Plein Air with TIMPUYOG artists fet. BIRD WATCHING at the Wetlands of LUNA

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"pagnapagna greatly do recommends everyone to go visit nature. It is a great way to shrug-off heavy city-life's baggage and recharge with a dose of nature.
I'm sure there is one just nearby at your municipality or province and if you do find one, try to protect and preserve such beauty of nature for us and the future generations to see"
-pagnapagna
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-my pagnapagna-

(November 18, 2017 a Saturday)

La Union TIMPUYOG Artes ti Ilocandia is the artist group I am currently with as an artist. It is La Union based but extends outside the province to nearby provinces such as Pangasinan and the Cordilleras such as Baguio City for its members.

The group had recently planned to have an outdoor art session which is commonly called "plein air" (open air painting) and we planned it to be a monthly activity (hopefully). For this month of November, it was done in Luna, La Union.

Luna was named after the Luna brothers Antonio (Revolutionary General) and Juan (Painter) wherein their mother was a native of Namacpacan - the previous name of the town of Luna.

Aside from the Baluarte watchtower, Stone Hand Art Gallery and the very famous "Bahay na Bato" that closed its doors to the public few months back, there are others that may excite a traveler, especially those that love nature and one of them are the wetlands of Luna, La Union. 

One of our co-artist Mark Neil who by the way is the in-house artist of the Stone Hand Art Gallery, with the help of the Luna couple artists Jogz and Marilou made the wetlands as our subject area. The place was just near the residence of Mark Neil.

Unfortunately, not all of the artist members attended the activity for various reasons. So there were just five of us who came.

The artists at work

At around an hour before noon, under a tent, just overlooking the wetlands and near the house of our co-artist Mark Neil, we started making our artworks. Jogz, Marilou and Mark Neil did an acrylic painting while yours truly and Geofrey made a sketch.

Lunch time under the tent c/o couple artists Jogz and Marilou.
The wetland is at the base of the hill at the background.

At that time, the two tall silag tree (buri palm) nearby caught my fancy and made them as my subject for my sketching.

That was my sudject, the two buri palm instead of the wetlands LOL ☺

Ar around three in the afternoon one, two to three birds can be seen at a distance flying and land in the wetlands. I would run down and sneak slowly as silently as much as possible inside the wetlands (just at the edge or the dry areas) to see them. I've seen some small birds too but they would fly away when they sense my presence. Afterwards, I would go back to our art session where my co-artist were.

The Pila Wetland of Luna

This particular wetland is located at barangay Pila. It is an area that is flooded by the overflow of the river that goes out to the sea at Darigayos. Some kinds of mangrove trees, shrubs and grasses tribes in the area. Crabs also lives in its mud. Migrating birds particularly egrets roost on its trees at a particular season.

It is said that most of the area is privately owned and at times people nearby, during summer, pile up the dried mud into division walls to make a fish pen.
Currently, as of writing, the area is not yet a tourist-oriented site or listed as a tourist destination of Luna.

an egret looking for food at the mud of the wetland

An egret senses my presence

Those white specks at the upper portion of the photograph
are egrets flying back to roost.

At around 5:30 in the late afternoon, while we were packing up, we were amazed at the sight of  white birds that arrived. In batches they flew back to roost to a particular area in the wetlands.  Partially (obscured by other trees) they can be seen far away as they became like white flowers on trees of the wetlands. This continued until dark and it was time of us also to go back to our Home Sweet Home.

-end of pagnapagna-

For other posts:

Bird watching in Binmaley, Pangasinan

Baluarte Watchtower

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Subject   : Pila Wetland

Location : Barangay Pila

                 Municipality of Luna

                 Province of  La Union

How to get there:

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