Digiscoping: A Beginning

Ah some geeky techno stuff for those of you with a fondness for anoraks and car coats, preferably purchased from C & A. I happen to have a top of the range telescope, a Kowa 883 and it is a brilliant sighting tool, especially for shore birds, although its use in forests and more confined areas is slightly limited, just a little bit!

Now on starting to look at birds seriously I soon realised that it is possible to fit a camera to a telescope and take advantage of the lens for taking photographs: digiscoping. As I have come to realise this is an art form and until recently it has only been an idea in the recess of my head. I was really unsure about how to get started specifically what camera to use and how to fix it to my scope.

Well we are up and running. Here are some offerings from a combination of my Kowa 883, 20 - 60 mm eye piece and Nikon P5100. Please allow me a learning curve!

A large-billed crow, Lumphini Park, Bangkok

Some turtles, Phutthamonthon Park, Bangkok

Silhouetted oriental magpie robin

 Phutthamonthon Park, Bangkok

Monitor lizard, Phutthamonthon Park, Bangkok

Asian openbill, local, Ratchaburi

Cattle egret, local, Ratchaburi

Open bill, local Ratchaburi

now you know why it is called "openbill"!

Streak-eared bulbul, local, Ratchaburi

again you can see why it is called streak-eared!

My dear readers I am hopelessly smitten. The potential of digiscoping is frightening. Let us say, however, it is fraught with difficulties and I have quite literally stuck my toe into a very large pond. Progress has been difficult, much frustration, but initial results tell me it is very promising.

Oh and I have the notebook back, repaired and upgraded and it appears to be in very good order. More later and expect improvements as I now have an instruction manual for the camera.

A Day in Kaeng Krachan National Park

On Monday morning, 19th July 2010, I managed an early start and was up at 03:30h and was on the road to Kaeng Krachan at 04:00h. I was at the park gates for 06:00 and my Thai drivers license and school ID card secured me and my truck entry into the park for 70 baht (about 1.40 GBP or $US 2.00), saving a few baht. I have to say the drivers license, which cost about 100 baht all told, has saved me a fortune over the last year.

It was a greyish, cool morning and I resolved that I was going to try to make it to the higher ground. I stopped, however, to view three very elegant female jungle fowl walking along the road which was generously covered in large mounds of elephant dung.These girls are  not quite as striking as the males with their flamboyant yellow hackles, but nevertheless good looking birds;a car with a couple of western birders slowed to have a look and moved on without too much hanging around.  A little bit later I stopped to view some unidentified birds.  My notes say of one a "..largish bill, brown head and neck then yellowish breast and belly, pink legs and a sharp call". 24 hours later I cannot make an identification. I have to own that there were a significant number of unidentified birds today, at least twenty!

Alas my truck could not negotiate the final section of the road to the summit station and I had to reverse down for a hair raising half kilometre and ended up spending the greater part of the day between Ban Krung, the mid-station so to speak and Stream 3 as it is known. This actually worked out very well but at the onset I had some doubts especially when 2 tailorbirds started to dart around the lower scrub. I thought maybe these are mountain tailorbirds and consulted the fieldbook (Robson) and saw there was also a dark-necked tailorbird, new one to me I hasten to add, so when I restored my eyes to the optics the birds had legged it!All I can say is I do not think they were common tailorbirds!

Throughout the day I had good views of emerald doves feeding on the road and this was the first bird I saw after the tailorbirds. I then managed to snatch a very quick view of an aerial great hornbill flying high above the canopy. The striking feature which made identification possible was the white band across its wings. It always feels good to see a hornbill in the jungle. Soon after I sighted a dusky broadbill in the trees. What an astonishing looking bird, straight out of Walt Disney. This bird didn't hang around for very long but was unmistakable due to its enormous red bill plus what Robson describes as its "beige bib".

A few minutes later I was joined briefly by the birders who had passed me earlier in the day, a Swedish couple led by Mr Piyat, a local guide whom we have engaged in the past. They had just seen blue pitta near where I had seen the tailorbirds and told me there were also reports of hooded pitta being in the area.Mr Piyat had overtaken me on the way up the mountain and was amused but not surprised that my vehicle had not made it to the top.

I had some nice views of greater flameback, an asian pardise flycatcher, some sultan tits involved in very vigorous courting, ochraceous bulbul and a good few unidentifieds including a barbet, and to be frank had I taken a better description I would have been able to name it. As much as the birds I was just enjoying being in the forest and walking up and down the track at my leisure, catching glimpses and hearing the sounds of the birds and other animals around me. Plus I have been suffering from an unending series of respiratory infections recently and it felt great to be breathing in good, clean forest air.

I went down to the ranger station in pursuit of lunch and one of the rangers said there was no food. Another problem, I thought, as I was hoping to spend the entire day in the park. He then asked me if I wanted some rice, and an omelette and I said :"Sure" and he went off and made this with his own fair hand and served it up with a bottle of water and some chilli sauce. When I went to pay him he refused to take my money and in that nice Thai way smiled and said "Mai bpen rai". Now I am often critical of tourist type services in Thailand but this definitely ranks as one of the great things about Thailand: the sudden, unexpected generosity and kindness of people. These are the people, and there are a good few of them, that have built Thailand's reputation as a great place to vist. So thank you Mr Ranger. He steered me towards Stream 3 as I decided I would like to pursue kingfishers in the afternoon.

I was very happy walking upand down the streams and was in no particular hurry. There were plenty of decent birds, more flamebacks and sultan tits, but no kingfishers. I wasn't concerned about what I saw. I got excited when I saw a green dove with a brown upper body and thought this must be something new as it is was not an emerald dove. Robson quickly confirmed it to be the female emerald dove and what a nice bird she was to. Also good to be able to distinguish some of these male and females. I tried looking for the blue pitta but drew no luck there.

Later in the afternoon I bumped into Mr Piyat and his clients again.  We had a good view of more flamebacks and they went off looking for kingfishers. I went into the forest and managed to get cover behind a tree where I got some great views of what I thought was a greater flameback. I thought this until tonight, Tuesday, when I looked at my photographs and compared them with the drawings in Robson. There is no doubt that I photographed a grey-headed woodpecker, a lifer no less and not a common or garden bird either! And while I have only looked at the photos in the camera display they look reasonable and are certainly good enough to support this identification.

Mr Piyat and his clients then came into the forest convinced they could hear hooded pitta and a few minutes later we caught a few glimpses of this really striking bird on the forest floor. The colours are amazing, a pastel green body with turquoise topped wings and lower back, and a black head with a  brown crown. Once more, straight out of Disney. Another lifer no less. Talk about good fortune on the one hand, combined with laughable ineptitude on the other. I hung around in a vain attempt to get a photograph of the pitta but he didn't prevail and I really didn't want to cause the bird any distress. I was amazed  that the Swedish guy literally saw the hooded pitta and then made his farewells and off they went. I felt very relieved in fact that I am not under any pressure to get birds in the bag, so to speak. I also thought maybe this guy is a somebody in the scientific community, because he spoke impeccable English with a very plummy accent and he did say he was on his way to a conference in Singapore. Anyway my apologies if I didn't treat you with due deference and respect!

I began the drive out of the park very content with my day's birding. I stopped at one of the bridges and had a good view of what I thought was a greater flameback but just thought I should check the book to be sure. And of course there is the possibility that it might have been a common flameback. You know that kind of sums up the day. I really need to do some preparation so that when I see birds for a few seconds I can be much sharper on my identification. But for me it was a great day, just what I needed. And I took the wrong road out of the park but it was headed to Petchaburi and it took me straight to the road I take to get home and it cut about 30 minutes off my drive, completely avoiding the very avoidable town of Kaeng Krachan. I made it door to door in 90 minutes.This means I'll go back in about a month and I think I will engage Mr Piyat with his motor so we can get to the upper area.

My notebook has been repaired and is ready for collection in Bangkok where we are headed this weekend. I'll post the pics of the grey-headed woodpecker some time next week. Not a brilliant pic but it will do!

grey-headed woodpecker, Kaeng Krachan, 19th July 2010

Huai Mai Teng Reservoir, Ratchaburi Province

I finally made it out birding Sunday afternoon, 11th July 2010, for the first time in quite a while and what fun I had. I only took a few pihotographs mainly because my notebook has crashed so will not be able to load any photos for the immediate future. Huai Mai Teng reservoir and the surrounding area is a great place to bird and doesn't get much coverage although I have recently seen a report from one of Thailand's foremost expatriate birders and a photograph of a river lapwing on www.discoverythai.com   by a local bird photographer.

I am fond of this reservoir because I pulled it out of nowhere so to speak, simply by looking at a map of Ratchaburi province and noticing the large amount of water marked. In my very unscientific manner  I concluded that there must be a lot of birds there and headed out one day about this time last year to find the reservoir and a couple of weeks later I almost ran over 4 river lapwings, the first observations I reported. Of course these were credited to someone else! And since then I have always seen  interesting birds when I visit.

Today was no exception, in fact today might be considered as one of my best at this site. There was one river lapwing and I was actually thrilled that it was there as I went there hoping to see this it. Other highlights were two pied kingfishers, a black bittern and a cinnamon bittern.

Here is the list for the day: green bee-eater, red-wattled lapwing, plain backed sparrow, bushlark (u/i), blue-throated bee-eater, river lapwing, little egret,cattle egret, little cormorant, openbill, lesser whistling duck, paddyfield pipit, pied starling, chinese pond heron, common myna, black-winged stilt ( 1 only!), black-headed bulbul, black-shouldered kite, sooty-headed bulbul, common iora, plain prinia, pied fantail, white-throated kingfisher, golden weaver, great egret, cinnamon bittern, pied kingfisher, black bittern, bronze-winged jacana and little ringed plover. A couple of other unidentifieds...little brown jobs!

A very pleasant few hours and one of the local fishermen to whom I pointed out  the river lapwing advised me to get there early in the morning as there were a lot more birds.I shall try......I remember when I did make it there and almost drove over 4 black kites , three of which are the top photo and then stumbled on a greater spotted eagle resting in a tree.

The Bird has Flown

I am very pleased to say our bird has flown from its nest. Now it is possible that a hungry owl has flown in and had it during the night. I prefer to think the red-collared dove flew. I was very concerned because I didn't see the mother return to feed the fledgling. So I was fearful that the bird might die. However it looked reasonably chirper in the nest on the basis of daily observations, it was moving around and I saw it fight off some smaller birds, sparrows, that attempted to mob it. No evidence of a dead bird in the immediate vicinity of the nest so I am hopeful the bird has made it to freedom.

plaintive cuckoo, cacomantis merulinus

Khao Prachapchang Non-hunting Area

Ratchaburi Province, 06.06.10

I am still taking it pretty easy, not really putting myself about or pushing myself . I took a trip to the local non-hunting ground and heard plenty of birds but only sighted a greater-racket tailed drongo, a plaintive cuckoo and this cattle egret which performed very well for the camera. I make the cuckoo  the female hepatic morph as opposed to the hepatic morph variant or the banded bay cuckoo! In respect of the former this is due to my fellow being lighter  around the eye and in respect of the latter my fellow's bill is a lot shorter. Please correct me if I am wrong!

cattle egret, bubulcus ibis

Khao Prachapchang Non-hunting Area

Ratchaburi Province, 06.06.10

I went up to the Huai Mai Teng reservoir after but little to report other than an abundance of nesting oriental pratincoles noisily defending their nests; a few of the pratincoles were mobbing a predatory black-shouldered kite.  I sighted a very beautifully coloured blue-throated bee-eater, a bird which visits to breed. There should be a lot of these but mine was solitary and I have to say I was really taken by the extraordinary complexity of its colouring. It was perched high on a tree branch killing some beautiful yellow butterfly. I had been hoping there would have been river lapwing present as I thought I saw a photograph on  a Thai website of this species at the reservoir. Of course it was in July last year that I sighted 4 river lapwings here and I got my first taste of a reasonably rare species.

Edit: I have just been reviewing photographs and I reckon I should add these from Huai Mai Teng reservoir.

Indochinese bushlark, mirafra marionae

Huai Mai Teng Reservoir

Ratchaburi Province, 06.06.10

Blue-throated bee-eater, merops viridis

Huai Mai Teng Reservoir

Ratchaburi Province, 06.06.10

Savage Nature

It's pretty low key here on the bird front simply on the basis of inactivity and a reluctance to get out of bed very early. As always the bird world is rarely uneventful.

red collared dove and two fledglings

These last few weeks we have had a nest with two fledgling red-collared doves on our balcony. All was going well until Monday morning when I noticed the nest was empty and assumed the birds had made their first bold bid for freedom. In the evening my wife told me that a stray dog had got into our garden this morning and she saw it had one of the fledglings in its mouth. I had a look round our balcony and discovered the other one near the heat source of an air-conditioning compressor. I was very sad as I had enjoyed watching mum and the two fledglings. I returned this bird to the nest and it is still alive and seems quite chirper, in fact, but I have no idea if mother is feeding it.

fledgling red-collared doves

the mother looking on at her babies

I am not sure what to do. Hopefully it will fly to freedom in the nest few days. My word nature is brutal. How utterly traumatic and savage. Being a witness to this, the highs and lows, has been almost like a privilege, albeit tinged with a degree of sadness due to recent developments. However this is how it is being a newly fledged bird.

On the subject of fledglings a trip to Chaloerm Phrakhiat Thai Prachan NP on Sunday yielded a fledgling greater racket-tailed drongo. I have to thank the members of www.birdforum.net and Bird Conservation Society of Thailand for assisting in the identification. The only thing I got right was that it was recently fledged; in fact I thought it might be a little cormorant as I have seen a few of them around the reservoir here.

recently fledged greater racket-tailed drongo

Chaloem Phrakhiat Thai Prachan NP

Ratchaburi

Elsewhere I had nice views of a female black-naped monarch. No photo due to poor light but what a beautiful head, much richer and subtler in colouring than the drawings in the field books. As always the usual suspects. There has been rain but it has had no discernible impact on the very low water levels in the reservoir.

This evening I went out for a walk in the rice paddy and had a lovely view of a cinnamon bittern; there are a few of them around together with yellow bitterns. I left the camera at home so just had the bins. I saw some ducks flying and followed them to their landing spot to discover they were lesser whistling ducks. Sorry to say I was almost disappointed as the light on the aerial birds made them look quite different so I went in pursuit with high hopes. Plenty of red-wattled lapwing screeching at me, no doubt fearful that I was encroaching on their nests.

The barn swallows appear to have departed but there are many asian palm swifts in their place and the paddy also boasts some  ashy woodswallows nesting in the elctricity pylons.

Bits and bobs

Painted stork, mycteria leucocephala, Laem Pak Bia -  deserted building, 23.05.10

What with the return to work and the very hot weather I haven't been doing much birding. I am happy to report that we have had a lot of rain and this should continue into October, possibly November. The rain tends to come late in the day between 4:00 pm and 5:00 pm and usually batters down for a couple of hours. 

It's been on my mind to spend more time in forests over the next few months. Get familiar with woodpeckers and other forest species. Of course a combination of forests, heat and rain means leeches so I will need to find out what are the best preventative masures.

The local rice paddy continues to throw up nice birds: watercocks and on Thursday last week I watched a black-shouldered kite put on a spectacular performance as it dropped down feet first from a height of about 100 feet in an attempt to capture prey. Plenty of egrets, cattle, little and great.

On my way back from a visit to friends in Hua Hin I stopped off at Laem Pak Bia and had a brief look around the King's Project and the deserted building. First visit I have ever made to either location and not seen a shore bird - no black-tailed godwits. Plenty of cormorants, both little and Indian and a solitary painted stork. No real excitement at the King's Project either, a brahminy kite and a black kite hunting, lots of egrets but nothing really noteworthy.

Never a dull moment in birding, however. I used the opportunity to take a good look at the cormorants, specifically distinguishing little and Indian. The Indian has  turquoise eyes and a longer, slimmer bill. Yesterday it was easy to distinguish the two and many of the little cormorants had a yellow point on the end of their bill.

Friday is a holiday and I think I am going to make an early start and head into Chaloem Phrakhiat NP and see what forest birds I can observe

Recent Roundup: Heat & Drought

A part empty reservoir

Chaloem Phrakiat Thai Phrachan National Park

Ratchaburi Province

16.05.10

The real story here is the heat and accompanying drought. I think 53 provinces are bow officially "drought" zones. The day time high in many parts of Thailand these last few days has been around 40 º C; higher in some places. By now the rainy season should have begun but it hasn't although there is rain around and hopefully it will swiftly replenish reservoirs like the above. Now this time last year I was only getting into birding so I hadn't yet visited this park but I think I made it in August for the first time and the reservoir was full. In view of the weather, especially the heat, I have only done little bits of birding since returning from the Philippines.

Saturday 8th May I spent a couple of hours in the afternoon at Huay Mai Teng Reservoir, about 30 km west of Rachaburi town. The water level here is incredibly low and this reservoir covers a huge amount of land. The highlights were three pied kingfishers noisily flying overhead; also a good number of bronze-winged jacanas, including juveniles, a female watercock and juvenile and all the usual commoners - red-wattled lapwing, little ringed plover, little egrets, cattle egrets, openbills, black-winged stilts, green bee-eater, barn swallow, paddyfield pipit and so on; it is noteworthy that I only observed one chinese pond heron, normally here in abundance.

During the week I had a very happy hour or so in the large rice paddy near to where I live in Don Tako: highlights being a cinnamon bittern, two yellow bitterns and a good look at a very noisy male watercock.   Ah, I mustn't forget, the weavers are back: Golden and Baya, with their distinctive yellows clearly in evidence, not to forget their very obvious nests.

Asian Golden Weaver,  ploceus hypoxanthus,Ratchaburi, 12.05.10

Saturday afternoon at home the garden produced a common tailorbird and a streak-eared bulbul.

Common tailorbird, orthotomus sutorius, Don Tako, 15.05.10

streak-eared bulbul, pycnonotus blanfordi, Don Tako, 15.05.10

On Sunday I headed to Chaloem Phrakiat Thai Phrachan National Park, once more west of Ratchaburi, and leading to the Thai-Myanmar border, near Phetchaburi province. I was shocked by the water level in the reservoir but their were plenty of good birds: highlights were undoubtedly a small flock of 5 blue-winged leafbirds, 7 lesser necklaced laughingthrush, lots of scarlet-backed flowerpeckers, a male olive-backed sunbird, 2 stripe-throated bulbuls, 2 black-crested bulbuls, 1 red junglefowl ......, what a beautiful bird sporting very prominent yellow hackles, 1 greater racket-tailed drongo and several very melodious white-rumped shamas, the usual commoners, cattle egret, white-throated kingfishers and a fair few unidentified birds.

scarlet-backed flowerpecker, dicaeum cruentatum, Chaloem Phrakiat Thai Prachan NP, Ratchaburi, 16.05.10

white-rumped shama, copsychus malabaricus, Chaloem Phrakiat Thai Prachan NP, Ratchaburi, 16.05.10

Nice to be back birding on local territory. I hope we get lots of rain soon because it is badly needed.