Changeable Hawk Eagle - Final Episode!

I was busy with some family matters in the last few weeks and a friend called me up and asked "So how was the shoot of the Royal Wedding in London"! Nah, he was being sarcastic and before i could explain he screamed on top of his voice "I want the pics of the CHE's chick NOW!" LOL!

OK, I didn't get the fledging shots because access to the plantation was closed due to laying of the tarmac for two weeks! The chick finally fledged on the 15th, which means 67days since it was born. It had stayed around the plantation for three days before it flew off to somewhere else, according to the owner, who was able to access his plantation via a dirt road only passable with hardcore 4WD vehicle. I should have bought a Land Rover for birding! :(

And these were shot earlier when i decided to get some close up shots with my Panasonic LX5 PnS camera. 

 "WOW! Southerwings is here!!!"

 " OMG! Comon in, I wanted to hear all about you!!

 "Have a seat here and let me get you some icy lizard juice"

 "Now where did mom hide the blender and delicious lizard again?"

 "But but I am Black, I looked like a white that is all..."

'Paul , you don't believe in me, do you?"

OK, back to London for the Royal Wedding and will post more soon....

Changeable Hawk Eagle nesting Part llI !

Three weeks of acquaintance with the CHE has made the adult dark morph more approachable  and friendly towards my presence. Now I am able to walk around the nesting site and shoot right below the perch without scaring it off. The CHE probably think I am the new owner of this durian plantation!


The dark morph's daily routine was the same on all my observations so far, perch on the nest or near the nest silently for hours between 3-7pm, by 6-7pm, it would call for the white morph to return.  I was touched to see on a few occasion that  when the harsh sunlight is hitting the chick in the afternoon, the adult would shelter the chicks for as long as the sunlight is out. 

Feeding so far is only by the dark morph. One interesting note is the carrion is always being carried to a nearby tree, tear into pieces before bringing back to feed both the chick and itself. Perhaps the adult do not want the blood to stain the nesting, or it needs a solid branch to tear the body apart hence without risking the structural rigidity of the nest.  

A short video recorded on the 30th of March

The pale morph on the other hand is still behaving cautious, and every time it shows up in late afternoon , I have to retreat to the hut/shelter or else it won't perch on the nest.  I begin to wonder now which morph is the male and which is the female On the physical size, the dark morph is slightly larger than the pale morph.

And the chick looked more like the serious Nikon-black now than the previously chubby Canon-white! So a welcoming sight of course! :)

Pic abv (taken with PnS on 90mm zoom) show my close range with the adult dark morph, ~25' away. 


And below are the pic taken in my last trip, the adult, surprisingly, was 10' below the nesting for almost two hours. 

There are more species occur in this 10-acre durian plantation than i had previously thought. And finally i managed to get the shot of the Banded Bay Cuckoo (lifer)! There are 4 of them here but unfortunately opportunity for a close and low perch shot was not given. Extremely responsive to play calls in the late afternoon or early morning. 


And last week, an experienced birder joined me for the shoot, said he heard the calls of Plaintiff Cuckoo! Now I hate him for telling me that because it looks like I will be busy visiting here after the fledging of the CHE's chick


And I ought to come often because two pairs of the White-collared Kingfishers have started nesting, at least 2 Spotted Wood Owl were seen in the last three weeks, ok I need better shot of the Black-naped Oriole......... 

Banded Bay Cuckoo

Asian Brown Flycatcher, 

 Collared Kingfisher

 Common Iora

 Pied Thriller

 Sunda Woodpecker

Zebra Dove

White-breasted Waterhen

female Pink-necked Green Pigeon

And I need help for this species, taken last week in the durian plantation.  I am still unable to ID from my sources. It was seen twice near the stream, perch like a flycatcher. and so far I have never heard its calls. 


Any suggestion will be appreciated!

The owner keeps an 'army' of 8 dogs here help keep the monkeys and uninvited guests away. This puppy was named "Southern Wings" by me, because he is the only dog that would stay by my side for hours..

Changeable Hawk Eagle nesting Part ll !

For some good reasons, I am holding back the posting of the closeup shots of Changeable Hawk Eagle's chick. It is growing real fast and fledging soon, and here are few shots taken last week. I was quite shocked to see its size almost as big as the adult just within a few days. 

And according to another worker I spoke to yesterday, the correct birth of the chick was 8th Feb (almost the same as mine!!), so if the 60-75days is the norm for fledging (according to the info i gathered in google), this chick could leave as early as next weekend!  

All pics (cropped 60%) above were taken with Kenko TC2 

on the 500mmF4, which gives an EFL of 1000mm on

 my DSLR.

I measured the height of the nesting, and it's sitting at 43' from the the ground and a quick survey of the surrounding i realized indeed the nesting was build close to a stream, in line with some of the findings for CHE's nesting. Other similar finding was fresh leaves were laid on the nest, probably to keep the chick warm at night as well as cushioning effect.

The stream is right behind the row of banana trees, as shown in the dotted line.

Feeding was mostly by the pale morph and the dark morph spent much of the time guarding its chick nearby. 

One interesting observation was if the female adult did not return by dawn, the male adult would make repetitive loud calls presumably yelling for her return. And if the female did not return with food, the male would hunt for lizard or rat nearby to feed for itself as well as the chick.  

I have no where to tell which is the male/female so I am assuming the pale morph as the female and the dark morph as the male here, unless someone tell me otherwise.

There are quite a few species occurred here such as the Pink-necked Pigeon, Black-naped Oriole, White-collared Kingfisher as well as Brown Shrike, besides the usual Mynah, Dove and Crows. But the biggest surprise was the Banded Bay Cuckoo. Its calls were heard frequently around 6pm but unfortunately I have not sighted it yet.

So when I heard the BB Cuckoo calls on the 26th, I was excited and immediately scanned the whole 10acres of durian plantation on foot but instead I saw an Indian Cuckoo!!

It looks like I will be visiting this durian plantation more often soon that I had thought earlier!

Indian Cuckoo (Cuculus micropterus)

Sewah India * 四声杜鹃 * セグロカッコウ * Bắt cô trói cột

 Coucou à ailes courtes *  kukucka krátkokrídla * Индийская кукушка * นกคัคคูพันธุ์อินเดีย

Birds And flora Photography Contest 2011

Thanks to the heads up by my friend, the competition is valid until 30th April.

And here is the link for official webpage;

http://www.rwgenting.com/en/special/2011/photo_competition/default.htm

Changeable Hawk Eagle nesting! :))))

It was the subject of "Who owns the best tasting durian farm in Kulai?" that lead me to the Changeable Hawk Eagle's nesting! After poking my nose for two days eventually I came to know, by words of mouth, that the location was just 10km from my home! 

According to the plantation's owner Mr.XXX, the chick was born 15days ago and one "black eagle" was seen by him building the nest two months earlier, which mostly make up of sticks nicely packed on a Y-branch just 40' above ground, on a durian tree of course!!  So you could imagine the grin on my face and my excitement because both the CHE nestings I had observed last year in Panti were 90% blocked by the thick foliage of Panti hence resulted no useable shots.

Changeable Hawk Eagle (Spizaetus cirrhatus)

Helang Hindek * カワリクマタカ * Diều đầu nâu

Aigle huppé * orol viactvarý * Изменчивый Орел * เหยี่ยวต่างสี

Haubenadler * Águila-azor Variable * Lysbuget Høgeørn

This was shot just 60' away from the 40' ht nesting, so do your 

calculation on the dist! 

Although I could go nearer but the nesting is deep-dished, hence

the situation forces me back up the slope for a clearer view of 

the chick.

Only the Pale morph (presumably the female) was seen feeding with a lizard once out of the three days' observation all done between 3-7pm. And the dark morph, presumably the male, always seen perched 30 feet away safeguarding its chick. Crows that came too near to the nesting tree were fiercely chase away.

I spent much time walking around the nesting tree just to see how the CHEs react to my presence and obviously, both the adults were more worried of other birds of prey than an old man looking for some fallen durians below. They must have got used to the workers here I guess.

The two previous nesting sites in Panti did not give me a chance to see both the adults together so I was extremely thrilled this time when both perched on the same branch for more than an hour for me, the only regret was the strong backlight resulting the imgs with very low contrast, but like i always said, I am not complaining!

And finally, could someone PLEASE teach me how to climb a durian tree! The chick is waiting!! :(

"Paul, are you serious of climbing???"