Lifer for a beginner
Wednesday, May 31, 2006
Last Monday, I wanted to get a shot of the large-tailed nightjar on daytime and since Zuraida (a beginner in bird watching and a staff of Taman Wetland Putrajaya) was around the park. I asked her to come along to look for the nightjar. I know she was very excited to see a nightjar 2 months ago when I showed it to a group of local bird watchers. I was so well-prepared with my equipment - I've got my scope, nikon cp4500, DSLR Nikon D70 and the tripod all ready for the assignment. We came to a spot where the chances of seeing the nightjar in daytime is almost 90%. Okay, even when the time was 4pm I can still say there is still 90% chance of seeing at least 1 nightjar. We were scanning through the area with the scope and naked eyes. Nothing. After a while, I decided to informed Zuraida that there is another spot to see this nocturnal bird, but we need to climb up a slope. Before we wanted to climb up, 3 nightjars flew up to the sky from the ground near our path. A beautiful sight indeed!!! No, that's not a lifer for her. So we continued our climb and reach the spot with lots of bamboos. I have spotted the nightjars 2 weeks ago. We went to the exact spot....nothing *sigh*. Move around the area and still nothing. Then, we decided to go down the slope and continue to look for other birds. Got into my car and was driving along the wetland cells. We were seeing swamphens, bee-eaters, munias, baya weavers, and many more. "hey! wait a minute....there's a raptor perching far away" I told Zuraida. I stopped the car and look through my scope - a changeable hawk-eagle, now THIS is the lifer for her. She had not seen this bird before except from the book and also the photos that I took. She was so happy and excited. I let her use my budget digiscoping equipment and taught her the basic of using the equipment. She took some pix and video as well. But we had to cut short the tour when we heard another staff requesting her to attend to a school group for a guided tour in the wetland. So, we will be looking for more birds in our future outings. Stay tune....
posted by wengchun @ 8:28 AM,
