14th Jan 2012: Pulau Burung, Penang

Rubbish dumps the world over are known to be magnets to both birds and birders, and the landfill at Pulau Burung is no exception!

The best time to be there is just as the sun pokes its face through the early morning murk, which seems to also be an alarm call for the birds to wake up!



Suddenly the place transforms from a serene backwater to a hive of activity, buzzing with birds!



The Black-capped Kingfisher was in its usual corner - timid of photographers but bold in chasing off other occupiers of its favourite perches!



Bee-eaters and mynas scattered before it as it made its regular circuit of dead trees, though it did veer off at the last moment when faced with a pond-heron perched on its branch.



Black-winged Stilts breed here, but their numbers are augmented at this time of year by migrants, some of which show variable blackish head and neck markings.





Whiskered Terns suddenly appeared in droves as the sun came up.



I would have driven past the Garganeys if BK Lim (aka the Point and Shoot King!) had not pointed them out to me, much nearer than I'd seen them before, perched together on a log. Hubby was having a snooze while the missus looked a little more alert.



She decided it was time to do her make-up while he slept on (the brown forewing is how we know she's a she).



All this activity proved too much of a disturbance to his slumbers, so he told her to push off!



Ah - that's better - a guy needs a bit of elbow room to stretch - check out those beautiful lavender grey epaulettes!



Now that's just showing off!



Heading for breakfast, with the female (who has a much brighter face pattern) leading the way.



A nearby Little Grebe caught my attention. A recent paper on grebe taxonomy in South-east Asia (Mlíkovský 2010. Systematic notes on Asian birds: 74. A preliminary review of the grebes, family Podicipedidae. BOC Occas Publs 5: 125-131.) proposes splitting the Little Grebes in South-east Asia from those in parts of Indonesia on the basis of bill size and belly colour (the newly proposed Tachybaptus tricolor having a dark belly; T. ruficollis having a white or whitish belly). So I was keen to see if this bird would show me its belly!



It duly obliged, revealing a gleaming white belly, but when it did so, I got a surprise - the bird was moulting feathers left and right, and had practically no flight feathers!



You can see that all the primaries and some secondaries are growing out at the same time. I knew that many duck species undergo a simultaneous moult of flight feathers, when they become briefly flightless, but I hadn't realized that this also happens with Little Grebes. A quick internet search on getting home revealed this to be the case (e.g.here).



There goes another one! This bird seemed really keen to get all of those old feathers out as soon as possible!



After all that action the bird decided to 'put its feet up', revealing the rather finger-like toes (which even have nails rather than claws).





A Wood Sandpiper provided a brief distraction, and enabled me to improve on the landing shot I took the other day.



However, all thoughts of Wood Sandpipers were pushed aside by the appearance of a snipe by the roadside. Long-term readers of this blog will know that these interest me a great deal, and the chance of a close encounter with one was not to be missed!



This turned out to be an EXTREMELY close encounter, with the bird allowing me to park my car less than 3 metres away, forcing me to zoom out to 250mm to get the bird in frame! This is a Common Snipe (I've covered how to tell these from Swinhoe's/Pintail Snipes in other posts).



The interesting thing about this bird was that the 'macro range' enabled me to take a good look at the coverts. There were clearly two age classes visible. The lesser coverts (circled in white and labelled 1) were much more heavily worn than the medians (pink and numbered 2). The lesser coverts (or most of them) show an unbroken buff fringe and are juvenile feathers. The median coverts show a clear dark wedge at the tip, separating the buff into two spots either side of the central shaft. These are adult-type feathers. So this bird is a '1st winter' (hatched last year).



This was the nearest I got to a clear shot - always a challenge with snipes!



Last bird of the day was this pale morph Changeable Hawk-eagle. By now the light was against me, but I don't have many decent shots of this species, so thought I would try my luck.

28 December 2011: Batu Kawan and Pulau Burung, Penang

Two days after we arrived back from holidays in the UK, a small window of opportunity became available, and there was only one place to go; Batu Kawan, to see whether Mun's superstar visitors had waited for me, as he had promised they would! Getting up early wasn't a problem, courtesy of jetlag, so I was on site as first light dawned.



Sure enough, a quick scan soon located a solitary Oriental Darter roosting in a dead tree, and not long afterwards, the second bird flew in, having apparently been fishing in the floodwater beneath the tree.







As the light improved, I was joined by Mun himself, so was able to congratulate him personally on a memorable find (his finder's account is here).

Having had a good look at the darters, I decided to make my way to Pulau Burung. Mun was a bit shocked when I announced that I was moving on so soon, and in retrospect, I probably should have hung around longer, as his superb shots testify, but it was my first time out in over a month, I only had a few hours, and was anxious to get better views of the Garganeys, and whatever else may be lurking at Pulau Burung.

My first port of call was the temporary pools where the Little Stints had been last time. Since then, there've been White Wagtail and Pectoral Sandpiper, so I gave it a good grilling. There were now fewer birds, and all were were much more distant. Just one Little Stint was in evidence, and no rare wagtails or waders!



As I drove along the track I disturbed a pair of foraging Barred Buttonquails. This is quite a familiar scenario. The birds run along the track directly in front of the car. They are wondering how they can escape into the foliage either side, while I am wondering how to avoid the windscreen, get my eye to the viewfinder out of the side window (pointing forwards!) while keeping my foot gently on the gas and the car from meandering off the road! As usual, I largely failed, but the male did dither long enough for me to get one or two acceptable shots.





Next up it was time to focus my attention on the Garganeys. Oddly, they didn't associate with each other the whole time I was there. This rather bright bird turned out to be a female (you can check out the forewing colour in Mun's blog here.)





The male (told by the bright blue-grey forewing) kept much more distant, and hung out with the Lesser Whistling-ducks most of the time.

The other birds present were the 'usual suspects', but, even though I have filled my memory cards many times over with their images, it's hard to resist them when they pose so beautifully!



Blue-tailed Bee-eater.



A subadult (and subtly colourful) Common Moorhen.



Common Sandpiper (and friend!).







Wood Sandpipers.

So, thanks to Mun and those Oriental Darters, I managed to pick up my 560th species in Peninsular Malaysia on my last birding outing of the year! What surprises will 2012 turn up? Bring it on!

Every best wish for 2012.

18th Nov 2011: Pulau Burung Landfill Site, Nibong Tebal, Penang

A visit from friends Peter Harris and Mel Ong of A Rocha (check out the website - they're doing some GREAT work around the world) gave me the excuse to take a couple of days out showing them around the famous sites of Penang, which include a landfill site (oh - I meant famous BIRDING sites!).

The usual birds were on their best behaviour, giving point blank views and photo opps in the golden early morning light. I mostly just enjoyed the scene, but occasionally deigned to point the camera in the direction of a bird.



A Wood Sandpiper posing in front of a blue studio backdrop (actually a metal fence).



A Paddyfield Pipit giving 'field guide views'in front of the same backdrop.



A Purple Heron contemplating the mysteries of life (in front of an actual blue sky).



A Blue-tailed Bee-eater in a typically photogenic pose.



While my friends were purring over these sumptuous delights, I was feeling pretty relaxed about everything, until I noticed a smaller duck among a flock of flying whistling-ducks...



Casting off my laid-back smugness, I sprang into action!...An eclipse male Garganey - long-awaited and much-looked for, my 559th species for Peninsular Malaysia.



It landed distantly, and before I could set up the digiscoping gear, had secreted itself in thick vegetation, not to be seen again that day (but it has behaved better since, see Muin's blog).

Much closer at hand was a nice selection of waders and wagtails in some muddy pools next to the road.





Some Eastern Yellow Wagtails...



...Little Ringed Plovers...

and stints...















Long-toed Stints - they're such beauties I'm not going to apologize for OD'ing on these!

And then, four other stints, which, much to the disappointment of Peter (from the UK), turned out to be ALL Little Stints! I tried to explain that these are really rare here compared to Red-necked, which is by far the commonest calidrid, normally, but this didn't seem to cheer him up much!



Two Little Stints with a Long-toed (bottom left).



Why are these Little rather than Red-necked? It's a combination of features rather than one stand-out.



Firstly, the 'bare parts'. The legs are long, both below and above the joint, but especially above (the tibia). (The legs are dark by the way - the yellowish colouration is due to the mud). The bill is finer and slighter than on Red-necked, both at the base and the tip.



They have a distinctive 'round-shouldered' shape when feeding, the legs are usually well bent and the tail-end tends to be slightly angled upward.



The head and neck of Little Stint (LS) are subtly different from Red-necked Stint's (RNS) - smaller, narrower head-on, and with more 'neck'. The back of the head (rear crown-nape area) often seems to slope away rather than being strongly angled (as it often looks on RNS).



The head seems to be 'stuck on' the top of the body, while on Red-necked it seems stuck on the front (I guess this means that LS tends to stand more upright, while RNS has a rather horizontal stance usually). The body itself is rounder on LS (especially in the chest area) and more slender on RNS.



Plumage-wise, there's not much to go on in adult non-breeding plumage. Most LS have rather dark-centred upperpart feathers in fresh plumage (with whitish tips on very fresh feathers), whereas most RNS have much plainer and paler upperpart feathers. One of the four (seen left here) was clearly more worn than the others, and was distinctly brownish above.









Some more shots showing the typically 'hunch-backed' appearance.

Some of the differences I've mentioned above are easier to assess on still photos than on fast-moving birds. Anyone interested in this tricky pair of stints should make the most of this opportunity to familiarize yourself with Little Stints (at least if you live in Malaysia!). They seem to be hanging around.





A late morning visit to Kampung Permatang Nibong yielded three Great Spotted Eagles (two of which are shown above).