 Thank you. For those of you who joined us for the science exhibit, this is the second phase of our program for today, and it's a little more fun and something new and unusual for us. More fun. The scientist tells me, but it's something unusual that we are doing for the first time, that we focus on, not necessarily on rice alone, but we're focusing also on life that exists in the rice fields. And it's something that we actually observe quite often and throughout the growing season that you've got plots of birds with us, and it's really amazing the wildlife, the flora and fauna that does exist in the fields. And in fact part of the scientific discoveries that are emerging are that we really need to pay attention to the ecology of the rice field, and that ecology enables us much more sustainable production. Because of course we're worried not only about productivity for today, we're worried about productivity for generations to come. So today we've got an exhibit of photography, and this came about quite in a serendipitous way. One day I was invited to an exhibit of bird photographs by Undersecretary Fred Serrano of the Department of Agriculture. His exhibit took place at campus. And I thought, here we've got this resource, and we do have a lot of birds in the fields. And why don't we invite Undersecretary Serrano and a number of other bird watching and photography enthusiasts on campus and in theory to work with us on an exhibit to show off their work. And so I also knew a number of other exhibitors and you'll meet them today. And we'd like to acknowledge their presence and their contributions just very quickly. First, the Contributor is Undersecretary of Agriculture, Sir Fred Serrano. Unfortunately Fred is on mission right now. He's traveling, but you'll see his photographs and his work will speak for itself. May I also introduce Dr. Kirsof Pares. Dr. Pares is a recently retired professor of economics from the University of the Philippines. And after his long career of teaching young people as turned to bird photography, he'll have something to say about this in a little bit also. I'd also like to introduce one of our colleagues part of the Erie family, Mr. Paul Warden. Paul Warden teaches mathematics and engineer at Brent School, but his passion are birds. And you'll see it as he explains his work. I'd also like for all of you to meet Richard Smedley. Richard is a graduate student working on a dissertation about bird ecology. And he'll tell us about how birds behave in the rice fields. And that's something that we're all learning about as we speak. Also I should not fail to introduce Michael Joyce. Has he gone? Oh, Michael created the bird sounds that you hear as part of the exhibit. And he also arrived at Erie quite serendipitously as a partner to one of our scientists and he came and joined us for this. And finally I should acknowledge our creative team that put together this exhibit. The team is led by Paul Ilario. Paul Ilario is also the curator of this rice world museum. And we shouldn't forget the entire communications team and events and visitors team of Erie are first led by Gene Hettle, who just can't stop doing communications. And Ria Dimapilis, is she here? Ria, please? Can everybody see you? But she'll join us in a bit. She helped engineer this whole affair, put together a lot of logistics that went into the support. Ria, please? So, may I again introduce our Director General, Robert Sieger? Thank you very much, Bruce. You said everything that I thought I was going to say. Well, I'm sure I'll think of something. No, I've been very fortunate in having one of those fantastic office views in the world. My view sits on the corner of the building opposite the fountain. It looks out on Mount Bahau and the surrounding areas. And in the foreground is just a wonderful array of bird life in the rice paddies. And it wasn't always like that. In the 1960s, 1970s, and the 1980s, we, or not we, but those who grew rice thought that anything in the rice field that wasn't rice was a pest. And so there was a lot of spraying and pesticides. And basically the rice paddies in many places were almost deserts in terms of biodiversity. We came to understand the ecology of the rice paddies. And now, in our production fields and research fields, we spray pesticides at a rate that is almost zero. 97%, 98% dropped in pesticide usage in our fields. And what we've seen is a tremendous flourishing of life in the paddies. The birds are at the top of the food chain. And if you have birds out in your rice paddies, egrets and other feeders, you know you have a healthy pad. You have another, you have a healthy environment that insects and frogs and other invertebrates and invertebrates can live quite happily out there and can provide enough food for the birds as well as produce a healthy rice crop. And so this exhibit, the birds of Rerea, the birds of the rice paddy, is in fact the celebration of healthy rice paddies. And it is an indication that the rice ecosystems in Asia can be very healthy systems that will contribute to maintaining the very important biodiversity. So this celebration is really a celebration of biodiversity, a celebration of what we've learned over the decades and what a healthy food system is all about. So I want to congratulate our colleagues here who have put this together. You see them out at all hours of the morning, five o'clock in the morning creeping around, looking for birds. They're a very strange lot and we don't want to go into that very deeply. But I love them and I admire them and wish I had the patience and the dedication to be as persistent in tracking our fine feathered friends. And again, thank you so much for putting this together. It is a stellar exhibit and I'm sure you'll enjoy it. And we do have cocktails and snacks for you. So with that I'll turn it back over to Bruce. A presentation on facts and myths about birds by Richard Spencer. Well, thank you very much. I think we'll start by thanking to be asked to talk. Thank you for being part of this. And thank you to the tune direction we've already had. I'm pretty much saying I think I've got to bring it down on my cards. So what I'll do is I'll start by giving an introduction by myself. I'm, as you said, I'm a PhD student here, based from the University of Redmond in the UK. I'm here looking at the birds and it's absolutely amazing. But first and foremost I link myself as a bird. The birds is what draw me here and this is what really draws my research every day. As we mentioned, getting up at the ridiculous time in the morning to go and see what's around is one of the most exciting things you can do. And if you can ever get it as a job, I highly recommend it. But unlike other people here, I must say that my background is as a bird and so I do very little on rights. So whilst I was still in the UK, I did a lot of research on birds in rice fields and actually for a geographical area that provides quite a lot of the global market rights, there's very little research which can be found. Most of which comes from the US or Europe. So with this, this gives us a huge plan of canvas especially within the Philippines here where area is mostly based and with the partner countries as well. Where we can look at kind of what we can do with rice fields both benefit birds and the farmers. So with no actual kind of literature really as it were or no literature on the birds in rice fields, I went to the farmers in the field and asked what their knowledge on birds was. And this opened up to the largest myth which has already been mentioned once already is that all birds eat rice, which if you take away nothing from me, from this evening, it's a complete myth. That's completely the untrue. They seem to have been convicted, without any evidence. People see birds flying away and they think they're eating the rice when that's just not true. What you're about to see in the door at home is an amazing array of birds of colors and shapes and sizes and very few of them have got to actually eat the rice at any time, let alone during seasonal times in their life cycle. So why do we have wings to scapegoats? Why do they get to the blame of all the loss of yield that we hear so much about? And it's mostly because there is a lack of knowledge out there. There are a few of us who work on those and there are a few of us who go out and have a look. But that information is taken while to get through and so what the big message from this exhibition mostly will be is that all the birds are amazing and that northern advice and that trickles down into a day-by-day kind of situation and farmers realise this. So we can stop the unnecessary persecution of the species which is going on. Now not mentioning that not all birds don't eat rice, they are somehow there and you'll see some of the descriptions by the species behind me of the birds which you need to be aware of and you need to know that there's also a bird in there which can form an ecological engineer system which again, to be mentioned briefly, about how you can use these birds. You can use the birds that turn up and their natural behaviour for taking the invertebrates, for taking pest species and the overall goal, sorry, is to increase yield whilst you're somehow changing the farmer fields for migratory species, for these species which are going to benefit you overall in the long term. So, and I'm just going to tie it up quickly, what can we do next and it's really simple and that's to go through those doors and enjoy every single bird you see in there because they're around, all you need to do is look up and you don't need to be out at 5 o'clock in the morning they are around most of the day, it's just a bit more tricky to see. So, enjoy, see what we can see and learn the species and spread the news that actually birds are our friends and we want to keep them as long as possible. Thank you. Well, under Secretary Serrano is on mission, we are fortunate indeed to have Mrs Serrano join us today to speak a little bit about her husband's birdwatching and her husband's work, please. Claire Finon, Fred, misses this afternoon's activity and on this behalf I would like to leave this message sent through email. Your Excellencies, the Director General, officials and members of the ERIC organization, leaders and constituents of the UPFB and nearby communities, Fran is here with me. We thank you for coming over to Grace's Velvark occasion, probably the first dedicated to birds in the rice fields. We thank and commend ERIC for conceptualizing and initiating this photo exhibit as the organization's contribution to the 30 national year of rice 2013. The value of this initiative by ERIC not just because it showcases the bird photography, the two most active maquilling area bird photographers, Dr. Kirsten Parangis, among my favorite professors from undergraduate days and up to the present still my patient teacher in a lot more good things and myself, but primarily for that informative and educational value to the community. Farmers, students, the science community, ordinary visitors to ERIC, the immediate community and their leaders. It is hoped that this exhibit will foster a better understanding and appreciation of our magnificent Indian friends. From the most common duration pre-sparrow alumbani target for some bird photographers, to the now greatly seen rails such as the water top, lane bush, hand, well there will be aggressive creek. All birds are incredible creatures and their value to any ecosystem far outweigh their perceived prejudice to human economic interests. This exhibit will also dispel the misconception of many, fostered by some as well, that ERIC is a toxic chemical spewing monster of a technology developer. The proliferation of ERIC and beauty algae rice fields of such a wide diversity of birds, resident as well as faithfully returning migrants, is the testimony to the vastly improved environmental friendliness of modern rice technology. It is the ignorance of people of our wildlife protection laws, the environment on the right of every creature to continue to coexist and share this planet with us, that poses the greatest threat to their survival. We hope that this exhibit is just the beginning and with the help of dedicated ERI researchers, like Ms. Chris Meadly, we may yet come up with a cheap and widely circulated handout on rice birds for the general population, especially the young. By my experience, if bird watching is 100% all and wonder, bird photography is about 97% disappointment, given the shooting conditions. But that means Q3% of boundless exaggeration easily overwhelms all difficulties and disappointments, the vindication more than double by opportunities and graces such as this ERI exhibition. Again, my profuse thanks and best wishes to all of you. My thanks to my family for bearing with oftentimes odd behavior, the odd hours, the consistent record of escapes from household chores, and the strange equipment for chases. We hope you all enjoyed the exhibit. Thank you. Professor, excuse the problems. I wish I could call my wife to read my message also. Just some notes. First of all, good afternoon everyone and welcome to this opening of the photo exhibit. My message is really just some words or words of thanks. First, I'd like to thank Bruce for coming up with the idea of having a photo exhibit and following it through until this opening date. There are a lot of people who are involved in this undertaking, some in direct ways, some behind the scenes, and they all have to be thanked for. I would like to especially thank Bruce Paul. Congratulations for orchestrating this event in an excellent manner. Second, I'd like to thank Iri for providing the space within which the birds are able to survive and perfectly themselves. I think that's a testament of the fact that Iri is putting in a lot of chemicals that kill the birds. They're there from one month to another. So thank you for that, because that gives us photographers and bird watchers immense pleasure. Third, I'd like to thank Moses, the Iri Security Office, especially the Glenn Enriquez-type office here, because we have been bothering him every week or so, because we would like to come into their upland and lowland fields, and sometimes I bring visitors from the Wildbird Club Philippines and also the Wildbird Photographers of the Philippines, and Iri has been gracious in allowing us to visit the fields and be able to photograph various birds. Now, why do we photograph birds? Well, you might have read it, you know. It's really a passion, but we do it not only for aesthetic and artistic value, but we would like to think that we're also doing something for posterity. I am part of the Wildbird Club Philippines and Wildbird Photographers of the Philippines, and we espouse what is called conservation photography. And by that, we mean we would like to take pictures, and not only pictures, but beautiful pictures, which are intended to increase public awareness about the presence of many beautiful birds in the Philippines, not just the Mayas that you see. A lot of people say that. I thought the only birds that could be seen here are the Munia and Mayas, but there are in fact a lot of beautiful birds. So that's one. Another thing is we'd like to make known to people that a lot of our birds are critically endangered, and some of them are in fact bad shape. So we would like to be able to sort of stop this kind of development, and we are trying to undertake programs in fact that will help save some of our endemic birds, which are critically endangered. So, in this regard, I'd like to introduce to you our president, the Wildbird Photographers of the Philippines, Ray Santana. And my members, Ben Rojas, and Keith Sunia, they are my special friends. I don't know if my group is here from the Wildbird Mountain Philippines, but I understand that he has been invited. First again, welcome to the opening of our colleagues' exhibit. I hope you will enjoy it. Thank you very much. And now for the last but not least, Paul Warden. Good afternoon, and thank you very much for coming. This is quite an important exhibit to me and to the rest of us, and put in a fair amount of time and effort into this. When I arrived in the Philippines five years ago, I didn't know what to expect when it came to the birds. I knew about the forest birds, and the Philippines is very famous for the number of endemics and the quantity of variety of the birds in the forest. But the farmlands was a little bit of a mystery, and I must admit I had pretty low expectations. And I came out into the field, and to be honest, I was astonished. It was so much richer, so much more variety, so many more birds than I was expecting. In the five years I've been here, I've recorded over 100 species just in the fields alone, which is a truly extraordinary number for farmland anyway, to be honest. And particularly in the Philippines, where there's a lot of human pressures and a lot of persecution of the birds. So this is really an extraordinary place, and a very, very interesting place. Anyway, so all I really wanted to say other than I'm extremely proud to have been a, played a small part in what is I think quite important to exhibit. I'm a teacher, as I think Bruce mentioned. Education is very, very important to me, and I see this as just an extension of that. So I think that's really all I want to say. Just thank you very much. And now we're going to go over to the exhibit. May I invite Dr. Siegler. How about the exhibit? Dr. Paris, please join us here. I shouldn't be the one cutting these guys. And Paul, please. And Richard. And Mrs. Sanama, please. We only have three seconds, so I will defer. Just join the group here, please. And these are... And are we ready for cut? Okay, so you guys, two hands. Two hands at a time. Okay, here we go. You guys after these. Ready? One, two, and cut! Yay! Welcome, please. Bob, would you open the door, please? I know they're missing something.