Air Itam Dalam and Teluk Air Tawar 100808

Its the last weekend before Puasa or fasting month for Muslims starts. I decided to go for Mee Udang at Sungai Dua with my wife and kid. Before going for mee udang for lunch, i decided to make a visit to Air Itam Dalam to look for the spotted wood owl, mangrove blue flycatcher and streaked breasted woodpecker. When i reached the area, my little boy is sleeping so i walked in alone. It was quiet and not much bird around. Only some olive winged bulbul, pied fantail and black naped oriole.

After a while a Pin Striped Tit Babbler flew in quite close to the boardwalk. I manage to get some shots and i noticed that it is not as wary as the one in the forest....

I saw this Olive Tree Skink, Dasia olivacea, resting on the trunk of the Ficus,

Then i saw a Kembara drove into the parking area. I knew it is somebody i know, it is Dr Khaw. Together we wait for the mangrove blue flycatcher to come out. As people always said "Patience is always the key in birding and bird photography", later it came out and perched just few metres away from us. My shot of the bird always underexpose and i had trouble using my autofocus. Later i switch to manual and shoot one last single shot before it flew off. The shot was out of focus and slightly underexposed....no wonder, i forgot to change my ISO after i shot the skink...sigh!

This is the shot, the mother and chick,

After i wasted the chance, the bird hardly came out again. I decided to go for lunch. As i was packing my stuff into the car, i heard a juvenile flycatcher calling from the bushes besides the parking lot. I decided to give it one last try. I manage to get 2 shots...here is the best..

After taking our lunch, i went to Teluk Air Tawar for the waders. The full tide is at 5.45 p.m. and it's already 4. So i guess its a good timing...

When i arrived at the rivermouth, lots of people at the nearby stall and so do the waders on the mudflats. So i decided to take some shot and give it a count. Here are some of the shot...

Eurasian Curlew

Little egret and common redshanks,

Lesser sand plovers...one stil in breeding plumage

Common sandpiper (left) and Curlew Sandpiper

As usual, do correct me if the identifications are wrong. The total count was,

Eurasian Curlews - 7

Lesser Sand Plovers - 17

Little egret - 1

Common redshank - 10

Red necked Stint - 10

Many of them left unidentified as i don't have any scope and the lighting was too harsh for a better view of the bird. Anyway, there will be more of them coming and i'll surely come and visit this place again..

note: some name corrected. Thanks to Dave Bakewell for his kind comment..

USM 100806

Its the convocation week. I was on my bike waiting for my wife to go back home. It is then i saw a scaly breasted munia beside the parking lot of Eureka building. I was lucky that i brought my camera along. The bird  looked wary and i'm wondering why...

Then only i saw this fella on the ground,

It is a fledgling, i think it has just recently came out of its nest. No wonder the mother was so worried with me around....

Picking up some food for the baby, but no feeding shot..

After a while, i noticed that the mother is too worried with my presence. Worried that the chick might be left alone starving to death...i decided to leave them alone. I hope the baby survived....

Alor Setar 100724

I forgot to post this visit of mine...
I went back to Alor Setar in a rush after the demise of my wife's grandfather. After the burial ceremony, i decided to do a short check at the coast, which i called Kedah Coast, for the early waders. I did manage to see some lesser sand plover, terek sandpiper, redshank and greenshank. Only the lesser sand plover can be seen still wearing their breeding coat. Here are some of the shots but they were very far and heavily cropped...it might even be wrongly identified..

Greenshank and redshank...thanks to Dave for the id,

Redshank..

The lesser sand plover...

As i was photographing these birds, i heard a  a rumbling calls in the air. When i looked up, i saw 3 tern, which i assume to be little, fighting...

On my way back, i saw lots of swiftlets flying over a river besides the paddyfield. I stopped for a while to try some flying shots. This is the best i could get,

  Is it a Germain's swiftlet? Anyway, i'm quite satisfied with this shot. As usual, do correct me if the identifications are wrong. Thanks.

Manjung Powerplant 100717

I went to Manjung for yet another EIA project. This time it was for TNB. Site surveyed was the Sultan Azlan  Shah Power Plant (Coal), Manjung. The ashpond of this powerplant was not as good as the one at Pulau Indah in terms of bird diversity but yet the work needs to be done...

One of the bird commonly  sighted were the white bellied sea eagle and purple heron. Many of them were juveniles or subadult. This is surely one of the best place to practice flying shots of WBSE and purple heron.

This one was feasting on fish,

Purple Heron,

House Crow,

A lone subadult white breasted waterhen,

I nearly couldn't believe my eyes when i saw 3 little grebe in this pond. But it was too far for a photo..

During the survey, we stay at Teluk Senangin. Besides the chalet was a nice cherry tree. As usual, it is a good place for flowerpeckers.

A male scarlet backed,

A strange male scarlet backed,subadult maybe,

An ornage bellied, male

 Female,

There was also a nice virgin forest reserve behind our chalet but i don't really have a time to check it out. The name is Hutan Simpan Segari Melintang.

There is another interesting to visit for the next trip, it was a mangrove with a nice boardwalk. Situated in between the powerplant and Lumut shipyard. The boardwalk is much better than the one in Matang. Much broader and easy to put your tripod without worrying it will drop into the gap. It is also much longer with many rest area. Must check next time as i went there only at night.

 We manage to see 4 mangrove pit viper on the boardwalk. We took one of them back for specimen but unluckily it bite one of my friend when he tried to prep the specimen. Lucky he is ok!

I must come back again to these two areas for the birds....

USM 100714

Its been so long long since i last birding in USM. Recently, i've been hearing calls of juvenile bird begging for food at the small patch of forest between my office (J complex) and Desa Bakti everytime i'm going out or back from my workplace. Finally i manage to go in for half an hour during my lunch break...

Here is the mysterious  bird, a juvenile Tickell's Blue Flycatcher, partially blocked by a twig...

This one is much younger compared to this,

In total, there were at least 4 juveniles in this area alone....good to see that this small remnant still hold quite a good number of this bird.

Later as i was waiting for the juveniles Tickell's for some perfect shot, i heard a familiar calls nearby,

It was an Olive Winged Bulbul, a new record by me for USM's checklist...

It perched quite far away and quite skittish. Anyway, good to record this fella here as i've heard a call of a mysterious bulbul (which is not Yellow Vented) not long ago at Durian/Bird Valley. I guess this is the guy..

Baling 100703

A second visit to Baling. After the brief survey done, we found out this place is rather interesting in terms of birdlife. This time i brought Choo Eng  along to help me on the birds checklist.

As we thought, Bukit Palong is indeed an amazing area for birding. There were lots of birds and i bet there will be more if we arrived much earlier. Here are some which i manage to photographed,

A mystery swift, quite big and finally i assume the best candidate would be house swift though i didn't see any white on the rump...any verdict,anyone..

Black Bellied Malkoha, separated fron the green billed by not having a white bordering around the red facial skin and appear to be smaller with shorter tail.

A surprising find, Black Eagle. It suddenly glide in front of us. It was quite low but we were ocassionally blocked by trees when we want to get good photo of it. Maybe next time..

A bulbul which i thought to be grey cheeked but i'm wrong. Any verdict for this bird...

Quite a vocal bird with melodious calls..Grey Headed Canary Flycatcher,

There were two red bearded bee eater chasing each other but this is the best i could get,

Scaly Breasted Bulbul. A beautiful bird,pity angle was too acute..

Another surprising find, Sultan Tit.

A flock of 10 White Eye flying around but they hardly stay still. After reviewing this shot and comparing them to the field guide, i assume this is Everett's White Eye. It doesn't seems to have the yellow forehead to be oriental...correct me if i'm wrong.

Yellow Eared Spiderhunter...

After Bukit Palong (which is in Compartment 4), we went to other Compartments of Gunung Inas Forest Reserve to check our mist nets and harp traps. After only a single individual caught during the the first visit,this visit is quite fruitful for this flying mammal,

Hipposideros larvatus                                                 Hipposideros diadema     

Hipposideros sabanus                Kerivoula minuta            

Murina cyclotis                   Rhinolophus trifoliatus

Some of the none-flying mammals ..

Common Palm Civet

Wild Pig.

This bird was sighted feeding its young. Didin't manage to get a better shot than this as it was always hidden.

Great Iora,

We might come back for the last visit as we found a very nice river in Compartment 9. It might be suitable for some good herpetofauna. Look out for my next write up. Thanks.