BIRDING IN PERLIS 2015 - CHUPING SUGARCANE PLANTATION

I have not been to the sugarcane plantation area in Chuping for quite sometime now. The last time i went there was a few years ago when i managed to photograph a couple of Changeable Hawks nesting on a small hill by the roadside.

However, the scene has changed now, the sugarcane plant is gone. It is just acres and acres of grassland as far as your eyes can see. It looks like a praire or a scene in Nebraska. Maybe the owner does not know what to do with the land right now. To plant sugarcane or to plant rubber trees, or to plant more profitable species??

I almost forgot how to get there as it has been quite a while, there also some new roads leading to the area. Coming from Tasik Melati direction toward Taman Angsana, and straight until i saw a factory that processes sugar into alcohol, turned left at the junction toward RPA Chuping, a few kampungs and eventually led me to the road that runs along the plantation toward Padang Besar. Along the way you will pass a PPP(anti-smuggling unit) checkpoint which confirms that you are on the right direction. A guard took a look at my daughter Tasha and me, saw our big camera and long lens, smiled and let us pass.

Please bear in mind that Chuping is a huge area, you could easily find some productive spots along the way to the sugarcane plantation estate. You propably need a few days to really explore the place, i only had two hours. So my main search area was along the main road in front of the plantation leading to Padang Besar - it is called drive and search with camera ready.

It was drizzling on the way there, so we drove slowly while scanning the side of the road for any birds. We pulled over the hill where i saw the Changeable Hawks on the previous trip, but saw nothing, no birds, no nests, maybe they have moved. As a matter of fact we did not see much along the road except a big Purple Heron flying overhead. We made a U-turn but it was gone. I could not figure out the lack of birds in such a huge open area. Could it be because the disappearing of the sugarcane plant? With the plant gone other lifers like big insects, rodents etc will go too. That means less food for certain birds, owls, hawks, kites etc. Certain birds require some hideouts, trees to protect them from raptors, with just grassland they will feel exposed and will move to other areas. Owls and raptors love open grassland because they can scan for rodents and snakes with their sharp eyes and acute hearing for hundreds of meters from their perching points.

We did see something moving in the air and hovering like waiting to pounce on something on the ground. It turned out to be a Black-winged Kite hovering at a height of eight to ten storeys over the field trying to snatch its prey. I pulled over immediately, grab my camera and took a few burst shots before it flew away. It was an awesome sight because i had never seen other raptors that could hover like that before. Below are a series of shots showing the kite hovering to strike its prey:

circling in the air to look for preys

spotted a prey and zooming in

hovering over its prey

beautiful...like a ballet

After that the sky started to turn dark which was a cue for us to split, end the session and come back some other day maybe spending more than two hours.

The area is so huge, and if i had spent more time and explored the inside of the plantation (if they permit me) i am sure i would find more species. Looks like i have to return to this place soon.

Thanks for reading and happy birding.

BIRDING IN PERLIS 2015 - KAMPUNG BATU DUA PADDY FIELDS

This site is just less than 10 minutes drive away from my house. It is basically a paddy field area on both sides of the road. I was looking for the species that love to look for food in semi-wet paddy fields like Egrets, Herons, Stilts, sometimes Plovers, Sandpipers, Lapwings and Storks. If luck is on my side i will find all of them mingling in the same area, depending on the time of year. This month it has been raining heavily in the morning and late afternoon, so in between i had a few hours to take photos of the birds.

Upon arrival i saw some Egrets on the left side of the road(north), but on the right side(south) of the road the view was more interesting where Egrets and Black-winged Stilts were sharing the area to look for food. 

I could just photograph from the edge of the road as there was a small canal about two meters wide used for irrigation separating the road and the paddy fields where the birds were located, about 100 meters away. It is in this situation that i wished i had a lot longer lens than my 400f5.6. A lot of village folks passing by giving me that look like " what are you doing dude in the hot sun?". I just placed my Manfrotto tripod behind some tall grass and snapped away as many i could. I knew i would have to do a lot of processing and cropping works later in Lightroom.

The Black-winged Stilts were a lot smaller then the Egrets and at that kind of distance it was difficult to focus and get sharp pictures. The Black-winged Stilts are waders related to the Avocet family. There were also what i believe to be Sandpipers which were even smaller in size compared to the Black-winged Stilts. All of the pictures below were heavily cropped to get a decent size photos of them.

The small ones mixed with the Black-winged Stilts looked like Sandpipers to me. Not sure.

In the afternoon it started to rain heavily. I noticed of a group of birds which were a lot bigger than the Egrets with black colored wings and long neck standing stubbornly in the heavy rain. They were Asian open-bill Storks. There were hundreds of them but all i could do was watch from inside the car with a binocular due to the torrential rain. I left only to come back two hours later when the rain had stopped. I was rewarded with an unbelievable sight.

Hundreds of Asian open-bill Storks flying in the sky, moving from one spot to another in the paddy field areas. Most of them were at least 100 - 200 meters away but a few flew right above me. These Storks mostly migrate from the Indian sub-continent, Bangladesh and our northern neighbors like Burma, Cambodia and Thailand around July to September to look for food.

Their main food are snails, frogs, water snakes and large insects. Their open-bill shape is their solution to efficiently catching snails and break the shells before swallowing the body of the snails. The paddy fields and wetlands are perfect spots for them to look for food. I am not sure whether the villagers and owners of the paddy fields welcome their presence as they may damage the paddy plant. Some feel they are a nuisance but allowed them to forage for food anyways.

I was quiet pleased with what i managed to photograph in this location, maybe i was at the right time at the right place or maybe my luck was good on that day. I practically drove pass this area almost everyday on the way to Kangar town but never thought of exploring it until my relative told me about it the other day. It just shows the importance of the local knowledge in looking for good birding spots. Knowledge and luck can make your birding a success.

Thanks for reading and happy birding.