Bitten by the bittern bug

Its late afternoon, I picked a spot with my back against the sun.. The water just a feet below me.. With the trees along the highway being felled, no sign of the purple heron which always perch at the tallest branches. Only the crit crit sound of the fast flying swallows fill the air..

Once a while, a 'eeekk ek ek ek' sound coming from the reeds. Some bittern must be around.. I kept my silence..

Not until its nearly sunset, did a bittern finally show it self. Keeping my self well hidden, I took a few shot..



A beautiful bittern indeed. I kept myself hidden until it went away..

The next day, I went again to the spot. Maybe luck will be with me today..

I wait and wait.. not until it was very late.. 7.20pm, it landed at a clear spot amongst the reeds..


Not near enough but ok for me... As I am shooting without flash, I had to bump the ISO to 800 resulting in quite noisy photo..

The next day, I went again.. hoping its My 3 days lucky.. but the bittern didnt show it self..

Then after 10 days... I saw it.. Clear view!

crept closer and shoot!


Black Bittern
Pucung Hitam

Well worth the hundreds of mosquito bites I had to endure waiting..

Hati Nyamuk anyone?

* hati nyamuk='mosquitoes heart' as requested by the princess of gunung ledang in the malay folk stories.

Drifting like a log.

I think I have improved my techique in shooting from a canoe..It is like drifting log..

about 10 meters from the bird, I angled my canoe to go pass in front of the bird going nearer and nearer..then give a gentle push with my paddle.

Perhaps this photo sequence would show it better

you can see the bird getting bigger and bigger..

this is the last frame of the sequence



fortunately I didnt flush out the bird..

I also get this reflection of the bird in the water


I notice a pelican(undan) are perching on the tree branches at the side of the lakes.. which is a good thing since a few years back, theres is no Burung Undan(Pelican) at The Pulau Undan(Pelican Island) which is the name given to one of the island.



A little more forward, I would be the target of the Pelican Poo.. Directly under it.

Dragons galore

Some of the beautiful tropical Dragonflies found during my hunt for birds...

These species I found near pool or lakes

Urothemis signata (male)
Common red color ones


Trithemis aurora (male)
red color with a violet thorax

At Paya Indah,Dengkil got this interesting dragonfly,
Rhyothemis phyllis (female)
read from somewhere, it is called a saddleback because of the colour on the broad hind wings.

Even in the jungle trails can see them

This beautiful metalic blue dragonfly perching on a spiny nipah leaves
Cratilla metallica (female)

also this orange and green coloured dragonfly
Lathrecista asiatica (female)

This dragonfly is almost invisible as it sit still on a tree trunk
Tyriobapta torrida (male)

This is how one dragonfly lays its egg (Ovipositing) in a pool of water..
. Orthetrum sp (female)
I just learn about this behavior from Tabib in Kemensah..

I tried to identify it from references in the internet, but I found it to be much harder than identifying birds.. ;) better leave it to the expert..

This blog seems to be a good reference for malaysian dragonflies
Odonata of Peninsular Malaysia

Update:Ian from odonata-malaysia have kindly identified the dragonflies here. Species names in italics