A lifer

I was so excited to read Dave's blog and a few days later, Mun's blog on the story of their Pelagic trip.Dave have seen most of the species but for Mun he got 5 lifer in one trip!

So i decided to get an arrangement done for the same trip during weekend. Luckily Choo Eng (Penang MNS President) did an arrangement for a saturday trip on 14th May 2011. We went together with John Steed, Jasmine, Kheng Hong and Liong.



The day started off slowly, we only saw white bellied sea eagle and some tern mainly Black-naped Tern. Later the boatman said he called a few friend whom on other boat which catches anchovies (the seabirds usually congregates close to this type of boat when they drop their net), but there were stil no sign of 'Itik Air' (Shearwater). So he brought us to a rocky isle close to Song-song island. There were breeding Black-naped tern on it and we manage to locate 2 chicks.  

Black-naped Tern

Feeding its chick

Two chick in total...

After that we decided to give it a rest so we landed on Son-song island for lunch. I heard mangrove whistler metallic call as soon as we set our foot on land. There were many other bird on the island. We met two locals who guarded the island,they said there'll be chalet build here. There was no forest trail so i scrap my intention to wander into the forest for a short herping. Anyway, i may come back in future for it...

After about an hour, we went off to the sea again. Still the birds didn't show up.....after half an hour ride towards the anchovies boat, Choo Eng shouted, 'Shearwater!'
n it woke everybody up.. there were two of them sitting on the water. Maybe having some rest. As was said in Dave's and Mun's blog, this bird is quite tame. We manage to get pretty close to it.

Running on the water....

After that we head closer to a group of anchovies boat. There were a few more Short-tailed Shearwater around,feeding close to the net. I took as many photos as i can as i'm not sure when can i see this bird again...here are some of my best shots.

 the underwing pattern

 look! No head!

 most of my flying shot are with the bird flying away. this is the only shot that i can show the leg projection.

 Diving...

There were so cooperative, til everybody got their best shot and we don't care about it presents anymore....hehehe...

Other than shearwater, there were many terns but not as much as i've seen on my first pelagic trip. They were mainly Bridled Tern which i only saw one during that trip.

I think this is stil Bridled Tern and not a Sooty. Sooty suppose to be darker and much bigger.

Little tern in breeding plumage, notice the yellowish bill.




Although in total i only got 1 lifer instead of 8, i'm still glad. Thanks for reading guys.