5th July 2010: Air Itam Dalam, mainland Penang

I went out in late afternoon to check the paddyfields - the first time for a while - getting impatient for waders! There were the usual compliment of over-summering egrets but nothing much else, so I headed down to Air Itam Dalam for dusk.

Mangrove Pitta, Black-and-Red Broadbill and Mangrove Blue Flycatcher were all vocal, but my focus was on trying to photograph the Great Eared-nightjars which roost there.






















A male Common Flameback looked like his crest was on fire!



Almost matching!



I found this primary feather from a diurnal raptor - my guess would be Crested Serpent-eagle.



A Dollarbird in a pot of gold!



Air Itam Dalam is an important roosting area for birds that hunt in the paddyfields. First in was this Changeable Hawk-eagle.



Followed by a Crested Serpent-eagle over my head.

If you are thinking that the sky was an odd colour, it was a pretty spectacular sunset!







Meanwhile birds continued to arrive for the night.







A few Purple Herons.



As some birds arrived to roost, others were leaving their daytime roosts; the first Great Eared-nightjar of the evening.



A Black-crowned Night-heron set out to feed.



I finally spotted a Great Eared-nightjar heading in my direction.



Eurostopodus nightjars fly much higher than the Caprimulgus nightjars, and have relatively long tails.



This one flew right overhead!



Barred plumage, dark throat and ear tufts are typical Eurostopodus characteristics.



You can just about make out the ear tufts on this pic. Great Eared-nightjars are BIG - think small harrier-size!



One last shot before it disappeared into the night. I saw 4 others in the distance, but none headed my way.





The last of the light.

19th June 2010: Pelagic Boat Charter, off Tanjung Dawai, Kedah

This trip may have marked a new chapter in the annals of Malaysian birding - the first chartered pelagic trip. Turning up for the occasion were Choo Eng, Hakim, Phang and Tan Dek from MNS Kedah branch, and me.






















Diehard pioneers setting out to see what we could see on the ... er... sea. Note the four buckets, double-sealed in the foreground, of nausea-inducing chum!

It was mid-June and who knew what Southern hemisphere pelagic wanderer might be attracted to the fragrant bouquet of rotten fish and cod liver oil - perhaps a nice petrel or two?



Our boat was considerably smaller than the anchovy boat we normally go out on, giving us chance also to explore some of the offhsore islands and islets.



There were three pairs of Black-naped Terns on the aptly-named 'Black Rock' but no nests or juvs in evidence.







Stunning birds!



We headed out to the area where we'd seen most shearwaters and jaegers in past months and started ladling out the chum. This involved everyone else retreating to the stern of the boat to get as far away as possible from the stench, and yours truly, plus nose-clips, doing the dirty work. The challenge was keeping my mouth closed while not being able to breathe through my nose. I didn't want to accidentally swallow any of that stuff!



What did we get for the trouble of Choo Eng preparing the stuff in his back garden for three days, all of us having to endure near-suffocation in the car journey, and then shovelling it out into the ocean? A couple of Bridled Terns was about it. Despite repeated attempts in several spots, our chumming drew a depressingly complete blank. Guess there just weren't any tubenoses about! Your turn to do the ladling next time chaps!





Bridled Tern walking on water!



If chumming was the low point, visiting Pulau Songsong was the highlight!



A leisurely swim and walk along the beach was rounded off by fresh coconuts taken straight from the tree!



There were at least 4 pairs of White-bellied Sea Eagles on the island, though all were wary of our approach. We also saw Pied Imperial Pigeons.







Nothing else to photograph, so we tried snapping the Garfish as they skittered away from the boat.



Near the rivermouth there are some 'kelong' poles (markers for fishing nets) which are a favourite loafing spot for Common Terns. We counted over 30 summering birds in 'first summer' plumage.



"Watch me guys!"



"Bet you can't do this!"






















Impressive!



The white stripe on the wings of the nearest bird is caused by exposed feather bases. They would normally be hidden under the coverts above, but these have worn away to such an extent that the bases are revealed. It's an effect commonly seen on 1st summer shorebirds too.



On this one, the white bases of the median coverts are exposed by worn lesser coverts.



While on this bird, the white patch is caused by the exposed bases of the greater coverts, the median coverts having been worn away completely or moulted out.



The left hand bird has a deformed and discoloured bill, something that seems remarkably commonplace among Common Terns here (see here, here and here).



Room for one more? The response of the other two birds suggests not!



Red legs, black legs. Leg colour is usually a significant marker in identification of waterbirds, but not in this case. At most, it might indicate that the birds are of different races (perhaps black being 'longipennis' and red 'tibetana'), or it might be just variation in the same race. Anyway, they're both Common Terns!



Part of the flock in flight. The bird with the yellow-tipped bill is third from right.



Funny duck! A sign seen as we drove home. Thanks, guys, for your company, and thanks to Choo Eng for the extra photos. So we didn't see anything ground-breaking this time. Who volunteers to make the chum next trip?!

Anyone know where we can buy commerical grade cod-liver oil (not the de-odorized pharmaceutical stuff)?

16th - 18th June: Bukit Ayer FR, Perlis

Catch-up time , as I've been too busy to update the blog for a while.

My wife and I spent a couple of days in Bukit Ayer Forest Reserve chalets in west Perlis over the school holidays. It was quite a feat to find the place completely empty in the middle of the hols. The staff were friendly and helpful and the accommodation excellent - a 4-bed chalet with a/c, TV, hot water - for the princely sum of RM50/night. The only disappointment - a pretty significant one - was that it was difficult to get into any decent forest, as most of the area has been taken over either for orchards or tree nurseries.

This wasn't a full blown bird trip, but here are a few of the shots I took along the way.





Blue-winged Pittas really are a common bird in Perlis. Interesting to see the variation in size and shape of the white wing patch on these two birds.



A calling bird in a rubber plantation.



A pair of Brown Barbets, the pale-billed female on the left.



A male Red-throated Barbet in the same area.



Not sure if this one was an adult female or a subadult male. It gave a subdued and much slower. softer version of the typical call.






















A Slender Squirrel.





A couple of scenery shots of Timah-Tasoh Lake.



A night walk in the hope of bumping into a White-fronted Scops Owl produced Oriental Bay Owl and Javan Frogmouth but not White-fronted. Not much to photograph though - except this spider...



...and this Leopard Cat in the forest. They're much easier to see in plantations!