29/05/2010: Bukit Gambir (Penang)

I paid a short visit to my local patch hoping to get a couple of hours of birding before heading into the office on this beautiful Saturday morning. This is one of the strongholds of the highly-successful Crested Mynas – an introduced species that is doing very well in Penang Island.

A Zebra Dove cooing its territorial call on an exposed cable provided the best images for this short outing.

There are a few resident Chestnut-headed Bee-eaters in this locality and this dead tree happens to be one of their favourite perches.

This handsome male Pink-necked Green-pigeon was resting outside a newly-built nest but with the morning sun behind him, it was quite impossible for me to obtain any really good images.

I had another tough time trying to photograph another malkoha and this time it was Penang Island’s only species - the Chestnut-breasted Malkoha. How difficult can it be to photograph a 1.5 foot long bird? Well, a picture says a thousand words…

As I made my way back to my car, I found another bird foraging just next to it. As with my last visit, I waited for it - this time a Zebra Dove, to gradually move further away before I got into my car. I guess word got around that this car belongs to a “bird-friendly” guy.

22/05/2010: Air Hitam Dalam (Penang)

It was supposed to be my second pelagic trip off the coast of Tanjung Dawai, Kedah but we had to cut the trip short due to the weather. It was raining when Dave, Hakim and I arrived at the pier before dawn. Despite the rain, the boat crew still decided to go out and try their luck. The rough sea conditions prevented them from reaping anything this time and they decided to turn back by lunch time. As for us, standing upright can be a little challenging at times let alone photographing seabirds. Anyway, Hakim and I were glad to be able to see one of our target birds, the Short-tailed Shearwater on two brief occasions. This lifer helped to ease our disappointment. I guess I have to leave the Brown Noddy, Bulwer’s Petrel and the rest of the rarities for another trip.

On the way to Penang, we made a little detour to Air Hitam Dalam to see if anything is about as the breeding season should be in full swing by now. We were greeted by a male Asian Koel upon our arrival at the car park. Although this is a common species, I still do not have any images that I’m really satisfied with. This time, a branch was in the way…

A resting Spotted Wood-owl provided some excitement to the trip…

Malkohas have a tendency to move like squirrels among the foliage of the canopy. This foraging Green-billed Malkoha was pretty restless making it quite difficult for us to follow it in order to obtain some images.

However, our patience did pay off I the end when it perched slightly in the open before flying to the next tree. Thanks, buddy…

15/05/2010: Mainland Penang

With the migratory season over, it is back to the forest again. I decided to pay a visit to Bukit Panchor as it has been quite a while since my last visit. However, the birding here is a pale comparison to how it was like when I first visited this forest reserve. Today’s trip only produced a record shot of a foraging Crimson-winged Woodpecker and the others either kept themselves well hidden or kept their distance.

Luckily, the other animals that call this place home was at hand to keep me occupied like these rather confiding Sun Skinks…

This squirrel was so indulged with breakfast that it totally ignored my presence…

After the forest outing, I swung by the Pulau Burung landfill and things were rather slow there as well. As the migratory season is officially over, I cannot gauge the damage done by the clearing works. I can only hope that by the time the first migrants start to arrive again, the place will be able to provide sanctuary again as usual. It was a relief to see that the resident Black-winged Stilts are not really affected…

There are still a few Whiskered Terns that have not undergone their journey back north yet.

The resident Long-tailed Macaques should be thankful there are no crocodiles here…

Before calling it the day, I decided to visit the Penanti grasslands to check on the resident waders but the numbers present were not that encouraging. The Oriental Pratincoles did show signs of another successful year with the number of juveniles running around the locality.

Here’s a striking adult bird in breeding plumage…

08/05/2010: Bukit Gambir (Penang)

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My baby is finally back after spending 2 months at the Sigma service center.

I decided to swing by this local patch to test out my lens and the agonizing wait was worth it because the guys at Sigma did a rather good job and it is almost as good as new now.

The Tickell’s Blue Flycatcher can be heard at almost every visit to this locality. However, it tends to keep to the dense and dim area of the forest – making it quite difficult to capture good images. Anyway, this is the female…

And this is the male….

The persistent territorial call of a Plaintive Cuckoo lead me to a dead tree at the edge of the fruit orchard. Although this male bird was rather confiding, I just could not find an angle where I could capture a clean shot.

A male Thick-billed Green-pigeon alighted on a nearby tree while I was still admiring the cuckoo and once I diverted my attention to him, it did not take long for him to fly for cover.

A pair of White-crested Laughingthrushes made their presence known with their loud calls filling the vicinity. Although this species originated from escaped cage birds, it is rather wary and shy. Their active nature also contributed to the difficulty of getting good images.

Anyway, I did better this time than the previous encounter where I could only managed to capture a single decent shot.

As I made my way to the car to start off another weekend at work, I came across this Scaly-breasted Munia foraging right next to car. Anyway, I let it had its fill before I got too close.

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22/04/2010: Past reflections re-visited

When I was first started to photograph birds during birding trips, I was using a modest digi-scoping setup. Good images were hard to come by due to the moderate quality of my telescope and compact camera. And to make things worse, I had to hold my camera against my telescope with only the aid of a home-made adaptor. Despite all the hassle, I was quite happy at the time that I was able to capture permanent memories of my birding trips. With time and a whole lot of practice, I did manage to make the best out of my setup like this shot of a resting Black-winged Kite taken at Kuala Muda.

Digi-scoping active moving birds can be quite frustrating as it was quite difficult to follow the movement of the birds. I considered myself quite lucky when this image of a male Blue-winged Leafbird taken at Temenggor forest reserve turned out better than I had expected.

One of the advantages of using a digi-scoping setup is the reach of the optics when compared to a DSLR setup. I can still recall the time I had to photograph this foraging male Laced Woodpecker from quite a distance at the mangroves in Kuala Gula and thanks to the reach, I was quite happy with the images.

Sometimes I do regret not venturing into bird photography earlier because there are quite a number of species that presented themselves to me only once so far like my one and only sighting of the Indian Roller at Kuala Gula – a species that is locally common only at the north-eastern region of Peninsula Malaysia.

And how can I forget about my Hoopoe sighting in my home state. The same individual was seen only twice in the same season at Sungai Burung. This is not only an attractive species but it is also a rare one as well. Now all I can do is hope that one day I will be able to capture its images with my current DSLR setup.

The Indian Pond-heron is one of the more recent additions to the Malaysian checklist. I had the privilege of photographing the first ever record for Penang Island and of all the places, this mega rarity decided to winter at the air field of the Penang International Airport. It took a while for the airport security to realize that it was the “feathered birds” that I was after.

As per Choo Eng's request, here is my natural shot of all 3 species of Pond-herons in a single frame...

Here is a digitally altered shot to show the differences between the Chinese (L), Indian (M) and Javan (R) in full breeding plumage - the only time when you can safely tell the 3 species apart.

The Milky Stork is a globally endangered species and encounters with this species were far and few. However, I did manage to enjoy a few close encounters and capture quite a few decent shots of the birds that were re-introduced back into wild at Kuala Selangor Nature Park and Kuala Gula Bird Sanctuary. These birds are quite accustomed to humans and are not as wary as the completely wild birds.

10/04/2010: Pondok Tanjung (Perak)

This locality is one of the last few remaining swamp forest and it has been a few years since my last visit. This used to be one of my favourite haunts but my last visit was not a happy one. There was a new road cutting through the forest reserve and I could not even locate the forest trail that I used to bird along.

Anyway, together with Choo Eng and Muin, we decided to try out this locality and see if there is still hope left for this once excellent birding site.

Parts of the old road can still be seen as we drove along the new one and it brought back memories of another time where I spend hours in the leech infested forest trail observing fascinating species like the Rufous-tailed Shama and Grey-chested Jungle-flycatcher. I really regretted not being able to capture any of the images as I was still with my digiscoping set-up at the time.

This road always had its share of road kills in the past and today was no different. The unfortunate casualties this time was a Collared Scops-owl and a Banded Krait. What an undeserving end to such fine specimens.

We also found a few logging trails in the area and that is not a good sign.

This female Bronze Grass Skink kept us occupied for quite a while.

The highlight of the trip was this handsome Pig-tailed Macaque and he really put on a show for us. All the shots were taken from the safety of our vehicle…

And those fangs are the reason why…

We recorded almost 40 species of birds but most only provided glimpses and sound. With my telephoto lens still at the service centre (Come on Sigma. It’s been a month. You’re killing me here), it is no surprise that I did not have a shot worth showing except for this female Whiskered Treeswift taken at the Batu Siputih Forest Reserve. This locality is about 20 km away from Pondok Tanjung which looks quite promising and I can foresee a full day’s trip in the near future.