15/09/2009: Juru (Penang)

I spent a couple of hours on this rather gloomy morning to see if there are any unexpected migrants about. This vicinity has a history of the sheltering scare migrants in the past like the Hoopoe and Indian Roller. As with the weather, it was rather slow and gloomy in terms of birds as well. A Stork-billed Kingfisher hunting from an electrical cable was the first bird I saw. The rather dull plumage indicates that it is a young bird.

I took a few close-up shots of a family of foraging Eurasian Tree-sparrows as there was nothing much about anyway. This is a good time as any to build up my image bank of this common species.

The young ones were almost reaching full adults, judging from their plumage.

There was also a lone Zebra Dove foraging near the Sparrows...

I also came across a family of Tricoloured Munias just next to the access road. However, the gloomy weather and shyness of the birds prevented me from taking clear shots. Although it is another common species, I find it to be less abundant than the other species of Munias I usually encounter in Penang.

The highlight of the trip was a family 4 Crested Mynas foraging together with the Jungle Mynas. My past sighting of this Myna in Byram Estate was the first photographic record of this introduced Myna on mainland Penang. My friend, BK, recorded a lone individual here a few months back. Looks like there is more than one now and the juveniles indicate that are they are breeding successfully.

The Crested Myna has been extremely successful on the island and now they are starting to spread on the mainland side as well. Only time can tell if they will outnumber the other 2 species of Mynas like the situation on the island.

As it started to drizzle and things are unlikely to improve, I decided to cut short the trip. A White-throated Kingfisher on an open perch held me back for a few minutes before I drove off into the pouring rain.