Coney Island 22Feb20

From KH

I went to Coney Island for a morning walk.

Nice haul of raptors:

Jerdon's Baza

Peregrine Falcon

Black-winged Kite

Surprised find: an adult Hodgson's Hawk-cuckoo.

A flock of about 30 White-shouldered Starlings were found feeding in the casuarina trees.

So were these Red-breasted Parakeets.

A Common Tailorbird also like the casuarina trees.

This male Olive-backed Sunbird was displaying aggressively to the nearby female.

A huge Baya Weaver nest!

Here's a Common Caerulean

and an Asian Honey Bee.

1. Spotted Dove 5
2. Zebra Dove 5
3. Pink-necked Green-Pigeon 2
4. Asian Koel 1 - Heard
5. Plaintive Cuckoo 1 - Heard
6. Hodgson's Hawk-Cuckoo 1 - Rufous chest
7. dark swiftlet sp. 20
8. Red-wattled Lapwing 1 - Heard
9. Gray Heron 1
10. Black-winged Kite 1
11. Jerdon's Baza 5
12. Brahminy Kite 1
13. Gray-headed Fish-Eagle 1
14. Collared Kingfisher 4
15. Blue-tailed Bee-eater 10
16. Dollarbird 1
17. Sunda Woodpecker 1 - Heard
18. Common Flameback 2
19. Peregrine Falcon 1
20. Red-breasted Parakeet 10
21. Golden-bellied Gerygone 1 - Heard
22. Pied Triller 1
23. Black-naped Oriole 4
24. Common Iora 3 - Heard
25. House Crow 1
26. Common Tailorbird 3
27. Ashy Tailorbird 1
28. Yellow-bellied Prinia 4
29. Pacific Swallow 5
30. Sooty-headed Bulbul 2
31. Yellow-vented Bulbul 8
32. White-shouldered Starling 30
33. Javan Myna 20
34. Asian Brown Flycatcher 2 - Heard
35. Oriental Magpie-Robin 3 - 2 males, 1 female
36. Brown-throated Sunbird 2
37. Olive-backed Sunbird 8
38. Golden-backed Weaver 30
39. Baya Weaver 4
40. Scaly-breasted Munia 1

Kranji Marsh, Hindhede 14Apr17

From KH

Today, Con, Danny and I went to Kranji Marsh.

Some of the resident cuckoos were very vocal: Rusty-breasted, Banded Bay, Violet. The Blue-eared Kingfisher was still around.

Female Blue-crowned Hanging-parrot hanging around

Male Pink-necked Green-pigeon enjoying the morning sun

One of the resident pair of Large-billed Crow checking me out

A Blue-winged Pitta called briefly. Will it stay to breed?

A Yellow Bittern was still hiding in the reeds.

Same tree, different perch. Left: Brown Shrike, right: Yellow-vented Bulbul

A Japanese Sparrowhawk was heading north.

Riding the thermals high up

The resident Black-winged Kite was friendlier.

After lunch, Danny and I went to Hindhede to look for the Sunda Scops-owl family, and Danny found the 2 fledglings!

You can't see my sibling just beside me!

The other interesting sighting here was a family of Straw-headed Bulbuls feeding their fledgling.

Feed me, feed me!

Colugo:"Whatcha looking at?!"

Tuas, Halus 02Aug14

Danny and I were at Tuas in the morning and Halus in the afternoon.

We walked around the only patch in Tuas with some tall trees. Sure enough a pair of bronze-cuckoos were found, but they were Little Bronze-cuckoos, not Horsfield's...

Also present were their potential hosts - Golden-bellied Gerygones.

There were a pair of roosting Brahminy Kites and a Black-winged Kite.

Moving on to Tuas, Little Terns were nesting in the field, and a Black-winged Kite was chased away by the terns!

Also present were many Zitting Cisticolas, probably also nesting.

In the grassland was also a juvenile Plaintive Cuckoo.

After lunch at the usual Punggol foodcourt, we were off to Halus. Again, no Horsfield's...

There were many Golden-backed Weavers nesting over the Grebe Pond at the Tidal Gates side.

When we were about to leave, we saw a gathering of photographers at the buttonquail place, and sure enough a female Barred Buttonquail was present.

Batang Tiga 08-09Jan13

From Con

I arrived at about 7:45am yesterday and after some time bumped into a digiscoper from Melaka who helped point out some of the eagles. Later another couple of birders came. Finally found a hotel after the Melaka birders treated me to lunch. I stayed on the beach. Went back in the later afternoon but the eagles retreated soon to their roosting tree and the light was really bad anyway.

Had a nice dinner with the local birders and Ang and Ong joined as well.

In the morning I got to Batang Tiga just after 7am, walked into the paddy and set up hide by 7:30am. The eagles didn’t come until 8:30am but settled on a different tree than the one I was staking out. Oh well. I stayed until 9am hoping they would change to the tree I was aiming for but no such luck. Then I packed up and went back out.

By now there were 4 birders from KL and one from Ipoh. They pointed out the large flock of Asian Openbills which had arrived while I was in the hide. The openbills stayed around for about another hour before moving off down the coast towards Muar. I wonder if this is the same flock Graeme saw in Penang yesterday?

Anyway, it seems everyday the Malaysian birders are coming from Penang, Ipoh, KL, and other points to see these rare raptors. Especially for them, the Steppe Eagle is even more rare than the Imperial Eagle.

http://www.pbase.com/con_foley/batang_tiga

Pulau Punggol 04Nov12

From KH

Counters: Danny Lau, Tan Kok Hui
Helpers: Jacky Soh, Seetoh Yew Wai, Terry & Jane Heppell, Chee Wei Lin, Yoke Kheng, Wai Yin.

Here's the count. With 11 species (7 migrants, 4 residents), this site should definitely be included as one of the key sites next year. Not to mention good shelter from the sun and free seats!

Time	9-10	10-11	11-12	12-1	1-2	2-3	3-4
Black Baza	23	4	7	5
White-bellied Sea Eagle	3	1	1		1		1
Chinese Goshawk	1
Black-winged Kite	1					2
Booted Eagle	1			1	1
Brahminy Kite	1	2	2	1			2
Japanese Sparrowhawk		2
Changeable Hawk Eagle		2	1	1
Oriental Honey Buzzard			6
Peregrine Falcon (japonensis)				1
Osprey							2
Unid. Raptor			2

Part of a kettle of 12 roosting Black Baza.

Black-winged Kite

Juvenile White-bellied Sea Eagle

Dark morph Booted Eagle: underparts (left) and upperparts (right).

Juvenile Japanese Sparrowhawk (left) and Peregrine Falcon japonensis (right).

Bay East Garden 16Sep12

From Danny

I was last Sunday at Marina Park, East to check on the BSK nesting. On arrival, one adult BSK was thermalling up to get away from 2 mobbing House Crows, rather ominous sign. Coming across the ditch just after the Barrage was the famous and friendly Ruddy breasted Crake, water level was low and it was foraging in the ditch about 5 ft from the path, unfortunately when I set up my scope further away (too near to focus), it moved further away- just a few moving away fuzzy pics. This is a good place to get close up pic of the crake, but is sensitive to rising water level (not tide) as when I left the ditch was flooded

I set up my scope after the fence barrier to check on the Nest, there was no sign of activity. After 10-15 min, I moved off towards the golf course side and came across a Long Tailed Shrike foraging on the ground, lighting good and manage a few reasonable pics. Then an Adult BSK flew in low but went way back behind the nesting Tree . Thinking the nesting had failed, I moved on to look for sign of any migrant - sadly only local birds, no migrating flycatcher.

As I left, a quick estimation of time convinced myself either the nesting failed due to the mobbing Crows or it could still at incubation. I set up my scope from another angle to look at the nest. It took me a while to manage to spot the relatively long and white undertail of a sitting BSK. It was practically motionless until for a quick moment, a wing flapped up and everything fell motionless again . The adult was incubating .

Refer to pic the white undertail is barely visible in the center of pic, just above the left slanting branch behind those dangling green leaves.

Bay East Garden 26Aug12

From Danny

Dropped by late morning , other than the usual birds, no signs of any Horsfield's cuckoo, the only notable sighting was a Black-winged Kite nesting on one of the tall trees.After the ditch , to the right of the zinc construction barrier, is the tall tree with flat crown (next to the tree is a slightly shorter tree with mostly bare branches). The nest is right at the top, well shielded by leaves, apparently still incubation as one of the adult in nest. Hopefully successful as BWK habitats are shrinking.

Changi, Tuas 02Jan10

From JS

Today, Con, Danny, KH & I went to Changi Cove, Sungei Buloh and Tuas and we came one step closer of achieving my target of 12 raptors.

Here's a summary of the raptors sighted at each location:

Changi Cove
1) Black Baza (>7)
2) Common Buzzard (>2)
3) Oriental Honey Buzzard (>3)
4) Juvenile Japanese Sparrowhawk (1)
5) Adult Chinese Sparrowhawk (1)
6) Brahminy Kite (>3)
7) White-Bellied Sea Eagle (2)
8) Black-Winged Kite (>5)
9) Changeable Hawk Eagle (2)

Neo Tiew Lane
10) Osprey (1)

Tuas
WBSE (1)
Black-Winged Kite (2)

That's about everything there is to share on raptors.

At SBWR, I saw a terek-like greenshank at main hide. The bird was feeding at the far end of the pond on the left. It had yellow legs, upturned bill and unbarred uppertail/uppertail-covert. I couldn't make out the bi-color bill from afar even with 60x zoom nor the appearance. The yellow legs was easy to make out because there were some non-breeding marsh sandpipers and an upright greenish-grey-legged common greenshank. From afar, the uppertail bars would be hard to see but I was lucky to see the bird flying, together with the marsh sandpipers, further away from me, showing its uppertail/uppertail-coverts to me.

Although these features seem to point towards the NG, they are rather inconclusive without thorough observations being made. A point in case is the presence of a yellow-legged common greenshank near the suspected NG, which has a black "shoulder", streaky appearance and straight bill. Still, I am sure that there is a realistic chance of it being a NG. Worth checking out.

Shifting your attention to the last site of the day, Tuas, I saw a male Blue-breasted Quail near the flock of PGPs. Initially, I heard a wader-like call from the grass but couldnt see the bird. Approaching nearer to the sound but in the direction of the hiding flock of PGPs, I flushed a blue tennis ball. It had dark dangling legs, dark short bill, bluish wings, breast, belly and patches of chestnut. Alas, I found my quail. But, couldn't find the suspected agp.

Japanese Sparrowhawk ©Lau JS

Juvenile pale morph Oriental Honey Buzzard ©Con Foley

Same bird ©Danny Lau

Common Buzzard and Black-winged Kite ©Tan KH

I have attached 3 photos of 3 different OHB. (1 pale morph adult, 1 dark morph adult and 1 dark morph juv that was flying with the common buzzards.) ©Lau JS

Regarding the 3 raptors thermalling high up in the sky, 2 of them were Common Buzzards and the third is the aforementioned dark morph juv OHB. (see attached photo of the 2 common buzzards flying together.) Looks like the airport sentries need to have some exercise during their noon lunch break. ©Lau JS

NTL2 18Nov09

From SY

Mr Pun and I went Neo Tiew Lane 2 yesterday and got these shots.

Black Baza flight shot.

Black-winged Kite flight shots.

Whiskered Tern

Long-tailed Shrike

Note the distinctive pale supercilium of the Brown Shrike, which can be seen even at this angle.

Also got an exotic Star Tortoise (Geochelone elegans)

and a migrant Swallowtail Moth (Lyssa zampa).