{"id":11339,"date":"2012-05-23T05:51:31","date_gmt":"2012-05-23T03:51:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/?p=11339"},"modified":"2024-11-23T09:10:19","modified_gmt":"2024-11-23T08:10:19","slug":"blue-river-jewel-of-the-south","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/blue-river-jewel-of-the-south\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue -river- Jewel of the South"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Black-capped-Kingfisher – forest by Alex Vargas, Thailand 2011<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When I was coming to this side of the world, I was looking at the book in the plane and right away got amazed with the colors and crazy looks of the kingfishers. When I saw the first one (Black-capped, in Indonesia) I fell in love!\u2026 Our KF in the American Continent are beautiful and the great Ringed it\u2019s majestic on its own right\u2026 but the red bills and iridescent game of colors of the family in this latitudes, has no match.<\/p>\n

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Blue-banded-Kingfisher-male 2 by Alex Vargas, Thailand 2011<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Blue-banded Kingfisher isn\u2019t an exception, and even when it hasn\u2019t a gorgeous red beak, it is colorful and beautiful too. For me, how hard finding and photographing one actually is, makes it so unique and special, motivating me to really enjoy it the day I got lucky!
\nI heard of a nesting pair that was feeding a brood at Si Phangnga National Park, nearly a thousand kilometers south of Bangkok and immediately got my bio-photo-clock onwards!\u2026 My good friend Prin (from Superhide) showed a few frames up close of the parents with prey and without thinking much, I got a few things on the bag and left early morning, next day.<\/p>\n

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Chestnut-naped-Forktail-male by Alex Vargas, Thailand 2011<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When I finally got there, all tired from the long driving hours, I was aiming for an early morning when Khun Sak delivered the terrible news: the chicks got out of the nest-hole that afternoon as some other photographers witnessed\u2026 OH NO!\u2026 all that work to just get there, all that hope to even see such a cool lifer\u2026 \u201cIt can\u2019t be\u201d -I said to myself- \u201cit can\u2019t be and I\u2019m gonna try anyway!\u201c\u2026 Khun Sak looked at me with a \u201cfeeling-sorry-for-you-face\u201c\u2026 He told me that it wasn\u2019t all bad, as a pair of elusive and -also- hard to get Chestnut-napped Forktails were showing well as a consolation and in fact, it was the first time I ever got close to this birds\u2026<\/p>\n

But I wasn\u2019t gonna let it go that easy!\u2026 I set camp in front of the spot where everyone had got such cool images and prayed for the birds to remember the perch and return somehow with the juniors to their birth place.
\nIt was not so long of a wait for me when I heard an adult nearby and with the adrenaline pumping hard, I knew I was doing right by believing and using all my birding years of experience to wait and hope for the unprovable!<\/p>\n

The other birder that did this journey with me from Bangkok, loose the faith after a couple of morning hours and decided to go away and use the time better with the forktails, leaving me alone in the riverside, waiting. He was gone barely 10 minutes when a young -male- adult that I was expecting to see in the perch at the other side of the stream, flew and landed on a log so incredibly close to me, that I could only fit half of his body in my frame!<\/p>\n

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Blue-banded-Kingfisher-male-portrait by Alex Vargas, Thailand 2011<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Blue-banded-Kingfisher-male tails up by Alex Vargas, Thailand 2011<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This time, the desperation to find a way of getting the whole bird in my pictures, overcame the adrenaline and after a few fantastic-sharp portraits, I decided it was worth the risk!\u2026 I was into my -superhide- tower blind (which you can use standing) and slowly backed up into the understory, sweating every tiny step like if there was no other. After 4 or five little but agonizing steps back (just imagine: pushing the blind with my head and shoulders, with the lens -set in the tripod- in one hand and with the chair in the other), I finally got the distance barely enough and wasn\u2019t going to push it a millimeter anymore!<\/p>\n

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Blue-banded-Kingfisher-male 3 by Alex Vargas, Thailand 2011<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I just couldn\u2019t -and still can\u2019t- believe all these blessings altogether in a moment\u2026 The odds for the bird showing, where pretty narrow already, but the bird staying and not leaving forever while I was moving back into the vegetation\u2026 well, I guess my birding-guardian-angel priced the big faith I used, in big fashion\u2026<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s not all!!!\u2026 Suddenly, the bird started calling and moving funny\u2026 then, mom -another young adult- and the youngest chick did actually turned up and perched at the other side of the stream, to complete the magical story of one of my coolest lifers\u2019 encounter ever!\u2026 Birding can be and should be\u2026 overwhelming!<\/p>\n

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Blue-banded-Kingfisher-female by Alex Vargas, Thailand 2011<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Blue-banded-Kingfisher-chick by Alex Vargas, Thailand 2011<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On the way back to Bangkok, we stopped in Wanakorn to get some cool Bee-eaters and completed a perfect and productive -long driving- trip, but that\u2019s another story that I’ll tell you later on!<\/p>\n

Just a few -related- links:<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.pbase.com\/alex_vargas\/bluebanded_kingfisher<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.pbase.com\/alex_vargas\/chesnutnaped_forktail<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.thaibirding.com\/locations\/south\/spn.htm<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.bcst.or.th\/index.php?lang=en<\/p>\n

http:\/\/superhide.multiply.com\/photos\/album\/62\/62<\/p>\n

This post has been mirrored from here:<\/p>\n

Blue -river- Jewel of the South<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n