Wednesday 29 September 2010

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

Tuesday 28 September 2010

Chumphon Raptor Watch 27th September 2010


Well my second day at the raptor watch was not much better than the first. There really weren't any opportunities to photograph the raptors as they were too high in the sky for my digiscope and there were too few of them as well. I did manage some shots of this very elegant dragonfly and I hope to tell you more about it in the next few weeks. There are an enormous number of these dragonflies around the raptorwatch site together with noisy flocks of blue-tailed bee-eaters and swallows.

However I had a great time talking with Mr Raptor, Bob de Candido. Bob has been involved in this watch since its inception in 2003 and together with Chukiat Nualsri, they have developed the watch into an important international event. Chukiat is Mr Birder in the Chumphon area and it was his curiosity about the large flocks of big birds that could be seen high in the sky for a few months every year that led to Bob first coming to Thailand in 2003. Since that time it has become an annual event.

Apart from the lack of photo opportunities it was a great trip. I suspect I am going to make a couple of southern sorties by train, travelling by sleeper through the night in both directions, to reach some new birding sites.

Sunday 26 September 2010

Chumphon: Raptor Watch

Crested goshawk

I am a little disappointed that I don't have a pile of shots of raptors to post. What pictures I have were taken with my P&S camera not the digiscope rig. For the latter to work with flying birds I now understand that I would need a good group not too far away to aim,  and then focus on one in that group and take the shot. Sadly this did not happen today. So only one picture today! No point posting blurry lumps of indistinguishable birds!

There were decent numbers of Chinese & Japanese sparrow hawks, a few oriental honey buzzards, a black kite, a crested goshawk and a peregrine falcon but the numbers passing through today were very low. I take comfort from not missing any golden opportunities.

But the birds were all distant other than some fast moving sparrow hawks or birds which were high above me.  Mustn't grumble as the crested goshawk and peregrine falcon are lifers.

Fantastic to meet up again with Bob de Candido who has led this raptor watch since 2003. He's been here for almost three weeks now and is set to stay until mid-November. A privilege to be able to benefit from his excellent knowledge at such close quarters.

Tom Backlund and his wife are also here so we went out in Chumphon later in the afternoon and it was good to see a pile of starlings: jungle, common and white-vented mynas, and pied and vinous-breasted starlings. A large number of lesser whistling ducks have taken up residence in the rice paddy near the sports stadium.

Hopefully more tomorrow and a decent picture or two .....maybe!

Monday 20 September 2010

Sharp-tailed Sandpiper at Khok Kham

Sharp-tailed sandpiper
Calidris acuminata
นกชายเลนกระหม่อมแดง
Khok Kham 20.09.10

I was going to write to you about my buffoonery, I have recently hit a rich seem of it, but the real story is the presence today of a sharp tailed sandpiper at Khok Kham viewed by Mr Dtee, Tom Baclund and myself this afternoon. Of course we were there with spoon-billed sandpiper on our minds but he didn't show and Mr Dtee, despite heroic efforts, could not sniff him out. This sharp-tailed sandpiper is a lifer for me and I count myself lucky to have seen and photographed the bird. Likely to have originated in the north of Siberia and may stay here or may be on its way further south, common in Australia and New Zealand during the northern winter.

Buffoonery Part 1: I managed to leave my Hoodman Loupe at home hence most of my photographs today are not brilliantly focused plus I was working in strong sunlight. The Hoodman is a perfect solution for these issues and I went to a lot of trouble and expense to get one!

Pacific golden plover
Pluvialis fulva
นกหัวโตหลังจุดสีทอง
Khok Kham 20.09.10

Next a very common bird but a real treat for the eyes, a pacific golden plover, male, in breeding plumage, well in fact it is in moult. Nevertheless a very striking bird on the eye, looks a bit like a pearly Cockney, sorry me ol' Chinas from the Smoke.

Buffoonery runs to several parts including two broken cable shutter releases, leaving my shutter release bracket at home yesterday,  an Australasian Bushlark which I corrected to a Paddyfield Pipit.......and the latter is probably the best photograph I have take using the digiscope rig!

Paddyfield pipit
Anthus rufulus
นกเด้าดินทุ่งเล็ก
Huai Mai Teng Reservoir 19.09.10

So notwithstanding the buffoonery my digiscoping skills are improving. The paddyfield pip shows what the potential is. I missed some great shots because of my buffoonery, a little grebe with her two grebelets sprawled on her back, a picture of absolute contentment and devotion.......all badly out of focus. Such is life!

Finally the River Lapwing was back in the local rice paddy on Sunday evening but not at lunch time today.

Saturday 18 September 2010

No River Lapwing Today!

Paddyfield Pip

Circumstances allowed me to make a dash from my morning teaching duties to Huay Mai Teng Reservoir to check on the status of the river lapwings. Not a whisper of one! Now there was a fair amount of human activity in their normal area so this absence does not mean they have moved on. There were a lot of paddyfield pips and other pipits/larks too but I wasn't able to photograph them. In this same area there were at least 30 oriental pratincoles, a yellow wagtail, 2 common sandpiper, 2 plain prinias and a white-throated kingfisher. No pied today.

I then dashed back to Ratchaburi for my afternoon class and at 5:30 pm I headed out  to see if yesterday's river lapwing was still on the premises of what I will call the Rose Garden rice paddy. In very poor light I took these photographs of a white-throated kingfisher and a juvenile little heron, a really beautiful plumed bird. No river lapwing here!




I have my new photographic parts and if these shots are more in focus it is because of the Hoodman. My new tripod head is also making it easier too as the scope/camera is more balanced. The light was poor so I will reserve judgement.  So watch out for some decent bird photographs! 

Friday 17 September 2010

Ratchaburi Town: River Lapwing

River lapwing
Vanellus duvaucelii
Ratchaburi Town
17.09.10

I found myself unexpectedly free for the last hour of available light today and took my rig round to the local rice paddy, about 1 km from here.  I thought I would practise on common birds with my new toys. When I got there I thought it was going to be a waste of time as it was very overcast and big, dirty rain clouds were forming. And then in a wet paddy I saw a black head and grey body in among the common red-wattled lapwings and I thought: "River lapwing" and sure enough, there was one. A solitary river lapwing with about 8 red-wattled lapwing, some cattle egrets, a chinese pond heron and a couple of white-breasted waterhens. A first for this sorely neglected patch. As I fumbled to get a picture a person walked into the birds' safety zone and off they flew but they came back about 5 minutes later and notwithstanding the poor light, I got the above, usable shot, a record shot.

There is no doubt, the river lapwing is my bird! I can't think of when I ever went birding and had a bad time, when I was disappointed. Sure you could drop your bins into the drink, but......I'll let you now when I have had a bad day birding!

Wednesday 15 September 2010

Bird Ringing at The King's Project, Laem Pak Bia


I joined Phil Round and a few others on Sunday to assist with bird ringing at the King's Project, Laem Pak Bia. I now know how to handle a bird! What a brilliant way to learn more about the science. The Pied Starling above is in my own hand, head between my index and middle finger and the camera in the other. I never knew where a birds ears were located until this moment: and, of course, in true buffoon fashion as I consult my avian topography chart, this explains why the area is called the ear coverts! This is the cream coloured area to the left of the eye and if you look you can see an upward diagonal line. That's the fellow's ears.


A common kingfisher in the hand and below a tiger shrike, juvenile. If you look closely at the latter's bill you will see a slight kink in the upper bill just below the point. Phil explained this is to facilitate it in ripping flesh! This is a passage migrant on its way to warmer climes for the winter.

Now let me disabuse you of any notions that I did any hard work. I was a passenger and handled a few birds. Phil and his assistants are the real grafters and have been doing it for years, a real labour of love. I was distracted by the pelicans and the photo opportunities they offered.



Basically this is what happens: birds are trapped in mist nets which are emptied every 30 minutes. The birds are transferred into individual small cloth bags and transported to a processing centre. Here they are fitted with a small, light band/ring on their right leg. The  rings have a unique identifier number and the details are entered on a database. The bird is weighed, measured, sexed and aged. Birds of interest  are photographed as below and are then released. I must stress the whole operation is built around the welfare of the birds and everything is done in such a way so as to minimise distress to the birds.

Now there is more and more ringing happening all over the world so birds are being retrapped everywhere and  this process is helping the scientific community to exchange information and indeed to  build up reliable information about birds' vital statistics. So I salute Phil Round and other banders and hope in time I can do a bit more and contribute to this really important work.


A view of the tiger shrike's primaries.


A female yellow-rumped flycatcher, above and below. Now you know where its name comes form! We also had an eastern crowned warbler. These are two important passage migrants. Phil was very pleased with the session as it included a number of retraps plus the passage migrants. I hope in time that I can offer more assistance.
I can claim a tiger shrike as a lifer as one perched on the branches near the banding station so it counts as a true wild bird.

Sunday 12 September 2010

Upward Learning Curve!




Some of today's captures from The King's Project, Laem Pak Bia, Phetchaburi Province. I love the spot-billed pelicans. They are such big, peaceful birds with a look of being utterly out of place. There were 19 present this morning and in fact they represent a significant challenge....becaue of the variation in their plumage, grey through bright white.  The digiscope really comes into its own here. I was able to keep my distance and not disturb the birds and manage a few decent shots.


I think this is a great cormorant which is not exactly a commoner and not a regular visitor in the King's Project. A difficult bird to photograph because it gapes, very rapid movement around the gular area, the throat, which is how it keeps cool!



I am very pleased with these shots of this great egret. They are not completely washed out and I have managed to get some shadow in the main white body. They key advance in learning has been to start shooting with the camera lens on infinity, so the autofocus is off and all the focus is done on the scope; this means no last minute operation of the autofocus as I press down the shutter. I have a new head and some other bits coming in the next few days which I hope will lead to sharper, better images. You need to remember most of these shots are taking on a 3 second timer to reduce shake. 




 And finally a little cormorant.

Wednesday 8 September 2010

The Sirindhorn International Environmental Park, Cha-am

Common hoopoe
Upupa epops
นกกะรางหัวขวาน
Sirondhorn Environmental Park, CHa-am
08.09.10

I had a brief look at a few fairly common birds today during the school's educational trip to Sirindhon International Environmental Park. 160 rampant kids are not ideal birding companions! However these axe birds as the Thais call them, or rather, common hoopoes, were very obliging. These were taken with my EOS 500D with the 85-250 mm zoom. I'll photograph any bird and hoopoes may well be commoners but, you can see for yourself, they are very striking creatures. Elsewhere we saw a little heron, a pacific golden plover, common sandpiper, coppersmith barbets, olive-backed sunbirds, little egrets, little cormorants, lesser sand-plovers...... what you would expect. If you were stranded in the Hua-Hin/Cha-am area on a  "conventional"(!)  holiday you could do a lot worse than here. Nice friendly people, good facilities, a decent mangrove walkway, a good stretch of beach, restaurants, toilets ...... Bring the family. There is also a decent exhibition on environmental protection/sustainability themes.





Tuesday 7 September 2010

More Huay Mai Teng




Pied kingfisher is one of my favourite birds, so striking to look at. I went back to the reservoir yesterday, briefly, as I thought the common kingfisher would be about and I really wanted to try to get a few shots of it. Alas no, but no complaints as this fellow makes an excellent alternative. The pics are poor but they highlight some of my issues. You see the leaves in front of the bird, huh?! Well they are in focus but not the bird! Add in vibration from the wind ....... I am not making excuses! But one day I hope to bring you a striking capture of this bird, in focus with "wow" factor! 

Sunday 5 September 2010

More Huay Mai Teng

I took my new birding companion Tom and his wife Nid up, to Huay Mai Teng Reservoir this afternoon and the River Lapwing duly obliged, once more seven present. Phew! Not for long as they flew off almost on arrival. A lifer for Tom. I had just got my rig assembled and, you got it, off they went. Plenty of good birds today: an osprey high in the sky being a new bird for this patch, but no surprises as this is where it should be! Plenty of oriental pratincoles and two pairs of pied kingfisher. Tom had the urge for lifers and scoured hard for a small pratincole, but alas no, not today. Some reasonable shots showing progress.




I saw three species of kingfisher today : pied, white-throated, & common. I've got a bad shot of the white-throated for the blooper category. Distance and poor light at the end of the day are my excuses. The common didn't wait for me to get set up but I might go back tomorrow afternoon and try to find it because it is a really beautiful bird. Light was behind the bird.


I am reasonably happy with these pictures of a lesser whistling duck. Taken as the light was going, a good distance away and passable.




There is no doubt in my mind that there continues to be improvement. First of all I am getting more and more to grips with the camera operation. I am getting better and faster at getting the bird into my LCD. I am getting better with focus but by no means perfect. I have a lot to learn about exposure. I have no doubt a cable release and a couple of other gadgets that I am in the process of ordering are going to make a huge difference to the quality of my photographs. But I am really enjoying this new development and I believe some time soon I will produce some really good images.

I can see a time in the near future when I shall buy a portable blind (hide) and sit in it for a few hours. This weekend I spent a couple of hours sitting on a deck chair by the water and I have to say it was just such a perfect, relaxing feeling. Watch this space!

Saturday 4 September 2010

Huay Mai Teng Reservoir, Ratchaburi

River lapwing
vanellus duvaucelli
นกกระแตหาด
Huay Mai Teng Reservoir
Ratchaburi Province
04.09.10

This reservoir never fails to deliver. Today an afternoon jaunt essentially to practise with my digiscoping rig threw up 7 river lapwings. These fellows won't be around for much longer as they come here to breed along with oriental pratanicoles of which there were many. I was also hoping to see rain quail but not today.

Peaceful dove
geopilia striata
นกเขาชวา

Digiscoping is most assuredly not point and shoot. I am still struggling with focus and composition but I am clearly improving. So I took advantage of shooting this dove which was much more obliging than the  lapwings. Good for practise!



I have to publish this picture of a dragon fly. Later in the afternoon I was relaxing in my chair by a pond when I decided to take a look at a dragonfly with my bins. I am glad I did. This fellow was close to me and was very obliging. I have to say I am very pleased with this. There is hope!

There were some great birds about today. I saw some bronze-winged jacanas, a yellow bittern, two pied kingfishers, and all the usual suspects. 

Here is a beautiful flower I captured with my 60 mm macro lens. I guess it is some sort of water lily.


Here are a couple of my bloopers, a bronze-winged jacana and a yellow bittern.




Both were shot late in the afternoon, in the final hour of daylight and the bittern was an attempt to get a light reading but of course the bird flew once I had my reading!!! The jacana was a fair distance away. 

There you have it, a real joy.