The Distribution of Waders in Northern Peninsular Malaysia - A Birder's Observation

INTRODUCTION

Whenever we are out there with mother nature, we would most likely be the first to witnessed the destruction (if any) of our natural world either by deforestation, illegal land used, reclamation works, pollution etc.  Some would blame it on the government while some will accused the sleeping politicians and the list of accusations goes on. It has been mentioned that for a business to mature, it would take nothing less than 10 years. On the other hand, for a forest or an ecosystem to flourish, they may take twice/even longer the amount of time to attained its sustainability and flourishing returns.

The "Kapar Declaration" conjured out during the AWC seminar held on 25 June 2016 in Malaysia was indeed a timely action by some concerned stake holders. Only time will tell whether this "declaration" will be translated into action or will it remained merely a "declaration" and disappear into the thin air just like the smell of the masala curry coming out from your neighbour's kitchen. 

EXPLORING THE MUDFLATS

What really caught my attention about this "Kapar Declaration" was that it was only meant for the conservation and protection of the North-Central Selangor Coast which covers a massive 28,000 hectares of mudflats and mangrove belt. How about other IBAs in Malaysia? Are there any waders in other areas which needed to be protected as well? To find out the answer, i explored the mudflats and tributaries of the following areas: i) Teluk Air Tawar,  ii) Kota Kuala Muda and iii) Pulau Sayak from December 2016 to January 2017.

THE FINDINGS

Teluk Air Tawar

I started at "Bagan Belat" mudflats on 21 December 2016 from 10.00am. As you can see from the above photo there were only a handful of waders which you can count using your fingers and toes.  There were Brown-headed Gull (10), Eurasian Curlew (1), Ruddy Turnstone (2), Pacific Golden Plover (9), Wimbrel (2) etc to name a few. Returning fishermen then alerted me that there were more birds further up from where i stood. So off i went near Penaga area. After an hour or so of waiting patiently, came 3 big waves of waders flying from north towards 'Bagan Belat". 

The First Big Wave - estimated about 200 birds

The second Big Wave - estimated about 500 birds

The 3rd Big Wave - estimated about 700 - 800 birds

I head back to 'Bagan Belat' hoping to greet them but was surprised to find that there were only a few waders. Where did they all gone to?

My Findings: it appears that the waders must have landed somewhere between Penaga and Bagan Belat where there are still thickets of undisturbed mangrove line which are inaccessible.

Kota Kuala Muda

On 21 January 2017 i went to search for waders at this location. Time was 11.30am. This place was slightly better in terms of bird life as compared to the mudflats of Yan district which i have explored back in February 2012.

There were Little Tern, Common Tern and Whiskered Tern.

Red-Necked Stint were also spotted for the first time in this location.

I decided to go back to the location in the evening (17.00hrs) to check out its bird population.

The bird numbers appeared the same except that Brown-headed Gulls have now joined the equation. 

My findings: in terms of the number of birds seen here, it was far cry from the ones observed at Teluk Air Tawar but it was still not too bad. A total of 22 different species of waders (including terns) were seen within a day at this location.

Pulau Sayak

This area is located just about 12km further north from Kota Kuala Muda. 

Despite its huge span of intertidal mudflats, i have only spotted a lone "Great Egret", a Pacific Golden Plover" and a "Common Sand Plover". 

Eyeing for something?

My findings:  there is only one word to describe this place. Its "abiosis" !

DISCUSSION

Teluk Air Tawar mangroves seems to be able to hold/attract a substantial number of waders. Bagan Belat which was once a heaven for waders seems to lost a bit of its glamour as the waders have moved further north. This could be due to some reclamation and construction works around the waders feeding ground as observed. Further north, the number of waders were even lesser. Kota Kuala Muda showed some promises as waders were seen foraging and roosting in the area. A group of red-necked stints seen for the first time here should provide some encouragement for other small bodied waders to venture to this location as well. There is also a possibility that the waders seen at Kota Kuala Muda could have came from the same colony which traverse the coastline of Teluk Air Tawar as the location is not too far from Penang. At Pulau Sayak, unfortunately there were less waders than expected despite its vast mudflats. The situation is quite similar as the one in Kuala Gula mudflats as reported by Dave Bakewell in his blog posting back in February 2014 as well as the numerous record posted in e-bird by birders to the area.

Why are these sites lacking waders despite having such a huge area of mudflat to forage / to roost? Could it be due to the muddy terrain as opposed to the more sandy/gravel filled beaches that some waders would prefer?

This is a mud-ball seen at Kota Kuala Muda. There were lots of these things on its beaches.

To answer those questions, perhaps we can find some answers from a local research carried out by Nur Atiqah Norazlimi and Rosli Ramli (2015). In their research it was found that time of the day and tidal conditions do not influence the foraging behavior of shorebirds. Instead it was the differences in bill size and leg length that would influence the time spent foraging so as the size of its prey, probing depth and preference of habitat.

Note: The research uses stratified random collection of data whereby the samples/data collected usually does not represent or follow a specific distribution  of the samples. Nevertheless by using ordinal / rank data, a simple non-parametric statistical test such as Spearman Rank Correlation should be sufficient enough to explain its results. 

Note: for a statistic buff, Pearson Correlation Co-efficient is used when the data collected is on a continous scale (example if you used a likert scaled instrument) while One-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) is used to determined whether there are any significant differences between the means of 2 or more independent / unrelated groups/variables of study.

 SUMMARY

Based on the above observations, it appears that at this moment, there are only two sites in West Peninsular Malaysia which could hold substantial number of waders i.e at KPS in Selangor and Teluk Air Tawar in Penang mainland. It would certainly be good for all if the sites could be extended further to other areas. This however also depends on nearby feeding grounds as it has been reported that roosting sites located in areas without nearby feeding ground has less or no birds at all ! As such conserving and protecting their feeding grounds are equally important as safeguarding the waders roosting areas.

Note: this little survey was carried out by the writer's own accord and funding (no external funding were obtained, sob! sob!). The info written here is correct as at the time of observation.

"Doing What You Like is Freedom

Liking What You Do is Happiness"

References:

i) Nur Atiqah Norazlimi and Rosli Ramli (2015), The Relationship between Morphological Characteristics and Feeding Behavior in Four Selected Species of Shorebirds and Waterbirds Utilising Tropical Mudflats, The Scientific World Journal, Vol. 2015, Hindawi Publishing Corporation.

ii) A Report from the Asian Waterbird Census (AWC) Seminar, 25.06.2016, KL, MNS Conservation Publication No. 12, "Charting the Future of Malaysia's Most Important Migratory Waterbird Roost site: the Kapar Power Station Ash Ponds"

The Black Kites and Indian Cuckoo of Penang Mainland - Jan 2017

Currently there are just a few places in Penang mainland which could accommodate large number of winter migrants. Air Itam Dalam is one of those areas where wintering birds (big and small ones) can safely used as their wintering playground as well as refuel stations. The authorities were quick enough to safeguard this area instead of sending bulldozers over. This location has been a birders' paradise for many years and hopefully it will remained that way for many more years to come. On 29 January 2017, i decided to dropped in for a short stopover. Met a man who looked like Confucius but he ain't nothing like the ancient scholar. He was well equipped with long lens and can speak Penang Hokkein ! After some conversation, we were already birding together. The first bird we saw was this Cuckoo. In fact it was my new found friend who had alerted me of the bird's presence as i was about 50 meters away from him. Of course i ran the fastest 50 meters spring ever recorded in planet earth to where he stood. Such a nice chap.

Indian Cuckoo (Cuculus micropterus micropterus)

As the bird's initial position was obscure, we have suspected that it could be a "Himalayan Cuckoo" (Cuculus saturatus saturatus) or some literature have named it an "oriental cuckoo".  However after looking further at its photos, the bird turned out to be an "Indian Cuckoo" (Cuculus micropterus). How to differentiate them? Literature has described "Himalayan Cuckoo" as having more greyish upper parts than an "Indian Cuckoo".

Most of the time you could only hear its calls but this bird was rather friendly. This was the closest i have ever got to this cuckoo.  It was reported that the female has paler grey on the throat and having more brown on the breast while an adult male back are more brownish and has broad subterminal tail band. So this one is definitely a male.

Its the same bird but under the shade, its feather colors are different.

Current literature also mentioned that there are 2 subspecies been recognised i.e (i) C. m. micropterus and (ii) C. m. concretetus. This means that one is a resident and one is a migrant. A local resident expert suspect that this cuckoo could be a migrant as he opined that resident Indian Cuckoo are usually found in pristine forest.

Black Kite (Milvus migrans)

The next bird which i have came across was the Black Kite (Milvus migrans). The scholarly looking birder told me that he had once seen close to 100 + black kites over here. Really? From the information he gave on the various types of birds which can be found at this location, i believe he was not pulling my legs.

I saw a total of 15 of them and they were mainly juveniles as depicted by the above photos.

From the above photos, i believe they are mostly from the subspecies, M. m. lineatus which literature described them as having bluish grey cere and legs, whiter face, larger whitish wing patch on underwings and is larger in size. Pretty straight forward.

Although it was called a kite which probably due to its kite-liked shaped tail, but its body size and wing span is actually larger than a "Rufous-bellied Eagle" and quite similar to a Changeable Hawk Eagle.

HAPPY BIRDING !

"Don't just judge a lady on how good she is but also on how good she wants to be" 

The Importance of Conservation - A Birder's Perspective

BirdLife International had so far identified over 12,000 sites of international significance for birds across the globe as Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas (IBA). However only 40% or less of those areas are reported to be formally protected. Why are bird issues so important ? It is not because we are birders but conservation is all about birds as well as the people of which they are associated to.

Birds depend on their habitats which in turn depend on the way which we treat our environment or natural resources. Migratory birds especially waders / shore birds life span depends much on their survival during migration. They often make long distance flights from/to their wintering grounds and would made multiple stops during their migration (especially the small-bodied shorebirds). These multiple stop areas or at times what we call "staging areas" or "refuel stations" are the keys to their survival. Depleting inter-tidal mudflats would mean less place to rest and little food to feed on during their migration. Eventually it may lead to the reduction of the birds' population. 

Red-Necked Stint - taking off

Declining bird population in turn means that there are no marine life in those areas which also means that the area may not have many fishes for human to eat as well. Local fishermen would then need bigger boats to venture further out to the sea. That would potentially mean higher cost and more pricey tuna sandwiches ! 

Dwindling catch perhaps ?

These are very fresh fishes but their numbers can be more.

The conservation of these staging areas actually has a lot to do with the way we live as well as our ability to inform and influence the policy makers, the stakeholders and the broader public. Competing demands on coastal lands, economic priorities, attitude towards conservation, state legislation etc make shorebird conservation a real challenge as most conservationist would attest.

Broad-billed Sandpiper

Terek Sandpiper

So where do we go from here? Perhaps we can start with the local fishermen ! Why fishermen? I would consider them as the 'Guardian of IBAs' or the 'First Line of Defence for conservation' ! "Human are beings of social so therefore we must interact with each other in the name of conservation". When fishermen understand the importance of conservation works, they will in turn begun to embrace the spirit of conservation as part of their life.

I have met several fishermen on my usual birding/fishing trips and was delighted to know that they are aware of the presence of these waders or what the locals here named them as "burung hijrah". They were amazed with the sound of the birds made when flying in a group and some of them even told me that when the birds arrived here it was through the Northern Winds (autumn migration) and they would follow the Southern Winds ('angin selatan') on their way back (Spring migration). Take it from the local fishermen who did not attend college at all.

Whimbrel

Eurasian Curlew

The Present and Future of Conservation

So where does the future holds for the waders? In order to carry out a sensible environmental assessment or what we call 'feasibility study' in business and to sustain any conservation efforts, benchmarking, learning and emulating the best environment practices is the way forward, i believe. How much success is probably down to the willingness to persevere and to constantly fine tuned this best approach. It would be a colossal effort. The 11th Malaysia Plan is coming to an end soon (2016 to 2020). Perhaps RMK 12th will place greater emphasis on the conservation of its natural resources and strengthening our resilience against climate change, pollution etc.

The Australian model on conservation of its wetlands can potentially be one of those best practices which can be emulated in many countries. Their 'local-to-global' approach works on the premise that local people (example fishermen/farmers) are engaged to work for nature in their own backyards but is still connected nationally and internationally through a global partnership. Apparently Malaysia is a member of the 'East Asian-Australasian Flyway Partnership" (EAAFP) since 2012.

"Conservation Without Borders" is the way to go!

HAPPY BIRDING !