Mt Faber 19Oct24

From KH

I went with Danny to Mount Faber for raptor watch today. I looked just like any other raptor watching days, some Oriental Honey-Buzzards, some Japanese Sparrowhawks, and some unid accipitrine hawks.

Then a female Chinese Sparrowhawk.

And some Pacific Swifts.

Then came the mega. A Bat Hawk in broad daylight! What a redemption, having missed it "by a whisker" more than 15 years ago at MacRitchie!

Gomantong Cave 11Jun18

From KH

We spent the late afternoon at Gomantong Cave. We each paid RM60 - RM30 for entry + RM30 for camera fee...

On the boardwalk to the cave, there were a few endemic Sabah Slender Skinks.

At the entrance of the cave, there was a dead Plume-toed Swiftlet, and a crab enjoying a guano bath.

Plume-toed Swiftlets are unable to echolocate, so they nest near the entrance, where there is still some light.

The Mossy-nest Swiftlets are able to echolocate and so nest further in. However, their nests are mainly made of plant materials instead of saliva, so they have no economic value and are not as sticky. As such, they generally nest on ledges. 2 eggs are laid in each nest.

The Edible-nest Swiftlets and Black-nest Swiftlets nest the furthest in and are told apart by the white nest of the former (saliva only) and black nest of the latter (being a mix of their feathers and saliva).

They share the cave with the bats and cockroaches.

As well as, Cave Centipedes. Fortunately, they stayed on the walls and we didn't see any on the cave boardwalk.

The cockroaches help to clear the dead, such as this bat on the boardwalk.

This is how the cave entrance looked like from the inside. A boardwalk looped inside the cave. The cockroaches roamed on the walls as well as the boardwalk, which is also somewhat littered with guano. All these, couple with the stench, moved us along, and we only spent 25 mins in the cave.

This male Oriental Pied-hornbill at the entrance must be up to something.

On the way out, we saw a millipede and a Spotted Fantail.

We also saw a few endemic Maroon Leaf Monkeys, and more Oriental Pied-hornbills (female, male and juvenile).

As well as, this young Orangutan and its mother.

While waiting for the bat show to start, these Verditer Flycatcher and Ashy Tailorbird kept us company.

At about 5:30 pm, the bats starting streaming out of the caves. These were mostly Wrinkle-lipped Bats.

Then, the Bat Hawks started appearing and the hunt ensued.

Soon, it was getting dark and time for us to leave. But, not before snapping a Swallowtail Moth to round up the day's activities.

1. 1 Crested Serpent-Eagle
2. 2 Bat Hawk
3. 1 Square-tailed Drongo-Cuckoo - Heard
4. 1000 Plume-toed Swiftlet
5. 100 Mossy-nest Swiftlet
6. 1000 Black-nest Swiftlet
7. 1000 White-nest Swiftlet
8. 1 Rhinoceros Hornbill
9. 2 Black Hornbill
10. 3 Oriental Pied-Hornbill - 1 male, 1 female, 1 juvenile
11. 1 Blue-eared BarbetHeard
12. 1 Yellow-crowned BarbetHeard
13. 1 Spotted Fantail
14. 2 Malaysian Pied-Fantail
15. 2 Slender-billed Crow
16. 5 Pacific Swallow
17. 1 Ashy Tailorbird
18. 1 White-rumped Shama (White-crowned)
19. 1 Verditer Flycatcher
20. 5 Dusky Munia

Tuas, MacRitchie 04May09

From GC

Apart from the Bat Hawk re-appearing at MacRitchie last night (040509), there was also an immature female Pied Harrier at Tuas on the same day earlier in the afternoon at 3 pm.

Tuas also has RW Lapwing, Black-headed Munia, Savanna and Large-tailed Nightjars and Zitting Cisticolas.

I almost didn't want to mention the Peaceful Dove, Paddyfiled Pipit, Brahminy Kite, Pink-necked Pigeon, House Crow, Yellow-vented Bulbul, ET Sparrow and mynas.

SBG, MacRitchie Reservoir 13Feb09

From KH

I went to Botanic Gardens today. No more photographer, no pitta, no thrush, but the Red-legged Crake was still there.

Then as night fell, I went to MacRitchie. Met Harry, told him about the Bat Hawk location. While I was away, he managed to see a large bird with pointed wings chasing after a bat around 7:45 pm. Looks like this might be one of the favourite haunt of the Bat Hawk after all.

MacRitchie Reservoir 03Feb09

From KH

This evening is a special one. It is an evening of forest gems. When I arrived, Con, Danny, GC and a few other photographers were already there. First and foremost were the bathing babblers - Striped Tit-babblers and Short-tailed Babblers.

Striped Tit-babblers. Short-tailed Babbler.

We were hoping that the Siberian Blue Robins would come to take a shower, like it did previously. However, they only called and I could only glimpse a female in the thick undergrowth.

There were supporting cast of Banded Woodpecker and Greater Racket-tailed Drongo.

Banded Woodpecker. Greater Racket-tailed Drongo.

While waiting for more actions, non-avian creature kept us company.

A few Branded Imperials rested on the same plant.

An exotic Common Snapping Turtle wondering what we were doing.

Then at closed to 7 pm, the Black-backed Kingfisher showed up. It would dive at roughly the same spot for fish, but the action was too fast to be captured.

However, all these pale in comparison to our very rare forest raptor - the Bat Hawk. However, as I left before the Bat Hawk showed up, I missed the chance to see this forest gem of the gems.

Here's the account from GC

Bat Hawk Sighting in Singapore
Date: 03 Feb 2009
Time: 1935H
Location: Central Catchment Nature Reserves
Weather: Partly Cloudy
Observers: Tan Gim Cheong, Danny Lau, Con Foley, Marcus Ng.

The sun had already set and a Large-tailed Nightjar was “chonking” away but we could still see a bit as it was still twilight. I was the last in the group as we were walking and I noticed, some distance away on my left, a relatively large bird flying away. I lost sight of it as it flew behind some trees. It appeared to be roughly the size of a crow and also appeared all black, so I surmise it must be a House Crow for I had seen them flying at night before. Then the bird flew across our path from left to right, disappeared from view, and reappeared a bit closer. Now, I could see that it was indeed quite a large bird. It had a stout head and neck, and it lacked the long bill of a crow. Together with its pointed wings, the bird’s silhouette strongly resembled that of the Peregrine Falcon. Its wingbeats were strong and regular. As the bird flew to our back, I said “Raptor!” and was answered “At this hour?” Subconsciously, I knew what a raptor that had pointed wings and that was active at this hour could plausibly be, but I had to get a better look to be sure, so I turned around to go after it. I could still see the bird flying against the sky and amazingly, the bird flew back towards us and as it approached, I looked at its throat area and Bingo – its white throat stood out against its dark plumage even in the dim lighting and I exclaimed “White throat! Bat Hawk”! We waited and hoped the bird would come back. After a while, the bird could be seen flying above the tree line and then it flew close enough for photographic evidence of our sighting to be gathered. Back home, upon referring to the relevant literature, I was amazed to find out that despite a small number of sightings in the last 20 years, there were no confirmed records of this species for Singapore since 1951, a break of 58 years!