Alor Setar and Bukit Wang 110706

I'm back to Alor Setar again as its going to be a busy weeks ahead for July. I manage to do some birding and herping. 

A male Baya Weaver guarding its nest while trying to attract female to come and check it...

 He turns out to be lucky, here is a shot of a female making a check. But i'm not sure whether she agreed to be the partner or not...hehehe...

 A school of snakehead babies, Channa striatus or 'haruan'. This fish is a mouth-brooder so the baby will flee into the mother's mouth for safety...you can see the mother's shadow at the bottom..

 A juvenile Greater Coucal,

 Hoplobatrachus chinensis, Chinese Bullfrog. A feral species, introduced for the meat....

 Pied fantail,

 Scaly brested Munia, 'Pipit Sisik'

Slaty breasted Rail,

 a weird looking Fejevarya limnocharis, Grass frog...it resembles the one i took from Balik Pulau, Penang. It has elongated skin fold along the back instead of broken ones....

I also went out to do some survey at Bukit Wang,Kedah with Choo Eng and Evan. But there's nothing much as it was quite dry..

Leptobrachium hendricksonii froglet

Microhyla berdmorei,

That's all. Thanks a lot!

Air Itam Dam 110702

I bought my boy a new bicycle recently. So my wife and i decided to bring him to try and cycle around Air Itam Dam. Here are some shots taken during the family excercise outing...

 I saw this couple looking down at the river with a container. I suspect they are poaching the fishes in this river. Some of the incidence where the human misuse the permission given to enter the area. Instead of having a good exercise, they stole the natural resources! What a shame! After they saw me and my family, they move out from the area...

 The guy who is also a smoker throw this cigarette butt, which can cause fire in the forest...Stupid!

 After making a big circle, we finally arrived back at the main dam. We saw this huge fish which i thought to be a 'Pacu'.

 We also saw some painted terrapin, Callagur borneoensis and river terrapin, Batagur affinis.

A shot with the nice Georgetown as background but the haze is so bad...

At the main parking lot, i saw a lot of Grey-rumped Treeswift perched on the tree above the hut. So i decided to take a few shot using my digiscope...

This is the female, notice the lack of rufous ear covert...

here is the male

  I haven't seen them for quite a long time, and now they are back. Maybe its their breeding season. I notice that they are only here at the main parking lot, perched on the same tree only during certain time of the year...must make note of this...

That's all. Thanks a lot.

USM Birding group 110624

I've been longing to create and activate a birding group for my university, Universiti Sains Malaysia. For this particular purpose i have asked for some money from the university. Although the money stil nowhere to be seen, i decided to give it a try and create a short event of birding in the campus.

On friday, 24th June 2011, i sent out some notification on my facebook and through SMS to some of my friends regarding the birding and photography activity. Although i missed a lot of them but its good enough for a start. To my surprise, a few of them showed out including the unexpected attendance of my MNS friend Neoh Hor Kee. We meet up at the Durian Valley, USM. Thanks a lot friends. Here are some shots of the birds seen during the birding trip.

White Bellied Sea Eagle

A lousy shot of a flying House Crow.

Coppersmith Barbet. The only species of barbet in the campus and on Penang Island.

A House Swallow. Formerly it was known as Pacific Swallow but Robson 2008 split the species occuring in Asia as House Swallow.


Pink Necked Green Pigeon. One of the common species during the fig fruiting season.

A pair of Thick Billed Green Pigeon. As u can see this species can be differentiated easily from the former by looking at the red marking at the base of the bill.
Thanks a lot to all participant. See you guys again in the next trip.