CCK Park Jul06

1-4Jul06

From Danny

This year, there were two WBSE juveniles. There were two adult Slaty-breasted Rails breeding in the tall grasses behind the waste bin compound; definitely there from 6 to 7.30 pm, not sure if around in the morning.

Two juvenile White-bellied Sea-eagles in nest

Slaty-breasted Rail

From Con

I went to Choa Chu Kang Park to see the Slaty-breasted Rail, and sure enough, they were exactly where Danny said. Arriving at 6 pm, Marisol and I saw them when we were parking the car. Within a few minutes, a Collared Kingfisher dive bombed one of the Rails for no reason we could understand and hit the bird hard. The bird spread its wings and stayed quivering for about 5 minutes, then it went into the grasses and disappeared. All the Rails stayed hidden until about 6:30 when they came out again. There seem to be 4 Rails, the two parents and two juveniles.

mid Jul06

From Danny

Went over to CCK last Sunday after 9.00 am, seen the male & took a few pictures. Packing up saw the female at the bin compound end. Heard the collared KF but couldn't locate the nest. The SBRs are fine.

I'm most delighted to inform you after some anxious times they made it not one but two eaglets. Currently both have fully fledged but behaving like spoilt children refusing to leave & hunt. One interesting observation was one day the nest as big as 6 ft across or more was completely whithered down to just a 2 ft plate size across & subsequently completely nothing. Likely 3 possible scenarios, one the parents torn it down, two, both were too big & the nest gave way, lastly destroyed by humans.

The debris of the nest were found at the foot of the tall tree. The last option could be ruled out as all these months most Park users are aware of their existence and it is too high to reach. The 2nd option is also not likely as I personally seen the 2 ft plate size remaining b4 it totally gone, by pure weight the nest won't neatly gave way to a round 2 ft size.

From Con

By the way, the collared kingfisher appears to be feeding young. The two adults are taking turns going into the nest hole. They perch just outside on a branch for a while before going to the hole. We can not see a chick(s) sticking out yet, my guess is they are too small just yet.

Adult

Juvenile

Adult with chick

Collared Kingfisher nesting

23Jul06 Sun

From Danny

Shots taken on Sunday morning, the chicks are growing & plumages are molting. Seen the whole team in full parade. There are two distinct families of 4 adults, 5 chicks - the parents feeding their respective chicks. Further down towards the Collared Kingfisher nesting tree are two juveniles feeding within the bushes, likely driven out of the lucrative feeding grounds of the gum trees. Total strength 11 enough for a soccer team.

Five species of Gum trees within the feeding patch:
Mindanao Gum - Eucalyptus deglupta
White Gum
Eucalyptus alba - Aust.
Eucalyptus platphylla - Aust.
Eucalyptus apodophylla - Aust.

30Jul06 Sun

From Con

The chicks are getting much bigger. There are four chicks, one was just outside the picture. They were trying to fly. They will flap their wings once or twice and they would kind of fly / hop off the ground by a foot or so. It won't be long before they can fly.