Wednesday 10 July 2013

Oriental Bay Owl, Pulau Tioman, Malaysia, July 2013



I have just returned from a great two week trip to Singapore and Malaysia. Not a birding trip as such but some really good opportunities to observe wildlife thrown in. Here's the bird of the trip, an unexpected Oriental Bay Owl at Melina Beach, Pulau Tioman. Found while I was looking for interesting mammals in the forest at about 4:30 am, quite a weird experience to be off trail at night alone but the mammals, reptiles and this bird certainly made it worth it. The owl was silent and was consuming what looked to be a large forest rat of some species. I only had a compact camera, but it has done a good job of capturing the plumage. Probably the bird of the year for me - even more exciting than the snowy owl as this one was not even on my radar - as far as I know this species has never been recorded on Pulau Tioman before... That's all for now - jet-lag calls...


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