MERRY CHRISTMAS BIRDERS

I would like to wish merry Christmas and a happy new year to all birders around the world especially those who have visited this blog. For those who wish for special presents like a big prime or zoom lens or pro DSLR bodies to improve their birding shots i hope your wishes come true.

As Malaysia is experiencing an unpredictable wet season this year which has resulted in a few flash flood in the east coast and also in some areas in the west coast, my birding activities unfortunately has taken a hit therefore less posting in this blog.

Anyway, i am waiting for the month of  March 2014 when the raptors will be flying down from up north to the Cape Richardo area in Port Dickson which is an annual event. I seem to have missed it every year due to my work load, so hopefully i will not miss it next year. I am also wishing that i have enough fund to get my dream prime lens Canon 500mm F4 OS by the time march 2014 comes.

Till then, merry Christmas to all birders and a very happy new year.

Happy birding!!

WHITE-THROATED KINGFISHER (Halycon smyrnensis/Burung Pekaka Dusun)

These shots were taken on the edge of oil palm estate area near Sepang Gold Coast, Selangor using Canon 5DMK3 and Canon 70-300mm L lens.

COLLARED KINGFISHER (Todirampus chloris/Burung Pekaka Bakau)

This Collared Kingfisher aka Todiramphus Chloris or Burung Pekaka Bakau in Malay was shot on the beach in Sepang Gold Coast using EOS 5Dmk3 with Canon 70-300mm IS L lens.

COMMON SANDPIPER (Actitis hypoleucos/Burung Kedidi Biasa)

I went to Sepang Gold Coast(just 45minutes from Kuala Lumpur, twenty minutes from KLIA) on Sunday to fish for whiting. Unfortunately the fishing was not good due to the murky water condition propably from heavy rain the day before. Fortunately for me there were many lifers moving around at the water edge near the mangrove and sand flat. These tiny birds are called Common Sandpipers or Actitis Hypoleucos in Latin or Burung Kedidi Biasa in Malay.

The sandpipers are not native to Malaysia as they are migrant birds from up north but they can be seen throughout the year along the coast, padi fields, canals, riverbanks, ditches and even monsoon drains.

There were also Bee-eaters and Kingfishers sitting on top of the mangrove trees but they were too far for my Canon 400mm f5.6 lens and EOS 60D. So, i trained my lens on the Sandpipers instead which was not easy as they were very active and would fly away as soon as get within 20 meters from them. How i wished i had a 500mm f4 or 600mm f4 lens with me at that time so i can get tighter and detailed shots, but one thing i learned from my previous experience is that you have to make do with what you got when the opportunity present itself. The thing is i left my Sigma 15-500mm zoom lens at home which would give me a better focal length because it is too heavy to carry around in a fishing bag, so i brought the Canon 400mm prime lens instead.

The light available was not great as it was an overcast day, so i had to pump up the ISO a little bit to 500 or some time to 640 to get the shutter speed that i wanted around 1/1000 second. I was not using the flash because i also left it at home, duh. The most challenging task is to shoot the Sandpiper in flight as the EOS 60D AF is slow and struggled to lock on  the fast flying Sandpipers over the water. I brought my EOS 5D MK3 which has a better AF but did not use it because i needed the extra reach with the Canon 400mm lens, so an APSC camera like EOS 60D with the 1.6crop would give me an effective 640mm focal length, unfortunately the image quality is not that great like a full frame body. 

Below are some of the shots i took for record and i will endeavour to come up with better shots the next time i go there again hopefully with a better prime lens like the Canon 500mm f4 lens which i am planning to buy(when the fund is available that is).

crabbing

are you looking at me?

surfing

you are too close dude! Time for me to fly

SULTAN TIT

It has been quite a while since i last posted an entry into this blog. It is not that i have stopped birding but i have been quite busy with work. I have done some birding here and there but did not have the time to sort out my photos and simply did not have time to edit them.

There is one species that i have been trying hard to take a record shot for so long but i simply did not have the luck. It is a matter of not being at the right spot at the right time. But this time the lady luck was on my side as the species i was looking for for so long just showed up while i was taking a break eating my banana fritters by the road side. It must have been attracted to the sweet smell of the fried banana i just bought a couple of minutes earlier at a stall not far from the spot i was seating at. Birds must have an acute sense of smell i think. So next time i know what to do to attract these little birds to come to me instead.

Sultan Tit, sound a bit vulgar isn't it? I mean why would anyone want to insult a Sultan by combining a word which refers to a certain part of the human sexual organ? Couldn't he or she have selected a better name? One guy got into trouble by saying out loud the name of the bird in front of the royalties in a birding function in the Fraser Hill! Lucky he got a book to proof he was not mocking the Sultan and his wife at the function.

Anyway, the Sultan Tit bird is a small size bird with bright yellow color at the belly, chest with black color on the wings and head, and yellow crest on top of the head. The yellow color is the favorite color use by the Sultans in Malaysia which explain the Sultan part, but i cannot figure out the Tit part...err maybe i need to study the bird anatomy more?Ha ha..

Anyway, here are some record shots of the bird that has been so elusive for so long:

NIGHT HERON

WHITE-THROATED KINGFISHER (Burong Pekaka Dusun)

This bird is a frequent visitor to the river near my office. I am using my new Canon PowerShot SX50HS superzoom bridge camera with 24-1200mm zoom lens to take this photo. Obviously at 1200mm i should have used a tripod as any movement would result in a blurred image. Anyway i am still trying to get used to using this camera features and all.

BLUE-TAILED BEE EATERS (Merops philippinus/Burung Berek Berek Sawah)

Bee Eaters are one of my favorite birds because they are colorful and cute. I have been trying to shoot photos of them for so long however i have not had much luck despite doing so many trips to the Fraser's Hill and Bukit Tinggi in Pahang state. Maybe i was there at the wrong spots and the wrong time. Maybe it was not the migration season yet.

Anyway, my wife had just bought a point and shoot Samsung Galaxy camera with 21x optical zoom which operates on Android Jelly Bean OS two days ago and i brought it to the office to test shoot it. As i was walking next to the river beside my office during my lunch time i noticed a Yellow-nape Oriole flying away. I could not locate the Oriole but to my surprise a pair of Bee Eaters were taking shelter from the hot sun. I was pleasantly surprised because my favorite bird just dropped by just next to my office, unbelievable! Unfortunately, the Samsung Galaxy does not do justice to the bird's beauty even with the 21x optical zoom. I should have brought my Canon 5D MK3 with Canon 400mm f5.6 lens to get good shots of the bird. Anyway beggars cannot be choosers, i just have to take as it comes. Below are two shots i made with a bit post processing in Photoshop to get rid of color fringing.

Tomorrow i will bring my heavy gear to the office and see whether these birds will still be around. I hope they are because i want to post better quality photos than the above to show the beauty of these birds.

Updated: new photos using Canon EOS 60D + Canon EF400mm f5.6 lens:

A Gift From A Birding Friend

Last 1st of February 2013 i went up to the Fraser's Hill after more than two months of absence from there due to my busy work schedules just to see what i had been missing. They say come March or April the place will start to get pretty busy with new migrant species passing through or staying around for a while before moving on to their destinations.

Unfortunately, i did not notice any increase in the number of new species as expected instead it was the opposite. I did get a few species like the orange-bellied Leafbird, White-eye Everrette, Fire-tufted Barbet and Yellow vented Bulbul. So while i was sitting around with my son Amin (an avid birder also), one nice American gentlemen birder stopped by and said hello and we ended up with a good half an hour chat on birding and sharing our experiences not only on the Fraser's Hill but elsewhere too. This Mr.Malcolm White from New York, USA, apparently is widely traveled birder who had been to so many countries around the world and currently spending some time in Thailand. He had just arrived from Thailand and was a first timer on the Fraser's Hill. Since i have more experience on birding in the Fraser's Hill area i gave him a few tips where to look for certain species and the trails that are scattered all over the hill. I was shocked when he told me that he had just come out of the Bishop Trail alone, something i would not be brave enough to do on my own due to the meandering 1.5km had led 5 Singaporean lost a few years back. There were found 20 over kilometers downhill by a search party.

Anyway, my new friend here showed me a copy of a book called "Birds of Southeast Asia" by Craig Robson. It is a great guide book with superb hand painted illustrations of various species and sub-species and variation of birds found in the Southeast Asia with descriptions on their characteristics, habitats and distributions. The size of the book make it easy to lump it in a backpack when going birding and it is not that heavy either. One thing for sure it is a great reference for birders to distinguish various birds especially when the differences in between them might be just a few stripes or dots or tinge of colors at the back of the heads or the tip of the wings. I append the image of the book covers below for reference for those interested to get a copy of the book:

  

The cost of the book is US35.00 however i am not sure whether it is available in the bookstores in Malaysia, you might want to google it on the net. I am lucky that Malcom is kind enough to let me keep the book when he left Malaysia for Thailand since he said he did not need it anymore. It is such a great book that i think all serious birders out there should get one as a reference.

Thanks Malcolm, i appreciate it very much.

ORANGE-BELLIED LEAFBIRD (Chloropsis hardwickii/Burung Daun Bukit)

These nice colored birds are very hard to find in the Fraser's Hill especially the green colored females which camouflage well with the tree leaves. The males are more colorful than the females with bright sage-green above and subtle orange below, black sides to face and throat. There is also purplish black patch along the wings. The male ones can be mistaken as the Olive-backed Sunbirds to untrained eyes. I was lucky to come across these birds along the road while looking for other species.

FIRST OUTING 2013

These are the shots i took during my first birding outing this year up north in the state of Perlis at the end of January. The locations of the shots were around padi fields,Kuala Perlis river mouth and mud flat at the edge of the sea.

Great Egrets- Casmerodius Albus

Javan Pond Heron - Ardeola Speciosa

Eurasian Tree Sparrow- Passer montanous

Paddy Field Pipit?

Brown Shrike

Bridled Tern -Sterna Anaethetus

Common Iora - Aegithina tiphia

BIRDING IN 2013

Happy new year to all birders out there. May 2013 bring you a lot of sightings with new species especially the rare ones. It is a great relief that the doomsday prophecy that the world was going to end on 21 December 2012 was proven to be wrong. I am glad to still be alive to enjoy this life and my passion for birding for a few more years. At least my thousands of ringgit in investment for the equipments has not gone to waste.

Some of you would have come out with a list of resolutions for 2013 even before the the last minutes of 2012 come to an end, i on the other hand come up with one after the fireworks started..he he so last minute. My target for 2013 is to record more species to complete my first 100 list and to take sharper shots of the birds i come across.

For the first goal i have to make more birding trips to places i have never been before which is easier said than done. This is because i will be awfully busy with work for 2013 with a few projects lining up to be kicked started. But with March coming up soon where the migration of some species starting to come down this way i might have some chance of adding a few more species to achieve my goal.

For the second goal of getting sharper photos i have just invested in a good tripod and a gimbal head to support my long telephotos zoom lens. All this while i have taken most of my bird photos handheld as i rarely stayed in one spot for long. Taking photos this way is easier as i do not need to carry my tripod wherever i go but it requires a very steady hand to get sharp photos. Unless if i have a very good fast lens that can give me high shutter speed at low ISO in low light to freeze motion which can reduce blur, but these lenses with 500 or 600mm focal length, IS and f4 are very very expensive!!

I noticed a lot of pro birders used good support systems to get fantastically sharp photos. They used sturdy tripods and gimbal heads like the Wimberley WD-200 to get strong support with fluid motion of their camera to follow the birds movements even in flight. So i thought i would give it a try to shoot using a very good sturdy tripod and a gimbal head to support my 5DMK3 plus either the Canon 400mm f5.6 non-IS lens or Sigma 150-500mm f5-6.3 OS HSM zoom lens.

I have done some research on tripods reviewed by various parties on the internet and i have narrowed down to the Benro A-297EX, Vanguard Alta Pro 263 AB100 or Manfrotto 055XPROB Pro tripods. All of these three are excellent tripods with the Vanguard have better reviews, and having won awards for best product i was keen to get it eventhough it is the most expensive among the three. However, after inspecting the Vanguard at the shop i was disappointed with the sturdiness, its legs are not that strong and easily shaken. It is a versatile tripod with the central column can be adjusted to various angles for macro shots just like the Benro and Manfrotto. However, my main criteria is the tripod must be solid,sturdy, can support a minimum of 7kg of combined camera, lens and flash weight, aluminum, not more than three section and can be extended to almost my height at around 1.8m so i do not have to bend when i shoot bird photos. 

The Benro A-297EX is quite affordable and come with the right specifications and versatility however i could not get my hands on a copy for testing as some shops do not carry it and i have to wait for three months for the new production stock to arrive. So, i checked the Manfrotto 055XPROB Pro out and i was impressed. At the full legs extension it managed to support me leaning on it with minor flexing, solid as a rock! It is made of aluminum with three legs section with flip locks, versatile central columns at four angles for macro shots, can support up to 7 kg and can be extended to as tall as i am, and it even comes with a carrying bag, and it only cost me RM450, perfect! The only downside is it weighs quite a bit due to the quality of construction. Here are some photos below of the Manfrotto tripods:

with central column extended:

with central column adjusted:

Of course a tripod alone is useless without a head to hold the camera. I thought about using a ball head but they are not as fluid as gimbal heads especially when i have to follow a bird in flight to have the focus lock onto the bird, that is why a lot of pro birders use them. The only problem with them is that they are very expensive here in Malaysia. I looked at gimbal heads by Jobu, Photo Clam and Wimberley which are all very good but very costly , until i came across the one produced by Manfrotto which fit my budget - Manfrotto 393 Heavy Duty gimbal head lens support which cost me only RM470(USD150). This gimbal head is less sexy than the ones produced by the three manufacturers mentioned earlier but it is solid and can do the job well. It comes with a 4 inch quick release plate, made of 6mm thick solid aluminum and weighs 1.60 kg. Basically it is made of two U-sections with hinges and a rotating base which is connected to the tripod base. It can support quite a heavy load based on the solidness of its construction. I can place my camera either hung from the top or at the bottom like a swing, either way it works fine. The movement is quite smooth with the camera remains at any position firmly if you balance it right from the beginning. The photos below explain better:

Manfrotto 393 Heavy Duty Gimbal Head

 

Manfrotto 393 Gimbal Head on Manfrotto 055X PROB Pro tripod

The support system with Canon 5DMK3 plus Sigma 150-500mm f5-6.3 OS HSM lens

I am feeling good with the system that i bought and hopefully it can help improve the image quality of my shots. I know i need some practice and patience taking photos using a tripod as taking photos of fast moving birds is not easy. I will have to stay at one spot a lot longer and play a waiting game. I need to study their behavior and recce at spots they like to perch more so i can pre-focus on those spots to have more chance of success. Anyway a journey to success begins with a first step. It is time for me to start my birding in this new year 2013, wish me lots of luck.