Sungei Pinang West - Mangrove Cruise
26-11-2006
Sungei Pinang West Mangrove Cruise on 26th November by Beatrice Teoh
There were 7 of us (including 1 non-member) who turned up for the above trip, majority of those who signed up (total 30) for 19th November cruise that was rescheduled to the 26th could not make it on this day. Some of us met at Teluk Bahang roundabout at 11:30 a. m. and went for a brief walk around Teluk Bahang Dam on the old Balik Pulau road then went on to have Hokkien mee and
laksa at Kuala Jalan Baru in Balik Pulau and at 2:00pm met up with another 2 MNS members at Kampung Sungei Pinang.
It started to pour then, so we adjourned to one local coffee shop for one of the best fresh nutmeg juice in town. Joseph also shared one bottle of fresh nyra juice, everyone enjoyed the drinks. The rain subsided as we finished our drinks and proceeded to Kg. Sg. Pinang for a tour around the village. Even in the village area, we sighted many birds such as White-breasted Waterhen, Wood Sandpiper, Common Sandpiper, Peaceful Dove, Common Myna and Common Kingfisher. As we had two "mangrove experts" in Ong Jin Eong & Gong Wooi Khoon, who are also pioneer Penang MNS members with us, we were enlightened on mangrove habitat and species by them.
After a short walk we took a boat cruise out to the mangrove waterways, we sighted more bird species, notably lots of Brahminy Kite, Collared Kingfisher, Stork-billed Kingfisher, Great Egret, Chinese Pond Heron, Little Heron, unidentified munias and some other species, surprisingly there were not many white-bellied sea eagles around this time. We also sighted a large eagle (our local boatman called it helang gagak) which could be the Greater Spotted Eagle.(Later we confirmed with Kanda who said that the Greater Spotted Eagle was a near threatened species that has been recorded in this area a number of times)
We stopped at the river mouth (situated at central western coast of Penang island) to watch the sunset, unfortunately it was quite cloudy. From afar we could see Pantai Mas, which is part of the Penang National Park. The rolling hills against the backdrop of Sg Pinang village were a beautiful sight to behold.