Singapore Bird Race 20-21Oct12

From KH

Danny, JS and I formed Team Drongos to participate in this year's bird race. Con joined Seetoh's team, as the team size is limited to a max of 3 this year.

The race started on Sat 5 pm at SBWR and ended Sun 5 pm at Dairy Farm, so we arrived early at SBWR to recce. When we reached, the weather was good and the birds (waders and egrets) were around. However, when the race started at 5 pm, it started pouring! All teams were stuck at the Main Hide for about 1 hour. Fortunately, we ticked off all the waders and egrets seen earlier, except Bar-tailed Godwit and Intermediate Egret.

When the rain was lighter, our team took the opportunity to escape to Seletar Dam. Along the way, we ticked off some common bird. The surprises were 2 Changeable Hawk Eagles and 3 Grey-headed Fish Eagles along SLE.

At Seletar Dam, The plovers (Oriental, Malaysian, Greater Sand) were all MIA. We only ticked off Terek Sandpiper and 3 common birds. By now, the sky was dark and we were off to Seletar West to tick off some night birds, namely Savanna Nightjar and Black-crowned Night Heron. Then at Lower Peirce, we only got Large-tailed Nightjar. No owls for the night. We ended the night with 30 species. Not too bad considering how bad the weather was.

The next morning, we went Rifle Range for the forest birds and managed to salvage two owls. A Collared Scops Owl perched at eye level calling, making it an easy target. Almost immediately after that, a pair of Brown Hawk Owls started calling high up in the tree and soon they flushed, making them another easy tick. We waited at Jelutong Tower for the morning fly-bys. There were swallows and swifts for picking, as well as Blue-winged Leafbird, bulbuls (Red-eyed, Olive-winged) and others. In total 20 species were counted from the tower within less than 1 hour.

We took the boardwalk to the reservoir and got 3 birds from the boardwalk but none from the reservoir. We should skip it next time... On the way back to Rifle Range, we managed to tick off Ashy and Crow-billed Drongo. The former got us the Bird of the Day award! A fruiting tree drew in a Red-crowned Barbet and an Asian Fairy Bluebird. We also got Greater Green Leafbird and Striped Tit Babbler to round up our forest league. Dark-necked Tailorbird and Short-tailed Babbler were heard-only, so they never made it to our list. There was also supposed to be a Malaysian Hawk Cuckoo (seen by other teams).

Our next stop was Bidadari. We got 10 more bird here, including Black-backed Kingfisher, Drongo Cuckoo and Lineated Barbet, but Brown-chested Jungle Flycatcher was MIA.

Next up was Halus for the terns (Little, White-winged, Whiskered) and Little Grebe. We ticked off 14 birds in total. Prinia called, but did not show. We missed the Rosy Starling and Streaked Weaver. Soon it started pouring and our exploration of Halus was shortened. Fortunately, we have covered most of it.

At Pasir Ris Park, we braved the rain to tick off Spotted Wood Owls (1 adult, 1 juv.). We stopped for lunch at Changi Village and ticked off Rock Pigeon only, because the target birds here had been ticked off elsewhere. At Changi Beach, we got our Oriental Magpie Robin. The pickings were thin with 1-2 birds per site! Fortunately, our next destination was Changi grassland. There should be some good birds here. Indeed, we ticked off 9 birds within 1 hour including Ruddy-breasted Crakes, a Chinese Goshawk, a male Eastern Marsh Harrier and the usual residents.

By now it was 2 pm. With 3 hours to go, we made a decision to head for NTL2. On the way, a single Purple-backed Starling mixed with Asian Glossy Starlings along Loyang Ave made 99; and the Intermediate Egret we missed at SBWR seen when entering SLE made 100. Guess what our 101 bird was. It was Eurasian Tree Sparrow along Kranji Industrial Estate. At Kranji NSRCC, Yellow Wagtail and Little Ringed Plover made up 102 and 103, respectively. By now, it was getting harder and harder to add birds.

Nevertheless, the decision to go NTL2 turned out fruitful. We got 11 more birds by 4 pm. These included the target birds, Purple Swamphen and Common Moorhen, as well as bird like Emerald Dove, Chestnut-winged Cuckoo, Indian Cuckoo and Red-whiskered Bulbul. Black-browed Reed Warbler called, but did not show.

Finally at Dairy Farm, we heard the Straw-headed Bulbul, but no tick. Fortunately, at the entrance of MOE Adventure Centre, a Laced Woodpecker made 115 for our list. Other teams that arrived later got Eastern Crowned Warbler right at the entrance, but by this time JS and Danny were tallying the numbers, so this bird did not make it to our list too.

So after 24 hours of hard work in bad weather, we came in third behind the second team (LKS, CC with 116) and the winning team (LKC, YDL, LBW with 120).

Our biggest misses were Brahminy Kite and the munias.

Here's a reconstruction of our list:

No.	Species	Location
1-12	Whimbrel, Common Greenshank, Common Redshank, Curlew Sandpiper, Marsh Sandpiper, Pacific Golden Plover, Lesser Sand Plover, Little Egret, Cattle Egret, Great Egret, Grey Heron, Pink-necked Green Pigeon	SBWR main hide
13-15	Common Sandpiper, White-breasted Waterhen, Oriental Pied Hornbill	SBWR entrance
16-20	Javan Myna, Spotted Dove, Asian Glossy Starling, Black-naped Oriole, White-bellied Sea Eagle	Kranji
21-23	Yellow-vented Bulbul, Changeable Hawk Eagle, Grey-headed Fish Eagle	SLE
24-27	Little Heron, Barn Swallow, Common Myna, Terek Sandpiper	Seletar Dam
28-29	Savanna Nightjar, Black-crowned Night Heron	Seletar West
30	Large-tailed Nightjar	Lower Peirce
31-33	Collared Scops Owl, Brown Hawk Owl, Greater Racket-tailed Drongo	Rifle Range
34-52	Red-rumped Swallow, Pacific Swallow, House Swift, Fork-tailed Swift, Glossy Swiftlet, Grey-rumped Treeswift, Blue-tailed Bee-eater, Dollarbird, White-throated Kingfisher, Blue-winged Leafbird, Red-eyed Bulbul, Olive-winged Bulbul, Crimson Sunbird, Orange-bellied Flowerpecker, Large-billed Crow, Arctic Warbler, Asian Brown Flycatcher, Japanese Sparrowhawk, Hill Myna	Jelutong Tower
53-61	Banded Woodpecker, Asian Paradise Flycatcher, Common Iora, Ashy Drongo, Crow-billed Drongo, Red-crowned Barbet, Asian Fairy Bluebird, Greater Green Leafbird, Striped Tit Babbler	Rifle Range
62-71	Black-backed Kingfisher, Drongo Cuckoo, Tanimbar Corella, Oriental White-eye, Common Goldenback, Lineated Barbet, Brown-throated Sunbird, Olive-backed Sunbird, Collared Kingfisher, Tiger Shrike	Bidadari
72-85	Little Tern, White-winged Tern, Whiskered Tern, Little Grebe, Yellow Bittern, Purple Heron, Pied Fantail, Baya Weaver, Sooty-headed Bulbul, Paddyfield Pipit, Red-breasted Parakeet, Common Kingfisher, Zebra Dove, Common Tailorbird	Halus
86	Spotted Wood Owl	Pasir Ris Park
87	Rock Pigeon	Changi Village
88-89	Oriental Magpie Robin, House Crow	Changi Beach
90-98	Ruddy-breasted Crakes, Black-winged Kite, Chinese Goshawk, Red-watted Lapwing, Red Collared Dove, Lesser Coucal, Eastern Marsh Harrier, Long-tailed Shrike, Asian Koel	Changi grassland
99	Purple-backed Starling	Loyang Ave
100	Intermediate Egret	SLE
101	Eurasian Tree Sparrow	Kranji
102-103	Yellow Wagtail, Little Ringed Plover	Kranji NSRCC
104-114	Purple Swamphen, Common Moorhen, Stork-billed Kingfisher, Brown Shrike, Long-tailed Parakeet, Pied Triller, White-crested Laughingthrush, Emerald Dove, Chestnut-winged Cuckoo, Indian Cuckoo, Red-whiskered Bulbul	NTL2
115	Laced Woodpecker	Dairy Farm