Monday, September 21, 2009

Going Cuckoo Over A Cuckoo

Yawn! woke up at 5.30 am to get myself ready to head out to look for the Plaintive Cuckoo that is on every birders' must shoot list for September. The walk in the morning was beautiful as you can see from the silhouette on the lake with the sun burning red. It was a hot day out.
Took me about an hour to locate the bird and then the adrenaline kicked in.This bird is about 22cm long and is still a juvenile.When birders first found it, it had no tail. By the time, I got my turn it already is spotting a nice tail. Unfortunately, I do not know much about the bird but some say it is local. Like other cuckoos, this bird also lays its eggs in other birds' nests.
What I do know is the bird has awesome eye sight as it picked off caterpillars that were on the grass.It then flies back up to a tree to finish its meal.While I was there for about half-an-hour it ate almost ten caterpillars. I am so pleased with myself having photographed this bird.Drove home and chilled out as the heat and humidity was fierce today.

1 comment:

Shawn said...

That's a really beautiful bird! I really like the third shot. Wonder where you went to shoot it?