11th April 2009: Kapar Power Station, Selangor, Malaysia

The Waterbirds Group afternoon session was held at Kapar Ashponds main lagoon today! The bright blue skies of the morning were slowly but surely replaced by gathering storm-clouds as the day wore on, and, true to form, we got ourselves well and truly soaked by late afternoon!



Common Greenshanks coming in to roost. Apart from a flock of about a thousand Common Redshanks there were very few birds using the main lagoon today.



We did spot a Far Eastern Curlew among the Eurasians - a different bird from the one I photographed yesterday. This one was in full breeding plumage, with some rich orangey tones on the flanks, upper tail coverts and inner greater coverts.



This is one wader species that is much easier to spot in flight than when It's on the ground. Above, it shows no white at all on the wings or rump...



...and below, the underwing coverts are strongly barred, unlike the pure white coverts of Eurasian.



Site B looked grim in the calm before the storm.



At the end of the afternoon we came across this miserable-looking Large-tailed Nightjar, plastered to a pipe by the rain. I have seen this species make landfall during the day from a sea-crossing, so perhaps this was a migrant bird.

The afternoon was also made memorable by getting the car stuck in the mud. In my attempts to drive it clear, I managed to spray Nazeri and Karim liberally with ash mud. They took it in amazingly good spirits! Sorry chaps!