Birds in Flight across Taman Perling are Little Egrets!

Every morning, about 7 -7.20 am, birds fly across my housing estate in V shape formation. Close up photo revealed they are Little Egret (Egretta garzetta), (after I spent sometime researching on the web). Some are not flying is V formation as above photo. Quite amazing to watch, been watching them flying past for years. The morning sun light is still a bit dull and my 200mm zoom still cannot capture the details of the bird.


Some birds have lumps on their feet... can not figure out what happened to them. Difficult for the poor birds to fly. Maybe mud or bitten off by crocodiles... Seen one trying to catch up by itself, maybe it work up late? or just weak.
I took this shot through a chain-link fence, focusing on the birds. See the V formation. Quite a number of schools... I should make a count.

From my observation point at Taman Perling, the birds came from South East, flying North West. South East, the roosting place should be the Sungei Buloh Wetlands in Singapore, which is about 6.5 km or 4.2 miles away. The target looks like Gunung Pulai, a majestic mountain on the North-West direction. The birds may be using the mountain as a guide to go down south following the river from Gunung Pulai, to a great wetlands Ramsar Site in the estuary of Sungai Pulai.

Some photos of Sungai Pulai (http://norhayatiahmad-herpetologist.blogspot.com/2008/12/sungai-pulai-ramsar-site-malaysia.html)

See more about the Ramsar Wetlands information- http://www.ramsar.org/wn/w.n.malaysia_three_new.htm


Close up, the Little Egret in flight. Not much flapping. Sure is aerodynamic. Sharp front, streamlined body and legs straightened. Curled back neck in flight suggest, this is Egret.