Greater Spotted Eagle @ Permatang Nibong, Penang, Malaysia

Was really fortunate to have the opportunity to travel to Penang for a church training last week and able to tie the start and end part of my trip with birding. For this entry, I just want to concentrate on a lifer that I saw - a greater spotted eagle.

I left home at 4.30am on 3rd Dec 2010 and headed to Byram, Penang - a 3 hours drive. Although I had a great shooting in Byram, I was disappointed because I didnt spot the red-necked phalarope. My next stop was the paddyfields of Permatang Nibong where it was reported recently of a sighting of a black headed ibis. Armed with the gps coordinates, I could find the place easily but not the bird. Another disappointment.

Not knowing where to go next, I drove to a larger paddyfield on the right side of the Permatang Nibong road. After an hour or so, feeling really tired, I just stopped my car along the bund and started to feel sorry for myself (haha). Anyway, I did pick up my binoculars and scanned the horizon, and my heart missed a bit as my eyes came to rest on a dark 'spot' in the paddyfields some way ahead. "Eagle!" I shouted. All of a sudden, all my tiredness were forgotten as the feeling of excitement filled me.

A snapshot of what I saw with a 500mm lens x 1.4TC - this image was not cropped

My eyes were trained on the eagle...and lucky for me, it decided to add some action for me to shoot. :-)

I couldnt see what had excited the eagle or whether it was hunting, but it leaped into the air twice.
As it rested, it began to sense that it was being watched....
And so, it decided it was time to leave for the sky.

The take-off with a splash.
Up, up and away.....to the safety of the sky

Was fortunate to have the eagle flew nearer to me before it went soaring up high in the sky.

Would have done better if I got my exposure on the bird correctly! Had to do a bit of recovery in the post processing - although I could recover more shadows since I shoot in RAW, the digital noise appearing on the shadow areas would be rather unsightly. I knew in my head then that I had to compensate the exposure, since the background had changed from the green paddyfields to the bright sky but the eagle flew so fast that I couldn't pry my fingers off the shutter release! Sigh!!! Anyway, I was already very happy for the opportunity to sight and shoot this eagle for the first time. Now, I could wrap the day with a big smile. Later, upon checking my bird field guide, I found out that this eagle was a juvenile Greater Spotted Eagle, a globally threatened specie.

Images in larger sizes can be viewed in here