First photographic record of Caspian Tern ?

Caspian Tern Hydroprogne caspia has a worldwide distribution, wintering south all the way to Australia, but is a rare vagrant of Borneo.

There are only four records in Borneo before this, 2 in Sarawak (1986 & 1994), 1 each in Brunei (1980) and Sabah (Labuan 1991).

This bird was photographed near the shore in Tinagat, Tawau on 27th November 2011, by sifus Ku Kok On and Lim Chieng Peng,being the fifth record in Borneo and could very well be the first photographic record of this species here. (Edit : See note below)

Many thanks to the two gentlemen who generously allowed me to upload their rare images to Borneo Bird Images for public record and to blog about the rare bird here.

Image courtesy of Ku Kok On

Image Courtesy of Lim Chieng Peng

Happy birding.

Photodocument of Wild Birds of Borneo.

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Edited to add on 18th March 2012:

Many thanks to Master sifu Dave Bakewell, who emailed to highlight my oversight on his February 2009 photographic record of this bird in Kuala Baram. Thus this should read sixth sight record and also not the first photographic record for the island.

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 17th September 2011

This is our second pelagic trip to Davel Bay in Kunak, our last trip in August saw only a few birds.

The number of birds for this trip was better but no new birds were seen, the sightings were the usual common migrants.

We did not see a lot of terns as seen by Dave Bakewell in Tanjong Dawai Kedah. Our boat is identical to the one there and I have yet to see any Terns perched on the yellow floaters. May be we do not have that number of Terns here, or may be our timing was off, we will wait and see from our future trips.

Species seen during the trip comprised Aleutian Tern Sterna aleutica, Common Tern Sterna hirundo, Greater-crested Tern Sterna bergii, White-winged Tern Chlidonias leucopterus and Lesser Frigate Birds Fregata ariel ariel. Except for the lone Greater-crested Tern, the other birds were all numbered less than ten.

A few Aleutian Terns were flying around, some in breeding and some in non-breeding plumage, at times they were trailing our boat.

The non-breeding birds look similar to non-breeding Common Tern and please let me know if I got the ID wrong.

There were a few Common Terns.



This Common Tern looks odd in its yellow legs.

The lone Greater Crested Tern seen that day.

 

There were also a few White-winged Terns.

 

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.

September water birds in Tawau.

These are some of the migratory and resident water birds photographed  in Tawau in the third week of September 2010.

A juvenile Little Tern Sterna albifrons

Non-breeding Little Tern

Breeding Little Tern

Little Tern is the smallest tern in Borneo and is the only tern that breeds here, comprising of both wintering and resident breeding populations. Recorded to breed in Sarawak and Kalimantan.

A lone Asian Dowitcher Limnnodromus semipalmatus (my new bird) among a group of Black-tailed Godwits Limosa limosa.

 A Little Egret Egretta garzetta which resembles a Chinese Egret Egretta eulophotes.

 Marsh Sandpiper Tringa stagnatilis

 A group Red-necked Stints Calidris ruficollis

 The middle bird looks a bit bigger than the others but it is still a Red-necked Stint.

 Another odd-looking Red-necked Stint

 Curlew Sandpiper Calidris ferruginea

A mud-crap trying to chase away a  Common Redshank Tringa totanus.

 Little-ringed Plover Charadrius dubius

 Wandering Whistling Ducks Dendrocygna arcuata

  Crab in 'HULK' stance.

 Mud- crab

 You know where the inspiration for Transformer comes from.

Many thanks to Sifu Dave Bakewell for confirmation on IDs of the Stints and Egret.

Happy birding.

Photodocument of Wild Birds of Borneo

Standard References for my blog