Punggol, Halus, Changi 03Dec05

From KH

It was a cloudy day as we start another day of birding. We welcomed the return of Robert and Yamane. Together with Con, Danny, JS and I, there were 6 of us. The first site was Punggol. Around 9:30 am, Robert and Yamane left and the rest of us went on to Halus. After lunch, Con left and the three of us headed on to Changi to complete the day at 4 pm.

It was drizzling on and off in the morning. We met at Punggol MRT station and headed to a drain near Punggol Marina. Besides a Black-winged Kite in the grassland, there was nothing interesting at the drain, so we walked straight to Sungei Punggol. There were some Grey Herons, Little Egrets, a Common Greenshank and some Common Sandpipers, and someone wake-boarding. Yamane tried out his digiscope, while Danny put his Swarovski scope to good use. A pair of male Koels flew pass and landed in the same tree, which left us wondering what were 2 male Koels doing together... After a short while we decided to move on to former snipe drain. As we left, a raptor flew passed. And along the railings of the drain were many Spotted Doves, all came out to dry themselves after the drizzle. As we left we forgot that Robert is not familiar with this place and we lost him. A call to Con gave Robert the necessary info to get to destination.

Asian Koel ©Yamane Yoshio

Blue-tailed Bee-eater ©Con Foley

Brown Shrike ©Con Foley

Yellow Wagtail ©Con Foley

As we drove in, we saw a couple there with their scope. I recognized them as NSS members. They were looking at a male Koel, which was also behaving unusually, perching in full view. I was about to go over the greet them when Con alerted us of a wagtail in the drain. It was a really yellowish bird, I suppose it was a Yellow Wagtail. Con let us keep an eye on it while he went to set up his camera, but by the time he was ready the bird has flown off. Well, let's move on and maybe it'll come back. I went over to the couple and exchange sightings. They had just arrived and had not spotted anything uncommon. I let them know of the wagtail. Hopefully they manage to get it too. So we walked around and spotted the typical birds that could be found here, namely flamebacks, weavers, munias, bee-eaters, shrikes. Then a tiny bird caught my attention. At first sight it looked like a cisticola but most of the time cisticolas hide in the tall grass, whereas, this guy was flying from grass to grass in full view. I called Danny over and we had a hard time tracing it. Unfortunately, as a result, I missed the White-shouldered Starlings... We got the rest of the guys over and were discussing whether it was a Black-browed Reed Warbler or the typical Zitting Cisticola. Finally, it went zit zit zit and we had to settle for the sad fact that it was a cisticola (which is known as fan-tailed warbler in Japan).

Robert turned his head and a juvenile Lesser Coucal was there staring at us at eye-level.

Juvenile Lesser Coucal ©Con Foley

Then 2 Brahminy Kites flew passed. 9:30 am and so we bid Robert and Yamane farewell. After they left, we spotted a Common Kingfisher beside the drain. As we were about to leave, Con did a last scan for the Yellow Wagtail and bingo! Con sneaked up on it and yet it didn't fly off when approached. It just stood there as though Con has cast a spell on it. Last weekend, Con was here and he saw the White Wagtail in this very drain and since it was no longer a Snipe Drain, it shall be known to us as the Wagtail Drain. Having had enough of this bird, we moved on to Halus.

When we reached Halus, I saw 4 raptors up in the sky. Then we went to the Moorhen Pond. No moorhen today. Could the dumping of chemicals here last week have rendered this pond uninhabitable? Let's hope not... Fortunately, the grebe pond is still alive with the pair of Little Grebes, bitterns, herons, egrets. There were some photographers here too. We exchanged greetings and sightings.

Little Grebe ©Con Foley

They had come from Changi and saw the Buteo buteo (Common Buzzard), harrier and wagtail there. I told them we got the wagtail at Punggol. A Black Baza flew overhead and there were some other raptors at a distance. We figured White-bellied Sea-eagles and Brahminy Kites, some of them immature and some mature. As it was near lunch time, we headed back to Punggol for lunch. After lunch, Con had to leave for the talk by Jimmy Chew. So the three of us went on to our next destination, Changi, hoping to see the buzzard and harrier.

The Changi grassland was pretty quiet. Usually, there'll be orioles, bee-eaters, kingfishers, etc perching on the branches. Finally, near the fence of the runway, we saw a Little Ringed Plover and a wagtail. Again the debate over it being a yellow or a grey wagtail.

Little Ringed Plover ©Tan KH

As we moved on we spotted a raptor far away. Then we saw another one perching on the fence. Pied Harrier! When JS tried to get the scope to zoom in on it, it flew off and we lost it. We should have stayed in the car and approached it slowly whilst in the car. Oh well, let's move on.

Female Pied Harrier ©Tan KH

Besides the many Red Collared-doves perching on the fence, there are many wagtails on the ground. We were pleasantly surprised to see so many wagtails here, both adults and juveniles. Everywhere we drove along, we saw them. They were not present when we last came here about a month back, it must be their season now.

Purple Heron ©Tan KH

When we reached the sandy beach there were not many waders because it was still high tide. But we can see the tide subsiding. There were Pacific Golden, Lesser Sand and Greater Sand-plovers around. We got a clear comparison of the latter two when they stood close together. The Greater Sand Plover was larger, more longish-bodied and bigger-billed. We decided to move on and come back later. At the rocky beach, there were hundreds of waders but it looked like all were Lesser Sand Plovers. Next destination, the Cove. Also not many birds beside a lone Whimbrel and a pair of Malaysian Plovers. Back to the sandy beach. It was low tide now, but there were not many more waders. Shouldn't they be feeding at low tide?

That was 54 birds for the day with a few lifers for most of us. The surprises were the abundance of wagtails at Changi and the bird of the day is the Pied Harrier. We were also surprised that Halus has so many raptors today.

Punggol
01 House crow
02 Javan myna
03 Common myna
04 Pacific swallow
05 Barn swallow
06 Spotted dove
07 Pink-necked green-pigeon
08 Brahminy kite
09 Black-winged kite
10 Common sandpiper
11 Common greenshank
12 Little egret
13 Grey heron
14 Asian koel
15 Blue-tailed bee-eater
16 Asian glossy starling
17 White-shouldered starling
18 Black-naped oriole
19 Yellow-vented bulbul
20 White-throated kingfisher
21 Collared kingfisher
22 Common kingfisher
23 Sunda woodpecker
24 Common flameback
25 Brown shrike
26 Long-tailed shrike
27 White-breasted waterhen
28 Zitting cisticola
29 Lesser coucal
30 Yellow wagtail
31 Baya weaver
32 Scaly-breasted munia
33 Yellow-bellied prinia (heard)

Halus
34 Chinese pond-heron
35 Little heron
36 Purple heron
37 Great egret
38 Yellow bittern
39 Little grebe
40 Zebra dove
41 White-bellied sea-eagle
42 Black baza
43 Olive-backed sunbird
44 Golden-bellied gerygone (heard)

Changi
45 Red collared-dove
46 Little ringed plover
47 Greater sand-plover
48 Lesser sand-plover
49 Pacific golden-plover
50 Whimbrel
51 Malaysian plover
52 Eurasian tree sparrow
53 Paddyfield pipit
54 Pied harrier