Singapore Strait 03Mar18

From KH

20 of us went out in 2 boats and got 2 adult Arctic Skuas - 1 pale, 1 dark!

Here's a Black-naped Tern.

And a bunch of Great and Lesser Crested Terns, the former being larger and yellow-billed, compared to its smaller orange-billed cousin.

There were 2 Large-billed Crows flying from the Indonesian side to Singapore.

1. 5 Gray Heron - P. Bukom
2. 1 Purple Heron - flying from SG to Indon
3. 3 Brahminy Kite
4. 2 White-bellied Sea-Eagle
5. 2 Parasitic Jaeger - adults
6. 2 Black-naped Tern
7. 1 Great Crested Tern
8. 40 Lesser Crested Tern
9. 20 dark swiftlet sp. - flying from Indon to SG
10. 2 Large-billed Crow - flying from Indon to SG
11. 3 Barn Swallow

Then, we landed on Pulau Hantu for the Mangrove Whistler, but it was not home.

1. 1 Brahminy Kite
2. 1 Spotted Dove
3. 3 dark swiftlet sp.
4. 2 Collared Kingfisher
5. 1 Blue-tailed Bee-eater
6. 1 Sunda Woodpecker
7. 1 Golden-bellied Gerygone - heard
8. 1 Black-naped Oriole
9. 1 Malaysian Pied-Fantail
10. 1 Pacific Swallow
11. 1 Yellow-vented Bulbul
12. 2 Asian Brown Flycatcher
13. 1 Oriental Magpie-Robin
14. 1 Common Myna
15. 4 Plain-throated Sunbird

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

Sime Forest, Tuas, Pulau Punggol 26Oct13

From JS

Here's a summary of today's birding:

Raptors seen

Sime Forest
1) Grey-headed Fish-eagle (1)
2) White-bellied Sea-eagle (1)
3) Osprey (1)
4) Brahminy Kite (6)
5) Chinese Sparrowhawk (2)
6) Japanese Sparrowhawk (2)
7) Changeable Hawk-eagle (1)

Juvenile Chinese Sparrowhawk at Sime Forest ©Con Foley

Female Chinese Sparrowhawk at Sime Forest ©Con Foley

Tuas
1) Brahminy Kite (2)
2) Black-winged Kite (1)

Pulau Punggol
1) White-bellied Sea-eagle (5)
2) Booted Eagle (1)
3) Osprey (>1)
4) Brahminy Kite (>3)
5) Unid raptor (1) - see photos below

Dark morph Booted Eagle at Pulau Punggol ©Lau JS

Unid raptor at Pulau Punggol ©Lau JS

Other notable species seen

Sime Forest
1) Japanese Paradise-flycatcher (1)
2) Asian Paradise-flycatcher (1)
3) Yellow-rumped Flycatcher (>2)
4) Chestnut-bellied Malkoha (3, including 1 juvenile)
5) Red-crowned Barbet (2)
6) Eastern Crowned Warbler (1)
7) Arctic Warbler (>2)

Tuas
1) White-shouldered Starling (>20)

Pulau Punggol
1) Fork-tailed Swift (2)
2) Arctic Skua (1)
3) Asian Brown Flycatcher (1)
4) Daurian Starling (>500)

Arctic Skua over Casuarina trees at Pulau Punggol ©Lau JS

Arctic Skua chased by White-bellied Sea-eagle at Pulau Punggol ©Lau JS

House Swift at Pulau Punggol ©Lau JS

Singapore Strait 16Apr11

From Con

Thanks all for another enjoyable outing and the continuing series of skuas :-)
I'm sure several folks got similar or better pictures, but here are a few to share in order of appearance ...

White-winged Tern

Indo-Pacific Bottlenose Dolphin

Arctic Skua
http://www.pbase.com/con_foley/image/133947190
http://www.pbase.com/con_foley/image/133947191

Where were those petrels :)

From Colin

Although we didn't record any phalaropes we did have another jaeger, this time a Parasitic. Google map.

Apart from that the day was surprisingly quiet with White-winged Terns being the most numerous with a total of 54, the only "crested-type" terns were two distant unidentified birds so most seem to have moved off, and there were also small numbers of returning Black-naped and Little Terns. The other highlight was a pod of five Bottle-nosed Dolphins, only the second record of cetaceans we've had in seven trips.

We've now had five jaeger records since October, and it seems what often happens is that they're sat on the sea unseen (somewhere east of Changi, south to northeastern Batam) and fly only to harass groups of terns when the terns are disturbed into the air, usually from one of the buoys. This time a large group of White-winged Terns were disturbed off a buoy by a White-bellied Sea-eagle bringing its catch to eat, this brought in the jaeger which then chose to harass the Sea-Eagle rather than the terns!

Birds that were noticeable by their absence were perhaps Bridled and Aleutian Terns, but also most interestingly Swinhoe's Storm-petrels. What little is known of the spring passage of Swinhoe's Storm-petrels seems to show that the previous records actually from the Straits have all been in May, so perhaps they all come through next month in a shorter period time than when they're around in the autumn?

From JS

Upper and under wing shots of the Arctic Skua.

WBSE with prey.

The skua in hot pursuit of WBSE with prey.

Unid bird

Singapore Strait, Changi 15Jan11

From Con

Great to see another skua! The behavior is really interesting, this one was harassing a Lesser Crested Tern.

Here's a link to several more photos of yesterday's Arctic Skua.

From JS

What do you do when you are stalked or faced with a robber? Learn from the Lesser Crested Tern and shout your lungs out.

From KH

After their pelagic trip, I joined Danny and JS for the late afternoon session at Changi. But before that, I went to Halus and Pasir Ris Farmway 1. You can now freely enter Halus like good old days, as the guardhouse and gantry were removed. Nothing much here except for an immature male Oriental Honey-buzzard perched and an immature White-bellied Sea-eagle circling.

Immature male OHB ©Tan KH

Next, I moved on to Pasir Ris Farmway 1 to monitor the old CHE nest. No one on the nest, but saw a pale morph Changeable Hawk-eagle in flight.

While waiting for Danny and JS at Changi Beach, saw 2 adult Brahminy Kites in flight.

On the way to LP149, Danny and JS showed me the 2 Common Buzzards at LP165 and 190. Being the keymaster, I let Danny's car in and these were the raptors that we saw inside:

1) Black Baza 1
2) Japanese Sparrowhawk 1
3) Chinese Goshawk 2
4) CHE 1 juv pale
5) Brahimny Kite >2
6) Black-winged Kites >5

Besides the Jambu Fruit-dove, another surprise was a flock of 15 or so White-shouldered Starlings. We also flushed a couple of quails, one of which was a Barred Buttonquail due to the rufous underparts.

Male Jambu Fruit-dove ©Danny Lau