Unable to Post Comments

July 6 2010. This evening I received an email from a fellow blogger, madibirder, who informed me of the problem in the comments button. I have ratified the problem. Now the comment box will pop out for the readers to post their comments. 

Thanks to madibirder for highlighting the problem.

Sights and Sounds of Ulu Paip

July 4 2010, This morning I decided to visit the Ulu Paip Recreation Park. This is a low land forest with a waterfall and fresh water stream running through it. It is an ideal habitat for the Blue Banded Kingfisher and Chestnut-naped Forktail. The park is a popular place for picnickers. In order to avoid the picnickers, I decided to explore the park before the picnickers arrived.  

Hiking along the stream

The Blue Banded Kingfisher and Chestnut-naped Fork-tail are 2 very shy birds. One the first occasions, as my partner and I hiked along the trail parallel with the stream.  I heard the thin shrill whistle of "dir-tee, dir-tee, dir-tee" voice. My partner Tsien quickly pointed toward the river direction, I saw the subject flying across the river headed toward the dense forest. It disappeared into the dense forest. That was the only sighting for the entire morning. The same thing happened on the Blue Banded Kingfisher. As we were approaching some bamboo trees (30 meter away), my partner and I saw a blue color bird took off and fly away toward the dense forest. It was a frustrated outing. We ended up empty handed with zero photos of the subjects.

Yellow-breasted Flowerpecker (Better than nothing !!)

A chick of the Scarlet-Backed Flowerpecker that just fled the nest being feed by the parents

Besides birds, there were frogs and lizard. 

I concluded my writing today by featuring a shot video footage of my outing titled "Sights and Sounds of Ulu Paip"

Thanks for viewing.

Buff-necked Woodpecker

June 20 2010, Lately It has been tough to find good bird photography location. The migratory birds have moved north bound, back to their summer breeding ground at Northern Hemisphere. I decided to try my luck at the Sungai Sedim lowland forest again. I was trying to look for some resident lowland forest birds. 

This morning I bought along my 16-35 L wide angle zoom lens. I planned to shoot some scenery photos of the forest. I packed the 16-35 L into ThinkTank Speed Demon and belted it on my waist. The Speed Demon is really handy, I can keep most of my birding accessories, such as my apple ipod, a mini speaker, a Nikon binocular, blackberry phone and etc. The padded belt and bag fitted comfortably on my waist as I hiked on the small trail with the EF800 IS mounted on the Gitzo carbon fibre tripod carried on my shoulder.

ThinkTank Speed Demon

Scenery of the lowland forest

1 D mkIV 16-35 mkII L

It was not a bad day, I managed to get a photo lifer and few other improvement shots of the Buff-necked woodies, YellowBreasted Flowerpecker and Lesser Green Leafbird.  However, it was tough to shoot in the dense lowland forest. The dense vegetation made a perfect hiding place for forest birds. On a few occasion, I heard the call of Banded Broadbill, Red-napped Trogon and Green Broadbill but was frustrated not able to find the birds

Buff-necked Woodies

Photo Lifer of the Day

1 D mkIV EF 800 IS with 1.4 TC

Lesser Green Leafbird

Yellow-breasted Flowerpecker

Thanks for viewing.

Tickell's Blue Flycatcher

June 19 2010, This morning I went to a park near Relau at Penang Island to photography the nesting activities of the Tickell's Blue Flycatcher. Unfortunately, I was a bit late, the chicks have left the nest. I found the adult birds hang around the hiking trail at the park. Both the male and female were actively hunting for food and on some occasion perched at the bamboo trees. I managed to get some record shots of the male and female while it perched there.

Male Tickell's Blue Flycatcher

Female

Thanks for viewing.