15th November 2011: Tanjung Tokong, Penang

I finally made time to go down to the Swinhoe's Plover site today - and the birds didn't disappoint - there were four present.



There's a bird just to the left of the post, on the water's edge.









Bird 1.



Bird 2.



Bird 3.







Bird 4.



I had a hard time trying to age these birds as they all seemed pretty worn. Eventually I managed to see that the bird with the brightest cap (on the left) was in primary moult and therefore must be an adult.



All the others showed uniform flight feathers and I therefore aged them as 1st winter birds.



A solitary minivet was flying around, so I had to check it out in case it was my second 'Swinhoe's' of the day - nope - just an Ashy!



The other highlight of the afternoon was a group of 8 Smooth Otters. I never managed to photograph them when every head was up, but 7 out of 8 ain't bad!