Another Common Ringed Plover

28th September 2009

After watching this bird for few years at the same spot, only today had a chance to digiscoped this uncommon visitor to Borneo. Other species seen at Lok Kawi Beach:

• Little Egret
• Eastern Cattle Egret
• Pacific Golden Plover
• Grey Plover
• Little Ringed Plover
• Malaysian Plover
• Greater Sand Plover
• Lesser Sand Plover
• Ruddy Turnstone
• Wood Sandpiper
• Terek Sandpiper
• Rufous-necked Stint
• Whiskered Tern - With juvenile
• Little Tern - Mixture of non and post breeding birds

Digiscoped with Nikon Fieldscope ED82, SRB-Griturn adapter and Fujifilm F31D

Popular beach among the locals for collecting shells and bivalves.

Lonely Common Ringed Plover Greater Sand Plover Pacific Golden Plover Ruddy Turnstone Little Tern

With the recent typhoon from Philippines that brought strong winds to Sabah, I'm hoping for another surprise during this Northern Hemisphere winter migration hehehe :) This post is dedicated in a loving memory to my uncle, Eric Joe Robles. May his soul RIP. Amin ...

My Lifer Aleutian Tern

27th September 2009

Thanks again to Chris who found this bird yesterday at the waterfront in front of Hyatt hotel and only managed to drop by for a while this afternoon. After waited for 1 hour, single Aleutian Tern in post breeding came along with Whiskered, Common and Black-winged Tern but in flight shot with my scope was impossible !

There were a few records of this species mentioned in Susan Myer's Birds of Borneo book as it was found in Sarawak last time and this could be the new species for Sabah :)

According from Chris, the name Aleutian came from a stretch of islands on the Alaska where this bird breeds and migrate during the Northern winter yearly to other South East Asia countries.

I didn't get any shot of this Tern but it is available at OBI database here by Michelle and Peter Wong from Hong Kong.

Other birds seen:

• Pacific Reef Egret
• White-bellied Fish Eagle
  

Digiscoped with Nikon Fieldscope Ed82, SRB-Griturn adapter and Fujifilm F31D

Sunny day after the storm early this morning

Chris, John, Jean and CK. Saw the bird after I took this picture hahahah :p

Intermediate Egret

Whiskered Tern juvenile

Happy birding !

Sightings Of Buff-banded Rail

23rd September 2009

Went to paddy field at Penampang bypass with Andrew, Gwenda and Karim on the 9th August 2009 hoping to see the Buff-banded Rail which were sighted by Denis and Ck a week before. Waited until 1740 hrs before it was seen standing on a stubble and took around 10 minutes preening before off for feeding that evening.

Digiscoped with Nikon Fieldscope ED82, 27-75 zoom eyepiece and Fujifilm F31D hand held.

Cropped 66% to removed vignetting from the zoom eyepiece with Capture NX2.

Then on the 14th September 2009, with Osman and Chris from Naturetrek, spent one whole day at Tempasuk plain, Kota Belud and saw 5 Buff-banded Rail around 1600hrs in the evening. A pair was seen "kissing" with each other and the other individuals seen on different plots of the paddy field.

This is a subpecies which is found in Philippines, Sulawesi and Sunda Islands, Gallirallus philippensis philippensis and only recently found in Borneo by Karim Madoya in 2008 at Tempasuk.

Good news is, this species now has been included in Susan Myer's new Birds Of Borneo book and Clive Mann's Annotated Checklist of Birds Of Borneo.

Happy birding !

Birding With Chris And Osman

14th September 2009

Spent the whole day around paddy fields and beaches at Lok Kawi and Tempasuk, Kota Belud with Chris and Osman trying to complete their Bornean species in order to qualify for Borneo 400 Club initiated by Ck Leong hehehe.

Some interesting migratory birds seen yesterday:

• Asian Dowitcher - My 2nd sighting of this elusive bird.
• Buff-banded Rail - Spotted by Chris after the rain around 1600 hrs. Then saw at least 5 individuals playing hide and seek.
• Watercock - Female seen but no male around.
• Sharp-tailed Sandpiper - My lifer hehehe :p

Other species seen:

• Purple Heron
• Cattle Egret
• Pacific Reef Egret
• Great Egret
• Little Egret
• Javan Pond Heron - Many with post breeding plumage.
• Cinnamon Bittern
• Wandering Whistling Duck
• Black-winged Kite
• Brahminy Kite - With few juvenile around.
• White-breasted Waterhen
• Common Moorhen
• Black-backed Swamphen
• Grey Plover
• Pacific Golden Plover
• Little Ringed Plover
• Malaysian Plover
• Whimbrel
• Grey-tailed Tattler
• Ruddy Turnstone
• Common Greenshank
• Marsh Sandpiper
• Wood Sandpiper - The commonest species during the winter migration.
• Terek Sandpiper
• Common Sandpiper
• Snipe sp.
• Rufous-necked Stint
• Long-toed Stint - Abundant.
• Curlew Sandpiper
• White-headed Stilt
• Black-winged Stilt
• Oriental Pranticole
• Whiskered Tern
• White-winged Tern
• Little Tern
• Pink-necked Green Pigeon
• Rock Pigeon
• Spotted Dove
• Zebra Dove
• Plaintive Cuckoo
• Lesser Coucal
• Common Kingfisher
• Collared Kingfisher
• Barn Swallow
• Pacific Swallow
• Yellow-vented Bulbul
• Yellow-bellied Prinia
• Pied Fantail
• White-breasted Wood Swallow
• Yellow Wagtail -With juvenile around.
• Asian Glossy Starling
• Brown-throated Sunbird
• Olive-backed Sunbird
• Black-headed Munia
• Scaly-breasted Munia
• Dusky Munia
• Eurasian Tree Sparrow

Before the rain

Buff-banded Rail paradise !

Osman

White-breasted Wood Swallow

Oriental Pranticole

Chris is off to Poring Hot Spring this morning trying his luck for Blue-banded and Bornean Banded Pitta with Hose's Broadbill. He needs 15 more species for the club :)

Happy birding everyone.

Birding With Tee At Lok Kawi

7th September 2009

After the Nikon workshop on Sunday, a quick visit to Lok Kawi Park this morning with Andrew, John and Tee from Nikon Malaysia produced the same Rufous-collared Kingfisher which was digiscoped few months ago on the same spot hehehe :)

Shot for today :

Rufous-collared Kingfisher

Off the track shooting the Rufous-collared Kingfisher


John, Andrew and Tee. "Yes video and still images, hahaha said Tee !"

Black-headed Munia

Yellow-vented Bulbul

Orange-bellied Flowerpecker



Juvenile Scarlet-backed Flowerpecker


Tee's favorite shooting position hehehe with Nikon Fieldscope EDG 65 + Coolpix 5100

Happy birding everyone !