ABC Wednesday: B is for Black

It was pouring rain last Saturday, Grace left on Friday to Hong Kong to visit her parents, I was stuck at home totally bored.  I took out a bird photography book of Taiwan and carefully planned a trip to visit four sites, very ambitious if only it would not rain on Sunday.

I woke up early on Sunday morning and was out by 7 AM.  The first place that I visited was the experimental farm of National Taiwan University.  It used to be a military base before transferred to the Agricultural Department of the University, it covers 30 acres.  On the express way, it is only 20 minutes from home.  It is an oasis at the edge of Taipei City limit.

Well, here is a Black duck!

If you cannot see it is really Black, here is a closeup.

The major attraction in the farm in the summer, is the lotus pond.

The school also planted a lot butterfly attracting plants.  Here is one very similar to the American Monarch butterfly.  You can see more detail of this butterfly at our previous post here.

This one is very common in Taiwan, migrating back and force on the island according to the season.  You can see more pictures of this kind of butterfly at our previous post here.  Now, because climate change, the northern part of Taiwan is as hot as the southern part of Taiwan.  I wonder why they bother.  I hope you do see the Black on these two butterflies.

I finished the Experimental Farm before 9 AM and headed to the northern port city of Keelung.  It is a small deep water port and an important harbor throughout Taiwan's history.  Part of the Japanese attack naval force to Pearl Harbor during the WWII, came out from Keelung.  The old Chinese name of Keelung means "Chicken Cage".  It now has been changed to a more presentable name, although it still sounds the same.

The book said, the harbor is a good practicing ground for the beginning bird photographer.  I was really surprise to see what it says was true.  Here is a Black-crowned Night Heron (夜鷺), Nycticorax nycticorax.

I have posted images of it in my previous post here.  But they were taken in the city park, where they are very tame.

But at Keelung Harbor, I was at their natural hunting ground.

I could see them in live-action, skimming the water surface hunting for their pray.

Landing elegantly on the surface of the water!

Then off it went with the pray in its beak, all happened in a split of second.

The other excitement was to watch the Black Kite (黑鳶), Milvus migrans in action.

It circulated high above the harbor then dived down to catch its pray in the water, a sight to be seen.

I finished photographing the heron and the kite by 10:30 AM and was ready to take the Expressway 62, head east for my next destination.  See you at Skywatch Friday!!

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ABC Wednesday: I is for Caught In-Action

Unlike movie/motion picture, photography is stationary. If we can convey an action in a photograph then it becomes much more interesting. I was fortunate to be at the right place and right time when this Little Egret took flight. I caught the bird In-action with a sequence of shots then just simply stitched them together in the Photoshop.

This Blue Tiger Butterfly is very common in Taiwan. Usually, we can hardly even follow the butterfly with a camera, let alone to catch it In-action in the mid-air. For this occasion, I just caugt this one flapping its wings almost at a stationary position in the mid air. I pushed the ISO of my D700 to 6400 which allowed me to use the speed at 1/640 and took a sequence of shots. The speed froze and gave a clear picture of the body but with some motion blur of the wings. I then pasted three sequential shots together in the Photoshop.

This Common Rose Butterfly (紅紋鳳蝶), pachliopta aristolochiae interposita with its beautiful wings and amazing red body, just kept on flapping its wings on top of a flower. Actually, we do not want it to be stationary. When they are stationary, they either completely expand their wings or close them which make less interesting photographs. I set the ISO of the D700 at 2500 and took the picture at speed of 1/250. There is a motion blur of the wings which I like it better than the picture taken at 1/1000 which stopped the movement of the wings completely.

Well, this Rice Paper Butterfly (大白班蝶), Idea leuconoe clara was frozen In-action in the mid-air. I took the picture at ISO2500; f/8.0; 1/1000. I did not realize that I succeeded in taking the picture till I came home and uploaded the pictures on the computer.

The picture of the Little Egret taken-off was photographed in Taipei Botanical Park three weeks ago. The butterfly pictures were taken at the Insect Museum of National Chiayi University when we went to Chiayi for the Taiwan Lantern Festival on February 28.

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