Avian Nesting December 2021 - Little Cormorant Nesting Colony

The Little Cormorant are  permanent resident in many location in Malaysia They are staying for good and nesting in peninsula Malaysia Here in Kampar - Malim Nawar ponds they are nesting amongst the egrets 

I am shooting front the main road about 150-200 ft away. I was using my Nikon P1000 so the resolution and sharpness is not that good.

 

Avian Sighting December 2021- Black-shouldered Kite mating

 Pathetic shot with my Olympus OM-D Mark3 with Canon  400mm DO L lens. It was about 9.30 am along the main track that we capture the action of the pair copulating unabashly about 120 ft out in the open padifield in Langkap. The event lasted about half a minute before the male leaved her alone

Avian Sighting December 2021 - Coucals

I manage to see the Common Lesser and Greater Coucal at the same stretch of a canal in the Padi Field of Chui Chak. Well you will be shooting from a close distance of 25-30 ft. Those who are having 600mm tele-lens will be having potrait shots lol.

In central Peninsula we cannot get the Short-toed Coucal It can be seen in the southern part ie Panti Johor.

Lesser Coucal

 

Greater Coucal

Reed Warbler 3/4 - Manchurian Reed Warbler (Lifer 548/688)

Manchurian Reed Warbler

 A lifer  in Chui Chak Langkap Perak to end 2021 bird year.

This is a medium size Warbler (upto 14.5cm) compared to the larger local Oriental coming in at 20cm long. It is a shy bird, and poorly understood; this Reed Warbler breeds in the remote marshlands of northeastern China and Russia and winters in drier, grassier habitats in Southeast Asia. I manage to see the Rusty-rumped Warbler, Oriental RW and the Black-browed at the same  stretch of wild hedge. What a crowd.

Warm brown overall with a clean-cut whitish brow and throat; brow extends well behind the eye. Manchurian’s brow broadens behind the eye instead. 

Oriental Reed Warbler is much larger, with a weaker head pattern. Rambling jumbled song consists of high-pitched warbling notes and sharp clicks and rattles; The Manchurian has a more pleasant-sounding than that of Oriental Reed Warbler.

Black-browed Reed Warbler

Oriental Reed Warbler

 

Rusty-rumped Warbler;I was hoping it was the Lanceolated

Bulbul 1/26 Ochraceous Bulbul - Lost posting / listing

 

Avian Report Bukit Tinggi October 2021 - Birding to restart with lifting of MCO for interstate travel in Peninsula Malaysia 11 October 2021

 My Fuji XT-2 was returned from YL without any repair. The nearest Fuji Service Centre is now based in Singapore and it cost a bomb just to repair my camera  flash mount of about RM1000. So I say forget it and please return it as I can live with it without flash. It still function but in bright background open field birding; my picture exposure can go hairwire with burnout pictures I do not really know why. 

You better think twice if you want to invest in Fuji gear as there is no local service centre in KL anymore. Maybe I will be moving to Olympus since I was given a OM-D1 Mk3  as a parting gift. But still waiting for an used 300mm f4 lens. 

Anyway  got back my camera in time for a half day recce to Bukit Tinggi  Pahang just to restart birding  again. I am now retired and I can bird during the weekdays without the tourist crowd. With less crowd in Bukit Tinggi there were many birds to see. 

The highlight of trip is the close encounter of a family of Dusky Broadbills.  I was shooting handheld at 1/60s and did  not expect any sharp photos.

On the way up I met Wendy and her Penang-kia friend Nancy and Alex who were  shooting this Treeswift at close range of 30-40 ft. Rarely you can shoot them so close. There are plenty of them along the road side.

The female  Orange-breasted Trogon pay us a visit but the female was too shy to come close as we were rather rowdy down at the trail. 

At the Ayam port I was hoping to see some migrants but no thrush, robin, flycatcher or any rarity in the month of second half of October. The resident peacock pheasant, white-rumped sharma,  a skirtish rufous-browed flycatcher & Ochraceous bulbul were all we saw there. Surprisingly they are very shy the whole morning coming out only once or twice.

Avian Gear Review April 2021 - Viltrox Mount Adapter EF-FX2 M2 - Rating 2.5/5 stars

 My fuji XT-2 apparently YL have to send down to Singapore for service. Malaysia no longer have the facility. WTF. Since I cannot wait any longer I bought myself an adapter/converter to use my old faithful EF400mm F4 DO lens on my new Olympus OMD-1 MarkIII. As I cannot justify the crazy price of the Metabones (RM2,500), I opt for the second-best the Viltrox M2 at a price of RM500. 

The focus distance is reduced by a multiple of 0.71 when my lens is mounted so my EF400mm becomes 380mm and enhances to F2.8. So if I need a better distance I have to invest in a teleconverter 1.4 

The Pied Fantail shot at 25-30ft was rather soft and need some post sharpening and enhancement. Even then no clear feathers to see.

So far in the real world bird photography using the Viltrox adapter, my general review of the combination of my above set up is a 2.5/5  stars rating.  I did not expect so poor resolution from the combination. Contrast was not there. Colors was just lame.  Focusing speed was not tact fast enough with plenty of hunting when shooting in low light condition.

Even stepping down to F8 or F9 I still cannot get much resolution out of my OMD-1 mark III. ISO was kept low of Asa800. So my rating is a poor rating for the moment until I do further test with other lenses. 

Meanwhile WK Liew have more success with his EF 500mmf4 on his Fuji X-T4 using a Fringer adapter. Maybe it is Olympus smaller sensor or my DO lens is not sharp enuf ...... I got to try out his lens to make sure I am wrong.

As a comparison my XF100-400 with my XE2 body (16mp sensor) fair even much better as shown below in term of feather details. Jpeg without post processing. 

Fuji XF100-400mm with XE-2 body.

Latest - Apparently the Viltrox is only compatible for certain Ef lenses  and my EF 400mm DO L lens is not one of them. My fault for not bringing along my lens to test but used another lens from YL.  So it is very important to do testing with the actual lens you want to use. I hope Viltrox can come out with the update of the firmware asap if not my $$$ is burned.