Pelagic Birding 3rd December 2011

We went again on 3rd December 2011, to yet another pelagic birding trip, hoping to see more of our migrating avian friends, as a Caspian Tern Hydroprogne caspia, a rare Borneo vagrant, was photographed in Tawau by two of my birding sifus a few days earlier.

The number of birds seen on this trip was only a little more than our previous trip (reported here), nothing much to shout about. However, I had a consolation in photographing a Lesser Crested Tern Sterna bengalensis as my lifer.

Here are the birds seen that day.

 Greater Crested Tern, a few seen flying around the boat.

 Lesser Crested Tern, a few seen.

 The lone Aleutian Tern in winter plumage.

 A low flying female Lesser Frigatebird. There was a large group of them.

 One of the handful of Common Tern

Black-headed Gull, the only gull positively recorded in Borneo.  I took this picture of one that was very far away, after noticing the different wings colors of this bird. A handful of them was in west coast of Sabah last year, see here.

 Adult winter Black-headed Gull

Happy birding.

Photodocument of Wild Birds of Borneo.

Standard References for my blog.

Some waders at Tinagat, Tawau end November 2011

It is the migrating season again, visits to Tinagat beach were rewarded with these waders.

I managed to record a new lifer, Grey-tailed Tattler Heteroscelis brevipes.

 A section of the hundreds of Great Knot, which is the commonest waders here.

 Grey-tailed Tattler, my lifer.

 Two Great Egrets, showing the range in size.

 Lesser Frigatebird, L to R, adult ♀, adult ♂ and immature.

 Eurasian Curlew

 Eurasian Curlew, showing its diagnostic white rump.

 Broad-billed Sandpiper

 Terek Sandpiper

 Bar-tailed Godwit with a Great Knot

 Pond Heron, suspected to be Chinese instead of Javan as they are only around during the northern winter, however, it is not possible to positively confirm in this eclipse plumage.

 Common Redshank

 A composite of diving Little Tern

 A Mangrove Skink Emoia atrocostata

 Common Greenshank

Far-eastern Curlew.

Happy birding.

Photodocument of Wild Birds of Borneo.

Standard References for my blog.

Pelagic birding on 6th Agust 2011

Went on a pelagic birding trip on an anchovies boat on 6th August 2011 around Davel Bay, Kunak.

The weather was gloomy before we left port.

May be it was too early in the season, there wasn't much activity, we only managed to see a few Lesser Frigarebirds, a few Greater Crested Tern, some egrets on a far away shore, too far to positively identify, and a few Darters sunning and preening themselves on thin stilts on the shallow shore.

 Two Darters perched on stilts, with numerous Egrets in the background.

 Adult male Lesser Frigatebird.

 Adult female Lesser Frigatebird.

 Greater Crested Terns, which are supposed to be migrants, but have been recorded throughout the year.

This one flew quite near.

Happy birding.

Photodocument of Wild Birds of Borneo.

Standard References for my blog.

Black-tailed Godwit and other early arrivals

Black-tailed Godwit Limosa limosa is a scarce winter visitor and passage migrant to Borneo, previous records were of mainly single bird. Sabah records were from Mumiang  in the east Coast and from Kota Belud in the west coast. No other record from Sabah has been mentioned in publications. If my memory  serves me right, I think there was a single bird in Sempulan, Kota Kinabalu one or two years ago, photographed by Sifu Jason and Sifu Karim. (Edit: My memory failed me, see comment from Sifu Jason.)

We went to Tinagat on 7th August 2010 to check on the waders and to my surprise I saw more than 10 Godwits feeding there at the tide-edge. I saw a Bar-tailed Godwit Limosa lapponica at the same place last season. (See here).

Photographs of the birds were taken without hesitation and on further checking with my field guides, they are confirmed to be Black-tailed Godwits.

It is quite easy to differentiate this from the similar looking Bar-tailed Godwit.  Here are some of the more obvious features;

- Black-tailed Godwit has straight bill, Bar-tailed has slightly upturned bill.

- Black-tailed Godwit has much longer legs, particularly longer tibia.

- Black-tailed Godwit has barred-flanks in breeding plumage, various traces of it can be seen in the fresh arrivals.

- In non breeding plumage (which we usually see them), Black-tailed Godwit has plain smooth breast and neck while Bar-tailed has streaky neck and breast.

Here are the pictures of the birds, my lifer. (#322 photographed wild birds of Borneo).

 

 Others birds are;

A pair of Little Tern Sterna albifrons

  

A pair of Juvenile White-bellied Sea Eagle Haliaeetus leucogaster

 

 Common Redshank Tringa totanus

 Little-ringed Plover Charadrius dubius

 Great Knot Calidris tenuirostris

Lesser Frigatebird Fregata ariel

Happy birding.

Photodocument of Wild Birds of Borneo 

Standard References for my blog

Semporna and Tawau 11th & 12th September

Edited on 1 May 2018 text with green backgound.

I have been leaving all my landscape and people photography behind  after I got poisoned by photographing avianfauna of Borneo.

This trip to visit the outlying islands off Semporna with Datuk CK Hon to do some landscape and people photography at the invitation of my photo kakis in Tawau proved to be challenging, refreshing and at the same time 'avian' rewarding as well.

The boat we chartered developed engine problems in the middle of the sea. Emergency calls were made to request for backup boat to continue our journey. During the wait, Lesser Frigatebird Fregata ariel, Greater Crested  Tern Thalasseus bergii and Aleutian Tern Sterna aleutica (now Onychoprion aleuticus) came to investigate.

Lesser Frigatebird

 

Greater Crested Tern

We eventually needed to be towed by a friendly fishing boat.

We were offered to buy this fish from the rescuing fisherman, which we did and it eventually ended up on our dinner plate.

Our journey continued with our replacement boat and we were greeted by this group of Common Tern Sterna hirundo.

Common Tern

Common Tern

Here are some of the pictures taken.

The next day, we had Datuk CK Hon, an expert landscape and travel photographer visiting our usual birding ground in Tawau. Here is one for the album.

Group Photo by Winston Tai

Datuk was well equipped when he brought along two top-of-the-range Canon pro-bodies; something called 1D mk III,  and a 100-400mm lens.

 Photo by Winston Tai

These are some of the birds photographed that day.

Pied Fantail Rhipidura javanica

 Chestnut-brested Malkoha Phaenicophaeus curvirostris

Black Hornbill Anthracoceros malayanus

 

 Changeable Hawk Eagle Spizaetus cirrhatus (now Nisaetus limnaeetus)

Happy birding.

REFERENCES

Datuk CK Hon's Blog

Winston Tai : winston-tai@hotmail.com