I originally started to take photographs for reference material for my art but as time goes by, I am enjoying photography equally 
I have chosen the title "Hugging Trees", the name sprang to mind as I do seem to spend an inordinate amount of time crawling around the woods, hiding in trees and getting messy
I have always loved wildlife and nature and have lots of enthusiasm but not a lot in the way of expertise.
I have chosen the title "Hugging Trees", the name sprang to mind as I do seem to spend an inordinate amount of time crawling around the woods, hiding in trees and getting messy
I have always loved wildlife and nature and have lots of enthusiasm but not a lot in the way of expertise.
Maldivian Birds
Posted 08-05-09 at 12:27 PM by Chrissy
As some of you may have seen from my new image folder, I have just been lucky enough to return from a two week holiday in the Maldives. It was a very dreamed of holiday and I spent much of my time out on the reef viewing the wildlife under the water.
However, from a birding point of view, whilst there were not that many, it was still fascinating. Interestingly whilst we saw some kind of seagull from the boat, we didn't see them again for the duration of the holiday on the island of Olhuveli.
There were several herons who are very accustomed to people, so much so that you could walk up to them and if you walked softly and non-threatening, they would continue wading/fishing quite unconcerned by your presence. I confess to have loads of images, it was quite novel to me to be able to get so close. It also became quite an interesting pastime watching them fishing!
The only other birds that I saw that resembled something I knew was early one morning I did see a Snipe on the beach and two swifts flying above the island.
There were also several birds in the waters edge which I think must be some kind of a Sandpiper, these could look similar for all I know, I am not very familiar with coastal birds, sometimes in an afternoon you would see several out on the sandbanks.
When I first arrived on the island I was fascinated by the sound of some very exotic sounding birds. It took about a week before I managed to get a glimpse of them. They turned out to be rather plain looking black birds, I can only think judging by their repertoire that they must be closely related to a mynah bird. I never did manage a very good photo, they were quite shy. Every time I took the camera anywhere near, I swear they were laughing at me!
Thanks to John (Clydebirder) for the identification of the small heron that I uploaded to my gallery, I was very unsure about that one. The striated heron was captured at sunrise one morning before he flew across to the uninhabited island. I did see several of these and think there were a few including a mature one, which I captured in flight but in extremely poor light, I can only just about make it out. But, I noted three of them one morning.
Of course everywhere has to have a cleanup crew, I thought it was interesting to note that even the crows have some differences.
Other than that, well at night there was a rather large bat flying around, whilst in the day he just hung about
However, from a birding point of view, whilst there were not that many, it was still fascinating. Interestingly whilst we saw some kind of seagull from the boat, we didn't see them again for the duration of the holiday on the island of Olhuveli.
There were several herons who are very accustomed to people, so much so that you could walk up to them and if you walked softly and non-threatening, they would continue wading/fishing quite unconcerned by your presence. I confess to have loads of images, it was quite novel to me to be able to get so close. It also became quite an interesting pastime watching them fishing!
The only other birds that I saw that resembled something I knew was early one morning I did see a Snipe on the beach and two swifts flying above the island.
There were also several birds in the waters edge which I think must be some kind of a Sandpiper, these could look similar for all I know, I am not very familiar with coastal birds, sometimes in an afternoon you would see several out on the sandbanks.
When I first arrived on the island I was fascinated by the sound of some very exotic sounding birds. It took about a week before I managed to get a glimpse of them. They turned out to be rather plain looking black birds, I can only think judging by their repertoire that they must be closely related to a mynah bird. I never did manage a very good photo, they were quite shy. Every time I took the camera anywhere near, I swear they were laughing at me!
Thanks to John (Clydebirder) for the identification of the small heron that I uploaded to my gallery, I was very unsure about that one. The striated heron was captured at sunrise one morning before he flew across to the uninhabited island. I did see several of these and think there were a few including a mature one, which I captured in flight but in extremely poor light, I can only just about make it out. But, I noted three of them one morning.
Of course everywhere has to have a cleanup crew, I thought it was interesting to note that even the crows have some differences.
Other than that, well at night there was a rather large bat flying around, whilst in the day he just hung about
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