14th February 2009: Universiti Sains Malaysia campus

News broke yesterday afternoon of a juvenile Malay/Malayan/Malaysian Night Heron which had been spending the last week feeding in an undistinguished ditch on the local uni campus. This morning I was at the site before dawn, remained till 10am, and then returned to sit it out from about 5pm till dusk.


Digiscoped

Here's The Ditch, but all I saw in it were several White-breasted Waterhens. This picture was taken in fading light at 1/15th sec to test whether I could still photograph the heron if it arrived. The question was moot in the end as it never did! I guess the heron has flown, so I can add it to my growing list (which includes Imperial and Booted Eagles already) of birds I have missed this year!



I did take advantage of a quiet day on campus to photograph Mangrove Whistlers. It was the first time I'd noticed the patch of mauve skin behind the eye on an otherwise unremarkable bird.



There are no mangroves nearby, but it does whistle!



This is what the top looks like. You weren't missing much!





I'm not sure if this is an adult female Tickell's Blue Flycatcher or a subadult male. Despite this species being common on the island, I still haven't yet got a decent pic of an adult male.






















Here's a colour you don't see every day! A stunning creamy lemon yellow-breasted Grey Wagtail. This is a male just developing his black throat.