This site is just less than 10 minutes drive away from my house. It is basically a paddy field area on both sides of the road. I was looking for the species that love to look for food in semi-wet paddy fields like Egrets, Herons, Stilts, sometimes Plovers, Sandpipers, Lapwings and Storks. If luck is on my side i will find all of them mingling in the same area, depending on the time of year. This month it has been raining heavily in the morning and late afternoon, so in between i had a few hours to take photos of the birds.
Upon arrival i saw some Egrets on the left side of the road(north), but on the right side(south) of the road the view was more interesting where Egrets and Black-winged Stilts were sharing the area to look for food.
I could just photograph from the edge of the road as there was a small canal about two meters wide used for irrigation separating the road and the paddy fields where the birds were located, about 100 meters away. It is in this situation that i wished i had a lot longer lens than my 400f5.6. A lot of village folks passing by giving me that look like " what are you doing dude in the hot sun?". I just placed my Manfrotto tripod behind some tall grass and snapped away as many i could. I knew i would have to do a lot of processing and cropping works later in Lightroom.
The Black-winged Stilts were a lot smaller then the Egrets and at that kind of distance it was difficult to focus and get sharp pictures. The Black-winged Stilts are waders related to the Avocet family. There were also what i believe to be Sandpipers which were even smaller in size compared to the Black-winged Stilts. All of the pictures below were heavily cropped to get a decent size photos of them.
In the afternoon it started to rain heavily. I noticed of a group of birds which were a lot bigger than the Egrets with black colored wings and long neck standing stubbornly in the heavy rain. They were Asian open-bill Storks. There were hundreds of them but all i could do was watch from inside the car with a binocular due to the torrential rain. I left only to come back two hours later when the rain had stopped. I was rewarded with an unbelievable sight.
Hundreds of Asian open-bill Storks flying in the sky, moving from one spot to another in the paddy field areas. Most of them were at least 100 - 200 meters away but a few flew right above me. These Storks mostly migrate from the Indian sub-continent, Bangladesh and our northern neighbors like Burma, Cambodia and Thailand around July to September to look for food.
Their main food are snails, frogs, water snakes and large insects. Their open-bill shape is their solution to efficiently catching snails and break the shells before swallowing the body of the snails. The paddy fields and wetlands are perfect spots for them to look for food. I am not sure whether the villagers and owners of the paddy fields welcome their presence as they may damage the paddy plant. Some feel they are a nuisance but allowed them to forage for food anyways.
I was quiet pleased with what i managed to photograph in this location, maybe i was at the right time at the right place or maybe my luck was good on that day. I practically drove pass this area almost everyday on the way to Kangar town but never thought of exploring it until my relative told me about it the other day. It just shows the importance of the local knowledge in looking for good birding spots. Knowledge and luck can make your birding a success.
Thanks for reading and happy birding.
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| The small ones mixed with the Black-winged Stilts looked like Sandpipers to me. Not sure. |
In the afternoon it started to rain heavily. I noticed of a group of birds which were a lot bigger than the Egrets with black colored wings and long neck standing stubbornly in the heavy rain. They were Asian open-bill Storks. There were hundreds of them but all i could do was watch from inside the car with a binocular due to the torrential rain. I left only to come back two hours later when the rain had stopped. I was rewarded with an unbelievable sight.
Hundreds of Asian open-bill Storks flying in the sky, moving from one spot to another in the paddy field areas. Most of them were at least 100 - 200 meters away but a few flew right above me. These Storks mostly migrate from the Indian sub-continent, Bangladesh and our northern neighbors like Burma, Cambodia and Thailand around July to September to look for food.
Their main food are snails, frogs, water snakes and large insects. Their open-bill shape is their solution to efficiently catching snails and break the shells before swallowing the body of the snails. The paddy fields and wetlands are perfect spots for them to look for food. I am not sure whether the villagers and owners of the paddy fields welcome their presence as they may damage the paddy plant. Some feel they are a nuisance but allowed them to forage for food anyways.
I was quiet pleased with what i managed to photograph in this location, maybe i was at the right time at the right place or maybe my luck was good on that day. I practically drove pass this area almost everyday on the way to Kangar town but never thought of exploring it until my relative told me about it the other day. It just shows the importance of the local knowledge in looking for good birding spots. Knowledge and luck can make your birding a success.
Thanks for reading and happy birding.
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