The Interceptor

"Landing strip clear, arrestor wires ready..You are cleared to land!"

Flaps down, wire in sight...


"Contact!"

No arrestor wires, no landing strip, just a single barbed wire. Now, that is I called precission.

what does the Blue-taled Beeater catch in the air?


a bee of course..


Hey, this time its not a bee. its a flying ant.

All caught in the air, impressive!

Otter in the klang river..

On 15 Jan 2010, I again spotted the Smooth Otter family in my patch



They makes a peculiar wave when they swim which is highly visible.



I can see they swim in a group, sometimes taking a dip underwater.

Here is a pic of them back in 2008

Berteman lebih baik.

Suatu petang seekor burung ruak-ruak turun ke sungai untuk mandi.



"Di sini macam tak selamat saja, risau pula mandi sendirian. Di sana tu ada Pucung Keladi sedang bertenggek. Mungkin lagi selamat rasanya", fikir Ruak-ruak.



Sampai di depan burung Pucung Keladi, burung Ruak-Ruak pun mandi sepuas-puasnya.

Selesai sahaja burung Ruak-ruak mandi, datang seekor biawak berenang di dalam air. Mungkin Ruak-ruak akan menjadi makanan sang biawak jika ia leka mandi sendirian.



Moral cerita: Jika berasa tidak selamat,elok berteman.

Rafting birds

Normally after work, I went for an late afternoon birding by the klang river bank. I pick a spot and waiting for the birds come to me.

The river isnt very clean actually..there are human floating trash carried by the water and some birds learn to use them.

Like this Chinese Pond Heron(Pucung Cina)




using a big plastic bag full of garbage. very untoughtfull of whoever throwing that in the river.

a Little Egret(Bangau Kecil also has been using this method, they fly up to the river and raft down fishing for fish..



Shooting is pretty easy too! just wait wait for them to float near and then click!

See the size of the Little Heron (Pucung Keladi)compared to the milk carton.


I think I will continue to watch this floating thrash in the river until people change their attitude which is never I think..

Main sorok-sorok.

Satu hari seekor burung Kelicap Mayang Kelapa betina (Brown-throated Sunbird) sedang mencari makanan di bunga pokok yang saya tidak ketahui namanya, lalu datang lah seekor merbah kapur datang menyapa.

mungkin sang kelicap tidak berapa suka kehadiran merbah, terus menyorok.



Merbah berpusing keliling pokok mencari kelicap

Berjumpa juga ..



tapi sesuatu telah mengalih perhatian merbah, ia memandang ke arah lain

Cepat - cepat kelicap terbang lari



Terus hilang sampai terpinga-pinga merbah dibuatnya..



Teringat saya akan cerita kawan saya, tentang burung besar yang hinggap di depannya dan hilang sekelip mata hingga menimbulkan perasaan seram padanya..

Pada saya, memang sifat burung, sekali terlepas pandang, burung akan terbang menghilangkan diri dan sekalipun ia berdiam diri, kita takkan perasan ia didepan mata.

Year of the tiger...

its nearly entering the year of the tiger, according to the Chinese Calender..I havent shoot a wild tiger yet, but I have this



My first clear shot of an adult Tiger Shrike.(Tirjup Harimau)

I'm wishing all my chinese birding friends a happy Chinese New Year!

100th post already ;p

'Shoot me if u can..:P ', says the skink..


Hey! dont shoot from the back...thats illegal... :P



Common Sun Skink
Mengkarung
Mabuya multifasciata

Tuk tuk tuk!

Kan dah cakap... kalau nama melayu burung biasa ikut bunyi.. kalau burung belatuk bunyinyaaa... tuk tuk tuk..bila ia mengetuk batang pokok..

Ini jumpa kat pokok jambu dekat Sawah Padi kat bukit Cerakah


Belatuk Merah
Banded Yellownape
Picus miniaceus

kat bukit Cerakah jugak, tapi kat arboretum.

Belatuk Leher Kuning
Buff-necked Woodpecker
Meiglyptes tukki


Belatuk Pinang Kecil
Common Flameback
Dinopium Javanense



Belatuk Biji Nangka
Rufous Woodpecker
Celeus Brachyurus


Itu je..
penat ler badan nih lenguh2...
dah tua..
belum jumpa lagi Woody-Woody Woodpecker...
yang famous tuu!

**transfered from my other blog dated 24 July 2008 & 15 August 2008

Bukan Layang-Layang ke?

Dari jauh nampak macam burung Layang - Layang pasifik , ikut motto aku, "Shoot first, ask later", aku ambil lah gambar... balik rumah, proses dalam komputer baru nampak burung apa..


Helang Belalang / Falco Rajawali
Black-thighed Falconet
Microhierax fringillarius

Ia ialah burung helang yang terkecil dunia. Hanya sepanjang 16cm sebesar Layang-Layang Pasifik, dipanggil Helang Belalang atau Falco Rajawali.



Layang - Layang Pasifik yang lebih kurang saiznya.

**transfered from my other blog dated 15 July 2008

The Story Behind The Cage.

I am not fond of seeing birds in cages, it seems that they seems sad.. In the wild, you can see them singing, flying happily just as they are.. but in the small cages, they cant. They cant pick their favourite food, cant find their mates.. Do they really sing as lovely in cages as in the wild?

My friends that know I take bird pics asked me, if i have been to Bird Park in Kuala Lumpur.

"No" is my answer..

I rather sit and watch the common Yellow-Vented Bulbul singing and flying freely in the wild than see exotic birds in deplorable state in cages..



This columbidae family (Pigeons and Doves) was in a cage at National Botanic Park, Shah Alam. Out of instinct I took a record shot of what kind of animals in which cage.. I saw a phyton was in the cage in 2008. According to the exif, this pigeon was in this cage in 26/7/2009.

In 27/12/2009, I passed thru this cage again and surprised to see two owls in it..



One is a juvenile Buffy-Fish Owl. Although I have never seen this species in the wild. I cant count this as my lifer. All my lifer is a wild bird.

Another is rather sad looking Barred Eagle-Owl. Looks like it is injured somehow.. It make a sad call while I was there as if it were crying..



The Buffy-Fish Owl seems fine enough to fly down and eat something that looks funnily like a bird..



I left the cage hoping it will be taken care by the people who put them in the cage..

In 10/1/2010, I intentionally took a path which passes the cages just to look at the bird condition.



and, it look just fine, looks healthy to me..The Buffy-Fish Owl is not there..being released i think..
maybe a happy ending afterall..

until...

last weekend in 30/1/2010, It is dead..



I'm pretty sure its an owl carcass.. they didnt even cleaned up the mess.. i wonder did they even feed the birds? or did the birds of prey eat each other until they are all dead? Uhh..



Look at the clean bird skull, must have taken at least a week for the maggots to do their job..

Hmm the ostrich are gone too!



Dying of thirst?

Which raises a lot of questions...

which I will just ask one.

With the Jabatan Perhutanan, Perhilitan and Jabatan Pertanian just around the corner, dont they have qualified vets and caretaker to take care of the animals that they caged up in the park