Upper Seletar, Punggol, Mt Faber, Pasir Panjang, SBWR 09-10Dec06

From JS

If I am not wrong, the whole group has been to Punggol before for birding (at least once, if not can go again next week but bring a wellington then!) and recognises the punggol drain as the migratory snipes' stronghold. However, with Bing Wen around, Con, my father and I got a glimpse of the wonderful grassland of Tuas/Changi Cove/Senoko/Serangoon in the late 90s, where one can find ducks, reed warblers, snipes, etc. (Almost all the marsh birds in the checklist. - quoted from Bing Wen)

A consolation for those who did not make it to Punggol today is no rarity is sighted today but assured by Bing Wen that in the near future, he is going to explore the place.

This is just a summary of the future of the Punggol grassland. Presently, the statistics look quite encouraging:
- >10 Stonechats heard (5-6 females seen, excluding 2 males & 3 females seen on last Thu)
- 2 Pintail Snipes are flushed along the path (Haven't enter the marsh yet!)
- Pallas' Grasshopper Warbler (>3 heard)
- Lanceloted Warbler (>1 heard)
- Oriental Reed Warbler (2 seen)
- Black Browed Reed Warbler (h)
- White Browed Crake (>3 heard)
- Ruddy Breasted Crake (1 seen and many heard)
- Yellow Bittern (2 seen)
- Cinnamon Bittern (1 seen)
- Japanese Sparrowhawk (1 seen)
- Munias, Shrikes, etc

Female Siberian Stonechat ©Danny Lau

Japanese Sparrowhawk feasting on a woodpecker taken earlier ©Lau JS

From Con

Today I volunteered to drive Bing Wen around in his quest to break the year tick record. We started at 7:30am at the fruiting fig tree at Upper Seletar, where we saw about 50 male & female thick billed pigeons feasting on the figs. Harry Ong and his wife Kim joined. Then at 8:00am we went to Punggol. Also at Punggol were Siew Kwang, Jimmy Chew, Ashley Ng. Thanks to yours and your father's sightings of the stonechat, Punggol has become famous. Everyone saw the stonechat, although for photographers it was too far away. Today was sunny & hot, so everyone left by about 9:30AM and there were fewer birds to see than yesterday.

The bad news is several men were making an offering with oranges, joss sticks, burning paper money, and then they drove a tractor into the grasslands and started digging. They were from a construction company that has been hired to clear the grasslands. :-( So better see what is left of Punggol before it is all gone. Bing Wen managed to draw out the Pallas warbler and saw it, although it was not a year tick for him. (I didn't see it).

After Punggol we tried Lookout Point, but there was no parking available, so we went to Butik Batok, but there was a tour group of ~100 kids shouting Yam Seng; so we went to Mount Faber to look for cuckoos. Bing Wen showed us the area to look for cuckoos, we did see one, but couldn't ID it. Instead we got Mugimaki, Dark Sided and Asian Brown Flycatchers, not year ticks for Bing Wen, although Dark Sided was new to the rest of us.

Then we had lunch at a coffee shop; and since we were near Pasir Panjang I asked Bing Wen about the House Sparrows, so he took us to see them. They are still there and are very easy to see. This was a lifer for all of us, except Bing Wen. (well, I'm sure I saw them when I lived in America, but anyway, today I got pictures).

Then we went to SBWR to look for the Godwit which was not seen yesterday. Today, again, no Godwit after 4 pairs of eyes searching the flock of Whimbrels. But we did see Copper Throated Sunbird, male & female and we saw a female Little Bronze Cuckoo, which happened to be a year tick for Bing Wen. We finished the day about 4pm.

So the weekend ended up for Bing Wen getting 2 ticks, the stonechat and the bronze cuckoo. He has 10 more ticks left to break the record. It was great fun having his company during the day as his knowledge of birds is very high.