Beans, beanbags and mobile hide

Juvenile Black-winged Kite home alone, juveniles at nest.


Another practising it's climbing skills up to the nest where the other juvenile sits. An adults watched closely from a nearby tree.

Armed with a recently purchased SkimmerSack stuffed with probably 5kilos of kacang hijau (at MYR$7.50/kilo), I headed out today to test the outfit in the field.

First stop was Pujut 7 Lakes, MNS Miri Branch members were there last week, you can read about their haul here. Musa revisited the site later that same week and came back with videos and pictures of 2 juvenile Black-winged Kite (aka Black-shouldered Kite) which could be the only 2nd record for Sarawak. So I had to get back and acquire some shots of my own.

The two juveniles were still at nest, when Aisya and I arrived at the location around 0900hrs. It was kinda amazing that the group missed the nest, the nesting tree was standing right in front of the spot where we were last week. Musa has sharper eyes than most of us present.

One juvenile was in the nest; another further down the tree trunk. The rusty wash on the fearhers was barely visible on camera. The adult wasn't too far away on another tree.

On the way back, we saw twelve Wandering Whistling Ducks in one of the lakes, as well as a Purple Heron and three Intermediate Egret. Initially the ducks were swimming in groups out in the open but quickly took refuge in the kangkong as soon as they heard us. I acquired several record shots and a video.

The SkimmerSack was quite nifty albeit the rather heavy 5kilo weight of the beans inside it. It plopped down securely on the rooftop, and sat there the whole time. With the sunroof open shooting standing up in the middle of the car felt kind of novel.

The big lens was placed securely on the sack, and was as stable as it can get. The rubber grip ensures zero opportunity for lens slippage, that was a superb touch. Managed a few seconds of video recording as well without any noticeable shake. The car efficaciously doubled as a hide with leather seats, air-conditioning and music if needed when birding is slow.

After the lakes, I drove the newly discovered "hide" to Lutong beach to see if there were any egrets on show. The tide was rising, there were a few Lesser Sandplover and crabs busy foraging. After locating a suitable spot with three LSP, I decided to shoot from the window this time.

With the engine off, all windows down, beanbag set on the driver's window and the big lens sitting snugly on top, I shot off a few frames with subjects very close by. The waders were curious but weren't afraid. One fella actually walked up right to the car!

I guess I have finally discovered the "right" way to shoot birds for me at least, for now: in the car, with the SkimmerSack nearby. Though shooting would be limited to where I can drive the "hide" to, I guess it's more than sufficient for now. Plenty of places to go to shoot in that fashion here in Miri. There's undoubtedly plenty of waders, egrets, kingfishers and other birds to keep me occupied for a while. The drybox would be missing the big lens soon enough.

Perhaps further down the line is probably a project to revamp the Pajero into a 2 seater 4WD birdhide: take out the backseat, move the right side front seat to the back. Anyone knows a chop shop in Miri who can help me with that?


Twelve Wandering-whistling Duck hiding in the kangkong after taking notice of the commotion we made.


Lesser Sandplover at Lutong Beach today shot from inside the car from the driver's seat using the SkimmerSack as support for the big lens.

Lutong Beach again this morning

The other end of Lutong Beach on 400mm, uncropped.

Well, I went back to Lutong Beach this morning, this time armed with an EF400/5.6, Canon7D and a tripod with an Arca-Swiss B1 head. I figure I don't need the Wimberley this time around.

The waders were no longer at their expected roost, the tide much lower than yesterday. Perhaps the waders have flown to better pickings at Kuala Baram Lagoon, slightly more muddy there. Only the Chinese Egret was present, lurking at the water's edge. And it was an obliging subject, too pre-occupied with getting breakfast that it paid scant attention to the 5 legged creature on the beach.

I took pictures of my date as per usual, the subject seemed familiar with the routine. And the light this morning wasn't at all too bad, slightly less overcast than yesterday but not too harsh to create severe problems with metering.

It has to be said that it's a lot less fiddly to shoot with SLR+telelens as opposed to a combo of SLR+normal lens+telescope. You do loose significant reach of the telescope set-up (400mm vs 1700mm) but you gain the agility of a fix lens operation on an SLR.

Great magnifications come with great issues with regards to stability. Every little motion made will be exaggerated many times ... you can't afford to be shaky with a telescope set-up. A ball head and sturdy tripod however are sufficient to manage shake issues with the SLR+telelens set-up.

Another obvious advantage of the digiscope set-up is you get to make your observations, shots, recording further away from the subject well away from the subject's circle of fear. Of course if you are Photographer Dewa Tahap 9, you can do exactly the same within the circle with a point and shoot on a 35mm lens.

Flight shots are way easier to capture with SLR+telelens set-up. Though my panning still sucks big time, this morning I managed a couple of reasonably good record shots of a Peregrine Falcon. The small raptor was poised to mob the Chinese Egret but decided to halt it's pre-meditated sudden kamikaze move mid-air and turned tail in the opposite direction.

The first time I noticed Peregrine Falcon in the Lutong area was sometime back in July-August when two birds were observed squeaking at the top of Shell telecommunications tower not too far away. They're more regularly sighted further north closer to Kuala Baram area.

Here are a few images for comparison, obviously these are not ot "apple-to-apple" comparisons but close enough to practically assess which set-up is more suited to which situation. It is mostly common sense really, which perhaps every birder-photographer-digiscoper-amateur naturalist already knows, I just needed to run through the exercise myself.


Chinese Egret in the early morning light at Lutong Beach.


Chinese Egret on it's determined gait to hunt for breakfast, slim pickings today all the big ones got away. This image from SLR+400mm Telelens, cropped 45% to get similar sized image as below.


Chinese Egret as captured from the SLR+50mm lens+APO77 Telescope, cropped 20%.


The gutsy Peregrine Falcon assessing the situation after a fruitless first dive. Getting flight shots with the SLR+normal lens+telescope set-up is next to impossible especially unplanned shots, unless of course you are a Digiscoper Dewa Tahap 7.


On more than once I noticed both Chinese Egret and Little Egret rushing up to shore from the shallows where they were busy hunting to walk up the beach for 10-15feet on dry sand, pooped and walked back to the shallows to resume hunting. Perhaps they don't find it wise to get the water all murkied up.

Digiscoped Lutong Beach this morning with Sony DT 50/1.8

The far ends of Lutong Beach.

Today I thought I'd stop by Lutong Beach and check-out who's there before lugging the rest of the bulky gear over for the annual Jan-Feb date with the Chinese Egret. It's been going on since 2008, notwithstanding the fact that all 2009 pictures came to nought when the hard-disk went missing.

With Leica APO77, Sony SLT33 and 50/1.8 in tow, sussed the beach with an expressed desire to test whether it's easier to tweak the 18-55kit zoom or fixed lens 50/1.8 with the scope set-up. Might as well since I'm already there.

Arrived at the beach approximately 6:30AM, still not much light. There were several Kentish Plover and Lesser Sandplover roosting and foraging in the area. And one common Sandpiper. No egrets in sight, so I took the opportunity to shoot the roosting waders instead. They were all pretty calm sitting around, preening and once in a while affected an upwards glance to the sky.

Aligning the 50mm lens to the scope was a bit fiddly at first. With the 18-55mm you can st zoom at 18mm, locate the eyepiece and gradually increase focal length to between 50-55mm to rid of all the vignette. With the 50/1.8 after considerable time stumbling over the right position to see through the eyepiece, one was still left with tiny amount of vignette at the coners, even at largest aperture of 1.8 ... forget about shooting at smaller apertures, it'll vignette to kingdom come. Exposure measurements alo become wonky mostly ... overexposing most of the time ie. instead of measing exposure on the image, it's taking exposure of the eyepiece glass surface.

When final "best" alignment was achieved in the end, one had to live with a tiny amount of vignette at the far corners. Center sharpness was excellent though. The front element of the 50/1.8 is built with an at least 2cm recess from lens front end. The 2cm++ space between lens front element and that of the eyepiece isn't a good thing. Any closer, you wouldn't be able to focus (manual only, impossible with auto). Come to think of it at 55mm the kit lens provide shorter front element to eyepiece distance ... less vignette, less stray light.

Image wise, the 50/1.8 is a tad better with a bit of crop to get rid of the vignette. More acceptably sharp images too.


Chinese Egret, only one lone bird this morning.


Kentish Plover juvenile roosting with a couple adult birds.


The same bird from a different angle.

An afternoon at Kuala Baram Estuary

A little mudskipper.


Aisya with Kak Ayu, her cousin visiting from KL after her studies at Curtin.


A little prawn fishergirl.


A big koko son of an otai fisherwoman bagging his 1st catch of the day.

Birdies at Kuala Baram today

It's been raining every morning since coming back from KSNP last Sunday, apparently the weather has been wet since last Friday. Talk of flooding, talk of clogged drains have been in the papers consistently over the past few days.

Went off to Kuala Baram this morning to check out the usual suspects, none was sighted from where I was standing which was quite a way from the flats. Along the route there were several Little Egrets, Intermediate Egret skulking along the waterways and drains. No signs of Collared Kingfisher at the usual spot. Drizzles turned quickly to rain, I got back into the car and drove to the office.

Decided to return to the same spot at lunch. It was still drizzling then too but not as heavily as this morning. Perched on the usual top of rockwall vantage point, I could hear the Common Kingfisher calling but couldn't place the exact location it was calling from. Now and again the waders would chirp in when they squabble.

There were clumps of Red-necked Stint, Lesser Sandplover, Sanderling feeding at the mudflats ... not in extremely large numbers but perhaps 100-200 individuals of mixed flock. Also heard was Pacific Golden Plover squabbling between the clump of sedges towards the middle of the flats.

It was a quickie lunchtime birding session before rushing back to work. Along the roadside just by Shin Yang's new oil palm plot sat a lone Grey-headed Fish Eagle, he's keeping a close eye on the surrounding drainage system from his high perch. Other than the dead tree trunk he's stationed on, there isn't anything else standing other than a crop of palm oil ... poised to take over the entire landscape in the not so distant future.

The eagle flew as a lone fisherman dipped into a canal nearby to check his net, the guy too was probably on his lunchbreak. I drove back to the office.

Phew! Glad I got that out of my system, next onwards to the wet and flooded lakes of Pujut 7 this Sunday.

Kuala Selangor over the Weekend

Quiet walks with the accompaniment of chirping birds and insects well sheltered from the scorching afternoon sun.


A young macaque about the mangrove assessing his prospects in the scheme of things.

Aside from a few more new buildings in the compound, Kuala Selangor Nature Park still feels the same as it did way back in 1995 when I first step foot on it after travelling there by bus from Pudu with my then girlfriend.

The mosquitoes, the macaques and silver leaf monkeys are all still there. And the birds of course.

The loop trail is getting to be more magnificent ... the vegetation along the trail has grown nicely on either side of the laterite path creating a natural verdant canopy in between, providing ample shade for visitors averse to the scorching afternoon sun. Shelters are built over some thoughful interval along the entire length of the loop ... handy during unexpected downpours. There are also a couple of bird-watching towers to catch glimpses of the many feathered friends in the area.

The mangrove plank walk is now also back in operation after extensive refurbishment, it is now in concrete, affording visitors intimate encounters with some quirky denizens of the mangrove mudflats.


Crows at Bagan Pasir.


Great Egret in very early morning light.


Pink-necked Pigeon taking flight.


Buffy Fish Owl near the manmade lake.


Great Tit, it was nice to see it again if only for a brief second.


Water monitor doing the rounds within the lake systems, some are rather large but quite skittish.


Grey Heron feeding in the lake, quite a number can be seen here in the early morning hours, as skittish as the water monitors.


A shy dominant Silver Leaf male peering from the foliage.


Shy boy - why is he taking my picture?


Mudcrab looking for breakfast close to home.


Two mudskippers at home enjoying their cool mud-bath.

KSNP looks to be an ideal place for a simple no-fuss family get-away-from-the-city destination. Seafood places abound just a short ride across the Sg Selangor bridge. A few decent Mamak kedai kopis are also only walking distance away ... there's also TESCO a short 10minute drive from the park if you must.

Perhaps it's about time to introduce the kids to the monkeys ... them free ranging kind.