Rifle Range, SBWR 21Oct17

From KH

Con, Danny and I went Jelutong Tower again.

Asian Brown Flycatcher. Amur Paradise-flycatcher

Chestnut-bellied Malkoha. Olive-winged Bulbuls

Oriental Honey-buzzard orientalis 2nd year

Oriental Honey-buzzard torquatus adult male

After lunch, Danny and I went to Sungei Buloh. Other than, a few Oriental Pratincoles, a CHE, an OHB, and a WBSE, there wasn't much going on. JS was "pak-tor"ing at Eagle Point and only got 1 male JSH.

Oriental Whip Snake

Asian House Rat

Marina East, SBWR 18Oct17

From KH

Con, Danny and I started the day's birding at Marina East. Wader-wise, there were 1 Sanderling, 2 Red-necked Stints, 3 Common Sandpipers and 5 Malaysian Plovers. Other birds present were 6 Paddyfield Pipits, 5 House Crows and 2 Eurasian Tree Sparrows.

Malaysian Plover couple ©Tan KH

Red-necked Stints ©Tan KH

Sanderling ©Tan KH

Sanderling ©Danny Lau

Moving on to Sungei Buloh, we were disappointed at the low wader diversity: just Whimbrels, PGPs, Redshanks, Greenshanks and Common Sandpipers.

Pacific Golden Plovers ©Con Foley

Then, a Lesser Adjutant appeared out of nowhere to make our day!

Lesser Adjutant ©Tan KH

Raptor-wise, we had 1 OHB, 1 BWK, 1 Brahminy Kite, 2 WBSE.

OHB (100% crop) ©Tan KH

Other birds present were:

• Little Egret 15
• Grey Heron 1
• White-breasted Waterhen 3
• Common Iora 2
• Pied Fantail 1
• House Crow 5
• Ashy Tailorbird 3

Grey Heron in breeding plumage ©Tan KH

These are some of the non-avian denizens of Sungei Buloh.

Plantain Squirrel feasting ©Tan KH

Estuarine Crocodile ©Tan KH

Gecko ©Tan KH

Beetle grub ©Tan KH

Singapore Strait 14Oct17

From KH

Con, Danny, JS and I joined this pelagic organized by Seetoh and Francis.

A couple of Cattle Egrets accompanied us as we cleared customs off Sisters' Island.

The bird of the day - Arctic Skua.

It was terns galore. Here're some of them.

Aleutian Tern

Lesser and Great Crested Terns for comparison

Little Tern

The pelagic won't be complete at this time of the year without Swinhoe's Storm-petrels.

A panting Oriental Honey-buzzard crossing the Strait to go further south.

Glad to end the day with a mixed pod of dolphins - Indo-Pacific Bottlenose and Indo-Pacific Humpback.

1. Swinhoe's Storm-petrel 8
2. Grey Heron 1
3. Cattle Egret 2
4. Oriental Honey-buzzard 1
5. Japanese Sparrowhawk 2
6. Brahminy Kite 3
7. Oriental Pratincole 48
8. Parasitic Jaeger 1
9. Bridled Tern 15
10. Aleutian Tern 2
11. Little Tern 8
12. Black-naped Tern 5
13. Great Crested Tern 40
14. Lesser Crested Tern 20
15. Pacific Swift 8
16. Barn Swallow 25
17. swiftlet spp. 25

Rifle Range, SBWR 07Oct17

From KH

Con, Danny and I spent the morning at Jelutong Tower. Seetoh was there too. Great to get a Tweeddale morph torquatus Oriental Honey-buzzard.

It was thermaling with an orientalis.

Not to lose out the resident Changeable Hawk-eagle and Brahminy Kite came together to put on a show.

There were so many butterflies today!

Common Sailor. Malay Staff Sergeant

Tree Nymph. Chocolate Sailor

Colour Sergeants (male left, female right)

Female Purple Duke. Malayan Lascar

Spotted Black Crow

After lunch, Con left and, JS & BJ joined us at the new Sungei Buloh. While waiting for Danny to pick up the lovebirds, a pair of juvenile Yellow-vented Bulbuls entertained me.

The highlight at Eagle Point was a juvenile Brahminy Kite hoping to steal an Osprey's fresh catch!

The fishes were out in full force! Look over here juvy Brahminy...

Milkfish. A single Stripe-nosed Halfbeak with Kops' Glass Perchlets

Spotted Scats. Slender Needlefish

Here's a male Common Dasher (Potamarcha congener). The female lacks the blue thorax, but has yellow stripes on it instead.

Other insects include this white-handed fly and this grasshopper Nisitrus vittatus.

A Green Crested Lizard put on quite a pose.

When we thought raptor watching is over, an adult Grey-headed Fish-eagle and a juvenile Japanese Sparrowhwk flew overhead.