Lunch time for the Osprey

This bird was sitting on a pole a long way out from the hide on the mudflats at Mai Po. However with the new monster lens and the help of a couple of tele-converters I got some pretty reasonable shots. He (or she) ate the fish from nose to tail, or should that be mouth as fish don't have noses as such, do they? "Noses run in our family", as my dear old dad used to say. And it was a fair chunk of meat, too. I took maybe 50 shots and deleted most but this was a definite "keeper".




The second bird is a Black drongo. Astute readers, if there be plural visitors to the site, may recall the Hair-crested drongo from Sai Kung. This is a close relative, also snapped at Mai Po - a rather ritzy thing he is too. Let's hear it for the drongo family.

A treat for you

This huge moth was outside the house today. I have not seen the species before and was suitably impressed.

The Pom Pom bulletin remains worrying. She has good days and bad days but she isn't gaining enough weight (unlike me) and continues to have the sniffles. The vet says she does indeed have canine distemper. Mrs. Ha is a saint, spending hours with her coaxing her to eat. I am on the Lehman's diet at present. The pounds are dropping off.

The Prisoner

I think it is fair to say Pom Pom is on the mend. She bit my toe and then chewed a pair of Zegna shorts (which I happened to wearing at the time). Go to Jail, do not pass Go, do not collect any dog biscuits.....

Recovery

Pom Pom is making reasonable progress I am delighted to say. A second trip to the vet for her today and she was pronounced "much improved". A bit like my maths teacher might have said on rare occasions.

At 5am today I headed off to Mai Po and produced a few decent images from a poor morning tide.







The frontier gate was opened at 6.15am but even though high tide was not until 8.30 the mudflats were already almost covered. Barely 10 minutes of photography with the new lens. I waited for the tide to fall and when it did the birds flew too far out so not a single photo on the falling tide. So this collection is just some shots of perched or fly-past birds taken whilst I was killing time.

Everybody should recognise the beautiful Common kingfisher, then the "punk" Striated or Little green heron, a Whimbrel, an elegant Marsh sandpiper with a Redshank in the background, and finally a Black-winged stilt. It can't really be a waste of time when you see birds like this now, can it?

Ups and downs

Poor Pom Pom is unwell and refusing to eat so we are taking her to the vet later this afternoon. She is so small and vulnerable we are quite worried. On the plus side my lens arrived yesterday. I hope I can find time to try it out soon. I grabbed a couple of hours in the park yesterday and here are some results.






Frogs - don't you just love them - this is Polypedates megacephalus. More boringly known as the Brown Tree Frog.