Last minute collections

Here are some photos which i missed out...and some of the collection made this year end. In all, its a nice collection to finish off the year 2011. Enjoy..

From Byram,

Little ringed plover in breeding plumage

Little Stint. My lifer.

White Wagtail. My lifer.

From Batu Kawan, 

Oriental Darter. Thanks to Mun who found it and share it with us. Though the shot is not so good as it was raining heavily, just looking at the bird is pretty amazing as there were only 2 previous record from Peninsular Malaysia....

From Alor Setar coast,

 Lesser crested tern. My lifer. I concluded it as lesser as the bill is more of orange than yellow. I counted 8 of them on 25th Dec and 0n 26th the number goes up to 30! That makes me wonder as this bird is not that common on our shore.....

Look at the wingspan!

 Common tern (larger bird in the middle) with white winged tern. Correct me if i'm wrong.

 Whiskered tern (thanks to David Bakewell for the correction).

Thanks a lot to all my friends who shared the good experience of birding and herping in year 2011. See you next year and i hope it'll be much more exciting! Thanks a lot guys!

Raya haji in Alor Setar 2011

I went back to Alor Setar for my Raya Haji this year. It coincide with the starting of the migratory season. Pity i didn't see as many raptors as last year except for two OHB and a few japanese sparrowhawk. So i went for the waders instead. Not too many of them and most stays quite far away. The best was what i think blact-tailed godwit. There were a few flock, in total about 15-20 birds.

 with two lesser sandplover

 with common greenshank. Some flying shots of the spooked waders buti'm not too sure of which species it is. Could it be the black-tailed godwit or just curlew sandpiper.

  underwing,

 

 After shooting the waders, i heard some ruckus in the bushes by the mudflat. So i waited for a while, then this fella came out. A mongoose, it was feeding on the rubbish thrown by nearby villagers...

 Back to the village area, as usual during the starting of migratory season, the villagers will start to put up their mist nets. So as usual there will always be some unfortunate side catch...like this rare oriental scops owl...

 There were two of them..... :(

Some others,

a juvenile little heron,

blue-tailed bee eater,

 SOme of other shots..

Arctic warbler,

pond-heron,

White-winged tern,

Great egret,

That's all. Thanks a lot for reading.