Changi, Tuas 26Dec09

From JS

The day after Christmas is the day we open our presents and we got 2 plump-looking Common Buzzard counting the planes leaving Changi airport. In addition, we sighted the flock of PGPs at Tuas again but this time, they are in dark golden plumage. In the flock is the odd-looking golden plover. Unfortunately, we couldn't enjoy the presents immediately.

This time, the odd-looking golden plover looked less distinctly capped and the oscular spot at the back of its eye fused with the eye-stripe, giving it a dark ear-covert. Besides, it showed me its mottled breast, belly and barred flanks. Still, the whitish supercilium and whitish face gave it away from far despite its best attempt to hide from us. The primaries were exposed but no counts could possibly be made with my bino. Other noteworthy feature is the wearing of the wing coverts and tertials, giving it a black-backed appearance, where its scapular is darker than its greying tertials. This also gave it a sharply contrasting faint appearance compared with the adjacent pgps, which have a rather fresh golden-cum-darkish non-breeding plumage. I have no idea if these features are of any relevant use but the difference between the odd-looking golden plover moult (fresh scapulars, worn coverts and tertials) and the pgps' (fresh scapulars, coverts, tertials) is becoming more apparent.

Still, I missed their calls. (had problems listening to their alarm calls and photographing their flight at the same time) In flight, I noted that the odd-looking gp had a golden mottled rump, so its not a grey plover. It would be better if they were not frightened into taking flight but the tall grasses and their resting posture made it practically impossible to see their plumage, let alone the number of exposed primaries. We were only able to spot the flock because they were sticking their heads above the grass to look out for danger. Otherwise, when in resting position, we couldn't even see the odd-looking plover whose head wasn't even stretched beyond the tall grass. (or maybe because its neck was shorter than the adjacent PGPs?)

Attached is a record shot of the odd-looking gp. Colour-wise, the yellowish grass disillusioned the camera into producing yellowish-tinged photos. Still, the differences between the odd-looking gp and the adjacent PGPs are quite clear.

Raptor list (observers: Danny, JS, Con, KH)
1) 2 Common Buzzards (Changi Coast Road)
2) 1 Common Kestrel (Changi Coast Road)
3) 3 Eastern Marsh-harriers (2 juv, 1 immature male) (Tanah Merah grassland)
4) 1 Osprey (Tanah Merah grassland)
5) 1 Black Baza
6) CHEs
7) Black-winged Kites
8) Brahminy Kites
9) WBSEs