Chuping-Raptors heaven 2.

I'm tempted to revisit Chuping after a not so successful trip on my own. So i get Choo Eng to accompany me this time. He had seen most of the raptors but our main target is the Short-eared Owl which was sighted by a friend, Neoh Hor Kee. We head up to Chuping at around 5 am to ensure that we didn't miss the early birds.

This trip turns out to be great and i got a few keeper shots of the raptors. Here are some of them.

 Eastern Marsh Harrier. Female on top and male bottom. 

 Eastern Yellow Wagtail.

 We thought this guys was the rufous winged buzzard but in the end we concluded it as the grey faced instead. Judging by the presence of the median throat and moustachial stripe. Plus the front part looks barred.

 Kestrel

 Large hawk Cuckoo. A juvenile.

 Lesser Coucal

 Little Cormorant.

 An Osprey with its prey, a fish. Although at first, we thought it was a rat.

 Female (top) and male (bottom) Pied Harrier.

 Short-toed Snake Eagle.

 Releasing a bomb.

Stonechat.

In the end, it was a very productive trip but we didn't manage to see the owl although we stayed till 8.30 pm. Maybe next time. Any comments will be very much appreciated. Thanks for reading.

Chuping-raptors heaven

After hearing of so many rare sightings in Chuping, Perlis. I decided to go there on my own on 24 December 2013. Indeed there were so many harriers and i got my lifer which is a short toed snake eagle. I stayed til noon and decided to head home after a heavy rain pouring down for an hour at about 2 pm. Here are some shots of the birds and a snake i saw during the trip. Not many good shots but i admit shooting alone is hard especially if you are shooting from car. Anyway, wait for my next post from the same area but this time i went with a friend.

 Black Drongo

 I couldn't really be sure of this raptor's id. I think its just a dark morph Oriental Honey Buzzard but i could be wrong.

 Another raptor which i also think was an OHB.

Zitting Cisticola.

An Indochinese Ratsnake resting on the Mimosa pigra tree. I also saw a Copperhead Racer crossing the road but no shot coz its too fast. So did a pair of quail which i thought was a Blue-breasted.

Thats all guys. Will post the second trip report soon. Thanks for reading.

japanese sparrowhawk

japanese sparrowhawk_LR, a photo by mamuin on Flickr.

A female japanese sparrowhawk sighted yesterday at Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang.

Naja kaouthia_pale

Naja kaouthia_pale, a photo by mamuin on Flickr.

A pale morph of monocled cobra from Alor Setar,Kedah.

MNS-CEMEX survey at Teluk Air Tawar

I manage to squeeze a few hour during my workday to go for this survey as i was told by Choo Eng there were nobody to accompany the CEMEX Malaysia boss during the boat survey to Teluk Air Tawar IBA. Some of us turn up, me, Choo Eng himself and Simon for MNS side. 

We were thought that the water condition were not ideal enough for the birds. But nonetheless, we end up with headache counting the flocks on the mudflats. There were estimated more than 200 brown headed gull with some in breeding plumage, many stints mainly red-necked, hundreds of redshanks, pacific golden plovers and many more.....

Here are some shots of the birds,

Bar-tailed Godwit in flight.

 Bar-tailed Godwit. Some already in their breeding coat.

 Curlew Sandpiper in breeding coat.

Lesser Sand-plover

 Javan Pond-heron.

 Great egret.

 Great egret in breeding plumage in contrast with the one at the back which is not. 

 Brown-headed Gull in flight. Note the pale iris.

 One of the flock of brown-headed gull.

 Broad-billed Sandpiper (thanks Dave for the correction) busy feeding on the mudflat.

Is this Nordmann's Greenshank in the front? There were 3 birds with nearly the same appearance as this one. The one at the back looks like common greenshank to me. (The bird in front is indeed a Nordmann's and the two bird at the back is Terek Sandpiper and Common redshank. Thanks to David Bakewell for the id's)

No spoon-billed sandpiper but we did assume it is here as there were hundreds of smallish plovers/sandpiper like around on the mudflat. It's just that we don't have enough time to scrutinize them one by one.

Looking for southward migrants in Alor Setar 2012

I went back to Alor Setar for the Raya Haji this year. This year it coincide with the early southward migratory season. It gave me an oppotunity to observe some of the passing migrants at my wife's house. Most are the usuals suspects which never missed to make a stop here foraging for the luxurious insects at the surrounding paddyfields.

I didn't see any passing raptors this year which is quite weird. I do make a good last year. The count at Bedong raptor count site just south of Alor Setar for this season is also very good. What makes them not passing the area still a mystery to me...

 A first winter Crow-billed drongo. The thick bill and the whitish belly gives out the id.

 An eastern-crowned Warbler. I'm a bit confused for the id of this one but i'm quite sure i saw a stripe on the mid-head.

 This is a new record for this area, a female Tickell's Blue flycatcher (thanks to Dave Bakewell for the id). Pity i didn't manage to get a better shot of it as it was quite skittish.

 Another shot of the Mugimaki.

 I went to check the paddyfields for snipe and i manage to count at least 6 individuals. The top photo shot suggest that it is a swinhoe's snipe base on the plainer belly and less distinct and the toes didn't extend beyond tail tip....any other suggestion?

This one photo suggest that it is a Common snipe base on the feet that extends slightly beyond tail tip..but i'm not sure if i'm right...

Some of the locals, 

Common Tailorbird

Pied Fantail.

Thanks a lot.

From some free time...

Some update....

Limnonectes hascheanus

Megophrys nasuta

Philautus vermiculatus

Xenophrys aceras

Theloderma horridum

Brown Wood Owl. A new record for Bukit Panchor.

Some birds from USM...

Yellow-vented Bulbul. A coomon resident here.

Coppersmith Barbet. Preening.


Here are two shots of a leucistic Pacific/house swallow that i found recently. Very interesting. I must get a better shot of it...

Some other leucistic birds photo can be seen here: http://digdeep1962.blogspot.com/search?q=leucistic

Thanks a lot for viewing.