Tj Bin :: 19th Sept 2010

In birding trips, you will never know what to expect until the end of the day.

I went to Tanjung Piai with GCWong early in the morning hoping to shoot some shorebirds, there were lots of collared Kingfishers and Ashy Tailorbirds around, but we wanted something else, and we couldn’t find any, not even one single shorebird! Plenty of man-eating mosquitoes and preying monkeys as usual.

(Oops! Boths the Purple Heon and Brahminy Kites are OOF! )

Feeling tired and disappointed, we decided to go Tanjung Bin at noon, thinking just to have a look at the arguably the biggest power plant in SEA. And just as we turn into the road to Tj Bin (around 1km) from the Pontian-Kukup main road, we saw 2 Brahminy Kites were hovering low over a excavating tractor a short distance away.

We stopped by immediately to investigate, the BKs were actually attacking a juvenile Purple Heron feeding on the upturned soil. Hundreds of mynah were around, and the commotion soon attracted 2 White-bellied Sea-eagles and 4 Black Kites to the scene. The WBSEs didn't stay long, just circling around for mins forcing all others raptor to on the ground and flew off.

We setup our tripods quickly and shot almost continuously for 2 hours under scorching sun. Needless to say I was almost burnt to death despite wearing a cap and long-sleeves, but it was worth every moment of it, for until then, I have never had a successful shot of Brahminy Kites in flight before.

Brahminy Kite (Haliastur indus)

Helang Merah * 栗鸢 * シロガシラトビ * Diều lửa

Black Kite (Milvus migrans)

Helang Ekor Cabang * 黑鳶 * トビ * Diều hâu

The Purple Heron was basically kept at bay (~100') from the feeding site by the raptors! For the 2 hours, it stood there still, drooling over the feeding frenzy...

Purple Heron (Ardea purpurea)

Pucung Serandau * 草鹭 * ムラサキサギ * Cò ngàng lớn

GCWong, gave me the thump up sign after happily filling up his 16G card in just 2hours!