Lower Peirce 08-11Mar09

From JS on 8 Mar

This evening, my dad brought me to Lower Peirce. If I am not wrong, this is my first time visiting the site this year and, possibly, in my entire life. I didn't know that Singapore had covered forest streams (reminds me of the wren babblers' territory at Frasers') until I was at the site. Very encouraging to find such a habitat in a concrete jungle with pockets of secondary woodlands.

It has been quite a while since I last saw a lifer in Singapore and my first bird at the site is a lifer, a female Green-backed Flycatcher. Feeling rather tired and dizzy, I couldn't spot an open perched Green-backed flycatcher which was less than 5m away from me. Possibly a symptom of birdwatching withdrawal syndrome.

The other birds sighted were the usual species, Short-tailed Babblers (>3-4), Black-backed Kingfisher (1) and Siberian Blue Robin (1 subadult male).

Slowly, I managed to regain full concentration and spotted a large bird (about 1-and-a-half times the size of a short-tailed babbler) hopping on a thin log in the furthest ferny puddle. The bird had a brownish upperparts and white black-spotted underparts. It also had a dark brown ear covert and whitish supercilium. I am sure it is a Zoothera but not able to confirm the species. Shouldn't have spotted the bird, now I am stuck with an unid bird... a good companion for the unid hawk cuckoos...

From GC on 9 Mar

Was drizzling this evening. Saw about 5 Short-tailed Babblers bathing. Drizzling but they still came!? BBKF flew in to shower at around 6.45 pm. in about 3 mins, it was done and gone. 1 Flowerpecker feeding on melastoma (pic). No sign of the Thrush. No Chinese FC also.

From Danny on 10 Mar

I went to LP this evening. The thrush was spotted briefly on the right side of the boardwalk while we (Mark Chua & I) were expecting it to hop over to the left. Point taken, this bird come in and leave from the right side of boardwalk. The other birds spotted were Short tailed Babblers, Chinese FC and "resident" BBKF. No mousedeer sighted but while leaving a Colugo flew over my head and landed on tree 5 ft above me.

From KH on 11 Mar

I reached LP at about 5:40 pm. It was quiet and no photogs were around. I went to the open view of the reservoir and saw a GHFE on the tall tree opposite. Then, I walked back to the gully for the Chinese FC and Mark was there. Soon the FC appeared and within 5-10 minutes, after a few dips, it was gone. As I have not seen this bird before, initially I thought it was a Siberian Blue Robin!

Soon the true blue Siberian Blue Robin appeared.

Then Danny showed up and later on Johnny. While waiting for other birds to appear, a Haas's Bronzeback caught my attention. It was so thin that I would have missed it had it stay stationary! It was ~50cm, not as long as the one Con saw.

Around 7 pm, the BBKF appeared. After a few final dips, it tugged in for the night.

7:20 pm, time to leave. All the while, >5 Short-tailed Babblers were calling and coming in for showers. An Abbott's Babbler, a Red-crowned Barbet, a CHE and a WBSE were heard, but not seen.