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.

13th Jan 2010: Malim Nawar and Kinta Nature Park, Perak

On my way back from a few days' work in KL I called in at Malim Nawar to check out the 'Temminck's Stint pond', but found that it was full of water. It had breeding Little Grebes, a few Lesser Tree-Ducks, and an overflying Osprey, but no waders!



In a dry field nearby there were quite a few 'Swintail' Snipe (Pintail or Swinhoe's), including this close bird busily digging for prey.







































The eyes are located so centrally on the head that they allow the bird to see well both in front and behind! I got a good view of the tail as the bird walked away, but not of the diagnostic outer tail feathers.



I paid a first visit to Kinta Nature Park, which has been in the news lately, as efforts are being made to rescue the park from the illegal sand-mining and duck-farming activities that are rampant. Sadly, these were still much in evidence during my visit. Still, the heronry, shown here, was an impressive sight, with large numbers of Grey and Purple Herons, Little Egrets and Black-crowned Night Herons in evidence.



Even though many nests had young, nest-building seemed to be an ongoing activity. This Grey Heron obviously had ambitious plans for an extension!



The heronry provided a good opportunity to photograph herons in flight.



Greys





'Purps'



and Little Egrets.



Here's a composite image of Grey and Purple Herons in flight. Purple has much shallower wingbeats, which gives the impression that it is a smaller bird. The neck is more angular, the wings narrower, the bill finer and the feet larger than Grey, which all adds up to a distinctive silhouette that can be picked out a great range.



Both Grey and Purple occasionally fly with necks outstretched, which creates a very odd impression! This Purple is in full breeding condition, with legs and bill base flushed violent red.






















A loafer 'hangin out'!

7th January 2010: Chuping Sugar cane plantation, Perlis, Malaysia

Choo Eng, Hakim and I spent half a day at one of my favourite places for pioneer birding in Malaysia - on my first birding trip out since returning from Europe. Perlis is as underwatched a state as almost any in Malaysia, and being right on the Thai/Malaysia border, has considerable potential for rarities. In the last few years Malaysia's first Asian Openbill was found here, as well as a hybrid Long-legged x Upland Buzzard (both of which would be new species for the country).

Unfortunately we were greeted on our arrival by persistent drizzle - the kind of weather I hoped I had left behind in Europe!



Our first good bird after arrival was a fly-by Osprey carrying a fish, and the second was this White Wagtail, a lifer for the other two and a new Malaysian bird for me.






















It didn't think much of the weather either!



Looks like a male of the 'leucopsis' race.



The white face and isolated heart-shaped breast mark are distinctive.



With the rain continuing to fall, we opted to bird from the car, driving slowly along and stopping for anything interesting, like this male Eastern Stonechat.











As we drove along I was alerted by an unfamiliar call. On stopping and scanning we located a pipit, which ran past the car, forcing me to twist my neck painfully to get a few photos. The bird then flew. On my brief views through the viewfinder, the bird seemed to be a Paddyfield Pipit. I got out of the car in an attempt to find the mystery caller, but all I could see was the same pipit, which I pretty much ignored, despite it landing nearby. Not hearing the call again, I got back in the car and we left the scene.

I didn't get chance to review my pictures till just a few days ago, when I was immediately struck by several features of the bird which rang alarm bells that it might be a Blyth's Pipit. I put a couple of pics up on the Surfbirds Advanced Bird Identification Forum, still more in hope than conviction, and got unanimous feedback from experts familiar with both Paddyfield and Blyth's that it is indeed a Blyth's Pipit! You can read the comments here. As the icing on the cake, when I listened to recordings of Blyth's call here and here I heard a very good match for the initial call that caught my attention.



So what makes this bird a Blyth's rather than a Paddyfield Pipit (right)?

1. The shape and colour of the median coverts. Adult Blyth's in fresh plumage show crisp squarish dark centres to the median coverts, and the central shaft streak does not bissect the pale tips (see this picture for example). I was fortunate in that this bird has very fresh plumage apart from a very worn, unmoulted tail.

2. The well-marked crown and mantle - the streaks are not only dark, but quite fine, so that the buff-brown and dark streaks seem roughly equal in thickness.

3. Structurally, the bird is shorter-billed and legged than Paddyfield, and the hindclaw is markedly shorter.

4. The supercilium is less obvious than on Paddyfield, and the lores are paler, leading to a less well-marked 'face'.



Another comparison with Paddyfield (right). The shorter legs and much slighter bill of the Blyth's are obvious in this composite. Also, the head of the Blyth's seems smaller in proportion to the body. I notice that the malar stripe doesn't reach the base of the bill, but I'm not sure if this is a useful distinguishing feature, as it may be variable.

The differences seem so obvious looking at them now, I can't believe I didn't pick this bird out in the field! Oh well - that's the benefit of photography!



After the pipit, we discovered a fallow field over which a few harriers were circling. Realizing that this might be a potential roost, we decided to sit and wait till dusk. By the time we were done, we had counted 55 Pied Harriers and 43 Eastern Marsh at the roost - quite a spectacle! This picture of a male Pied Harrier coming to roost reminds me of the many cold evenings I spent in my youth watching Hen Harriers coming to roost in winter in the UK. Then if I got 10 birds I was ecstatic!



Another male Pied approaching the roost. Many of the birds arrived with full crops, showing they had recently had a successful catch.



A juvenile Pied inspecting its toes!



And a female Pied on a roadside fence.



A male Eastern Marsh Harrier incoming. The upperwing pattern is superficially similar to Pied, but it lacks the clear white leading edge to the inner wing.



Eastern Marsh Harriers of all ages and both sexes show a much more prominent head in flight than Pied. This is another male.



Even in near silhouette, the slim-wings, slim tail and small head of Pied are distinctive.

So, Perlis does it again - another first for Malaysia - even though retrospectively identified! Let's hope the bird hangs around long enough to get more looks at it!

27th Dec 2009: Monchique and Ria De Alvor, the Algarve, Portugal

Our last full day in Portugal, so a group of us set off to reach the highest point in the range of hills which runs along the north edge of the Algarve. This proved to be a mistake, as they were shrouded in thick cloud all day!



We did come across three White Storks hanging around a sizable nest some way from the road.





And a small flock of Crested Tits investigating a Cork Oak stump near a layby.





Seeing that the weather was much better at the coast, we decided to revisit the Alvor Estuary, our favourite spot in our brief tour.

Though the weather was better than our first visit, the tide was out, which meant fewer birds on the saltmarsh.



The Greater Flamingo flock had increased from 17 to 26. We met long-time Algarve birder Colin Key, who told us that these birds come from Coto Donana in Spain, the Camargue in France, and even from as far away as Iran. Somtimes the wintering flock gets up to 400 birds!



Two young birds having a tussle.





We spotted one colour-ringed bird. Perhaps someone reading this might know where it's from...?

Colin pointed out to us a distant Black-shouldered Kite - a major rarity in Western Europe. I mentioned that I was from Malaysia where they are pretty much the commonest raptor, and that actually I was far more interested in species like Common Ringed Plovers and Northern Lapwings. He must have thought there's no pleasing some people! You can see some much better pix of all the birds I photographed in the Algarve on his blog, Algarve Birder, and his pbase photo galleries. Thanks for all your help Colin! On our way back along the sea wall, I was surprised to flush a pair of Common Quail. They flew over into the saltmarsh and landed out of sight before I could record the moment with the camera however.





Ah, now here's a real cracking good bird - Northern Lapwing - to finish off with!