25 November 2007

Birding at Fraser's Hill

After getting my Digital SLR in March '07 and a
long lens in October 'o7, time to test it in real life nature birds photography.
All this while I have been taking backyard or garden birds photos from the convenience of my house's windows /doors.
So my family and I went to Fraser's Hill yesterday and we stayed at the Jelai Resort, famous among birders and bird photographers . It was really an eye-opener for me. In spite of the long lens (canon 400mm f5.6 + 1.4x extender), tripod, F1 bracket and better beamers flash accessories, to make bird photography as easy as possible, I found it very difficult and challenging.



I meet Mr. K.S Durai at the Fraser Hill Info Center. A very kind man, he lend me a pair of binocular. No deposit needed, I just show him my MNS id card.

I waited at Jelai's car park at 7.00am, the first wave of bird start at 7.20am. So many Laughing Trush landed and feed on insects at the car park. I fumble in the excitement of seeing so many birds, all lifer for me. Focusing was very difficult in the low morning light, AF didn't work, so manual was thing of the day. Very-very challenging. The birds look tame, but never lay still.
Imagine trying to catch them when they are jumping all over the branches, feeding from one flower to another.



After breakfast, we went for jungle tracking at Hemmant Trail - easy 1000m trail. The weather was fine and no rain the night before, so leech was not a problem. I got the Cuckoo shrike pic there.

Here are some of the pictures at that trail.
















I snapped hundreds of frames, but mostly crappy out of focus, over/under exposed or no birds in the frame!

Here are 5 new species, the I managed to catch of the acceptable /record catch.



(1)
Streaked Spiderhunter (Arachnothera magna)
Kelicap Jantung Gunung












Streaked Spiderhunter












Streaked Spiderhunter








(2) Asian Koel (Eudynamis scolopacea) - male juvenile. This is the species that I miss identified for a long time. After 3 yrs birding I found the answer. Immature Black and Crimson Oriole.











(3)
Long-tailed Sibia (Heterophasia picaoides)
Rimba Ekor Panjang


















Long Tailed Sibia








(4)
Chestnut-capped Laughingthrush (Garrulax mitratus)
Rimba Mata Putih












Chestnut Capped Laughingthrush










(5)
Silver-eared Mesia (Leiothrix argentauris)
Rimba Telinga Putih













Silver Eared Mesia











Scarlet Minivet - Burung Matahari
(Pericrocotus flammeus) ~ Male


Seen, but unable to photograph:
1. Lesser Racquet-tailed Drongo
2. Fantail, White-Throated

I WILL BE BACK to shot more birds!

3 comments:

Razak Bin Ramli said...

Kalau ada tempat nak shoot gambar burung di Raub ...contact saya.
Kita pergi sama.Berkongsi minat dalam fotography.

koolmokcikZ said...

Salaam Tok Moh,

Lamo den tried leaving comment ... unsuccessful. Ari ni agaknya ramai your peminat gi Hemnet Trail ... sebab tu den dapek masuk sini.

Hehehe! Thought you said you were on wildbird photography ... how come I am looking at a family of tok moh on the trail? Anyway ... they are great. Get my student tu to write up a short composition about this trip and post it here.

Happy birding doc!

Anonymous said...

wah menarik burung2 kat sini...

spot yang sama jugak tempat saya menembak... heee...

insyaAllah, ada kelapangan akan berkunjung lagi ke situ... moh join skalik... :)