11 February 2011: Tanjung Tokong, Penang

A quick trip to Tanjung Tokong in an attempt to take pictures of "White-feaced/Swinhoe's" Plovers was foiled by the absence of plovers of any kind. There were a number of people fishing on the beach, and the clouds were threatening to dump large quantities of rain at any moment.



There were twenty Whimbrel and a couple of Bar-tailed Godwits - easy to overlook when they're asleep.



After seeing adult 'baueri' Bar-tailed with plain unbarred tails in Australia, I was especially keen to get a look at the tails of these birds. Only one obliged, and, as far as I could see, this 'menzbieri' adult had an unbarred, plain brown tail!



Common Greenshanks were the most numerous species after Whimbrel.



The flock was rushing about in the shallows chasing fish - mudskippers by the look of this one.



This is a still from a video clip. I was surprised at how white the lesser underwing coverts were on this bird. White underwing coverts are a feature of Nordmann's Greenshanks. Common usually has well-barred underwing coverts, as here, but this is obviously more variable than I had realized.

So, after all, a not unproductive visit to my old birding haunt!