human place. And because it is human and limited and finite, it can be a dark and twisted place. Evil is active. How can we sleep in heavenly peace? Let us be on guard, taking turns to watch over.

Faith must be greater than fear. Love must be greater than hate. "A dark place is only as dark as we allow it . . . Any place on earth, any place from the time of the incarnation, can be a place of light insofar as we allow God to make it."

At the incarnation, the divine is taking on the human fate. With the birth of Christ, God is with us. God is love.

If we allow God to be with us, we can sleep in heavenly peace.

Captured key thoughts paraphrasing Fr. Jet Villarin's 24 Dec Christmas eve homily
https://www.rappler.com/nation/219613-ateneo-president-jett-villarin-christmas-eve-2018-homily

2018 Christmas Reflection

Advent prepares us for Christmas.

9 days of Simbang Gabi make us better understand the significance.

Day by day, we deepen our faith with a prayer that this season transforms our hardened heart into a heart of flesh.

When the Messiah is born, there is a burst of joy.
Angels herald it in a grand scale: ”Joyful, all ye nations rise Join the triumph of the skies With angelic hosts proclaim. Christ is born in Bethlehem Hark! the herald angels sing" Glory to the newborn King!"

Here on earth, there is an outburst of colors in celebration. As there is no other joy of this magnitude, that Christ became man to embrace our humanity and our mess so we can accept him, turn around and find our true home transforming our hardened heart into a heart of flesh.

Indeed, there is reason to be joyful!

On the 9th Day, Hark the Herald Angels Sing!

Start of the cycle of preparing for the coming on the 1st day of Simbang Gabi

Angels triumphantly heralding the birth of Christ on the 9th day

On the 1st Simbang Gabi homily for 2018, Fr. James Gascon stressed what it is to be a Christian as a "verb" rather than a noun, giving importance to the doing rather than the word.

Fr. Mario Francisco on the 9th Simbang Gabi novena highlighted the family coming home for Christmas. While there are problems in some families such as betrayal, infidelity among others (bullying included), the season of Christmas seeds hope bringing joy to every member particularly to the elders.

A family built on God and not on power and possession is foundational to joy. Mary visiting Elizabeth brought joy. The coming of Jesus allows us to present to each other, aware of our own selves building the family and eventually a community.

The Ateneo Chamber Singers interpreting Hark the Herald Angels Sing gloriously and harmoniously highlighted well to the grandness of joy particularly when the line “Hark the herald angels sing, glory to the new born king!” was repeatedly sang setting up the festive mood after the preparation of Advent and the deepening of the significance of Christmas.

Joy is infectious in Christmas manifested in the disposition of those prepared for the coming and understanding the significance of Christ’ birth. During the season, we give gift, prepare special meals, dress our best, treat and greet everyone else through postcards, email, letters, in social media and interpersonally cheerfully and courteously greet to draw out and give joy. Ultimately, the core joy in Christmas is in giving love on Christmas day.

Maligayang Pasko!

Song references: I'll be home for Christmas by Bing Crosby. Give love on Christmas day by Michael Jackson. Hark the herald angels sing composed by Felix Mendelssohn

Joyful, all ye nations rise

Join the triumph of the skies

With angelic hosts proclaim:

"Christ is born in Bethlehem"

Hark! the herald angels sing:

"Glory to the newborn King!"

Feet on the Ground Roaming Locally