Friday, October 30, 2009

29th October 2009: Kampung Pertama, mainland Penang

I spent the last couple of daylight hours at the ricefields today, and picked up a 'state tick' - the first Temminck's Stint I have seen in Penang!







There's not much you can say about Temminck's plumage-wise - they're just very plain grey above compared to Long-toed.



They have quite a distinctive unstreaked grey breast band.



And a feeding rhythm that might be described as sluggish, as the video shows.

I spent some time searching the Pacific Golden Plover flock for the colour-banded bird I released 9 days ago, but the birds had moved into a new field with much more vegetation, making it much more difficult to see legs, so I didn't succeed.





I was surprised to see a cracking breeding plumaged male in the flock. It was the only bird with any breeding feathers at all, and it still appeared to be in pristine condition. Very strange!

4 comments:

Choy Wai Mun said...

Congrats on the Temminck. The rare ones always seems to to find their way to you.

Unknown said...

Temminck is good but the breeding male PGP is even better. I think this bird is applying for a PR status! Hope they'll breed here in future...what a beauty!

Alfred Chia said...

Wow Dave, 2 good birds indeed! The Temminck's is more a fresh water/marshland bird - similar preference with Long-toed? Very long-bodied I must say. The breeding PGP is indeed surprising - have never seen it in total breeding plumage in this part of the world - in very late October still!

aam9999. blogspot. Com said...

What a wonder to see the Temminck's around. thanks for sharing.