Halus, Punggol 14Oct06

From KH

We are on a mission today - to break the FMBC record of 63 species at Lorong Halus! Starting at about 0730, we were pleasantly surprised to find that Halus has many trails opened up, giving us access to places we would have to bash through previously. We could access the estuary branching out from Sungei Serangoon, which allowed us to add a few more waders and some other birds to the list by 1030. The mudskippers at the estuary were a good topic for discussion. Do you know that the giant mudskipper is carnivorous, whereas the blue-spotted mudskipper feeds on algae. The bird of the day is the ruddy-breasted crake at the moorhen pond.

Blue-spotted (left) and giant (right) mudskippers in direct comparsion at Halus.

Blue Pansy at Halus

At Punggol, we met Sutari, Jimmy Chew and their friends (from Malaysia and the US). After brief exchanges, we proceeded separately to bag more birds. Blue-tailed bee-eaters, scaly-breasted munias and spotted doves were common. In the drain were some waders - little ringed plovers, wood and common sandpipers, but no snipes because the drain was overgrown with reeds. Even if the birds were there, we would not be able to see them. A yellow wagtail was around though. While Danny and JS continue to search for snipes and wagtails, Con took PC and me round Punggol. Nothing interesting was found aside from some pied fantails and an ashy tailorbird. Lunch at Punggol completed our list of 63 species with the Eurasian tree sparrow. We might have failed our mission, but we managed to match the number of species, if that's any consolation.

Yellow Wagtail (simillima subsp.) at Punggol

Halus
1 Little grebe 4
2 Rufous woodpecker 2
3 Sunda woodpecker 1
4 White-throated kingfisher
5 Collared kingfisher 2
6 Common kingfisher 3
7 Stork-billed kingfisher 1
8 Red collared dove 2
9 Spotted dove
10 Zebra dove
11 Pink-necked green pigeon 6
12 House swift
13 Asian koel 1
14 White-bellied sea eagle 1
15 Japanese sparrowhawk 1
16 Whimbrel 2
17 Common sandpiper
18 Marsh sandpiper 1
19 Wood sandpiper 2
20 Common redshank 5
21 Pacific golden plover
22 Lesser sand plover 1
23 Little egret
24 Grey heron
25 Purple heron 1
26 Striated heron
27 White-breasted waterhen 2
28 Common moorhen 2
29 Ruddy-breasted crake 1
30 Golden-bellied gerygone 1h
31 Black-naped oriole
32 House crow
33 Javan myna
34 Common myna
35 Barn swallow
36 Pacific swallow
37 Asian glossy starling
38 Purple-backed starling
39 Long-tailed shrike 1
40 Brown shrike 5
41 Pied fantail 3
42 Common tailorbird 1h
43 Yellow-bellied prinia 5h
44 Red-whiskered bulbul 1
45 Yellow-vented bulbul
46 Asian brown flycatcher 1
47 Yellow-rumped flycatcher 1
48 Common iora 2
49 Oriental magpie robin 1
50 White-rumped shama 1h
51 Olive-backed sunbird 2
52 Baya weaver 3
53 Scaly-breasted munia

Punggol
54 Brahminy kite 1
55 Black-winged kite 4
56 Little ringed plover 2
57 Blue-tailed bee-eater 15
58 Rock pigeon 10
59 Ashy tailorbird 1h
60 Zitting cisticola 2
61 Yellow wagtail 1
62 Paddyfield pipit 1
63 Eurasian tree sparrow 5

* No numbers means very common in the area.