Finally the Rufous one

Once upon a time I was told that it was easy to spot the Rufous Woodpecker in the taman but till today, I have yet to see any.  When I spotted this immature in Bukit Kiara, and shortly what looked like its female parent, I was simply thrilled, finally the monkey's off my back! (although not quite because I want to sight them again in the taman)
It was only with regret that poor lighting did not do justice to these Woodpeckers for these birds have such rich rufous plumage with blackish bars on both the back and belly.
This immature is a male going by the small red patch on the cheek which does not appear on female.  It was its continuous knocking on the dead tree trunk that attracted my attention.

And then it started to preen.  The poor lighting, and distance which meant that I had to shoot between dense foliage was no deterrent as this was practically my first close encounter with this species.

This was possibly the best shot as it seemed to pose in all its glory but guessed it couldn't stand the blazing sun for long as it eventually slid down.

The adult, that looked like female as I was unable to detect any red cheek patch, flew in and stood watch for awhile before it flew off leaving the young one to continue knocking and clinging to its perch.

I guess only an immature could do that, clinging on to this one spot for almost an hour, practically idle, merely scanning its surrounding.
Here's truly hoping that these birds will turn up again in the taman.

Minivets wave

A beautiful morning is when the taman is filled with bird whistles, coos, even shrieks.  To add to this, this beautiful morning saw a bird wave of a few Ashy Minivets and on re-examining shots I took was thrilled that I managed to get both the male and female.

Male (left) and Female (rightt)

A male up-close

Male

Was lucky to get the female from better angles, despite a teeny block of a branch across the bird ( a no-no for birder-photographers though!)

Female

It's always a bonus when one captured an image of a bird with a catch, and this female had caught a larvae.

The very same female with a 'sexy' pose, I must add.

The Kite needs a drink

It was a gorgeous morning after the rain and to top it off, observing this Brahminy Kite was the unexpected 'frosting'.
When I saw it fly down to perch at almost eye-level, I guessed it was probably heading for the pond just below it.

It was extremely cautious even as it looked longingly down at the pond, constantly scanning the surrounding.

And so there it flew, down to the other side of the pond.

And ever cautious as before, it continuously kept a look-out.

Yup, the water was calling, and tempting.

But not yet, still it was cautious, yes, had to, even for a big bird like the Kite.  And this went on for almost a minute, looking at the time record on my images.

By now, I was rather worried that if it hesitated any longer, I might lose my opportunity to record it because my camera battery power was already low, as I was hoping to do a video record as well.
Oh good, I thought it couldn't stand it any longer.

But no, still looked wary, or perhaps, it was too far for it to reach the water from its perch.

Off it flew up again without drinking.

It spotted me suddenly and I managed to put down my camera in time, hoping I had not given away my presence.  What luck for me, a window of opportunity, whilst it perched and surveyed the surrounding again it enabled me a quick change of battery, phew!

Then to my shock, it flew down right to where I was, hardly five feet away, obviously unaware I was there, its back was to me!
That was truly amusing considering that it was so wary before of some other presence yet it flew straight down to where I stood, and me trying to be rock-still in case I alerted it to my presence.
Gosh, talk about irony!

And off it walked down the more grassy part of this pond, perhaps why it chose this part because of the tall grass that could partially shield it.

And then it proceeded to drink whilst still on guard.

What a show, and how lucky I felt, instantly feeling grateful for this taman, at the same time overwhelmed with dread at the thought of what the taman would become should the proposed monstrous building project take place.

Photogenic Egret

One of my favourite images of the Little Egret is that of its milky white plumage against the copper red of the river water, not easy to capture simply because of the bird's ultra sensitivity to human presence.  On this occasion, the thick bushes and shrubs did provide the needed camouflage.  However, these bushes were cleared the very next day (new 'broom' contractor 'sweeps' cleanest I suppose!) so it would be pretty difficult now to approach any winged ones for close shots, at least presently until the bushes grow again, in this part of the river.

Squirrels' Awww moment

When I saw the two squirrels up high, I didn't think much about it.  In fact, I've made my feelings quite clear about the one-too-many squirrels in the taman that could be quite annoying because these little creatures do get in the way when I'm trying to focus on a winged one, and poof! the winged one would flee before I could even take a shot because of the other one's approach.
But when I viewed the shots I took of these two, taken simply because it's pretty difficult to get two in one frame, I have to say that I just went Awww.

What heart would not melt at the sight of this!

And this is the little cutey away from the adult.

Looked like more cooing going on up there.

Another 'manja' moment.

And then off they went.