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!

14 January 2011: Pulau Burung, mainland Penang

Couldn't resist an early morning foray to have another go with the new camera! The light was perfect, but I got the image size wrong, so my efforts were not the best. Here are three examples, both taken at high magnification (about 40x for the grebe and 60x for the Watercock).







A Wood Sandpiper, taken at 20x and 60x:



The background looks as if it's been 'cloned' in Photoshop, but honestly, it's all natural!







































Having had a look at White-headed Stilts recently in Sydney, I paid a bit more attention to a pair of Black-winged Stilts which were close by today. Here's the female.






















And this is the male. I got a recording of the call too, so when I get round to it, I'll make sonograms of the two.





I noticed he had a pale grey, rather than white, tail. I didn't notice this on the White-headed Stilts I saw in Sydney.

The light was ideal for flight photography, so I was a bit disappointed not to get better results (with my DSLR!).





Common Sandpiper.







Wood Sandpiper.



Lesser Whistling-duck.





Highlight of the morning was these five Smooth Otters.



The birds were nervous of the otter, but I think the otter was more worried (or curious?) about me!



This Eastern Yellow Wagtail's sharp eyes meant curtains for the bug hiding under the leaf!



'Tschutschensis' I presume!



And a typical view of a flushed Pintail/Swinhoe's Snipe!