My Lifer, a Crake, a Duck and a Snipe at Byram

It has been 2 months that I last visited Byram. The weather this morning was not in the perfect condition, the sunlight was blocked behind a thick overcast created a dull and "moody" atmosphere. I was there this morning to look for the Chinese Egret that my birder friend sighted few days ago. Unfortunately, it was a no show for the Chinese Egret. My guessing it was a winter passage that was stopping over here the other day and now it is on the north-bound journey.

To my surprise, there were many Lesser Whistling-Duck. I estimated there were about 40 to 50. I had never see this species here before. Could it be another north-bound winter visitor ?

Canon 1D mk IV with EF 800 IS

Auto ISO Aperture Priority F8

One Shot AF

                             

                             

A pair of the Lesser Whistling-Duck perching together 

created a unique composition

White-Browed Crake (Photo Lifer)

It was quite difficult to photograph the Snipe as she likes to rest and take shelter  inside the dense grasses. This morning I was lucky to find a Common Snipe came out to the edge of the pond. She was looking for food.

The long bill made a perfect tool for its to pick up food from the ground.

Thanks for viewing.

Little "Jewel" of Fraser's Hill Forest, Rufous Brown FC (Photo Lifer)

I came across this cute little flycatcher called Rufous Brown Flycatcher at Fraser's Hill last month. It was at the "Telecom Loop" that I saw this cute "fella" flying and perching at a pile of mossy stone. Coincidently, there was some foods (worms and residual of insects) on the mossy stone, thus the subjects kept coming back to the mossy stone searching for food.

Canon 7D EF 800 IS

ISO 1600 1/500 F5.6

AI Servo, Zone

Pre-focus on the mossy stone

Canon 7D EF 800

ISO 800 1/10 F8

One Shot AF

ISO 1250 1/80 F5.6

Thanks for viewing, your comments are welcome.

My Consolation Price For My Kota Bahru Birding Adventure

Finally on the fifth day of bird adventure at Kota Bahru, I managed to get a consolation price, a lifer also, by spotted this Oriental Reed Warbler at a open grass land on the way to the town of Bachok on the D5 trunk road.

I almost miss ID it, initially I thought it was a Paddy-field Pippit but after a closer look I realized that it should be other species. 

Oriental Reed Warbler

Canon 7D EF 800 IS

IS0 500 Aperture Priority F8

Kota Bahru, Kelantan Trip

I am having my Lunar New Year holiday at Kota Bahru, Kelantan. Why ??? because it is a custom to visit the relative or family members of my wife side during the Lunar New Year.  This year, I will stay here for 6 days. Initially, I was planning to explore for the local bird species here but after 2 days of searching, I gave up. I could not find any rare species but only common birds such as Pond Heron, Cattle Egret and Zebra Dove. One interesting observation, I noticed that there are many bird pet shops here with exotic birds. Could it be most of the rare birds ended up here ? Just my speculation.

I found that the scenery and people are much more interesting topic to photograph, so I decided to do some landscape and street photography. I put aside my EF 800 mm and pack my Canon 7D, 17-40 L and 70-200 L F4 IS into my Lowepro Sling Bag 200 AW. Here are some places I visited:

Kota Bahru Central Market

Pantai Cahaya Bulan (PCB) Beach,  a photo series of Kite seller.

At a paddy-field

Thanks for viewing, your comments are welcome.