Early Birds

Raptors

The Malaysian Raptor Watch would be held on the 10th. March, 2012 in Tanjung Tuan, Port Dickson, Negeri Sembilan.

This morning, cruising around Kuala Selangor from Klang, I made many video shots and noticed 'extras' especially the bigger and heavier ones. Of course, the usual Brahminy Kites, Crested Serpent Eagles, a resident White-bellied Sea-Eagle and the Black-shouldered Kite are still there but these new comers are quite difficult to be identified.

Anyway, here is the video.

Kindly give your comments and id if possible.

Thanks.

Ultra Close-Up

Our resident bird,

the Olive-backed Sunbird in HD Video

The set-up took 4 days.

Under the cover of heavy shading and camouflage, our Alpha male in full breeding plumage struck a pose.

He co-operated by sitting pretty, preening and cleaning and what a handsome guy he is.

He's got competition because there is another guy around.

He is our new visitor.

We are proud to announce that another species have just visited our home. He is a cousin of the Olive-backed (Nectarinia jugularis) [below].

The brown-throated Sunbird (Anthreptes malacensis) [above] have arrived. He is much bigger and have more colors than the Olive-backed.

This new pair ( a gurl too) have made a nest on our mango tree.

Yup, the same tree that the pesky kitty was lurking above. (Please see my last post)

We are patiently waiting to complete another ultra close-up shot on this new bird.

Btw, the kitty is no more.

Yup, conked!

According to a neighbour of ours, the bad kitty got hit by a truck!!!

I suspect that all da birds have something to do with this! Ha!Ha!

Let us watch the Olive-back Sunbird video here.

Eat & Shake!

Chinese Pond Heron
Was driving home one afternoon and spotted a migrant in full breeding plumage.

Grabbed my Panasonic Lumix GH2, changed its lens to the 200mm TeleZoom, selected ETC 'on' and shot the bird. Thanks to James and Bitty of Photo Malaysia who id-ed this heron double quick as the usual color and pattern are not the same normally. Even the bill is in two colors!

Was in time for its quick meal and a 'shake' afterwards.

Enjoy the video here.

Tasted My Free Lunch!

And Enjoying It!

Was at Bukit Malawati in Kuala Selangor this morning. Testing out my new Panasonic Lumix DMC GH2 Camera , a Micro Four Third System. The result was astonishing. Never expected
it to perform beyond expectation, especially for my use in videographing birds.

You see, this is a new & revolutionary photographic design and it is going to change the photographic world by surprise. You see, DSLR is actually a digital version of the old system called SLR (single lens reflex).

With new technologies, it was discovered that the need for the mirror and a large penta-prism (so common in DSLRs) is outdated. Moreover, it is bulky and large! Just see those 'bigger-than- your-hand DSLRs. The lenses too are huge and costly!

So, why pay and suffer? Is it more macho to hold such huge cameras?

Please see this article here at The Luminuos Landscape about "Coming of Age".

GH2's ETC [Extra Tele Conv] turned the 300mm lens to a humomgus 1,560mm without ANY loss of Image Quality & Light.

It is NOT the so called digital zoom so commonly found in other cams. This GH2's surprising performance which I believe that even the marketing department people at Panasonic did NOT know about! Please read this site in regards to "Free Lunch".

And more discoveries about this amazing new camera at more GH2 Discoveries.

My test video below will show you why I am so excited.



Fellow birders and wildlife videographers, please search no more.

We have found what we want.
Bravo Panasonic! Good work.

Now let's go get some more birds.

Truly a great Bin

Swarovski EL 10x42 Swarovision


It is already three months old and we are really enjoying this pair of binoculars who have lived up to its claim "See the unseen"!
We have already covered more than half of our lists of birds. We even have more time to look at individual birds to study the its colors right up to the finest details.
Have never seen a Silver Eared Messia that clear. Also spotted the truly beautiful Red Headed Trogon who gave us three minutes of examination!

As for the Black Throated Sunbird, wow, truly exhilarating! Of course, we cannot leave out our ever popular "Phua Chu Kang" bird. Ha!Ha! This Streaked Spiderhunter's bright yellow feet looks just like his boots!

(Note: The following are not my pictures. They are from Google Images.)

Streaked Spiderhunter (above)

Silver Eared Mesia (above)

Red Headed Trogon (above)

Black Headed Sunbird (above)

Truly no regrets of owning this great pair of binoculars!