6th March 2010: Kampung Permatang Nibong, mainland Penang

Not many weeks ago, there had only been a single record of Asian Openbill in Malaysia. Then Hakim found one at Kampung Permatang Nibong. A week ago he texted me to to say there were now two birds. And last night he sent me another text to say he was watching EIGHT soaring in the late evening! He watched them go to roost, so I was there before dawn this morning.



I couldn't find any roosting, but as I was scanning the area I spotted three juveniles flying low over the padifields. Here are two of them, about to land. Once they landed in the uncut padi, they were not visible.



A rustic scene as the sun rose over Bukit Mertajam.

While waiting for the three to reappear, I spotted another bird in the distance flying south. It went down behind some buildings.



Both Pied and this Eastern Marsh Harrier were quartering the fields. This is a juvenile.



The two new grey central tail feathers reveal that it's a male.



Harriers have extraordinarily long legs - all the better for seizing prey in marshy habitats!





Among the many Zitting Cisticolas sitting in the tops of the padi stalks were a couple of Rusty-rumped Warblers. This one stayed in view long enough for me to digiscope a few photos.



It even stayed long enough for a video!



Although not closely related, Rusty-rumped Warblers and Zitting Cisticolas could easily be confused. Both skulk in padifields, have a rusty rump, streaked upperparts and white-tipped tail feathers. The cisticola, apart from being much smaller and shorter-tailed, has a much paler and plainer 'face', lacking the dark eyestripe of the warbler.






















The same Peregrine Falcon as I saw on 23rd January was sitting on the same pylon this morning!






















It's a big bird, so I'm pretty sure it's a female. What's she looking at?



The local gang of thugs had arrived, aka House Crows! She started calling nervously for a while.



Then she decided she could do without the hassle so early in the morning!



So she flew off to the next pylon!





Meanwhile the openbills had reappeared, and soared around for about 20 minutes before going down in the same area as the fourth bird seen earlier. Hakim and I located them roosting in some bushes, but getting close proved impossible.



At some wet padis I found this well-concealed snipe. With its longish bill and well-marked face pattern I wondered if it might be a Common Snipe at first.



But then it shuffled forward a bit and revealed typical Pintal/Swinhoe's coverts. The long bill makes it more likely to be Swinhoe's than Pintail, but I didn't see the tail, so it had to go down as unspecified.



Among the many Wood Sandpipers was this one with a deformed bill. Odd how the shorter bill makes the bird look fatter! The pink eggs are those of the Golden Apple Snail, a pest species that has invaded Malaysia from Thailand, to be closely followed by Asian Openbills, which feed on them!



The upper mandible appears to taper toward the tip almost like a normal mandible, but the lower one is square-ended and extends slightly beyond the upper.

4th March 2010: Chuping, Perlis

A spot of forest birding en route to Chuping netted me a nice selection of birds:



A flock of Great Slaty Woodpeckers were vocal and active, but never came very close. These are the largest woodpecker in the region.



The best I could do with a Malaysian Hawk-cuckoo - noisy but secretive!



A male Wreathed Hornbill flying overhead, showing the two odd-shaped outer primaries that cause the amazing whooshing sound as the birds fly.



The same bird in better light!



A blue-pouched female.






















A sleepy Bat Hawk roosting beneath the canopy.






















I noticed that the legs appear to be scaleless - the scales must be very small I suppose.



Chuping - so much habitat - where to begin?!





The skies were disappointingly raptor-free today. This Grey-faced Buzzard was the only exception.



Every pipit was carefully scrutinized, but all proved to be Paddyfields.



Another common inhabitant of wide-open spaces - Red-wattled Lapwing.



This tree reminded me of the famous Cree prophecy: "Only when the last tree has died and the last river has been poisoned and the last fish has been caught will we realize that we cannot eat money."

There were very few harriers left at the roost site. I counted just 8 Eastern marsh and 4 Pied. Still, the few that came in were interesting!







A female Pied gave a nice close fly-by.





Then a male Eastern Marsh for comparison.



Two interesting subadult female Eastern Marsh arrived late. First this one.





Then this one.



Other birds coming to roost included Black Drongos...





...and Purple-backed Starlings. I couldn't find a Chestnut-cheeked in amongst them!



A typical Perlis sunset.

2nd March 2010:Tanjung Tokong and Bukit Penara, Penang

A quick after-work excursion to take visiting birder, Alan Wight out on a mission to see "shorebirds and nightbirds". The worst traffic Penang could throw at us did not prevent us reaching Tanjung Tokong in time to see a reasonable collection of shorebirds in the dying light, the highlight of which was a couple of male White-faced Plovers.



After dinner at the famous Gurney Drive hawker centre, we drove up to Air Hitam to look for night birds. Oriental Bay Owls were once again a no-show (have the birds left the area?), but this was somewhat compensated for by splendid views of





















a Collared Scops Owl...






















two Colugos...,

and the ever-dependable pair of Brown Hawk Owls at the carpark. On the way down, a Large-tailed Nightjar was a nice bonus for Alan.

Purple-backed Starling

A sketch of one of yesterday's birds.Amazingly complicated wing pattern they have!

1st March 2010: Kampung Permatang Nibong, mainland Penang

Another month gone! I managed a couple of hours in late afternoon at the Asian Openbill site. Two were seen there last Thursday, but there were none in evidence today.

Everywhere is so dry now - it's been weeks since we had any proper rain, and daily temps are a couple of notches above normal.

I watched some tractors ploughing up a fallow field. As the uncut area got smaller and smaller, various birds and rodents made a dash for safety at the edge of the field.



Shall I, shan't I? A Slaty-breasted Rail toys with the idea of breaking cover.



Go for it! A total of five of these birds came out of the final strip of grass - most likely a family group, as most were subadults.



An unbelievable number of rats also emerged as the final strip disappeared beneath the tractor. At first Hakim and I thought they'd got away with it, as there were no raptors around, but at the last minute this majestic White-bellied Sea Eagle arrived and quickly sized up the situation...









Unfortunately I missed capturing the moment of impact as the camera instantly focused on the background as the bird dived in. Here it is with its prize - the one that didn't get away.



Purple-backed Starlings are always very shy and difficult to get close to. The light wasn't great today due to the haze in the air from stubble-burning.



There were many Red-rumped Swallows about today, some of the worn adults had practically white rumps.



Late on the Greater Spotted Eagle came in to roost on its favourite pylon. It must have been choking on the smoke this evening.



My best find of the day though, was in the letterbox! My Dad sent me this article in the June 2009 issue of the Suffolk Ornithologists' Group bulletin, the Harrier. My own account of the meeting is here. It's nice to find myself still being referred to as a "boy" - that's good Suffolk that is...boy!