At one of the dried-up pond; a colony of a dozen Open-billed Storks were feeding on the abundant molluscs aka moon snails whilst the scavenging cattle egrets and little egrets wait for the remnant flesh of the emptied shell.
They separate the shell from the body of the snail using the tip of the beak. The tip of the lower mandible of the beak is often twisted to the right. This tip is inserted into the opening of the snail and the body is extracted with the bill. The exact action being difficult to see, but it is concluded their bill gap was used like a nutcracker. He held the rough edges of the bill as being the result of wear and tear from such actions. Subsequent studies have dismissed this idea and the rough edge of the bill has been suggested as being an adaptation to help handle hard and slippery shells.
A single First-winter Yellow Wagtail was sighted at the 4 fish ponds section which are dried out. Surprising no other waders around.
At the main pond a paddyfield pipit is settling down; but it was a bit skittish even when I was shooting from the car. It will hide beside nearby scrub whenever I bring out my camera.
The Little Commorant is now a regular sighting at Kampar- MalimNawar bypass. Shot using my Nikon P1000.
No comments:
Post a Comment