Asian Openbill

After a week of the sighting of the Asian Openbill by Hakim, i decided to search for the bird during the weekend with a hope that the bird will remain in the area. I called Hakim and booked him as my guide, as i'm not really familiar with the area.

We met at Petronas BKE at around 7.30 am. We make our way to the openbill site at around 7.45am. When we arrived, the bird is still around. Thank God!

It was quite far from the main road and we decided to walk a bit to get a closer view. What a nice lifer for the weekend.

 

 

I must thank Hakim for bringing me here. After the openbill there was nothing much to be seen. I was also hoping to see the Aquillas but they were nowhere to be seen. Some other good bird that we saw are snipes, peregrine falcon (too far) and black kites. On our way out of the openbill site, we met with Khoo Swee Seng n wife from MNS Selangor.

After none of the Aquillas showed up, we decided to go to Air Itam Dalam as Hakim said he didn't know where the spotted wood owl tree was. Air Itam Dalam was also quite disappointing, we didn't see the owls! On our way out we met with Mr n Mrs Hum. There were not much bird except green billed malkoha, arctic warbler, black kites, stork billed kingfisher and we heard the mangrove pitta calling but couldn't see it.

After Air Itam Dalam, Hakim and i decided to go to Teluk Air Tawar as Mr n Mrs Hum said there was black headed gull seen earlier in the morning. Hakim also thought he saw a cormorant flying along the new expressway. So another place to check.
When we arrive the tide was coming up and the birds was quite close. No black headed gull but here are some others, i hope my identifications are correct,

Curlew sandpiper, thanks to Dave for id

 

Whimbrel,

 

After 1/2 an hour, no black headed gull showed up. So we decided to go off. I sent Hakim back and drove back to Penang. On my way back i was thinking about the Chinese Egret sighted at the Jelutong expressway. The was quite right, so i decided to stop by for check. I was unlucky coz the bird was not around. This is little egret,

The bird was hunting and i noticed the behaviour as written in guidebooks, it will use its feet to chase the fish to the surface before catching them. Here is the link to the video but it was a bit blocked.
Little Egret hunting


What a weekend....