Monday, September 24, 2018

Birding in Ramang-Ramang

Ramang-ramang
Ramang-Ramang is the name of a karst area in Maros of South Sulawesi. I went birding with several Taiwanese tourists today. We saw Yellow-billed Malkoha, Sulawesi pygmy woodpecker, Sulawesi Serpent Eagle, and various other interesting birds.
The karst formation is beautiful and also good for sightseeing.

Saturday, September 22, 2018

Birding in Sulawesi

Sulawesi Hornbill
I am on a trip now exploring tropical rainforest of Indonesia with several Taiwanese visitors. We are doing birdwatching to find Sulawesi birds. So far, we have seen Black-ringed White Eye, Yellow-sided Flowerpecker, Red-backed Thrush, Sulawesi Hornbill, Red-knobbed Hornbill, Black Sunbird, Olive-backed Sunbird, Sulawesi Babbler, White-necked Myna, Glossy Swift, Uniform Swiftlet, Gray-rump Treewift, Pale Blue Monarch, Sulawesi Hawk Eagle, Hair-crested Drongo.
I hope that we will see more interesting birds as we travel to other regions of Sulawesi. This is also the first time I use a D-SLR camera with a Tamron 150-600mm G2 telephoto lens. Honestly this is my first birding trip with foreign visitors across Sulawesi.
Red-backed Thrush
Sulawesi is a large tropical island located between Asia and Australia Avifauna region. It has got a lot of endemic birds that attract the attention of thousands of birdwatchers from around the world.
After birding in the morning, we continued our exploration of South Sulawesi birds in Patene of Makassar sub-urban area. We left Dalton hotel at 16.00 local time. It was not a forest that we visited but an open area with some trees, and wide grass land. There were big buildings in the vicinity. The first bird that we saw that day was Collared Kingfisher (Todiramphus chloris). He was sitting on a branch of a shrub approximately 10 meters from me. Seeing the bird I immediately took out my camera and aimed it at the bird. I pressed my shutter button several times. We saw Lemon-bellied White Eye, Yellow-vented Bulbul, Chestnut Munia, Javan Pond Heron, female Olive-backed Sunbird, Blue-tailed Bee-eater, and various other birds that I can't mention all of them in this post.
A fenale Olive-backed Sunbird
Hundreds of youth from the city were busy with their motorcycle racing near the site where we enjoyed our late afternoon birding walk. Although we were tired, we were satisfied with what we saw. Our clients were having dinner at a Chinese restaurant. I, Idris, and the drivers ate Coto Makassar for our dinner. Now, I am sitting in my room in Dalton hotel writing this post. I hope that our birding adventure tomorrow will be more exciting and interesting. As I see more birds in the coming days, I will update this blog with more stories and pictures. Written by Leo Roring
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Monday, September 17, 2018

Ikan dan Terumbu Karang

Saya sering melakukan kegiatan snorkeling dan menyelam-bebas (freediving) di kawasan terumbu karang. Ada berbagai spesies ikan yang bisa dilihat di sana. Beberapa di antaranya adalah: Striped Surgeonfish dan Convict Surgeonfish. Ikan ini memiliki ornamen bergaris di tumbuh mereka sehingga menjadikannya menarik.
Untuk melihat ini saya harus berenang agak jauh dari pasir pantai hingga ke kawasan terumbu karang yang berair jernih. Kemudian dengan memakai snorkeling mask, snorkel serta flipper (kaki bebek), saya menyelam bebas ke ke kedalaman 2 sampai 5 meter. Kadang, saya memotret ikan menggunakan kamera bawah air Fujifilm XQ2 atau Brica B-Pro5 Alpha Edition. Foto-foto tersebut bisa dijadikan sebagai referens jika saya ingin menggambar ikan.
Digital drawing of Striped-surgeonfish and Convict Surgeonfish
Surgeonfish hidup di terumbu-karang
Oleh karena itu, saya berkeputusan untuk menggambarnya. Saya menggunakan Tablet Samsung Tab A dan aplikasi Autodesk Sketchbook untuk menggambar ikan-ikan tersebut. Agar terlihat lebih menarik, saya menambah beberapa terumbu karang di sekitarnya.
Ada banyak sekali spesies ikan di perairan terumbu karang terutama pada kedalaman antara 1 meter hingga 20 meter. Saya akan mencoba menggambarnya di lain waktu dan menguploadnya di blog ini. Anda bisa melihat berbagai produk cetak yang tersedia dengan berkunjung ke halaman: Dompet Bergambar Ikan