BTNR 29-31Oct13

From JS on 29 Oct

I climbed 150m to our highest hill to find migrants. No fruiting trees but the summit was nonetheless alive with singing Crimson Sunbird and whistling Asian Fairy-bluebird. Not expecting anything out of the blue, I spent the next 2h from 9-11am waiting for raptors. Here's my sightings:

Raptors seen
1) White-bellied Sea-eagle (1)
2) Crested Serpent-eagle (1)
3) Brahminy Kite (1)
4) Japanese Sparrowhawk (3)

Other migrants seen
1) Asian Brown Flycatcher (1)
2) Tiger Shrike (1)
3) Siberian Blue Robin (1)
4) Brown-backed Needletail (2)
5) Red-rumped Swallow (2)

From JS on 30 Oct

Again, I took the trouble to climb up to the summit. Unlike yesterday, I had Con to share my misery. We did not see the Brown-backed Needletails.

Instead, Con got his photos of some House Swifts while I had a satisfactory view of a male Lesser Green Leafbird. The wait for my lifer was over. Con nearly had a double but we only manage to locate a pair of gorging Blue-winged Leafbirds. Gorging is the word because the mistletoe plants on the fringes of the main fig tree were fruiting. Besides the green birds, we saw 5 bulbuls and many irritating flowerpeckers. No notable migrants though.

In the sky, we saw a couple of Pacific Swifts, House Swifts, Red-rumped Swallows and as many swiftlets as the noisy crowd below. The only migrant raptor we saw was a Chinese Sparrowhawk. The usual raptors, including 5 Brahminy Kites and 2 White-bellied Sea-sagle, appeared later in the morning.

Today was an unusual day for Con because he had a plausible chance of hitting his year-end target of 290 by seeing 3 lifers. In the end, he had one while I had one too. Still a good morning birding I guess....

Summary of raptors seen today
1) Chinese Sparrowhawk (1)
2) Brahminy Kite (5)
3) White bellied Sea-eagle (2)

Pacific Swift ©Con Foley

Male Blue-winged Leafbird ©Con Foley

From JS on Halloween 31 Oct

Con and I decided to re-visit the summit to have another attempt at the Lesser Green Leafbird. However, birding was entirely different from the previous morning. The fruiting mistletoe did not attract the crowd until after 9am. Additionally, the sky was emptier. Even a night could make a real difference during migration! Nevertheless, we saw 4 elusive leafbirds, including a pair of Blue-Winged Leafbirds, and a couple of Arctic Warblers and Red-Eyed Bulbuls. Migrant-wise, we had a Tiger Shrike and a Fork-Tailed Swift. Not an eventful morning though.

Here's the summary of the raptors that we saw:
1) White-Bellied Sea-eagle (1)
2) Oriental Honey-buzzard (2)

From Con on Halloween 31 Oct

Jia Sheng and I were at BTNR summit again today.

There were only a few scary birds. Again several leafbirds put in an appearance but the only photos I could get just show they are leafbirds, I can’t get any more detail than that..

Then Jia Sheng noticed a warbler and tried to turn it into a Pale-legged Leaf Warbler, but from the photos I got it seems it is an Arctic Warbler.

There were a lot fewer swifts today.

So over all nothing too scary.

Arctic Warbler ©Con Foley