Changi, Seletar Dam, Pulau Punggol 29Jan11

From JS

Today, we had bad weather and lighting throughout the day. Still, we managed to cover some ground during the short break in the rain schedule.

Kok Hui, my dad and I went to CC in the morning before trying our luck with the Caspian Tern at Kranji after lunch. Due to heavy rain in the west, we decided to part at Mandai Mudflat. However, a message from Kok Hui to alert my dad and I that there is no rain at Seletar Dam got us heading in that direction. We counted shorebirds at Seletar Dam before spending some time at Pulau Punggol until the heavy rain finally caught up with us.

At CC, the gate to the cove was closed. No freshwater waders. However, we were fortunate to see a juvenile Jerdon's Baza and many thanks to Kok Hui's sharp eyes! He managed to spot the bird's silhouette in the thick casuarina forest and it is by no mean feat because my dad didn't even get a look of it! Fortunately, the bird was rather cooperative and allowed me to take a not-so-decent but identifiable record shot of the bird. Otherwise, I will have to add it to my long list of unid raptor that I accumulated today.

Another noteworthy raptor sighting is seeing 29 Black Bazas gathering and moving off like a small swarm of bees, minus a flying Jerdon's Baza.

Besides seeing 9 sp. of raptors, we saw one skittish Chestnut-winged Cuckoo and a couple of unid large cuckoos.

Considering the poor weather, 9 sp. of raptors, including a sighting of an under-documented raptor, is at least consoling. But, that is not to be said for the other locations.

At Mandai Mudflat, the tide was too high and the rain was back from its break. No birding done.

Thanks to Kok Hui's message, our birding didn't end there. We managed to do some birding at Seletar Dam and Pulau Punggol.

We went to the former because Kok Hui had spotted some waders at the coast while he was waiting for us to arrive. The only notable sighting is a Peregrine Falcon, which flushed the feeding waders.

At the latter, we saw the usual resident raptors and the wintering adult male Chinese Sparrowhawk. After birding for a short while in the casuarina forest, the rain clouds forced us to cut short our birding. However, I was lucky to leave later than Kok Hui and saw a pale morph Booted Eagle, an adult WBSE and an Osprey. Thus, concluding our birding.

A total of 12 sp. of raptors were seen.

1) Brahminy Kite (>6)
2) Black-winged Kite (>7)
3) Black Baza (29)
4) Jerdon's Baza (1 juv.)
5) Common Buzzard (1)
6) Oriental Honey Buzzard (2)
7) Changeable Hawk Eagle (1)
8) WBSE (4)
9) Booted Eagle (1 pale morph)
10) Osprey (1)
11) Peregrine Falcon (1)
12) Chinese Sparrowhawk (2, including 1 subadult female and 1 adult male)
13) Unid Accipiter (>2)

A pair of OHB at Changi.

From KH

At Changi grassland, we sighted a couple of Barred Buttonquails. And as usual, when Con is not around, a Ruddy-breasted Crake cross our path.

Here's the count at Seletar Dam.

1) Great Egret 1
2) Intermediate Egret 1
3) Little Egret 12
4) Grey Heron 6
5) Little Heron 9
6) Pacific Golden Plover 30
7) Lesser Sand Plover 35
8) Common Sandpiper 8
9) Collared Kingfisher 2

Also, at Pulau Punggol, we were surprised to see a female Jambu Fruit Dove.