White-Breasted Water Hen With Chick

D700 500mm +1.7 teleconverter ISO400 f/7.1 1/100 flash -2.0EV tripod

The parent waterhen was trying to discourage the chick to take food from its beak. Sorry little chap, time to get your own.

Talking about food, while observing some waterhen partly hidden in high plant growth, an old man passed by. When he saw what I was looking at, he gave me a big smile and said "Good to eat" with the air of a connoisseur! It did not shock me really. I had heard this before with someone pointing a finger at a monitor lizard... To be truthful, the chick does look like a chicken, somehow... with super-sized legs... some like them steamed in spicy Thai sauce... Ok, ok, this will be my first and last reference to meals when posting pictures of wild animals!

White-Throated Kingfisher

D700 500mm +1.7 teleconverter f/6.7 1/1000 flash -2.0EV tripod

I missed the dive but had the chance to catch the different state of messiness of the little fellow's feathers during the drying process... It flew away as soon as its bad hair day problem was corrected... It is still a cute picture. The dive would have been better... Maybe next time.

Yellow Bittern (3)

D700 500mm +1.7 teleconverter ISO400 f/6.7 1/640 flash -2.0EV tripod

Another strike. They feed from small fish, frogs and invertebrates.

Yellow Bittern (2)

D700 500mm +1.7 teleconverter ISO400 f/6.7 1/640 flash -2.0EV tripod

The yellow bittern I was observing was constantly on the hunt. When it stroke on its prey, it fully extended its neck and the reach was impressive.

Yellow Bittern (1)

D700 500mm +1.7 teleconverter ISO400 f/6.7 1/640 flash -2.0EV tripod

This was my first sighting of this bird in Singapore. It is supposed to be quite common but pretty elusive. So I felt fortunate to have this specimen performing for me.

Lesser Whistling Duck

D700 500mm +1.7 teleconverter ISO400 f/6.7 1/1000 tripod

Back to wildlife with a few recent shots of birds in fresh water ponds. The above capture demonstrates the expression "like water off a duck's back"!