Sg Serangoon 23Mar08

Today is the Annual Bird Census (ABC). The weather is partly cloudy and the tide is rising. Fortunately, I was still able to count 3 species of waders and 8 species of herons/egrets. 4 species of kingfishers were also represented. This is the first time I have recorded these 3 birds here: Intermediate Egret, Changeable Hawk Eagle and Dollarbird. The Intermediate Egret was in the same open grass patch that the single Purple Heron and 2 Grey Herons were slighted. The Changeable Hawk Eagle was heard calling for more than 20 minutes from the secondary forest side. I have always expected there to be Dollarbirds here and I have finally confirmed their presence today.

The species count this year is exactly the same as last year, namely 46. Abundance-wise, this year is significantly less, mainly due to the much lower count of herons and egrets. Notably missing from today's census are the bee-eater, White-bellied Sea Eagle, Ashy Tailorbird, House Swift and Barn Swallow. In their places are the Little Tern, Long-tailed Parakeet, Plain-throated Sunbird and Brown Shrike. Besides the Intermediate Egret and Changeable Hawk Eagle mentioned earlier, other birds of note are 1 Little Tern, 10 Black Bazas, 1 Black-capped Kingfisher and 1 Common Kingfisher.

Other significant events:

When I started walking along Sungei Pinang, a small group of photographers were shooting at Punggol Park.

The expressway construction is still on-going.

1 Striated Heron 13
2 Grey Heron 15
3 Purple Heron 1
4 Black-crowned Night Heron 1
5 Little Egret 17
6 Great Egret 3
7 Cattle Egret 11
8 Intermediate Egret 1
9 Pacific Golden Plover 3
10 Common Sandpiper 12
11 Common Greenshank 5
12 Little Tern 1
13 Brahminy Kite 2
14 Black Baza 10
15 Changeable Hawk Eagle 1
16 Long-tailed Parakeet 1
17 Rock Pigeon 12
18 Spotted Dove 16
19 Zebra Dove 7
20 Pink-necked Green Pigeon 1
21 Collared Kingfisher 4
22 White-throated Kingfisher 6
23 Common Kingfisher 1
24 Black-capped Kingfisher 1
25 Dollarbird 1
26 Sunda Woodpecker 2
27 Swiftlet 10
28 Asian Koel 6
29 Lesser Coucal 1
30 White-breasted Waterhen 8
31 Javan Myna 49
32 Common Myna 1
33 House Crow 7
34 Black-naped Oriole 9
35 Asian Glossy Starling 34
36 Scarlet-backed Flowerpecker 1
37 Olive-backed Sunbird 15
38 Plain-throated Sunbird 2
39 Brown Shrike 1
40 Common Tailorbird 10
41 Yellow-vented Bulbul 10
42 Pacific Swallow 6
43 Pied Fantail 2
44 Common Iora 4
45 Yellow-bellied Prinia 8
46 Eurasian Tree Sparrow 2
Total No. 334