June is one of those months that could produce
anything. The weather has ranged from beautiful, blue-sky days (not many) to
lots of dull and rainy days.
From a nature photography perspective, it is
the end of the nesting season, so you don’t see your favourite targets up
close. My main subjects are Bee-eaters and Kingfishers and the adult birds look
worse-for-wear now as they have been digging in the dirt, been on many feeding
missions and have been further harassed by their fledged offspring for over a
month.
My kingfisher pair have finally got rid of
their adult-sized chicks but are themselves looking quite ragged. They will moult
in the next few months and look great at the start of the next breeding season in December.
In the example below...the first shot is a June kingfisher while the next shot is a January Kingfisher.....not the same bird.
The Blue-throated Bee eaters are down in
numbers and again look in bad condition.
I was nicely in position a few weeks back on a
nice fine day when my car battery went dead. Oh what to do…..I had left the house
without my wallet. I phoned a fellow photographer who lived in the general area,
but he was attending a funeral. He kindly summoned another friend who lived nearby,
and he turned up about 40 minutes later. My car was at the defunct motocross
track which is located off a fairly busy road but the track in is rather
cryptic. The little Indian man had a Perodua which is a Malaysia-built small
car. He positioned his car to give me a jump start….as seen……but made a slight
error in turning his motor off. When he went to start his car, his battery was
dead!!!!! He phoned a number of his friends, but they were all at work. Nearly two hours later relief arrived……two
young Indians in a souped up car, with hot exhausts and lowered chassis. The
ground is pitted, and they could not reach us without bottoming out. We pushed
to small car over to their hot-rod and got it going then used it to start my
car. Needless to say, the battery has been replaced. I purchased it three years
ago and the garage said they are normally only good for 18 months.
At least the Keystone cops had the attention of the local Pacific Swallows.
Other photographic excursions have been a bit
messy. On a trip to Byram, which is on the mainland coast, a sudden storm came
through and finished the morning’s activities. I was photographing Long-tailed
Macaques gathering Horseshoe crabs.
At Air Hitam Dalam……the fisherman on the nearby
river seemed more interesting than grooming monkeys or sleeping squirrels.
I have now come across several locals riding
around with monkeys are pillion riders.
On the greater photographic front, I have
topped the Photographic Society of America’s rating as top nature photographer
based on salon results in their surveillance system.
With the pub quiz we have done pretty well
with two first and two seconds. We have also had a share in two of the jackpot
questions.
June saw the various international rugby
series. The games seemed dominated by fuzzy rules, bad refereeing and unhappy
coaches. David and I have discussed a number of incidents and conclude there is
a crop of ordinary referees and inflexible and questionable administrators.
Helen continues with her teaching and hill
hiking and is getting involved in the upcoming George Town arts festival.
In the kitchen the Kombucha trials continue.......with Cola and Coffee, joining Raspberry, Pineapple, Lemon and Ginger and Lychee flavours.
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