Bidadari 12Oct14

From KH

After a Chestnut-cheeked Starling was photographed yesterday, there were a whole lot of birders and photographers looking for this rare starling today morning. However, the bird was nowhere to be found, although the main flock of Daurian Starlings were flying around.

Tiger Shrikes and Brown-chested Jungle-flycatcher were also around.

From Danny

Went back to Bida with JS in the late afternoon, with scope scan another 40 to 50 PB Starlings but no sign of Cheeky. JS took some flight shots but all had scapular bars. Around 6.30 pm, a long stretch out kettle, approx 900 to a thousand starlings gathered and flew across Bartley Road towards the direction of Lorong Ong Lye/Upper Paya Lebar Road. The long chain kettle flew down out of sight among a cluster of green trees with the roof of a Chinese temple in the background - believe the Daurian Starlings roosted beyond Bida.

Mandai Mudflat, Tuas 11Oct14

Con, Danny and I started at Mandai Mudflat, but there were no rare waders. Nevertheless, Con managed to tick the Red-necked Stint for his BY.

Reaching Tuas at about 10 am, Ee Ling and See Toh were on site already.

Counters: Ee Ling/Con/See Toh (AM), Wing Chong (lunchtime), Jacky Soh (pm), Danny/Tan KH (1000-1545)

Cloudy with 90-100% cover. Ground wind 15 km/h from S generally. Hazy with PSI reading rising thru' the morning (0900 PSI 82 to 1500 PSI 106) - smoke stacks at Tg Pelepas could not be seen

Total count (0900-1545): 191 OHBs, 1 JSH, 4 unid raptors, 2 Oriental Pratincoles, 1 flock of PGP, 4 Fork-tailed Swifts, 4 Blue-tailed Bee-eaters, 1 Red-rumped Swallow.

0900-1200 No migrating raptor, 4 Fork-tailed Swift flying NE to SW, 2 Oriental Pratincole, 1 Red-rumped Swallow, 4 Blue-tailed BE, flock of PGP
1200-1300 3 unID raptor, 19 OHB
1300-1400 11 OHB
1400-1500 131 OHB, 1 JSH
1500-1545 30 OHB, 1 unid dark raptor

Tuas 8-9Oct14

From GC

8 Oct 1000-1700

Counter: Tan GC
Ground Wind - SSW-S
Total 486 OHB, 3 Jap SH, 1 Peregrine

1100-1200 7 OHB, 1 Peregrine
1300-1400 139 OHB
1400-1500 204 OHB
1500-1600 97 OHB, 2 Jap SH
1600-1700 39 OHB, 1 Jap SH

9 Oct 1000-1600

Counters: Tan GC, Alan Owyong, Lim KK, Timothy Lim, Yap Eu Hian, Lee How Sung
Ground Wind - SE.
Total 12 OHB, 5 Jap SH

1100-1200 2 JSH
1200-1300 10 OHB, 3 JSH
1300-1400 2 OHB

Tuas 5-6Oct14

From EL on 5 Oct

0900-1630. Windy throughout generally from SW. Very cloudy with 95-100% cloud cover.

0900-1000: 1 unID accipiter
1000-1100: 1 CSH, 1 Oriental Pratincole, 3 Blue-tailed Bee-eaters
1100-1200: 2 OHB (flying from NW individually). Close to 1200, we saw 2 unID raptors circling quite low - sparrowhawk like, very pale underparts except for narrow dark wing tips, grey uppers
1300-1400: 1 unID raptor

Danny (AM), Han Yong Kwong , Ee Ling

From EL and GC on 6Oct

0900-1700. Total 265 OHB, 6 Jap SH, 1 Chinese SH, 1 Peregrine Falcon, 18 unID accipiter, 4 unID raptor. Light high cloud cover initially, increasing to about 90-95%. Wind from SW 10-15kmh. Haze at lower level, 3hr PSI at 63 at 0900, rising to 136 by 1700. Reduced visibility, can't see Tg Pelepas cranes.

0900-1000 1 Jap SH
1000-1100 2 OHB (1st a male) from NW, 1 Jap SH, 4 unID accipiter (flying thru' together in N-S direction)
1100-1200 2 unID raptor heading SSW together (originally 1 more unID raptor suspected to be RBE but turned out to be pale CHE), 3 PGPlover
1200-1300 1 JSH, 1 CSH, 3 unID accipiter
1300-1400 1 JSH, 1 unID accipter, 9 OHB
1400-1500 2 JSH, 9 unID accipiter, 18 OHB, 1 Peregrine, 4 unID raptor
1500-1600 196 OHB, 1 unID accipiter
1600-1700 40 OHB.

Counters: Danny & Lau Jia Sheng, Low Choon How, Con Foley, Tan Kok Hui, Jacky Soh, Francis Yap, Tan Gim Cheong (PM) & Ee Ling (AM)

This pale raptor got us excited for a while, but it turned out to be a second year pale morph Changeable Hawk Eagle. ©Con Foley

Singapore Strait 5Oct14

Con went on a pelagic trip with the Bird Group and here is Alan OwYong's report.

SBWR, Tuas 4Oct14

Danny, JS and I started the day at SBWR, but there were nothing much there, just the usual redshank, greenshank, marsh sp., PGP, LSP, whimbrel, common sp. and 3 curlew sp.

Moving on to Tuas, we met with inclement weather and waited out at the hawker centre. Later, we met up with Low CH and wife at Tuas South Ave 16 and stayed from 1000-1430h.

Here's the count for the day:
1200-1300: 8 unid accipiters
1300-1400: 1 Peregrine Falcon japonicus

There were also 3 Oriental Pratincoles, 2 Red-rumped Swallows and 4 Blue-tailed Bee-eaters heading East.

Mandai Mudflat, SBWR, Tuas 27Sep14

Last Sat, Danny, JS and I started at Mandai Mudflat and saw 4 juvenile Great Knots, 43 Red-necked Stints, 1 Broad-billed Sandpiper, 1 Curlew Sandpiper, some Marsh Sandpipers, Common Sandpipers, lots of LSPs, PGPs, Greenshanks, Redshanks, Whimbrels, as well as 1 breeding Whiskered Tern, many Little Terns, Great Egrets, Little Egrets, Grey Herons, Little Herons.

Juvenile Great Knot (front), Terek Sandpiper (middle) and Common Redshank (back) ©Lau JS

JS tried very hard to turn one of these Red-necked Stints into Little Stint, but to no avail. ©Lau JS

There were also 1 Tiger Shrike and 1 Asian Paradise-flycatcher in the trees.

Moving on to SBWR, there were still 4 Black-tailed Godwits, plus many Whimbrels, Redshanks, Greenshanks, PGPs, Marsh Sandpipers, Common Sandpipers, but no LSP, stint or knot.

Next stop, Tuas. 2 Chinese Sparrowhawks (including 1 adult male), 1 female Japanese Sparrowhawk, 6 unid accipiters, 1 unid raptor, plus the usual residents WBSE (1), BK (>4), BWK (1). The migrants were moving eastward. The clouds were not moving!

Turut Track, SBWR, Tuas 20Sep14

Attendees: Con, Danny, JS

From JS

Glad to be birding again after almost 2 months of non-birding.

We started the day at Turut Track and walked the distance to ponds at Neo Tiew Lane 2. The habitat looks good for migratory waterbirds. If we could have no human disturbances in the next few months, this could be a great place to start breaking the duck! Although the "many" cinnamon bitterns did not show, we saw a scaly Brown Shrike and a probable Fork-Tailed Swift. No violet cuckoo.

Next, we visited Sungei Buloh. No stints. However, it is still nice to know that the 8 juvenile Black-tailed Godwits and 1 adult Grey-Tailed Tattler are still around.

Our last birding site for the day was Tuas. We were informed of the presence of 8 accipiters (by Choon How) and saw another 7 individuals. In total, we (including Choon How and Kim Keang) had 14 unid accipiters and 1 adult Japanese Sparrowhawk. In case you want to verify how we are unable to id the accipiters, I have attached 2 photos of the 7 individuals. No Short-Toed Snake Eagle or Shikra.

Serangoon, Poyan 14Sep14

Just the usual birds at Serangoon. Best find is a foot-long Equatorial Spitting Cobra looking for food. At Poyan, Danny also counted the usual birds, including the Blue-winged Pittas.

		Serangoon	Poyan
1	Red Junglefowl		1
2	Sunda Pygmy Woodpecker	5
3	Banded Woodpecker		2
4	Common Goldenback	1	3
5	Lineated Barbet		2
6	Oriental Dollarbird		1
7	White-Throated Kingfisher	1	3
8	Collared Kingfisher		2
9	Blue-Throated Bee-Eater		2
10	Banded Bay Cuckoo		1
11	Little Bronze-Cuckoo	1
12	Asian Koel	3	1
13	Lesser Coucal		1
14	Rose-Ringed Parakeet	2
15	Red-Breasted Parakeet		16
16	Long-Tailed Parakeet	4	12
17	Swiftlet spp.	11	22
18	Common Pigeon	9
19	Spotted Dove	12	20
20	Zebra Dove	14	10
21	Pink-Necked Green Pigeon	4	11
22	White-Breasted Waterhen	3	2
23	Common Sandpiper	4
24	Red-Wattled Lapwing		6
25	Brahminy Kite	1
26	White-Bellied Sea Eagle	1
27	Changeable Hawk-Eagle		2
28	Little Egret	1
29	Grey Heron	3
30	Purple Heron	1
31	Striated Heron	11
32	Black-Crowned Night Heron	1
33	Golden-Bellied Gerygone	3	1
34	House Crow	3
35	Large-Billed Crow		3
36	Black-Naped Oriole	6	9
37	Pied Triller		3
38	Pied Fantail	5	2
39	Greater Racket-Tailed Drongo		1
40	Common Iora	6	6
41	Oriental Magpie-Robin	1	1
42	Asian Glossy Starling	36	32
43	White-Vented Myna	36	27
44	Barn Swallow	1
45	Pacific Swallow	3	7
46	Straw-Headed Bulbul		3
47	Yellow-Vented Bulbul	8	16
48	Olive-Winged Bulbul		3
49	Zitting Cisticola	1
50	Yellow-Bellied Prinia	2
51	Common Tailorbird	3	3
52	Dark-Necked Tailorbird		2
53	Ashy Tailorbird	8	2
54	Arctic Warbler	1
55	White-Crested Laughingthrush		5
56	Scarlet-Backed Flowerpecker	3	3
57	Brown-Throated Sunbird	3	3
58	Olive-Backed Sunbird	8	5
59	Eurasian Tree Sparrow	9
60	Yellow Wagtail		2
61	Paddyfield Pipit	1	2
62	Baya Weaver		2
63	Scaly-Breasted Munia	3	3
64	White-Headed Munia		6
	Total Species	43	46
	Total No.	243	272