After an enjoyable morning at LNEC yesterday I was there 2 hours earlier today in the hope of finding some early birds. I need not have bothered. The dull conditions were not conducive to photography and the early birds had seemingly already got the worm and gone back to bed. A few other photographers were wandering disconsolately around but none had been daft enough to bring an 800mm lens. Except me. Heav-y!
A principle I follow a lot is to pick a spot and wait for the birds to come to me. Well it did not work today. I observed some interesting behaviour by a Tailorbird though. The chap clearly wanted a morning bath. In the absence of anything better the bird simply started rolling itself on a banana leaf that still retained some early morning moisture. Hardly a bird bath but better than nothing and fascinating to watch.
A thrush teased me by showing briefly but then ducking out of sight never to reappear. All I saw was some brick orange underparts. I would guess Brown thrush but it would never make any list. Too brief a glimpse. The Olive-backed pipits did show reasonably well but the images lack any nice lighting or soft background to make them worth preserving.
A wander around left me somewhat hacked off so I walked back to a small hillside where there are some benches. I plonked myself down and oooooh? What’s that? More ah than oooh as it turned out – Asian Brown Flycatcher. Not terribly exciting. And then a flash of blue over my head and suddenly I am grabbing the camera and desperately hoping the bird is going to show well. A truly radiant Verditer flycatcher, Eumyias thalassina. Electric blue. Oh yes! This is more like it.
Here is the full frame and then a crop to show it off a little better:
Just as I was settling down again a Black-naped monarch shot into the tree but deeper in. Not photographable even though I could see it through my binoculars. A female. Always obscured by branches it hardly stayed two minutes before flying away towards the car park. My final bird was a Blyth’s Leaf Warbler, Phylloscopus reguloides. So not bad as it turned out. If I had followed by 10 o’clock urge to head off for a coffee I would have missed all three flycatchers and that would not have been good.
Just for fun, here is the supporting cast:
Asian Brown Flycatcher, Muscicapa dauurica
The bathing beauty, Common Tailorbird, Orthotomus sutorius
And a brace of OBP shots to finish. Anthus hodgsoni.
That’s the lot for today. I wish you all a very good weekend.
All downhill from here 
Wow! The blue flycatcher and the bird on the leaf (I forgot its name) are really good. Shutter speed was fast enough to show the feathers of the right wing. I like that a lot. These are all excellent.
Thank you Yvonne. The flycatcher is a favourite of mine.
Excellent shots of these cuties!
A fine catch for the day, Andrew. The star of stars is a star indeed. What a beauty. 🙂 The supporting cast is a fair bit of fun as well.
Thanks Steve. Hollywood beckons perhaps?
A fine “star” and supporting cast…we’ve got to keep getting out there and making things happen.