Reviewing the 2013 Photographic Year

January 5, 2014 by pumapix

I always like to take a bit of time and review what happened the last year in terms of reaching some of my goals. For that I go and check my trusty Bucket List and see what things I was able to experience (or check off, for you twitchers). Turns out 2013 was a good photographic year.

I am including only the highlights from this year in this post (for the full list just click the link above). I am also only showing one or two images of each species/location, if you want to see all the pictures from that subject just click that name and the link will take you to the appropriate gallery.

Visit and or Explore
Tropical Rainforests (Borneo Spring 2013, Gabon 2013, Borneo Winter 2013)

Lowland rainforest shrouded in clouds at sunrise, Danum Valley Conservation Area, Sabah, Borneo, Malaysia

Sunset over tropical rainforest, Lope National Park, Gabon

New Zealand (August 2013)

Snow-covered mountains, South Island, New Zealand

Photograph
Bay Cat (December 2013) – More on that later 🙂
Sunda Clouded Leopard (March 2013)

IMG_93062_Sunda_Clouded_Leopard_Malaysia_Sebastian_Kennerknecht

Sunda Clouded Leopard (Neofelis diardi) male in lowland rainforest at night, Tawau Hills Park, Sabah, Borneo, Malaysia (camera trap)

Marbled Cat (March 2013)

Marbled Cat (Pardofelis marmorata marmorata) in lowland rainforest, Tawau Hills Park, Sabah, Borneo, Malaysia (camera trap)

African Leopard (October 2013)

African Leopard (Panthera pardus) male crossing log bridge over river in tropical rainforest, Lope National Park, Gabon (camera trap)

3 species of Civet (Added Malay Civet and Common Palm Civet 2013)

IMG_106378_Malay_Civet_Malaysia_Sebastian_Kennerknecht

Malayan Civet (Viverra tangalunga) in lowland rainforest at night, Tawau Hills Park, Sabah, Borneo, Malaysia (camera trap)

Common Palm Civet (Paradoxurus hermaphroditus) in tree at night, Danum Valley Conservation Area, Sabah, Borneo, Malaysia

1000 bird species in the wild (I am at 190, having added 61 species this year), just a few here:

Buller’s Albatross (Thalassarche bulleri) on water, Kaikoura, South Island, New Zealand

Red-billed Gull (Larus scopulinus) during rain storm, Kaikoura, South Island, New Zealand

New Zealand Kaka (Nestor meridionalis) parrot during rain storm, North Island, New Zealand

Northern Giant Petrel (Macronectes halli) pair fighting, Kaikoura, South Island, New Zealand

300 mammal species in the wild (I am at 106, having added 45 species this year), just a few here:

Forest Buffalo (Syncerus caffer nanus) bull running, Lope National Park, Gabon

White-nosed Guenon (Cercopithecus nictitans) in tree, Lope National Park, Gabon

African Brush-tailed Porcupine (Atherurus africanus) on log at night, Lope National Park, Gabon (camera trap)

Red River Hog (Potamochoerus porcus) male, Lope National Park, Gabon

Red Leaf Monkey (Presbytis rubicunda) in tree, Tawau Hills Park, Sabah, Borne

20 critically endangered and 50 endangered species (I am at 6 and 17 respectively)

Borneo Pygmy Elephant (Elephas maximus borneensis) females and calf grazing, Kinabatangan River, Sabah, Borneo, Malaysia

Takahe (Porphyrio hochstetteri) grazing, Kapiti Island, North Island, New Zealand

I am looking forward to see what this year brings!

How about you, anything particular that you photographed in 2013 that you are really happy/proud of?

*If you are interested in purchasing any of the pictures displayed in this post, please check out my fine prints page for pricing.*

Birds of Borneo

November 19, 2013 by pumapix

Verditer Flycatcher (Eumyias thalassina) male, Sepilok Forest Reserve, Sabah, Borneo, Malaysia

Over 600 bird species have been recorded in Borneo and boy are they magical. When you are only used to seeing North American bird species, like me, with the exception of the bird species I saw in Yemen, your bird world changes quite drastically when you come to this tropical island. All of a sudden you realize that bird watching or in my case bird photography has a whole new dimension to understand and explore. Due to the extreme density and diversity in trees, birds specialize in what part of the forest they forage and hang out in. Is it the understory, middle story, upper story, or canopy?

At first I was getting extremely frustrated because I couldn’t seem to find any birds, but this was simply due to the fact that I had not learned to read the forest. I had to stop trying to see birds the way I did in the States and instead adopt the jungle view of bird life. Since I was stationed at Tawau Hills Park I was limited to looking for understory birds, which was quite the task in itself. With vegetation being extremely dense, (as I described in this blog post), it was tough going but with time I learned to be more patient and take a sit and wait approach rather than my usual stalk and pounce method. When I would hear a bird call, I would simply stop and wait until I spotted movement and then I followed the bird until it came close enough for pictures (which as you know is most often not the case) . So, first came the understory birds:

Little Egret (Egretta garzetta) in breeding plumage, Tawau Hills Park, Sabah, Borneo, Malaysia

Asian Glossy Starling (Aplonis panayensis) pair on Elephant Ear Taro (Alocasia macrorrhizos) flower, Tawau Hills Park, Sabah, Borneo, Malaysia

Yellow-rumped Flowerpecker (Prionochilus xanthopygius) male feeding on flower nectar, Danum Valley Conservation Area, Sabah, Borneo, Malaysia

Stork-billed Kingfisher (Pelargopsis capensis), Tawau Hills Park, Sabah, Borneo, Malaysia

After a month at Tawau I took a quick side trip further north in Sabah to Sepilok, and more specifically Sepilok Rainforest Discovery Center,a nature reserve set up by a former forest ranger. It is comprised of the same jungle I was used to in Tawau, with one major difference. There was a canopy walkway. These metal paths and towers, propped up up to 90 feet in the air, provided the access to see the birds of the middle and upper story, as well as the canopy. All the birds I only heard in Tawau were now only feet away, going about their business as if it wasn’t weird that a human being is casually walking through the trees.

The birds of the middle story:

Black-and-yellow Broadbill (Eurylaimus ochromalus) female, Sepilok Forest Reserve, Sabah, Borneo, Malaysia

Rufous Woodpecker (Celeus brachyurus) female, Sepilok Forest Reserve, Sabah, Borneo, Malaysia

Red-naped Trogon (Harpactes kasumba) male, Danum Valley Conservation Area, Sabah, Borneo, Malaysia

The birds of the upper story and canopy:

Brown Barbet (Calorhamphus fuliginosus) female, Sepilok Forest Reserve, Sabah, Borneo, Malaysia

Rhinoceros Hornbill (Buceros rhinoceros) female, Sepilok Forest Reserve, Sabah, Borneo, Malaysia

Greater Racket-tailed Drongo (Dicrurus paradiseus), Sepilok Forest Reserve, Sabah, Borneo, Malaysia

Most special of all the birds though was the endemic Bristlehead. This is an incredibly unique bird, in fact, it is the only species in its whole bird family (which is Pityriaseidae). I only got to see this bird one time, but it was nice enough to hang around for 1-2 minutes which provided enough time to marvel at its beautiful yellow and red feathers and to get a close look at its uniquely shaped bill.

Bornean Bristlehead (Pityriasis gymnocephala), Sepilok Forest Reserve, Sabah, Borneo, Malaysia

Borneo was a huge learning curve, but one I was happy to undergo. The shapes, colors, and behaviors of these birds is just magical. I can only recommend you checking them out yourself!

*If you are interested in purchasing any of the pictures displayed in this post, please check out my fine prints page for pricing.*

Free Forest Elephant Wallpaper

October 30, 2013 by pumapix

Here is October’s free desktop wallpaper! It’s another wildlife image from the jungles of Gabon. This is a dslr camera trap image of an African Forest Elephant. The debate whether this is a separate subspecies or even its own species still continues to this day, but these elephants are definitely smaller than their savanna cousins. Thankfully poaching is not a big threat in Lope National Park and elephant densities may be the highest in this part of the country. They have had hunting pressure in the past though and since these elephants live a long time, many older individuals still have bullets in their skin and have understandably developed a severe disliking of humans. Now, when you walk through the rainforest your biggest fear is running into one of these guys. They will charge you instead of running away, and most of the time they are not bluff charges. It’s scary as hell. I am very glad I wasn’t anywhere near the camera when this guy walked past, taking his self portrait while stepping into a puddle of water.

As always, just click on the image for the wallpaper sized image or use this link African Forest Elephant Stepping into Puddle.

African Forest Elephant (Loxodonta cyclotis) stepping into puddle at night, Lope National Park, Gabon

*If you are interested in purchasing any of the pictures displayed in this post, please check out my fine prints page for pricing.*

Free Royal Albatross Wallpaper

August 23, 2013 by pumapix

I am currently in New Zealand with Kailani where we have been getting to see some really amazing birds including this pelagic Albatross. It’s a Southern Royal Albatross, which have the second largest wingspan of any bird in the world (about 10 feet). It was incredibly impressive to see them glide over the water. As always, just click on the image for the wallpaper sized image or use this link Southern Royal Albatross in Flight Wallpaper.

Southern Royal Albatross in Flight, Kaikoura, South Island, New Zealand

As always, please only use it as a wallpaper for a personal computer. Otherwise, I can only use really really really really boring pictures, or I have to stop all together.

Finally, I would like to thank Alastair Judkins, an extremely impressive birder and biologist, without whom this picture would not have been possible.

*If you are interested in purchasing any of the pictures displayed in this post, please check out my fine prints page for pricing.*

Camera Trapping In Yemen

July 2, 2012 by pumapix

Waleed Al’Rail with Leopard Foundation’s camera trap, Hawf, Yemen

As I wrote in a previous post, using camera traps in wildlife photography provides its own unique set of challenges and possibilities for unique photographs. Using camera traps in a different country is a totally different story.

Before this assignment I was only operating one camera trap, but by the time I was getting on a plane to try and get some pictures of the mysterious wildlife Yemen has to offer they totaled five. There was surprisingly little resistance by the immigration people of Yemen to my equipment and me coming into the country. This was mainly due to the fact that I am not a journalist and even more importantly all the work David Stanton and Yousuf Mohageb had put into making this step of the project go smoothly (David is from the Foundation for the Protection of the Arabian Leopard in Yemen and Yousuf Mohageb runs Arabian Eco-tours).

David Stanton (right) and Yousuf Mohageb (center) eating dinner, Yemen

Bureaucratic problems avoided, it was time to focus on placing the cameras in spots where there were good chances of animals coming by. While Waleed Al’Rail and Murad Mohamed (both are Yemeni Arabian Leopard researchers) were checking their cameras and showing me the area, I was imagining all the good locations for the camera traps along the game trails we were using. When I expressed my ideas, Waleed and Murad made me aware of a problem I had not even considered. Yemen is a Muslim country, and in Islamic law it is not accepted to take pictures of woman. Sure that’s easy to control when you are behind the camera but when you put the camera out in nature, especially in an area like ours where people use the land and a daily basis, it is incredibly challenging. There was a fine balance between a good location for the cameras and one that women may use while they were deployed. If women saw the cameras, I was told, they would get destroyed.

Keeping this in mind, we deployed three of the five cameras into the cloud forest habitat of the Hawf Protected Area. Three days later a cyclone arrives (the worst in forty years) and destroys, or better yet, completely obliterates one of the cameras. One camera down, it was beyond repair.

Cloud forest, Hawf Protected Area, Yemen

Flooding in the Hawf Protected Area, Yemen

Broken camera from camera trap, Hawf Protected Area, Yemen

Nonetheless the camera captured one image before being flooded.

Honey Badger (Mellivora capensis) pair, Hawf Protected Area, Yemen

The other two cameras also snapped a few images.

Indian Crested Porcupine (Hystrix indica), Hawf Protected Area, Yemen

Arabian Caracal (Caracal caracal schmitzi), Hawf Protected Area, Yemen

White-tailed Mongoose (Ichneumia albicauda), Hawf Protected Area, Yemen

Small-spotted Gennet (Genetta genetta), Hawf Protected Area, Yemen

Honey Badger (Mellivora capensis) juvenile, Hawf Protected Area, Yemen

After a couple of weeks we placed the two remaining cameras into the far desert inlands. Animal densities are definitely lower in this area but a few different animal species are present there as well.

Desert, Hawf Protected Area, Yemen

Arabian Wolf (Canis lupus arabs), Hawf Protected Area, Yemen

Rock Hyrax (Procavia capensis), Hawf Protected Area, Yemen

Spiny Mouse (Acomys cahirinus), Hawf Protected Area, Yemen

Throughout camera trapping in Yemen I was surprised by the lack of camera trapping results. It was quite interesting how much more wary the animals are of foreign objects here, I think caused by the constant human pressure on them. As you can see from the pictures as well, most wear taken at night. Animals in Yemen are more nocturnal than in areas where hunting pressures are not as strong. While I was there I heard three live rounds go off, no doubt each time the rifle was aimed at an animal.

Now if only this was an Arabian Leopard

*If you are interested in purchasing any of the pictures displayed in this post, please check out my fine prints page for pricing.*