Route to Roost Site Pasir Puteh

Returning to roost.

Saturday, 1st day:

I stumbled upon a route to a roosting site somewhere around Taman Bukit Gedombak, Pasir Puteh yesterday. There were waves upon waves of egrets (mixed flock) flying south towards Tok Bali/Semerak area to their roosting site for at least an hour between 6:30-7:15pm. It was an amazing sight to behold especially when you're looking up from underneath them.

The 400mm kit was ideal to get the egrets as they flew by up above. The 11-16mm on the 7D was too wide, the birds were too small. The kits lens would have ideal to record the whole event on video and of course I didn't have it with me. The typical "should've"s!

There were literally thousands of birds streaming overhead continuously till sundown.

Sunday, 2nd day:

It was literally in the thousands again today. It all started at 1800hrs and didn't stop till sundown which is 1930hrs in these parts. The call to prayer for Maghrib was well underway as I made my way back to the car which was parked 800m away.

Today unfortunately I heard several shotguns blasted from a location further away, likely targetting these birds but I can't be sure. Pond Heron are known to be seasonally taken for the pot in this area but recently I have heard of egrets suffering the same fate.

Pictures to follow.

The few making it's way to the roost site. The spectacle continued until the sun was well over the horizon.

The egrets streaming overhead shot from my hiding spot below some leafy trees.

A flock making their way south. The streaming flocks started from 1800hrs and continued all the way to 1930hrs non-stop. The flocks originated from their feeding ground in the paddyfields around Jelor, Merkang and the surroundings.

The egrets' approach was via Bukit Gedombak (from both sides of the hill) in the North and flying South towards Tok Bali. The roosting site is likely to be situated in the last final stands of kayu gelam after Bukit Gedomdak before Tok Bali. The red-star marked the location I was at while making these record shots.

The zoomed out area. A significant portion of the countryside in these parts has been opened up for new roads and flood mitigation measures over the years with Bachok/Tok Bali/Pasir Puteh seeing the most change in landscape. With these activities old inaccessible roost sites were most probably destroyed and access made much easier for hunters on motobike through the newly built mudtracks.