Bridled Tern (Onychoprion anaethetus) - West Peninsular M'sia - June 2020

Bridled Terns (Onychoprion anaethetus) are not really rare but because they are often found in deep waters, they are seldom seen near the shore. Pelagic trip is perhaps the only way to see them closely. According to my birding buddies, the month of June is the best time to see Bridled Terns.

This Bridled Tern was flying casually along side our boat.

Photographing birds in the sea can be quite a challenge but my birding buddies seem to like this photo.

This time i woke up at about 4.30am. After a quick shower and a cup of coffee with two half boiled eggs, i am already on the road. After about an hour and a half of driving, i reached the jetty at about 6.30 am. It was still dark but the sky was already swarmed with hundreds of Black-Crowned Night Herons and Little Egrets. By 6.50 am we were already heading out to the sea. On the way I could see the sea water color changes from brown to green and finally pitch black. My main aim on this trip was to see as many waders in their breeding colors as possible and also some rare pelagic birds if i am lucky enough.

There were only a few 'pukat tunda' (trawler) boats around. 

Unfortunately there were no shearwaters or storm petrels while waders are just a handful. Birds seen this time were mainly Bridled Terns together with some Common Terns and a couple of Germain's Swiflets. Most of the Bridled terns were in their non-breeding colors and were said to be on migration.

 Most of them are adult birds as identified by the more experienced birding pals.

The long dark trailing edge to whitish wings separates it from the quite similar looking Common Tern. Also have a look at its deep forked tail.

They don't fly as high as some birds.

(Note: in a few pelagic reports from S'pore, it was reported that some of them were seen flying northwards from South. Could they have been flying all the way from Australia?)

Most of the Bridled Terns were seen 'resting' in the sea instead of airborne. 

I guess they may have used the Malacca Strait as a 'refueling' area in their migration route.

From afar, they could look like an 'itik air'.

In flight they can be as elegant as a Common Tern

This was the only Bridled Tern in breeding plumage seen on the entire trip.

From the above photo, you can see that the tail streamers are slightly longer than the tip of its primaries.

As long as they are on top of something they will feel safe.

So far i did not notice any of them catching any fish. Perhaps they are just on a R&R mode.

Occasional they were seen together as well.

Resting on a large piece of drifting log.

About to take flight. 

Unlike the Bridled Terns, there were very few Common Terns in the sea. Most of them were seen flying in a distance nearer to the coastline.

According to the local experts here, this is a Ssp S.h tibetana whereby during breeding time, their bill does not have the black tip as shown by some Common Terns in other regions.

From the above photo, you can see that its primaries extend further than its tail streamers unlike the above Bridled Tern.

A Common Tern flexing its wings.

Moving nearer to the shore, we can see lots of Whiskered Terns 

They would prefer to rest on poles instead. During breeding time, their bill and feet are actually dark red instead of black.

This one is in optimum breeding colors.

Like the Little Terns, Whiskered Terns are fond of resting on mudflats as well.

This is how you wade thru the mudbanks. The Beatles would have been proud of them.

Until we meet again in the next trip ! 

NO OCEANS ARE FAR ENOUGH FOR YOU TO REACH SO AS YOUR AMBITIONS !

Lesser Fish Eagle (Ichthyophaga humilis) - 23 May 2020

I have just started walking into the jungle trail when from the corner of my eyes i spotted something high up on a dead tree. Moving a tad closer for a second look, i realised that it was a fish eagle but wasn't sure which one. There are two species of fish eagles which can be seen in this region. The other one is the Gray-headed Fish Eagle. Fearing that it might fly away like most raptors do (upon seeing humans), i quickly took a record shot.

This was the first shot of the raptor which local birders later identified it as a Lesser Fish Eagle. This is a resident but uncommon raptor in this region. The last sighting of this eagle at this location (Ulu Langat, Selangor) was in 2018 while the earliest was in 2016.

Lesser Fish Eagle

Moments later it did 'flew' away but luckily to an adjacent branch on the same tree. Thereafter it perched on the same branch until the cows came home.

Note the upperside of its tail which is dark and does not clearly show a white base with a black terminal band of a Gray-headed Fish Eagle (Wells, 1999, Jeyarajasingam & Pearson, 2012 and Robson, 2015). In short there is no well demarcated tail band.

This one should be an adult bird as juveniles are reported to have more brownish feathers.

The only thing that moves was its head and occasional its legs.

Note its wedge-liked tail shape when perched. Local malay name for this raptor is "Lang Kanguk". Luckily it is not called "Lang Kangkung" which means it would prefer to eat "Kangkung" (a kind of water spinach) rather than fishes.

One leg up depicts a relax and calm demeanour (in the avian world). In the human world one leg up means you are in big trouble.

According to Jeyarajasingam and Pearson (2012), this raptor does not soar much like others. So this means it probably hunts from perch to perch.

The short whithish eyebrow / supercilium which was described by Wells (1999) can be seen here.

Due to the difficult terrain and thick bushes surrounding the area, i could only moved just a few feet closer from my initial spot.

 Hence most of the photos here were heavily cropped (i.e about 95%)

This is how the bird looks like from a distance. Photo was cropped about 10 %.

So blessed to see this uncommon eagle.

OTHER REFERENCES

1) David R. Wells (1999) The Birds of the Thai-Malay Peninsula (Non-Passerines). London: Academic Press.

2) Jeyarajasingam, A and Pearson, A (2012) A Field Guide to the Birds of Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore (2nd Ed.), Oxford: Oxford University Press

3) Robson, C (2017) Birds of South-East Asia, London: Helm

Admiring the amazing cloud formations

It's almost two months now into MCO (Movement Control Order) due to the Covid-19 pandemic. This catastrophic virus has brought almost every economies and people into a standstill and with devastating effect. It was certainly an unwelcome and unpleasant thing to happened as the world embraces the 21st century. There is nothing much to do during a lock-down except looking upwards into the sky and be dazzled by the amazing cloud formations developing above us. Nephology is said to be a branch of meteorology which study clouds formation and these people are often called meteorologist. I a'int one of them but i was fascinated by these clouds formation recently. So i thought it would be interesting to share some of its photos with you folks out there.

Apparently there are three levels where clouds can form:

i) Low level clouds (i.e from 1km to 2km above ground) - example: Stratus, cumulus, cumulonimbus and stratocumulus

ii) Mid-level clouds (i.e from 2km to 7km above ground) - example: altocumulus, altostratus and nimbostratus

iii) High-level clouds (i.e from 7km to 16km above ground) - example: cirrus, cirrocumulus and cirrostratus.

Here are some of them:

1.1 - Cirrostratus nebulosus

1.2 - Cirrostratus nebulosus

Apparently the rainbow like colors are caused by crystal ice.

1.3 - Cirrostratus nebulosus

1.4 - Cirrus

1.5 - Cirrus

Is that the way to Heaven?

Note: 1.1 to 1.5 are high level clouds 

1.6 - altostratus

1.7 - altostratus

1.8 - altocumulus

This cloud formation can grow a few miles higher.

Note: 1.6 to 1.8 are mid-level clouds

1.9 - Cumulus

Like in a dream !

1.10 - Stratacumulus

Note: 1.9 to 1.10 are low-level clouds 

Some of the cloud formations can also look like beautiful paintings such as these ones:

This one (above) has multi toned layers.

Like Heaven shining its mighty light !

As dawn rises with a glimmer of hope.

There are also some odd shapes like these ones:

Like a chihuahua apparition.

Like the Statue of Liberty's torch

Like the thunder clouds in the music video of Sia, Diplo, & Labrinth!

In this part of the world (i.e in Malaysia) we do have "White Cloud Mountains" too like the ones in the Americas.

Genting Highlands - a view from KL during MCO.

The above photo was taken just before sunrise.

Until we are able to reach the clouds again

# Stay Home and Stay Safe !