If you go Tj Piai, there is a long and straight cyclist concrete pavement on your right before the main building, The wooden observation tower is located about 200m on your left. There are some facilities for campers and children (obstacle course) built on the left sides of the pavement (before the tower).
The SB Wookpeckers are tame (for my case here though) and perch quietly at low level so you are likely to miss them if you are an unobservant birder like me. :)
The SBWs were seen at a swampy area near and opp the Tower. They must be the greatest portait models among all the woodpeckers I have shot. Hopping around slowly and each time it would perch motionlessly for mins, a perfect situation for a low speed MLU shot.
Two very important things to bear in mind if you visit Tj Piai!
1) Bring along insect spray or at least apply some to your exposed skin because the mosquitoes come in big numbers!
2) DO NOT carry quick bites or carry bag with tit-bits/food inside. These monkeys are everywhere and they do look tame and cute. But should one of them charge to snatch your food, all the rest would act the same. In one of the incidence we had last year, about 30 monkeys were charging at us in the lobby from all direction because of London Rolls in our pockets!!
In 2nd incidence I was alone, I left my original Nikon lens pouch near my Tenba bag on the ground, within mins it was snatched away and lucky for me that a quick chase with the tripod forced them to throw back the cover back to me!! :)
Yeap, I still can recognize the pathetic look of these two kids, they were the ones who snatched my Nikon lens pouch! Arrr....
Beautiful shot of the Woodie, Paul.
ReplyDeleteThanks for viewing, Wong! :)
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