Pulau Punggol, Changi 08Dec12

From JS

Although I didn't have any sleep at night, I am really fortunate to be able to join all of you in today's birding. Of late, the popular site is Pulau Punggol with star birds in the form of a Small Pratincole and a Black-winged Stilt. The latter is certainly not as rare as the former but it was still 292 for me. Hoping for a lifer, we started at Pulau Punggol before heading over to Changi and finally, ending the day at the former site. The only possible reason to be back at the same site on the same day is the need to verify the sighting of a potential lifer.

Black-winged Stilt ©Tan KH

Starting at Pulau Punggol, we decided to walk the entire perimeter of the pond to find (hopefully, not flush) the small pratincole or any newcomers at the pond. While the Small pratincole was no where to be found, I had some poor quality photos of a medium-sized wader (larger than the Common Sandpiper). The wader was flushed from the grasses along the pond by a photographer and it flew over us, towards Seletar Airbase. Scanning the pond for signs of disturbance by the photographer, my bins was focused on the right patch of grass where the wader took off like a snipe ie upright position with dangling legs. In fact, its head resembled that of a snipe except for the shortish bill. Unlike the flushed Common Sandpiper, the wader had a multiple-notes, wader-like call, "kiu" (sounds like "Q"). Unfortunately, the lighting at 8 am wasn't ideal and my camera mode dial was in the wrong position - I fluffed my shots. However, from my camera viewfinder, I noted the bird's heavily marked breast, contrasting with its clean white belly. Due to the less-than-ideal lighting, the other observation that I could make was when the bird was flushed, it looked like a snipe, when it was flying towards me, it looked like a pratincole and when it flew parallel to me, it looked like a Pectoral Sandpiper that I saw in New Zealand. Maybe the bird has multiple identity?

Moving on, we had a short raptor session at Changi. Maybe due to the cloudy weather, we did not see any thermalling raptors, making do with sightings of them perching in the casuarina forest. Still, the number and diversity of the raptors seen were meager. Other noteworthy sighting were 2 Large Hawk-cuckoos.

Spending the afternoon at Pulau Punggol, again, we struggled to find lifers in the pond but we enjoyed several sightings of raptors, including an adult male Chinese Sparrowhawk trying to catch the swiftlets and a thermalling pale morph Booted Eagle. While the day could be better with more lifers, I am just happy to be able to join all of you in the field. Tired and sleepy, here's the summary of today's raptor sightings:

Changi
1) Black-winged Kite (>2)
2) Changeable Hawk-eagle (2)
3) Chinese Sparrowhawk (2)
4) Japanese Sparrowhawk (2)
5) Black Baza (2)
6) Common Buzzard (2, including 1 dark morph)

Pulau Punggol
1) Booted Eagle (1 pale morph)
2) White-Bellied Sea-eagle (2)
3) Changeable Hawk-eagle (2)
4) Brahminy Kite (>5)
5) Black-winged Kite (1)
6) Osprey (1)
7) Black Baza (1)
8) Chinese Sparrowhawk (1)
9) Peregrine Falcon (1)

Mystery wader (likely Wood Sandpiper) ©Lau JS

Upperparts

Underparts

From Con

I don’t think there is any doubt this is a Large tailed Nightjar. I guess some show white on the throat and on the tail more readily than others ....

http://www.pbase.com/con_foley/image/147749131
http://www.pbase.com/con_foley/image/147749132