August 12, Sungai Burung

I headed south today to check out some sites around the airport and on the south side of the island. The airport was disappointingly birdless, and the sewage farm at Batu Maung held only a couple of Wood Sandpipers.

The rice fields at Sungai Burung were still unharvested, or else harvested and dry, so, again, quite birdless. A lone Blue-tailed Bee-eater did allow me to approach very closely, which made the trip worthwhile however!





Quite often I find my bee-eater shots are 'ruined' by the bird being in a rather tatty state of moult. No complaints with this bird though - it's in perfect shape!



After the rice fields I went down to the mudflats. I found that they have extended the jetty, or breakwater, way out to the edge of the mudflats. I guess this is to keep the silt out of the river mouth. It presents some interesting possibilities for photography on a rising tide.



Today, the birds were roosting way off in the distance, somewhere out there!

There was a surprisingly large number of birds for so early in the season. I counted:

Lesser Sand Plover 400
Curlew Sandpiper 14
Terek Sandpiper 1
Common Redshank 4
Little Tern 74

All way too far away for photography, but not too far away to try a few sketches!







Some Lesser Sand Plovers...





... and a Terek Sandpiper.