Permatang Nibong, 29/11/2011

Permatang Nibong, this ricefield habitat is my main playground for birding. Although the extent of this ricefield is not as big as the ricefield area in other state such as Kedah and Perak, it had been a sanitarium for migrant birds. Rare record for Malaysia such as Asian Openbill, Greater-spotted Eagle and Eastern Imperial Eagle had been recorded here in previous years.

Overview of the area with Bukit Mertajam as background. In this picture: A flock of Grey-headed Lapwing in flight.

This year, the paddy planting season had start early and areas nearby had same level of growth with this area. At this moment, generally paddy had grow to 1 feet high. The paddy was planted densely in most of plot. This growing stage also is the most crucial stage for ricefield farmer as the paddy plant become vulnerable to pest, hardly survive large amount of rain and easily affected to short of nutrient. Thus, farmers are actively seen at their ricefield plot at this stage of growth applying pesticide, fertilizer and control the water level  to ensure their crops survive to provide good yield for this season.

Dense growth of paddy. In this photo: Brown shrike perched on a pole.

My main aim for this visit is the Aquila eagle. To my surprise, the Greater Spotted Eagle had been missing in last few days and Eastern Imperial Eagle is nowhere to seen since I came back home. Other migrant raptors such as Black Kite, Eastern Marsh and Pied Harrier also nowhere to seen. So I started at 1000, in my justification, excellent time for raptor and 2 Greater Spotted Eagle was the first raptor of the day.

An adult Greater spotted Eagle

This followed by a single Black Kite and 2 more Greater Spotted Eagle in same location. All raptors split toward various different direction after about 5 minutes of action. I decide to go to the TNB pylon as 2 of GSE flew toward that direction. Before reaching the pylon, I saw a large raptor flying overhead, I stop my bike immediately to look at the raptor and it was an immature Imperial Eagle....finally, it come. In my head, I thought that I might not see this raptor this year and I was wrong. However, no good photo obtained. After the eagle flying up too high, I went to the pylon area. An immature Black-shouldered Kite and a Peregrine Falcon were among the raptor present at the pylon area. No harrier yet.

Immature Black-shouldered Kite on the pylon

Other migrant seen and photographed in my locality are:

Yellow wagtail - common migrant in this area, in its prefer the exposed mud on ricefield but this one one linger on  the road for about 10 minutes

Pond Heron - at this month, the races (Chinese, Javan, Indian) of all 3 pond heron species occur in this area cannot be determined as all came in same plumage

Barn Swallow - occur in high number

Blue-tailed Bee-eater - Common migrant occur in this area

Flock of Grey Head Lapwing - common when the ricefield area is wet.

Highlight for resident bird during this visit is Paddyfield pipit. Paddyfield Pipit is common to this area where it always forage in any vegetation present at ricefield. Below show some Paddyfield Pipit actions I manage to obtained.

The weather turn out to be very hot at in the afternoon and raptor activities began to slow down. Then I grab my lunch at Kubang Semang hawker stall before I went back home.

That's all for today visit, more to come in next post.