19 Apr 2015
“Firy” – 1st-summer male Firethroat (Calliope pectardens) who has been at Nam Kham Nature Reserve in Chiang Rai during winter period (2014-2015). Moreover he is also the 1st record of Firethroat in Thailand.
Firethroat
Actually I had met him one time in January before this trip, when he still had 1st-winter male plumage which his throat had not become red yet. However his plumage started changing in the end of March and continued changing. At that time, both thai and foreign bird watchers poured in Nam Kham Nature Reserve everyday. There are lots of photos of him almost everyday posted in social media, so we can see how his plumage change continuously. Therefore I had planned my trip to Chiang Rai during 18-20 April 2015 to see him again. Fortunately at the time of my arrival, Firy had already fully completed his plumage change. He became 1st-summer male bird with beautiful breeding plumage.
Firethroat
On 18th April, I arrived at Nam Kham around noon time. At that time, sunlight was too strong and Firy hardly showed up. Therefore I desired to get some rest and come back tomorrow.
19 Apr 2015 | 1st-summer male
I knew lots of bird photographers and bird watchers planned to come to Nam Kham tomorrow, so I need to select an appropriate time to get some good shots of him. My friend from Chiang Mai told me almost people planned to reach there in the late morning due to the light condition. That is good for me. I planned to get there in early morning to avoid a numbers of photographers.
This is the reason that his name is “Firethroat”
On 19th April, I woke up early, had some breakfast, and reached there almost 7 AM. No one’s there, that made me felt relieved. Even light condition was poor in early morning, it was not a problem to me. Firy was slowly out of the dark bush. the time was around 7:15 AM. Surroundings were calm. He walked around the small pool located at 4-5 meters away from permanent hide where I was sitting in. He walked down to the pool to take a bath when my eyes looked at him all the time. After that he walked around and looked for something on the ground for his meal.
Firethroat
He got closer to the hide without any suspicion. Maybe I used mirror locked-up mode instead of continuos shot, hence no noisy sound made him nervous. I elaborately made shots of him when he came close to the hide.
Firethroat
19 Apr 2015 | 1st-summer male
The bird was not nervous in that morning. Finally I got some good shots of him.
See you again – Before he returned and disappeared into the bush, he had turned around and looked straight to me like he wanna say good bye and see you again.
Natthaphat's Nature Photography 