Pasir Ris Park, Changi, Seletar Dam, Pulau Punggol 31Dec11

From KH

I started off with the Bird Group folks mainly to show Dr Ho the CHE nests at Changi. Con, Danny and Jia Sheng started at Pasir Ris Park for the Mangrove Pitta and met up with us at Changi.

From JS

Changi

1. CHE 1
2. Common Buzzard 1 (dark morph - most probably the same grey-brown Steppe Buzzard that was seen previously.)
3. BWK 3
4. WBSE >2
5. Brahminy Kite 8
6. Black Baza 1
7. OHB 1
8. Peregrine Falcon 2 (1 chasing the other)
9. Jerdon's Baza 1
10. Chinese Sparrowhawk >1 (we saw one calling female adult(?) and heard some response.)
11. Chestnut-winged Cuckoo 1
12. Ashy Minivets >5

Seletar Dam

1. Black-headed Gull 1 1st winter
2. Oriental Honey Buzzard 1
3. Peregrine Falcon 1

Black-headed Gull ©Tan KH

Pulau Punggol

1. Osprey 1
2. Booted Eagle 2
3. Black Baza 14 flying from Punggol to Pulau Punggol
4. Chinese Sparrowhawk 2
5. WBSE 3
6. Brahminy Kite 3
7. Peregrine Falcon 1 japonensis on the same perch for >2 hrs!
8. Accipiter sp. (JS: Saw 1 very pale individual flying across the road while the Chinese Sparrowhawks were calling. Looks good for a Shikra if I am in other country but will leave it as unid.)
9. Juv Accipiter sp. 1
10. Hawk-cuckoo sp. 1
11. Bunting? (JS: The bird was skulking (walking) inside the mimosa by a puddle, behaving alot like a sparrow/pipit rather than the mouse-like reed warblers. Alarmed, it stretched its neck upright and gave a pipit-like pose. It was brownish and had a short, thick bill. I thought I had made out a "grey-fronted canary"-like head (supercilium and obvious ear-covert) and some streaks on the sides (like those of the red-throated pipit) as the bird flew its unbounded, direct flight (Looks more like a giant munia than a pipit) and gave a last-look before darting straight into the marsh vegetation. If it is not my imaginative thinking, it should be this bird - with no prior experience to a bunting, I can be wrong on the grounds of ignorance. No call though.)
12. Reed Warbler? 1
13. Suspected Rusty-rumped Warbler 1 (JS: I was more inclined to this id than the zitting cisticola. Kok Hui saw the bird and thought that the latter is a better call because of the size and the lighter-toned upperparts. The brownish appearance and white-tipped tail reasoned my inclination though none of them is useful for separating the 2 species.)

Peregrine Falcon japonensis ©Danny Lau

Dead Painted Bronzeback with $1 coin for size comparison. It was about 2-foot-long ©Tan KH