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. 

Introduction...

Welcome to Birding on Bike

First, introduction to myself, my name is Hakim from Penang. I started birding in 2008... doing thesis for my undergraduate thesis in Terengganu. After the university day had passed, I continue birding in my area... firstly I start with nothing, no binocular, no camera and nothing. Until the day I invite Dave Bakewell to my area, he loan me a pair of binocular. In the early day of birding I use my phone camera to photograph and obtain really ugly poor picture as below:

A Tiger Shrike I rescue back in Terengganu

A mysterious duck seen in my playground: Kampung Permatang Nibong Ricefield. I seen this duck last year but up until today the mystery did not solve.

Now, back to the main topic, introduction to this blog. I name this blog as Birding on Bike because most of time I went birding, I birding by bike. This is my style, justification is; It is easy for me to move around the area, petrol cost is cheap and bike is the only mean of transport I posses currently. Now a brief introduction to my bikes:

My Bikes: On the left is KRISS 110 or I always refer this as 'Motosikal cap senjata', loyally serve me since 2004. On the left is Lagenda 110 or I refer as 'Motosikal kakak saya' I'd been use this since last 2 years ( my worse road accident is with this bike)

I think to start a blog since last year now I start blogging because a good friend which I will remember as a guy who give inspiration and very excellent birder, had ask me when I will start my blog? Remember one of advice my good friend had gave 'if you plan to do something, just do it', I bought a camera to start documenting so that I can blogging once I'd return to Penang from Pulau Tengah.

I'd buy a Nikon S8200, just a point and shoot camera ( I still save up some money for scope and SLR camera with good lens). It turn out as a good investment as the picture is not very bad. Here is the some bird picture I got with this tiny camera:

Whiskered Tern in Kuala Sanglang, Perlis

Purple back starling: Some individual from a flock of 130 birds in Kampung Permatang Nibong

The most common kingfisher in my playground ( in Malaysia probably) White-throated Kingfisher

Slight different after using point and shoot camera and handphone camera. My current camera have a 14X zoom and full HD image, so at RM870 I think this is not a bad investment for amatuer birder like me. Hope I can learn more about photography and invest on a decent SLR camera for birding in the future.

So, That's all for my blog introduction. I really appreciate any comment from anyone. I hope this blog can give information on birds in my surrounding area. 

Later on next post