15 August, 2010

Chick’s Progress 3 : Whiskered Treeswift

14th August 2010, Kemensah, Selangor

We had   heavy thunderstorms and extremely strong winds yesterday. Picked up the morning paper and the headline was ‘ 3 killed  at Ramadhan Bazaar in Jasin, Melaka’  when the temporary structures were carried away by the strong wind-so sad to learn about the tragic loss of lives.

I was anxious to find out how the Treeswifts fared after the thunderstorm. When I arrived at the nest I saw that the tree had sprouted new shoots/ leaves so I couldn’t immediately spot the chick.  A long sigh of relief  when I saw the chick basking and spreading her wings in the early morning sunshine. Phew……

( Previous post of the chick)

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It was day 20 from when the chick was first sighted (25th July 2010). I think she could be  23 days old today. The white head stripes were clearly visible and she now looked like a ‘mini’ whiskered treeswift. My feeling is that the chick could be a ‘ he’.

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Judging by the progress I think the chick should fledge in about a week, I certainly hope so!  I only have until 25th August before going  on a long leave.

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This would make a good Father’s Day card. _DSC0356

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Any suggestions on the names? I was thinking ‘Hakem’ for a male and ‘Esah’ if it’s a female – she’s from Kemensah!

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I caught Dad dozing off a few times and was startled when he was  about to  lose his balance  and fall off the tree!  Raising a young is no easy task, it takes a heavy toll on your body.

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Working those newly developed wing muscles. It wont be long now before those muscles will have to function for real.

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Notes: I didn’t know that I had more ‘reach’ stored in my camera bag than  I had realized. My old Kenko 1.4x TC had some problems with the contacts and I had replaced it with the Nikkor 14EII. It looked ridiculous at first when I tried putting the two TCs together on the 300mm f4 lens but I was surprised that I now have  an 882mm reach ( D90 1.5x crop) with  full  working electronics and autofocus , WoW!. You can do this with Kenko TC since the front glass element does not protrude  and touch the rear elements of the Nikkor TC. Image quality is definitely better than the manual 2x TC which I had  used previously and having the autofocus helps tremendously.

8 comments:

  1. Beautiful photographs. Things are looking good for the little one!

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  2. These shots are very descriptive and beautiful. The chick looks really interesting with that mixture of adult and juvenile feathers.

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  3. what a lovely series of photos and what a handsome bird!

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  4. Glad to see the chick doing so well! Hope to see it fledge soon. Yes, good choice for a name...

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  5. Hi Madi

    Thoroughly enjoying your documentation of this family! Thanks for sharing,

    Dave

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  6. Beautiful shots. Great documentation you have on this bird.

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  7. It's just a superb story you show there Madi that doesn't need accompanying text. Amazing that the nest is till there. Great Work.

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  8. Beautiful pics n story. Really heartwarming. Did you have to climb up a tree to take those pics? The nest looks very high.
    Pauline

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