Singapore Strait 16Apr11

From Con

Thanks all for another enjoyable outing and the continuing series of skuas :-)
I'm sure several folks got similar or better pictures, but here are a few to share in order of appearance ...

White-winged Tern

Indo-Pacific Bottlenose Dolphin

Arctic Skua
http://www.pbase.com/con_foley/image/133947190
http://www.pbase.com/con_foley/image/133947191

Where were those petrels :)

From Colin

Although we didn't record any phalaropes we did have another jaeger, this time a Parasitic. Google map.

Apart from that the day was surprisingly quiet with White-winged Terns being the most numerous with a total of 54, the only "crested-type" terns were two distant unidentified birds so most seem to have moved off, and there were also small numbers of returning Black-naped and Little Terns. The other highlight was a pod of five Bottle-nosed Dolphins, only the second record of cetaceans we've had in seven trips.

We've now had five jaeger records since October, and it seems what often happens is that they're sat on the sea unseen (somewhere east of Changi, south to northeastern Batam) and fly only to harass groups of terns when the terns are disturbed into the air, usually from one of the buoys. This time a large group of White-winged Terns were disturbed off a buoy by a White-bellied Sea-eagle bringing its catch to eat, this brought in the jaeger which then chose to harass the Sea-Eagle rather than the terns!

Birds that were noticeable by their absence were perhaps Bridled and Aleutian Terns, but also most interestingly Swinhoe's Storm-petrels. What little is known of the spring passage of Swinhoe's Storm-petrels seems to show that the previous records actually from the Straits have all been in May, so perhaps they all come through next month in a shorter period time than when they're around in the autumn?

From JS

Upper and under wing shots of the Arctic Skua.

WBSE with prey.

The skua in hot pursuit of WBSE with prey.

Unid bird