On the Eve of The Philippines

Black ( & blue?!) drongo

Ratchaburi

29.09.10

Our term is almost over so very early Friday morning we board a flight for Manila and I hope to be birding in Balanga City, Bataan, later on Friday morning: lots of shorebirds as it is on the sea. Thereafter I hope to get to a few new sites especially in Negros Occidental and I hope to report lots of good birds.

This evening I managed to make a quick spin round to the local rice paddy and,.... the drongos are back! No sign of the river lapwing. First drongos I have seen here for some time and I am very happy with the photograph! And not a bad shot of a white-throated kingfisher subject to the limitations of available light! I was also hoping for an asian brown flycatcher as these should be there or thereabouts ... alas no! There were also a couple of brown shrikes in the locale.

White-throated kingfisher

Ratchaburi

29.09.10

Thanks to Eddie Sui at www.cameracollection.net in Bangkok, I have a Horseman cable release, designed for large format cameras, but a real quality piece of kit and it works perfectly on my digiscope rig. I reckon Eddie will be sourcing some other bits and pieces for me over the next few years. What an outstanding, quality service .... highly recommended. So my rig is as I would like it and I hope over the next few weeks I will post some decent shots of some decent birds