Oriental Skylarks: In flagrante delicto!

I had to share this which I stumbled upon this morning at the reservoir. More shots to follow as it was a productive morning but I am heading down to Laem Pak Bia this afternoon so .....watch this space!

Painted Snipe

Just reviewing shots from last week at Huay Mai Teng Reservoir and this one of a pair of Painted Snipe was never published. A female is to the left and if you look closely on the middle far right, after the mound of earth, you can just about make out the male's head. Unfortunately they wouldn't budge so this was the best I could do!

From the Local Rice Paddy

Oriental Reed Warbler

Ashy Woodswallow

Plain Prinia

Photos shot 23.04.11, Ratchaburi, Thailand

Small Pratincole Displaying - Another Dodgy Video!

I shot this Sunday while at the local reservoir. This bird is putting on some sort of display.....a fascinating spectacle. I am sorry about post-production. This is not my strong suit but I am learning. Anyone able to recommend some editing software for Mac? This is edited using iMovie.

Digiscoping with a DSLR

I am really encouraged by these three shots taken with the Kowa scope, the Canon EOS Kiss x3, DA10 and adaptor ring and Canon 60 mm E-FS Macro Lens. The Openbills were about 120 metres away and the Intermediate Egret was between 400 - 500 m away; the first and last pics are cropped. Not bad, I say. This is not an easy set-up - there is a lot of weight on the tripod and because my scope is angled I worry about the pressure of the weight of the camera and lens on the eyepiece and telescope. It's hard to steady the rig especially with wind. A tiny amount of vibration  takes the edge off focus. As I mentioned yesterday however there is no vignetting. It is not as responsive or easy to use as it is with the Nikon P6000; that, however, may be down to relative unfamiliarity with this rig. But there will be times when this set up will be excellent: large flocks of sitting waders. I have to say I am very excited by this development.

Yellow-eyed Babbler

I was lucky enough to be able to shoot a short clip of this Yellow-eyed babbler on Sunday at the reservoir. It's not great quality and I hear a voice in me say: "You need a camera that can film in HD." If you want to see what is possible in HD then I suggest you check out my friend Tara's videos. The mechanical noise in the background is Tom's camera shutter, I think! A further factor in the low quality is I have cropped the frame to eliminate some vignetting.

A very interesting development last night: I managed to attach my DSLR, a Canon EOS Kiss x3, to my scope using the Kowa DA10 adaptor. More importantly with the EFS 60 mm Macro lens there was no vignetting. I had a number of teething problems so no good shots: wrong ISO and simply not knowing that everything has to be set to autofocus. But this is a very exciting moment! I have to say the weight on the tripod felt heavy and movement was sluggish and difficult; I had to use the viewfinder and not the LCD to frame shots so focus difficult. However these two shots leave me thinking this is going to be very interesting: both birds were at least 500m away from me. Mmmmmmmm!

 I also saw a Barn Owl in the soi last nigh, perched high on a roof on an piece of abutting pipe, as I walked home from the local take away restaurant. I returned with a torch but it had gone  though somewhere I could hear what I take to be its screech.

Easter Sunday at Huay Mai Teng Reservoir

Bright-capped Cisticola

Cisticola exilis

นกยอดข้าวหางแพนหัวแดง

Yellow-eyed Babbler

 Chrysomma sinense

นกกินแมลงตาเหลือง

 Yellow Wagtail

Motacilla flava

นกเด้าลมเหลือง

Small Pratincole

Glareola lactea

นกอ่นทุ่งเล็ก

Lesser Whistling-duck

Dendrocygna javanica

เป็ดแดง

All photographs shot in the Huay Mai Teng Reservoir area, Ratchaburi Province, Thailand

Another dawn start today at Huay Mai Teng Reservoir but fortunately only a short 25 minute drive from home to meet my friend Tom Backlund . On arrival Tom was purring because he had seen and heard  Savanna Nightjar and had heard Rain Quail.

We spent the morning driving around various sites in the area which comprises a variety of habitats. The highlights : Small Pratincoles are breeding here as Tom saw and photographed some chicks; a lot of Yellow-eyed Babblers; lots of good birds including Oriental Skylark, Indochinese Bushlark, Painted Snipe, Grey-breasted Prinia, Oriental Honey Buzzard, Brown Shrike, Green Bee-eater, Bright-capped Cisticola, Zittling Cisticola, Lesser-whistling Duck, Bronze-winged Jacana, Wood Sandpiper, Little Ringed Plover, Yellow Wagtail, Asian Koel……

The downside is the rapid changes occurring to habitats. Roads are being bull-dozed to service aquaculture developments, trees planted and scrub and wood cleared.

An Early Start at Pak Thale

Spotted Redshank

Tringa erythropus

นกทะเลขาแดงลายจุด

Great Egret

Casmerodius albus

นกยางโทนใหญ่

 Great Egret

Casmerodius albus

นกยางโทนใหญ่

Long-toed Stint

Calidris subminuta

นกสติ๊นท์นิ้วยาว

Grey-tailed Tattlers

Heteroscelus brevipes

นกดีนเหลือง

Great Knot

Calidris tenuirostris

นกน็อทใหญ่

Grey-tailed Tattler

Heteroscelus brevipes

นกดีนเหลือง

Curlew Sandpiper

Calidris ferruginea

นกชายเลนปากโค้ง

Brown-headed Gull

Larus brunnicephalus

นกนางนวลธรรมดา

All photographs shot 23.04.11 at Pak Thale, Phetchaburi Province

The highlight of an early start this morning was a small flock of Grey-tailed Tattlers which I was able to photograph. These are refuelling while en route to northern climes. They and most of today's other  waders are sporting breeding plumage or assuming breeding plumage, the Great Egret too with its distinctive "skirt". It was lovely to be out for dawn and watch the flocks of birds moving around in huge, swooping cascades. There was a huge number of Curlews which I wasn't able to photograph but there were hundreds of birds in it. I think the shot of the day is the Short-toed Stint.

I have a dilemma. My birdwatching is taking second place to the photography. I am using the camera as my notebook. I didn't count the Tattlers; in fact I only positively identified the bird when  I got home. All I can say is it was a small to medium flock which is not much use to anybody. On the plus side I have spent a few hours this afternoon with field guides in order to identify the species. I do not have the ability to immediately call all these species: this includes  Tattler, the Knot and the Long-toed Stint. I might well be wrong in some of these IDs! 

I also wonder if the bird above the Greater Sand Plover in the Tattlers shot is a Dunlin - it looks rather short legged and low in the water. Too difficult for me to call! 

For my Muses at Yahoo's Digiscopingbirds

Oriental Pratincole

Exif Data: ISO 64 20mm f/7 -0.7ev 0.01484s 

Small Pratincole

Exif Data: ISO 64 24mm f/7.7  -0.7ev 0.01661s 

Exif Data: ISO 64 20mm f/7  -0.7ev 0.01134s 

These shots are straight out the camera and shot in late afternoon sunshine with about 1.25 hours of daylight remaining. I am getting progressively happier with my shots so thanks for the steers and advice.

The Local Rice Paddy, Ratchaburi

Indian Nightjar

Caprimulgus asiaticus

Ratchaburi

19.04.11

It's been a while since I visited the local rice paddy. My preferred local site of late has been the reservoir. I had an unexpected spare couple of hours today between 4:00pm and 6:00pm so I decided to stay very local. I had a choice to make however: pied kingfishers or the rice paddy proper for come what may. I chose the latter and was not disappointed.

Asian Golden Weaver

Ploceus hypoxanthus

Ratchaburi

19.04.11

No major surprises. The rice crop is well advanced and is a welcome haven to the usual suspects: lots of Openbills, Chinese and Javan Pond Herons, Asian Pied Starling, Red-wattled Lapwing and lots of Asian Golden Weavers, dramatic looking birds.

With a rain storm coming in and light fading rapidly I managed to capture the above Indian Nightjar. What a beauty! If only I had decent light!!!At least I got one usable shot! A quality hour on my doorstep!

Balaring Silay and back to Thailand

Wood Sandpiper

Tringa glareola

Balaring Silay

Negros Occidental, Philippines

15.04.11

On a recommendation received from The Philippine Bird Photography Forum I paid a visit to Balaring Silay, a coastal site a little north of Bacolod City, on Friday 15th April 2011. I saw three Chinese Egrets there feeding together and I was so surprised to see as many as this that I took a long careful look at them. Conditions, light, time and the position of the sun meant digiscoping was impossible but I am sure these were Chinese egrets.

In addition to the Chinese egrets there were enough birds around to make me think this site definitely warrants serious attention in the future. My photographs are an indication of the poor light conditions plus the distance between the camera and the birds.

White-browed Crake

Porzana cinerea

Balaring Silay

Negros Occidental, Philippines

15.04.11

I watched an entertaining territorial dispute in a salt pan between a barred rail and a white-browed crake. Again conditions were far from ideal which is a pity as both birds are highly photogenic. Also present a Little heron. In an adjacent pond a common moorhen, black-winged stills, a wood sandpiper and a number of little egrets. There were other birds including a collared kingfisher but conditions just didn't favour photography.

Little heron

Butorides striata

Balaring Silay

Negros Occidental, Philippines

15.04.11

I am pretty sure I will be back here as it appears to be an extensive area and one which warrants a lot more time. Basically I had about one hour here towards the end of the day. I also had a very decent meal in one of the many sea food restaurants in the area so that is a further attraction.

That ends the Philippine trip, too short really! I touched down back in Bangkok late Saturday 16th April 2011 and headed home from the airport. At about 02:30h as I approached home I took a shortcut to avoid local roadworks near our home and close to the local rice paddy my headlights picked out a Barn Owl near the road. I managed to stop and watched it take off and land nearby on a hoarding board where it perched and we had a good look at each other, my view aided by my car's headlights. What a beautiful bird and lifer ⌗ 301. I never included in my list the poor Barn Owl which died near my house a few months ago.

Sunday 16.04.11 I decided to head to Pak Thale in the afternoon in the hope of catching a final sight of Spoonbill Sandpiper for this "winter". I was encouraged by recent reports of the bird being seen in the area during the last week. Sadly I was in poor form and didn't manage to see SBS and in fact managed to scare off most of the groups of birds I approached! As far as I could see it was largely the case of the usual suspects, most of which were sporting breeding plumage.

Chinese Egret: The Movie

Well here it is: the video of last Sunday's Chinese Egret at Punta Taytay. Amazing what you can do when you combine a camera and telescope! I need to apologise for the uploaded quality, not sure if it is my inexperience or blogger or a bit of both.....

Danjugan Island, Negros Occidental, Philippines

White-bellied Sea Eagle

Haliaeetus leucogaster

Danjugan Island

Negros Occidental 

The Philippines

13.04.11

This trip to Danjugan Island was first and foremost a family break during which I hoped to be able to do some birding. I visited the island last year in October and stayed for one night. I was so impressed notwithstanding the wet weather that I knew I would definitely return if given the chance and that I would like to bring my family. This short trip to the Philippines allowed a return and I will say now that it was so good that I will return again and again and again ....... I hope.

Asian Glossy Starling - "The Addict Bird"

Aplonis panayensis

Danjugan Island

Negros Occidental 

The Philippines

13.04.11

It's not just  the birds, it's the place. I got a complete rest for a few days with none of the modern world's diversions; in a Philippine context it is very pleasant to get away from the dirt, pollution and mayhem of most cities. Limited (solar) electricity, no mobile phone coverage, no internet, no roads, no cars, no air conditioning apart from sea breeze and the only sounds are those of nature: the wind, the sea, the birds, the insects and the bats. And no Bob Marley!

Black-naped Oriole - Canon EOS

Oriolus chinensis yamamurae

Negros Occidental 

The Philippines

13.04.11

Indeed it's not just the birds: pythons, turtles, baby sharks, bats....... a veritable bonanza of biodiversity awaits. A very useful survey dating back to 2001 can be found at Coral Cay Conservation,  UK based specialists in tropical rainforest and reef conservation. To quote the introduction to the survey:

 "Danjugan Island is a small (approximately 43 hectares), coral fringed island covered in tropical forest, 3km west of Negros just off the coast of Bulata in the Sulu sea, and is one of over 7000 islands that make up the Philippine Archipelago. The island has six lagoons, of which two are open to the sea and all but one are surrounded by mangrove stands. However, there is no permanent standing fresh water on the island. The terrain is rugged and characterised by limestone geology, which has permitted the formation of several caves around the perimeter of the island....." 

White-breasted woodswallow

Artamus leucorynchus

Danjugan Island

12.04.11

The island is managed by the Philippine Reef and Rainforest Conservation Foundation (PRRFCI) and you need to contact them if you wish to make an overnight stay. I love the accommodation: we stayed at Sunset Beach in thatched, mud huts. Very comfortable and atmospheric with white muslin mosquito nets draped over our beds. No one appeared to have any problem sleeping. Great food too, in fact a constant supply of meals and snacks and drinks.

Lesser Frigate Bird

Fregata ariel

Danjugan Island

Negros Occidental 

The Philippines

13.04.11

So what about the birds? For me the highlight undoubtedly was sighting 5 Lesser Frigate Birds on Thursday 14th April 2011 and I was able to digiscope a couple of record shots. They were a considerable distance away, probably over 1 km, so I am very pleased to have managed to get some shots and in this respect digiscoping comes into its own so long as you can get the birds into the view finder and get some sort of focus. Let me assure you I have a pile of out of focus blurred shots of these birds. Of course the shots are heavily cropped.....how I wish I could have been closer to these birds! They are a visual feast as they swoop down and then up in an effortless glide. I make at least three of them juveniles due to the reddish brown on their heads.

Lesser Frigate Bird

Fregata ariel

Danjugan Island

Negros Occidental 

The Philippines

13.04.11

I was also pleased to get a shot of a Pink-necked Green Pigeon, an incredibly difficult shot of a reasonably common bird. It may be common but a real beauty. Next time I am going to bring back a bucket load of shots of this fellow as he is truly photogenic but alas, very camera shy! One flew over my head to reveal undertail coverts to match his orange breast. Sublime!

Pink-necked Pigeon

Treron vernans vernans

Negros Occidental 

The Philippines

13.04.11

* the lower shot was taken using Canon EOS 

Danjugan's signature species is the White-bellied Sea Eagle which nests high in the trees above the lodgings and to whose high-pitched screech we woke. Of course when two eagles put on a bit of an aerial display I was in a kayak without a camera!

I sighted many of  the common birds: the asian glossy starling which the reserve staff  call "the addict bird" on account of its wild red eyes, the impossible to photograph but ubiquitous black-naped oriole,  collared king fisher, olive-backed sunbird, white-breasted  wood swallow, golden-bellied gerygone, pied triller, glossy swiftlet, little heron and Pacific swallow.

Common Sandpiper

Actitis hypoleucos

Danjugan Island

Negros Occidental

13.04.11

This common sandpiper demanded to be photographed as it was within 10 feet of me and seemed to be very comfortable  close to humans. I got a glimpse of a Tabon fowl but that was only as a result of flushing it accidentally. I have had a good look at this bird on Palawan I am still waiting to get see it properly on Danjugan. 

I saw and photographed 

another two birds, (crap, blurry shots!) which to me are reasonably common, a Grey Wagtail and a Common Kingfisher, but neither are listed on the Danjugan island species list. I am sure the list has probably not been updated. With the Grey Wagtail I only got one shot of it and it was gone!

Grey wagtail

Motacilla cinerea

Danjugan Island

Negros Occidental

13.04.11

 One bothersome unidentified bird, medium sized, red and black, on the rocks which we disturbed early in the morning. If only I had brought a field guide and likewise with a coucal species I saw in the trees of the first lagoon. Finally as we waited for the boat to take us back to the mainland a stork-billed kingfisher flashed past us -  another real beauty and the only stork-billed I saw on this trip.

Sunset from Typhoon beach - tweaked a little!

Fishing in the Sulu Sea - not for the faint-hearted!

Bats

Living quarters at Typhoon Beach

As I sit here in my hotel in Bacolod writing this I have to say this was a well nigh perfect few days. I could have seen more birds, I could have......, I could have ........! But I had a great time, my companions did too including two young nephews who appear to be developing an interest in wild birds. I am also getting to know the island a bit better so I expect that will help in future trips. And of course, 

I will be back! This really is a gem of a place, probably the best of its kind in The Philippines and better than anything I have seen in Thailand.