On the first day of July, 2010, I was on Bunker Trail, when just before 8:00am I noticed a bird fly from tree to tree that gave me the overall impression of a large cuckoo. I was in the car at the time and so I drove to the forest edge and observed, the bird continued to move from branch to branch until to my great fortune it settled on a relatively open perch. It would stay on this perch for an incredible twenty minutes giving me plenty of time to observe it’s behaviour. One of the first things I noticed was the bird was making a very soft call, and then within a few minutes a female White-rumped Shama flew in. As soon as the female was there, the cuckoo started quivering it’s wings.
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Written on June 19th, 2011. 2 Comments
In mid-December 2009 I went to Heliconia Walk at Singapore Botanic Gardens to observe and photograph the sunbirds feeding on the heliconia flowers together with Jean René Croguennec. I had my camera focused on a particularly promising Heliconia psittacorum ‘Lady Di’ flower cluster. Not long after we arrived and to our astonishment, a male Olive-backed Sunbird flew into the flower I was targeting and began his mating display. Although I’d never witnessed this before it was unmistakable what he was doing.
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Written on June 19th, 2011. 1 Comment
In the continuing series of boat trips into the Straits of Singapore organized by Colin Poole, a group of us gather at 1 Degree North yacht club on a stormy Saturday morning 18 Jun 11. We delayed our departure thirty minutes to give the rain a chance to pass, and weren’t bothered by rain the rest of the day. But the sea was very choppy and several of us weren’t feeling in peak form. We got our minute of excitement early in the day, around 8:20am when two Swinhoe’s Storm Petrels were spotted floating on the water. They took off and we gave chase, but it’s wasn’t the best photo opportunity. Anyway, we can confirm a new late date for this species in Singapore waters, what they are still doing here in June is anyone’s guess.
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Written on June 19th, 2011. 0 Comments
Ever since my first trip to what is now Panti Bird Sanctuary, Johor, I have been fascinated with the Rail-babbler. Now six years later I have seen the Rail-babbler on a number of occasions, usually just brief glimpses of the bird walking away through obstructing foliage. But I’ve been quite lucky twice. Once in May 2010 a pair of Rail-babblers simply walked past my vehicle allowing leisurely viewing and several photos taken from inside the car.
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Written on June 16th, 2011. 1 Comment
An interesting encounter between a Cape Buffalo and a pair of young male lions. The lions were having a go at the buffalo, not sure what they were thinking as a fully grown Cape Buffalo is one of the few animals that can hold it’s own against a lion. This buffalo was fearless, when the lions would get too close he would charge, and the lions would definitely retreat. Interestingly, the wildebeest just stand around and watch. Although they are a favorite meal of the lions, I guess they knew they weren’t on the menu here! The lions eventually gave up.
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Written on June 16th, 2011. 0 Comments
On Safari in the Masai Mara, departing from Fig Tree camp, we started our morning taking some pictures of the balloons as they were being filled. We were on a two week safari, and this was our next to last day, Sept 10, 2010. Then a few mintues later we came across a pair of Bat-eared Foxes, but the light was still very low at 6:30am. Sunrise wouldn’t be until 6:38am.
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Written on June 15th, 2011. 2 Comments
9 pm Wed Feb 16 So we all got to the airport. All checked in. All overweight, but ANA let us on! Now in an hour we’ll be in the air 🙂
9 am Thu Feb 17. Arrived in Haneda. Whew trying to connect to the Internet for past two hours. Difficult! Will catch flight to Hokkaido soon. No sleep on the red eye, a wee bit sleepy!
4:15 pm Thu Feb 17. Arrived at Washi mo Yado in Rausu. Been traveling for about 17 hours! Now we are in the small inn. There are plenty of Stellar Sea Eagles perching on the trees around the inn. And also lots of deer 🙂
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Written on February 16th, 2011. 3 Comments
Several of us will be in Hokkaido from Feb 16th to Feb 26th for winter nature photography, mainly birds, but we’ll be happy to see some mammals too and some nice wintery scenary. We’ll fly the red-eye from Singapore to Tokyo Haneda airport, and then catch a domestic flight to Nakashibetsu airport. There we’ll pick up a couple of rental SUVs and drive on to the Northeast coastal town of Rausu. We’ll spend three nights here focusing on several large birds of prey. Stellar’s Sea Eagles gather in the hundreds on pack ice near the harbor, we should also see some White-tailed Eagles. And a night we’ll be looking for the Blakiston’s Fish Owl. The eagle and the owl are both among the largest birds of their kind, it will be impressive to see these truly large birds!
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Written on February 13th, 2011. 3 Comments
Family Portrait
This image was made at Japanese Gardens in Singapore on July 8th, 2010. A pair of Pied Fantails had made a nest on an open and slender branch on a small tree just down a slight slope overlooking Jurong Lake. The background was the distant greenery across the small lake.
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Written on February 7th, 2011. 0 Comments
Written on June 6th, 2010. Enter your password to view comments.
