Trogon Photo Tours

FEBRUARY 2016 - This month's newsletter features images and information about photographing raptors (mostly) in Thailand.  I spent a month with my family there this past October researching locations for bird photography and spending holidays with my family so this month is somewhat of a trip report of that trip. Over the course of the month I photographed 15 species of raptors, a lot of other birds and a few mammals and reptiles.  October is a great month to go to Thailand to photograph raptors because of the extensive raptor migration as well as plenty of resident raptors to photograph. 

Brahminy Kite photographed October 2015 Thale Noi, Thailand.  Canon 5D3 500F4 1/3200 F6.3, iso 500, Av mode, evaluative metering at 0, handheld from boat.  Our first destination for raptors was Thale Noi, the largest lake in Southern Thailand.  I selected it because of the numerous Brahminy Kite which frequent the lake.  In my opinion this is one of the most stunning raptors and a species that I had wanted to get good photographs of a for a long time.  I was not disappointed as there were always a fair number of them around perching on the numerous short tree snags which are in the lake.  I took this image as one took off from it's perch, it was early morning sweet light and against that light sky I didn't need to dial in any negative exposure compensation to hold the whites against the light blue sky. A bit later and the light would have been harsh enough that I would dial in a bit of negative compensation.  Photography on the lake is done from long tail boats.  Besides the resident kites there are a lot of other birds to photograph, most notably there were thousands of Blue-tailed Bee Eaters on the lake as they were migrating through.  In addition there are lots of Purple Herons, Chinese Pond Herons, Little Cormorants, Purple Swamphens, White-winged and Whiskered Terns and a few Yellow Bitterns and kingfishers among others.  I did get my first images of Black Bittern, a rarity as well.  Just like Beung Borapet in Central Thailand, the lake is full of pink water lotus flowers which make for beautiful settings for many of the shots. 

Slow Loris photographed October 2015 at the Krung Ching section of Khao Luang National Park, Thailand.  Canon 7D2, Sigma 150-600 contemporary at 516mm, 1/200 F11, iso 400, manual exposure, 580ex flash at 0 compensation, better beamer, handheld  Our next stop was Krung Ching which is well known as one of the best birding areas in Southern Thailand.  While we did see plenty of birds it wasn't particularly good for photography and we mostly just managed record shots.  The highlight for photography was this Slow Loris that we found near our lodge while spot lighting one night.  As I almost always do with night photography with flash I set my flash compensation to 0, used a shutter speed close to the maximum normal synch speed, the F-stop that I wanted to use to get everything in focus and the highest iso which will produce little or no noise.  I do find that the 7D2 with the Sigma 150-600 contemporary is a very good combination for night walks as I don't need a tripod and while using the flash I can keep the iso on the 7D2 down to 400 where I like it. 

Shikra photographed October 2015 Khao Dinsor, Thailand.  Canon 7D2, Sigma 150-600 at 531mm, 1/2000 F8, iso 800, manual exposure, handheld.  We spent the next 5 nights in the Chumphon, Thailand area.  This is the location of the largest raptor migration in Thailand, each October over 200,000 raptors of over 20 species migrate across the Gulf of Thailand and then down along the Thai pennisula.  They pass over a couple of hills, Khao Dinsor and Radar Hill on their way south.  Early October has some of the largest numbers of particularly accipiters (Shikra, Chinese Sparrowhawk and Japanese Sparrowhawk).  Late October has the largest variety of species but lower numbers and the weather isn't typically as good.  Mid October is the best time to go with still good numbers of the common birds but also good variety.  Mid to late October is also typically when large numbers of Black Baza, a striking beautiful black and white raptor start showing up.  I was there from October 14 to 18 and there were large numbers of the 3 accipiter species as well large numbers of Grey-faced Buzzard and Oriental Honey Buzzard.  Other raptors I photographed during that time included Booted and Crested Serpent Eagles, Eastern Osprey, Black Kite, Eastern Marsh Harrier, Crested Goshawk and Black Baza.  Most of my time photographing there I used a manual exposure as I was often photographing against a light sky but with the possibility that the birds would dip down and be against a green background.  On a sunny day I would typically set the manual exposure by starting at iso 800, F8 and metering against the bright blue sky, I would then usually add 1 stop to what the sky was metering at.  (So in this case the sky was 1/4000 and adding one stop of light brought me to an exposure of 1/2000). 

Grey-faced Buzzard, juvenile photographed at Khao Dinsor, Thailand, October 2015.  Canon 7D2, Sigma 150-600 Contemporary at 546mm 1/1000 F7.1, iso 800, handheld, manual exposure.  When photographing against cloudy gray skies you need to add even more light to get detail in the bird. In this case I will start out by adding about 2 stops of light compared to what the camera is metering against the sky.  I used a manual exposure which is preferable because if the bird drops and is against a green background you still get a good exposure.  For those of you who prefer to use aperture priority you need to go at least +2.0 on the exposure compensation when shooting raptors from underneath against a cloudy gray sky background.  In either case you need to boost the contrast significantly in post processing to have the bird pop.  The hawk watch sites on Khao Dinsor are a 15 to 30 minute hike up the hill.  There are several hawk watching platforms from mid way up the hill all the way to the top.  At 2 of the stations there are always some Thai raptor counters, they are very helpful as they point out the different species from a long way off.  Radar Hill is the other site and the big advantage of it is that you can drive to the summit, get out and shoot.  As I was with my wife, mom and 5 year old daughter I didn't spend every afternoon at the hawk watch site and subsequently missed some of the better sessions that other photographers told me about the next morning.  To read more about the counts and species and see more images taken at Khao Dinsor see this article with full summary of the 2011 and 2010 counts there.

Vinous-breasted Starling photographed at Chumphon, Thailand October 2015.  Canon 5D3 500F4 1.4x 1/1000 F8, iso 800, Av mode with 0 exposure compensation.  Of course raptors aren't the only birds we photograph in Thailand.  The Chumphon area is particularly rich in starling and myna species, it's possible to see up to 12 different species of this family there.  In the garden of our hotel there were several starling and myna species as well as a few beautiful Indian Rollers. 

Wallace's Hawk Eagle photographed October 2015 at Khao Sok National Park, Thailand.  Canon 5D3, Sigma 150-600 at 600mm 1/640 F8, iso 800, Av mode at 0 expsoure compensation.  We only spent a few hours at Khao Sok on our way from Chumphon to our beach vacation in Phuket.  But I loved the place and when I go back it will be the first place on my list to visit.  It's a good place to photograph the fishing eagles - White-bellied Sea Eagle, Gray-headed and Lesser Fishing Eagles as well as an excellent place to see Indian Elephant bathing in the wild.  I was very happy to get my first images of this Wallace's Hawk Eagle during our brief time on the lake there.  I also discovered some really nice floating accommodation on the lake that we weren't aware of before, so it was a productive couple of hours.  I tried to manage to get back there during our stay in Phuket but it didn't work out logistically. Much of Khao Sok is a very large lake with stunning scenery as the limestone cliffs come steeply down into waters which are often turquoise colored.  There is excellent fishing as well as photography there. 

Black Baza photographed October 2015 Muang Mai, Phuket, Thailand.  Canon 5D3, Sigma 150-600 at 531mm 1/1250 F8, iso 800, Av mode, evaluative metering +1.0, handheld.  One of the species I really wanted to get good photographs of was the Black Baza.  When I was at Khao Dinsor from October 14 to 18 I saw several groups of up to 100 birds go over but every time they were very high.  The peak for Black Baza is generally around October 20-25 so after we returned to Chumphon from Ko Tao I went up there on the morning of the 23rd but again had no luck with close birds, although I did get reasonably good shots of the much less common Jerdon's Baza.  Our guide Ian was there and showed me dozens of good photos from the afternoon before so I had just missed on my timing.  On our tour this October I have moved the dates back a few days to hopefully coincide with the large passage of Baza.  So when we were in Phuket I read on a birding blog that Black Baza could sometimes be found at Muang Mai which was quite near our hotel.  On my second afternoon there and last day of photography in Thailand, I spotted 3 birds at the top of a tree, got some distant shots of them and then 2 of them flew away, the last bird flew towards me instead of away from me and I managed to get a few reasonably good and close flight shots finally, it was a good way to end our trip there.  

Some of the time at Khao Dinsor the birds go over very high and sometimes they come by quite low, obviously the latter being much better for photography.  While I was at the raptor migration site, Khao Dinsor I heard all sorts of theories about when the photograpy would be best, how the wind direction affects it, how storms affect it, what time of day was best etc.  But from my observations there I found it to be very unpredictable when the birds would be high and when they would be low and I missed some of the best sessions because I had listened to others advice about how the weather affects the birds.  Sometimes the birds were high when I thought they would be low and sometimes they would be low when I thought they would be high.  After a couple of days I just decided to put in as much time as possible photographing there to try to minimize the part that luck played.  In the end I got some really nice shots, saw and photographed a lot of raptors, learned the best spots to go on the mountain and got a lot of exercise hiking up and down Khao Dinsor.