15/01/2010: Gelugor Coastline (Penang)

It started out as a normal day at work until I received a text message from Dave saying “Chinese Egret at the Gelugor coastline now…”. Although this rather scarce migrant is not new to me but it has been years since my last sighting. I immediately wrapped things up at the office as quickly as possible since it was almost end of the day anyway. Once work was out of the way, I rushed home, grabbed my gear, hopped onto my faithful motorcycle, zipped past the busy Friday rush hour traffic and arrived at the vicinity to start my search for the Chinese Egret. Following Dave’s information, I managed to locate it without much difficulty. However, it remained at the water’s edge the whole time I was there and I could only obtain record shots. Egrets as a family is easy to identify but it can be quite tricky when it comes to identifying the individual species - especially a Chinese Egret in non-breeding plumage. Lucky for me, Dave had already nailed its id before I arrived.

While admiring the foraging Chinese Egret, a pair of immature Brahminy Kites were coming back from the sea after the day's hunt.