Sunday, May 23, 2010

22 May 2010: Tanjung Dawai pelagic and Air Itam Dalam, Penang mainland

The rain started soon after I woke up at 4 am! It was still pouring when Mun arrived at my house at 5, and when we picked Hakim up from USM, and when we arrived at Tanjung Dawai at 6.15am! It poured on till almost 8 o'clock, when the boat finally rather gingerly headed out to sea.

Ominous clouds on the horizon and a respectable 'swell' on the ocean looked promising for seabirds, but things were unusually quiet. We had two brief fly-by views of Short-tailed Shearwaters, and distant views of a group of three Parasitic or Long-tailed Jaegers, as well as sparse numbers of terns, mostly Bridled and Common with a single Whiskered. By midday, with the weather taking a turn for the worse again, we were back in port, the hunt over for the day. I can only assume that the birds had vacated the area ahead of the storm.



En route home we stopped off at Air Itam Dalam, where a Spotted Wood-owl was rather obvious, roosting in a large tree.





A Mangrove Blue Flycatcher gave fleetingly close views, but the only other photogenic bird was this Green-billed Malkoha, which eventually climbed out of the foliage to give brief views in the open.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Aiyah...why i didn't see the SW owl on my last trip to Air Itam Dalam...

Terence Ang said...

Muin, you did got the WFSO did you and its batter than SWO

Unknown said...

I just wonder if the Malkoha might not be a Black-bellied? Doesn't seem to have any real white border to facial skin. Hard to judge size amongst the leaves.

digdeep said...

Hi Marie,

Not very prominent, but visible on the head shot. The bird was large, with a very long tail.

Dave