Changi, Halus, Tuas 14Nov09

From KH

Danny and I started the day at Changi. As usual, we tried out luck at the KT entrance. However, we were caught off guard by the road block along the road to KT entrance! Arghhh... The APEC Meetings... We also tried our luck at lamppost 149, and again we hit the same road block. Oh well, looks like all along any coastal area in Singapore, there'll be soldiers guarding. Disappointed, we decided to go get my car and leave for elsewhere. Along the way back, an Oriental Honey-buzzard perched along Changi Coast Road delayed us a bit. Then, at Tanah Merah Coast Road, a harrier caught our attention, so we decided to take a walk into the Tanah Merah grassland.

There were not one, but three harriers - 1 subadult male and 1 juvenile Eastern Marsh-harrier, as well as 1 juvenile Pied Harrier. This juvenile Eastern Marsh-harrier never came close enough for photo-taking! The photo below is cropped at 100% zoom.

Even further away, an Oriental Honey-buzzard perched high on a tree. A Peregrine Falcon was also hanging around in the grassland.

Besides the migrant raptors, there were also many resident raptors. There were at least 5 Black-winged Kites in the vicinity. One of them was harassing a juvenile White-bellied Sea-eagle. From the photo below, it seems the other way round, but trust me the BWKs were vicious.

In fact, another pair of BSKs was harassing a dark morph Changeable Hawk-eagle. I can't remember if they were also harassing the Brahminy Kites there.

This was the poor WBSE that was being harassed. It came in for a close shot.

There were at least 5 Purple Herons hanging out in the grassland.

Not forgetting the Cattle Egrets and Little Egrets.

In the tall grass, Siberian Stonechats and Pallas' Grasshopper Warblers were making a lot noise, but refused to show! The Oriental Reed Warbler was a little more co-operative, although it stayed far from us. Just to complete the list, there were also brown shrikes, lesser coucals, bee-eaters, cisticolas, pipits, sparrows, munias, bulbuls, green pigeons, turtle doves, swallows, swiftlets.

When we were about to leave, a pair of Ruddy-breasted Crakes walked out of the tall grass and played with us. However, it was not easy to get a clear shot.

By this time, the heat was unbearable, so we left for Halus. No pond herons at Pasir Ris Farmway, probably because it was high tide. No Little Ringed Plovers in the grass field opposite either. Nevertheless, there were at least 5 Yellow Wagtails there. Guess what. Roadblock again, this time at the Halus entrance. Looks like Pulau Punggol will be the same. Let's break for lunch then. En-route to lunch, an adult Grey-headed Fish-eagle soared over Kranji Camp. After lunch, we headed to Tuas.

Immediately, Danny spotted a bittern on a mound. On closer inspection, it turned out to be a Schrenck's Bittern. This guy shows up here without fail for a few seasons already. There were also 3 Wood Sandpipers and at least 2 Snipes. Then at about 1:15 pm, a flock of Oriental Honey-buzzards was thermalling up and when they've gain sufficient height, they glided towards a single direction. I counted about 60 birds and Danny's compass confirmed the birds were flying Southwest. Guess who we met while counting the raptors. Who else but Martii! He has been counting near his office in Tuas from 9 am and was about to leave when he spotted some raptors here and decided to come check it out. We stayed on for another hour and added 50 more giving a total of 110. The 60 was the biggest flock, the rest were either in the single digits or at most 20+.

The day ended with a Black-winged Kite put up an aerial hovering show for Danny and I.