Japanese Garden, Changi, Pulau Punggol 14Jan12

From KH

The Crested Goshawk pair stayed in the JG spotted wood owl pine trees for more than 1 hour (0730-0845) before we got tired of them and moved on to CC. Although we could get clear views, they perched quite high up. Good chance to test your ohb-camera setup.

At CC, the highlight is a flock of 11 Jerdon's Bazas! Initially, we saw a few in the trees, then all 11 started circling and flying in one direction, making counting them easy. Jia Sheng has the number for the rest of the raptors. There was also a Chestnut-winged Cuckoo, but view wasn't good. We tried for the whistler, but no response.

At P Punggol, the juv dark Booted Eagle was there. We couldn't stay to break our record of 14 for Big Raptor Day, as we all had dinner appointments to attend... Some of the roadside trees were infested with Atlas Moth caterpillars, but no bird came to feed. Maybe they taste yucky?

From JS

Here's our raptor count:

Japanese Garden (JG)
1) Crested Goshawk (2)
2) Black Baza (1)
3) White-bellied Sea Eagle (1)

Changi Cove (CC)
1) Common Buzzard (1 (juv?) Grey-brown morph B. b. vulpinus)
2) Unid Buzzard (1)
3) Chinese Goshawk (4, including 1 juv and 2 (subadult?) females)
4) Japanese Sparrowhawk (1 adult male)
5) Oriental Honey Buzzard (2, probably the same dark morph and rufous morph individuals that was recorded during our last 3-4 visits)
6) Jerdon's Baza (11)
7) Black-winged Kite (5, including a mating pair and 1 immature)
8) Brahminy Kite (>3)
9) White-bellied Sea Eagle (1)
10) Changeable Hawk Eagle (2)
11) Grey-headed Fish Eagle (1)

Changi Water Treatment Plant
1) Oriental Honey Buzzard (1)
2) Accipiter sp. (1 individual was seen trying to catch swiftlets. So far, such behaviour has only been noted on the Japanese Sparrowhawk.)
3) Changeable Hawk Eagle (1)

Pulau Punggol (PP)
1) Booted Eagle (1)
2) White-bellied Sea Eagle (2)
3) Changeable Hawk Eagle (1 juv. pale morph)
4) Oriental Honey Buzzard (1)
5) Black Baza (2)
6) Harrier sp. (1 probable male was seen at the grassland while my father and I were leaving. My account: It had an all-white appearance with black on the primaries of the upperwing, which IMO is enough to remove the possibility of the resident BWK. Still, there's definitely no way that we could a flying-away harrier, irregardless of lighting or proximity. Worth looking out for in future...)
7) Accipiter sp. (2)
8) Chinese Sparrowhawk (1 heard)

Other notable species: Chestnut-winged Cuckoo (CC), Hawk Cuckoo sp. (PP), Common Kingfisher (JG)

Crested Goshawk 1

Crested Goshawk 2

Steppe Buzzard (rufous morph)

Jerdon's Bazas