wgeoff

A contact of mine, David Bakewell, is now doing pelagic trips off the coast of Penang, West Malaysia on one of the local fishing boats. (He may be known to some of the older bird watchers here - he used to live in Hong Kong)

Here's an account of his latest trip and how he is educating the fishermen not to catch the Short-tailed Shearwaters which turn up in the waters between Penang and Sumatra in spring, just like they do here.

http://digdeep1962.blogspot.com/2011/04/27th-april-2011-at-sea-off-tanjung.html

Has anyone ever thought of going out on a fishing boat from Hong Kong? Brendan and I were discussing the possibility a few days ago.

lrichard

Thanks for posting David Bakewell's blog, Geoff. Great photos & well-written text.

I knew him in the late 1980s - a very impreessive birder. One spring day, with the Mai Po scrape absolutely heaving with waders, a raptor passed  over and about 10,000 shoebirds of 40 species flew up and circled round, all calling. "Listen!" he said "Little Whimbrel". And sure enough, a Little Whimbrel dropped down from the sky and landed close to the hide - a lifer for almost everyone there.