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!