Monday, 13 February 2012

Recent Birding around S'pore

Last week I searched for an Ashy Drongo without finding it but I was happy to see a male Crimson Sunbird singing:


The red throat is "blown out" in that photo, meaning that there is no detail in the colour (technically it means that the red values for those pixels are at their highest possible value). I didn't notice that the photos were like that at the time but I think that 'extreme' colours (like reds, yellows and whites) will be difficult to photograph with a digiscoping setup in the full sun.

However, another great thing about digiscoping is that you can switch from photographing a bird at full zoom to taking a landscape shot in no time (with D-SLR cameras it requires a tedious change of the lens):


On Friday I visited the grassland near my Uni again and to my dismay there were two trucks mowing the grass! Not only was I disappointed but several birds were flying around in total shock that their territories and nests being destroyed with nothing that they can do. There's no real reason why they need to mow this area because no one uses it except for birders!


In some muddy areas there was evidence of some wading birds. The big tracks may be an Egret or Watercock and the smaller ones could be a Snipe: