BTNR 18Dec12

From JS

I would like to share three rare bird sightings, namely Plain Sunbird, Chinese Blue Flycatcher and Finsch's Bulbul.

The following is a not-so-brief account of the birding that I had today:

Without informing my parents, I decided to go birding today as it was raining for the whole of yesterday at where I am staying. With Dave's Tioman trip still fresh in my mind, I am not crazy to be hoping for a fall-out due to a day of raining. Pulau Punggol would be a good place to start. However, after my chat with Francis last night, it seems that the day's rain was restricted to the West. A fall-out would be unlikely. Sneaking out of house and paying for a taxi ride is so unlike my style of birding, so I decided to look foolish and bird at Bukit Timah Nature Reserve. With the last report on the summit's "fig buffet" coming more than a week ago and having checked the site on last Friday's afternoon, I must be foolish to do so again today.

Having always envied people's ability to spot thrushes, I made sure that I have a chance to do so today. Alas, I had a lady following me when I was climbing up the Summit Path. Since I am already at the summit, I decided to do some swift-watching. Great, there is one House Swift flying many circles around me. As the minutes past, there was increasingly more bird activities. Soon, I recorded a pair of Blue-Winged Leafbirds, a pair of Blue-Crowned Hanging Parrots, a male Crimson Sunbird, a handful of Orange-Bellied Flowerpeckers, a pair of GRT Drongoes, an Asian Drongo Cuckoo, a trio os Pin-Striped Tit Babblers, at least 3 Arctic Warblers and 2 Asian Brown Flycatchers. The goody though came in the form of a passing Asian House Martin, my third sighting in Singapore. Interestingly, the time that I wasn't doing swift-watching was also the time that I spotted something that is different from the House Swift...

At 9am, I decided that enough is enough and left the summit with 6 House Swifts circling overhead. From the summit, at the first bench along the main road, I found a pair of pigeons. Soon, more came in after a series of whines. While the summit fig tree had stopped figging, it turns out that another fig tree, which is located 10-20m below the summit one, was in fruits. It is nice to see fat gorging Thick-billed Pigeons but seeing more than 5 can be a bore. Thankfully, I had something different in the form of an Orange-Bellied Flowerpecker and a female Blue-Winged Leafbird. What I did not expect is a female Eyebrowed Thrush. Closer to lunch time for the birds, another 3 thrushes and 2 blue-crowned hanging parrots came in behind another 8 pigeons. Unfortunately, the thrushes and the parrots left before I could take a look at them. Having spotted a thrush at BTNR on my own, my mission is accomplished by then. It is about time to head elsewhere.

By 10am, the forest was, surprisingly, birdier, making it seems like eternity to reach the entrance. I was hearing many bird calls. Unfortunately, most of the calls are probably from our local mimicry master, the GRT drongoes, which I heard imitating the Changeable Hawk-eagle on last Friday. In the presence of so many drongoes, I decided to focus on spotting the birds themselves, ignoring the calls. As a result, I found myself two mixed flocks. The earlier one had a male Plain Sunbird, a male Chinese Blue Flycatcher and a Kamchatka Leaf Warbler while the latter produced a Finsch's Bulbul or a pair of them.

What a day!

Moral of the story: The best place to find rare birds is still the forest.

Well, I guess I did have some sort of a fall-out after all...

Here's my raptor sightings for the past week's birding:

14 Dec - Bukit Timah Hill, Summit
1) Oriental Honey-buzzard (4)
2) Brahminy Kite (2)