Wednesday 4 April 2012

Withdrawal effects

I've been depriving myself of birding (thus the lack of posts). It got to the point that I would look out my window every minute or two just to see if there were any birds (I probably do that anyway). Turns out that there are some decent birds around!

As I've mentioned before, there was a Straw-headed Bulbul hanging out around my building. Turns out that there are 3, and they are daily visitors to a fruiting tree literally 5 meters from my window. They wake me up every morning with their obnoxious song:


Once I started checking the tree regularly I started finding some other birds. Two of the more attractive species I've added to my inexistent 'window list' are Oriental White-eye and Scarlet-backed Flowerpecker.

Oriental White-eye (not digiscoped):

Scarlet-backed Flowerpecker (digiscoped in January):
-not actually photographed from my window


I went for a short walk yesterday around sunset to stretch my legs. While on my way back there were a few Javan Mynas in the grass (dirt birds around here) - I didn't really pay much attention to them. While I got closer I noticed that 2 of them were getting jiggy with it - if you know what I mean ;)
Deciding that that was worth looking at (as you would), I was surprised to see 2 rails instead of 2 Mynas, enjoying themselves...

Rails are usually very secretive so I wasn't expecting to see them way out in the open not bothered by me or the other walkers. I assumed that they would hide after copulating. Instead they continued running around along the edge of the longer grass. Very unusual. Maybe it had something to do with their hormones - becoming ambitious? ...or global warming :p because everything that is unexpected can be attributed to climate change ;)

Here's a poor photo - this was after sunset so there wasn't much light to work with.
Slaty-breasted Rail:


The dearth of posts will continue for the next few weeks.