15th Jan 2010: Gelugor coast, Penang Island

A short 45 min stop on my way home from my office turned out to be productive this evening.

There were not many birds on the mudflats - 65 Common Redshanks, a Whimbrel and 3 egrets, but one of them turned out to be...



a Chinese Egret!



Chinese Egrets can be seen pretty easily in the non-breeding season in Sarawak and Sabah, but on the west coast of the Peninsula they are pretty scarce, and this is only the second I have seen on Penang island. The first was in 2006. Globally, there are reckoned to be no more than 3,400 birds in existence, and the species is classified as Vulnerable to extinction.



Here's the bird with one of the other egrets present - a Little.



And here it is with the other - a Great!





A couple more images.



A couple of fly-by Common Redshanks caught in the reflection of the reclamation project.



Likewise, the lone Whimbrel.



Hard at work!



Perfect lighting, a clean background and a huge dose of luck resulted in this flight shot of a Crested Myna, which flew past as I was packing up.