Birding With Naturetrek Part 2

26th - 29th August 2010

Little Spiderhunter

One of the bird seen daily visiting the red flower that grow near the restaurant at Tabin Wildlife Reserve recently with Naturetrek group from UK led by a good friend of mine, Chris Kehoe. Had a great time birding with them especially along the mud volcano trail with key species such as Large Green Pigeon, Thick-billed Green Pigeon (my 2nd sighting), heard both Banded and Giant Pitta too !

They are currently at Mt. Kinabalu for their extension tour until this Saturday. I will be staying for few nights at the mountain from the 1st - 3rd September with Ck and a birder from England :)

Digiscoped with Nikon Fieldscope EDG85 via Nikon FSA-L2 DSLR Photo Adapter on Nikon D300s

Doing listing at lunchtime -Courtesy of Hamit Suban

Bornean endemic of Yellow-rumped Flowerpecker

White-crowned Shama, one of the commonest endemic found around the lodge area

Uncommon resident in Borneo, the Grey-cheeked Bulbul

Juvenile Bushy-crested Hornbill

My favorite Blue-throated Bee-Eater

Tabin is one of the best place in Borneo to see flocks of Large Green Pigeon !

Green Imperial Pigeon is plenty at Tabin Wildlife Reserve

Yellow-bellied Bulbul

Crimson Sunbird seen at Malaysia's national flower, the Hibiscus

Pig-tailed Macaque

Flying Gecko

More info about Tabin Wildlife Reserve, check their website at http://www.tabinwildlife.com.my/

Happy birding !

British Bird Fair 2010

18th - 22th August 2010

Spent nearly a week at Rutland Water for the annual British Bird Festival which attracted around 20 thousands visitors during the 3 days events. Met with few Birdforum and Oriental Bird Club members plus got few new birds for my world list too :)

I'm grateful to Noredah from Sabah Tourism Board for the trip. Hope to work with Sabah Tourism again in the future promoting birdwatching activities in Sabah, Borneo.

• Cormorant
• Little Egret
• Grey Heron
• Greylag Goose
• Canada Goose
• Egyptian Goose
• Mallard
• Shoveler
• Tufted Duck
• Red Kite
• Moorhen
• Coot
• Lapwing
• Black-headed Gull
• Rock Dove
• Stock Dove
• Collared Dove
• Great Spotted Woodpecker
• Barn Swallow
• Pied Wagtail
• Robin
• Blackbird
• Great Tit
• Blue Tit
• Magpie
• Crow
• Starling
• House Sparrow
• Tree Sparrow
• Goldfinch
• Greenfinch
• Chaffinch

Digiscoped with Nikon Fieldscope EDG85 via FSA-L2 DSLR Photo Adapter on Nikon D300s

Stayed at Hampton By Hilton hotel, Corby about 20 minutes drive to the fair

Hay field

One of the nice scenery at Rutland

The booth won as the Best Stand Awards 2010 under Tourism category !

The winning booth at Marquee 5, Stand No. 26 :)

Visitors waiting at the entrance at Day 1

Together with Oriental Bird Club committee

Busy day throughout the fair

At Sabah Tourism Booth

Terry from SRB-Griturn company specialized in camera accessories and digiscoping adapters

From left to right, Yohei Ohishi (Assistant Manager for International Sales & Marketing Department), Masaaki Ojima (President of Nikon Vision Co. Japan), Naoto Yoshida (Manager Nikon Sport Optics Europe) & Oshamu Ishizuka (K&L Advertising, The Netherland)

Nikon UK showcasing the latest equipments for birding and bird photography

Marquee selling books and bird feeders

Catering area

House Sparrow

Blue Tit

Starling

Wood Pigeon

Blackbird

Eyebrowed Jungle Flycatcher (Rhinomyias gularis)

14th August 2010

One of the resident endemic species in Borneo and usually solitary along the rivers found at Kinabalu National Park. Got this juvenile feeding at the Liwagu Restaurant while birding with Davin Gibbons at the mountain yesterday.

Digiscoped with Nikon Fieldscope EDG85 via FSA-L2 DSLR Photo Adapter on Nikon D300s

Choose 720 HD for better view

Happy birding !

Birding With Y Bird Japan Group Part I

5th - 9th August 2010

Below is some of the birds were seen during my recent trip with these group led by Ken Tanaka who acted as a translator, started at Kinabalu National Park and ended at Tg. Aru Beach.

Digiscoped with Nikon Fieldscope EDG85 via FSA-L2 DSLR Photo Adapter on Nikon D300s

At Tuaran paddy field

After the walked at Silau-silau Trail searching for the Whitehead's Trogon & Broadbill

Endemic Mt. Blackeye only found above 1800m asl but occasionally found around 1500mm asl at the Liwagu Restaurant

One of the skulker found at Kinabalu National Park, the Sunda Bush Warbler

Bornean subspecies, Ashy Drongo

Common endemic which favored Medinilla fruits that grow wild at the mountain, Black-sided Flowerpecker

Happy birding everyone.

Great Frigatebird (Fregeta Minor)

28th July 2010

I have seen 3 species of Frigatebird at Mantanani Island last April 2010 but only managed to digiscoped the Lesser Frigatebird. On my recent visit to Semporna town about 537 km from Kota Kinabalu, did not expect to see these rare bird circling above the Dragon Inn Floating Hotel where I was staying for few days.

Digiscoped with Nikon Fieldscope EDG85 via FSA-L2 adapter on Nikon D300s.

Thanks to my best friend TS Wong for pointing out the identification of this bird via Facebook yesterday :)

Happy birding !

Nikon Fieldscope EDG85 & FSA-L2 Adapter

19th July 2010

Busy with my new born baby, I took the opportunity to test my new scope, the Nikon Fieldscope EDG85, Digital Photo Adapter FSA-L2 for my Nikon D300s and the EDG 20-60x zoom eyepiece.

Shooting range with DX format is from 750mm - 2625mm (500mm - 1750mm in FX format) on f5.9-f22 at the same time I could use my zoom eyepiece for normal viewing. Changing between zoom eyepiece with the FSA-L2 adapter took me less than 5 seconds because it uses bayonet type mount rather than thread in the Nikon Fieldscope ED82 and shooting is done in manual focus. This is very important considering the unpredictable behavior of birds. Changing eyepiece and adapter on the field is much faster and convenient.

The Field Of View (FOV) of the new EDG 20-60x zoom eyepiece is considered the widest in the market available for its range in magnification compared with the older MC II 25-75x zoom eyepiece. Viewing birds, other wildlife, moon and stars as well for security purposes is a pleasure with the eyepiece offering edge-to-edge sharpness hence the concept of EDG by Nikon.

I have been digiscoping with compact cameras for few years with Nikon Fieldscope ED82 plus the FSA-L1 adapter on Nikon D300s. But with the introduction of Nikon Fieldscope EDG and the elusive FSA-L2 adapter, my picture quality has improved a lot and Nikon has taken Digiscoping into higher level for birdwatchers. It means that, I could shoot in faster frame per second with my Nikon D300s and also recording videos of birds and wildlife in HD format.

For more info regarding Nikon EDG products, check their website at http://nikon.com/products/sportoptics/edg/top/index.htm

Intensive tests done by Italian team :

• http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&sl=it&tl=en&u=http://www.nital.it/experience/edg-reflex.php&prev=_t&rurl=translate.google.com.my&twu=1&usg=ALkJrhiO-Krr6njO0ZUAV3eq5vn3wVKrQw#06
  
  
• http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&sl=it&tl=en&u=http://www.nital.it/experience/edg-coolpix.php&prev=_t&rurl=translate.google.com.my&twu=1&usg=ALkJrhgUqC5TO6kftYXsD23relR0YuU-nA#05
  

Nikon Fieldscope EDG85 with FSA-L2 Digital Photo Adapter connected on Nikon D300s and external microphone via C-shaped bracket (top photo) attached on the tripod mount.

Digiscoped photos on 500mm processed with Nikon Capture NX2.

Wandering Whistling Duck in flight

Great Egret

Stork-billed Kingfisher considered the biggest Kingfisher in Borneo

White-breasted Wood-Swallow, one of my favorite bird

Yellow-vented Bulbul

Scaly-breasted Munia

Black-headed Munia juvenile

Black-headed Munia

Dusky Munia, common Bornean endemic found at the paddy field

Eurasian Tree Sparrow

Asian Glossy Starling

Happy birding and my birding tours will start by next month with Japanese group at Kinabalu National Park.