Tuas 26Oct19

From KH

While Danny and JS went recceing for bird race, CH and I went Tuas. JS reported that the monarch was no longer around this morning.

As per last week, there were not many raptors at Tuas. However, it was nice to get a Black-backed Kingfisher and a Brown-chested Jungle-flycatcher in a wooded area.

Japanese Sparrowhawk

Black-backed Kingfisher

Brown-chested Jungle-flycatcher prefers the low bush

Asian Brown Flycatcher prefers mid canopy level

1. Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon) X
2. Spotted Dove X
3. Zebra Dove X
4. swiftlet sp. X
5. Pacific Swift 3
6. White-breasted Waterhen 1
7. Red-wattled Lapwing 3
8. White-winged Tern 3
9. Little Egret 3
10. Oriental Honey-buzzard 7
11. Japanese Sparrowhawk 4
12. Accipiter sp. 2
13. Brahminy Kite 4
14. Black-backed Dwarf-Kingfisher 1
15. White-throated Kingfisher 1
16. bee-eater sp. X
17. Ashy Minivet 2
18. Black-naped Oriole 2
19. House Crow X
20. Barn Swallow X
21. Pacific Swallow 2
22. Red-rumped Swallow 2
23. Yellow-vented Bulbul 2
24. Asian Glossy Starling X
25. Common Myna X
26. Javan Myna X
27. Asian Brown Flycatcher 3
28. Oriental Magpie-Robin 1
29. Brown-chested Jungle-Flycatcher 1
30. Yellow-rumped Flycatcher 1
31. Paddyfield Pipit X

Singapore Botanic Gardens 29, 31Jan17

On 29 Jan, Con got an immature Hodgson's Hawk-cuckoo.

On 31 Jan, Danny reported that the Hooded Pitta was around, so was the Black-backed Kingfisher.

Singapore Botanic Gardens 17Jan17

From Con

Buffy Fish-owl nesting at SBG near hornbill nest.

Black-blacked Kingfisher turned up at Silver Pheasant spot.

Lower Peirce 12Feb10

From Danny

Black-backed Kingfisher.

Peirce Area 06Feb10

From Danny

A pair of adult Chestnut-winged Babblers were spotted on 6 Feb 2010 at Nee Soon Swamp responding to playback of call, note not the song, possibly an engaged pair. It's time of the year to prepare for breeding. From video, notice how the babblers call out thru the gullet air sags exposing the white patches. At end of video when both babblers were side by side, the bird on the left had relatively larger white patches & more active, likely a male.

Here's the Dark-sided Flycatcher at Mousedeer Trail.

From KH

The first interesting creatures at the Nee Soon Pipeline were non-avian. There was a Malayan Brown Snake in the paddle. Can't really tell the length, but it's definitely more than 2 feet.

The other creature of interest here was the nymph of a Flatid Bug.

Nee Soon Swamp

Banded Bay Cuckoo 1 calling while in flight
RC Barbet 2 heard
OHB 1
GHFE 1
CHE 2
CW Babbler 2
ST Babbler >4
Little Spiderhunter 1
Asian Brown FC 1
Arctic Warbler 2
CV Bulbul 2
OW Bulbul >3
and the usual sunbirds, OB flowerpeckers, tailorbirds, dollarbirds, bee-eaters

Mousedeer Trail

CB Malkoha 1
Dark-sided FC 1
1^st winter male SB Robin 1

Lower Peirce

BBKF 1
Banded Woodpecker 1
ST Babbler >2
female SB Robin 1
Arctic Warbler 2
CV Bulbul 2
OW Bulbul 2
and the usual drongos, striped tit babblers, tailorbirds

A Black-backed Kingfisher

and a Greater Racket-tailed Drongo were the main cast at Lower Peirce keeping us company during the hot afternoon.

Came evening time, the Lower Peirce bathing party began. This Cream-vented Bulbul (left) was amongst the bathing party. So was the Olive-winged Bulbul (right).

A Female Siberian Blue Robin

and Short-tailed Babblers are also part of the bathing party.

Lower Peirce 31Dec09

From Danny

Left my office early today, finally decided to head to Lower Peirce rather than SBG. Pretty quiet with few joggers. The friendly Short-tailed Babblers were at the usual U turn boardwalk taking their evening baths together with a couple of female Siberian Blue Robins.

At exactly 7 pm the Black-backed Kingfisher turned up at the previous year perch and for the next 3 minutes or so made repeated bath dives with preening in between.

Glad to end the year with a BB Kingfisher.

Lower Peirce 08-11Mar09

From JS on 8 Mar

This evening, my dad brought me to Lower Peirce. If I am not wrong, this is my first time visiting the site this year and, possibly, in my entire life. I didn't know that Singapore had covered forest streams (reminds me of the wren babblers' territory at Frasers') until I was at the site. Very encouraging to find such a habitat in a concrete jungle with pockets of secondary woodlands.

It has been quite a while since I last saw a lifer in Singapore and my first bird at the site is a lifer, a female Green-backed Flycatcher. Feeling rather tired and dizzy, I couldn't spot an open perched Green-backed flycatcher which was less than 5m away from me. Possibly a symptom of birdwatching withdrawal syndrome.

The other birds sighted were the usual species, Short-tailed Babblers (>3-4), Black-backed Kingfisher (1) and Siberian Blue Robin (1 subadult male).

Slowly, I managed to regain full concentration and spotted a large bird (about 1-and-a-half times the size of a short-tailed babbler) hopping on a thin log in the furthest ferny puddle. The bird had a brownish upperparts and white black-spotted underparts. It also had a dark brown ear covert and whitish supercilium. I am sure it is a Zoothera but not able to confirm the species. Shouldn't have spotted the bird, now I am stuck with an unid bird... a good companion for the unid hawk cuckoos...

From GC on 9 Mar

Was drizzling this evening. Saw about 5 Short-tailed Babblers bathing. Drizzling but they still came!? BBKF flew in to shower at around 6.45 pm. in about 3 mins, it was done and gone. 1 Flowerpecker feeding on melastoma (pic). No sign of the Thrush. No Chinese FC also.

From Danny on 10 Mar

I went to LP this evening. The thrush was spotted briefly on the right side of the boardwalk while we (Mark Chua & I) were expecting it to hop over to the left. Point taken, this bird come in and leave from the right side of boardwalk. The other birds spotted were Short tailed Babblers, Chinese FC and "resident" BBKF. No mousedeer sighted but while leaving a Colugo flew over my head and landed on tree 5 ft above me.

From KH on 11 Mar

I reached LP at about 5:40 pm. It was quiet and no photogs were around. I went to the open view of the reservoir and saw a GHFE on the tall tree opposite. Then, I walked back to the gully for the Chinese FC and Mark was there. Soon the FC appeared and within 5-10 minutes, after a few dips, it was gone. As I have not seen this bird before, initially I thought it was a Siberian Blue Robin!

Soon the true blue Siberian Blue Robin appeared.

Then Danny showed up and later on Johnny. While waiting for other birds to appear, a Haas's Bronzeback caught my attention. It was so thin that I would have missed it had it stay stationary! It was ~50cm, not as long as the one Con saw.

Around 7 pm, the BBKF appeared. After a few final dips, it tugged in for the night.

7:20 pm, time to leave. All the while, >5 Short-tailed Babblers were calling and coming in for showers. An Abbott's Babbler, a Red-crowned Barbet, a CHE and a WBSE were heard, but not seen.

Lower Peirce 23-28Feb09

From GC on 23Feb09

Talked to a regular park goer and he said this bird (juvenile Black-backed Kingfisher) has been around Lower Peirce for 6 months already. He noticed that this bird is different from the usual blue ones and instead has black and red colours. He has been pointing out the bird to other regular park goers and they have been enjoying the company of this bird for 6 months.

The bird caught and ate 3 spiders - 1 fat, 1 medium and 1 small.

In time to come, these 'pins' would open and this juvenile would get its pretty cap.

This Malayan Brown Snake was seen at Lower Pierce this morning at 0827H.

From Danny on 26Feb09

Went to L. Peirce boardwalk this evening, the mousedeer was right at the Y junction behind the signboard, ten feet away from me for 5 min. before a jogger flushed it. The triangular brown breast patch with 2 white stripes on the 2 angular sides were distinct for Lesser Mousedeer!

Anyway, no sign of the SLC, birds seen were bathing 1 male Siberian Blue Robin, Chinese Flycatcher (back again, last seen more than a week ago), Short-tailed Babblers, GHFE (seen 1, heard 2 calling) and BBKF. When I left at 7.30 pm, the BBKF was perched right in the middle of the shallow valley on a small tree with lengthy palm like branches for at least 15 min, possibly roosting for the night.

Incidentally, both Mr & Mrs Alfred Chia were there before me followed later by Mark Chua

From Con on 28Feb09

Lesser Mouse Deer portraits from today, definitely not Greater Mouse Deer.

http://www.pbase.com/con_foley/image/109664753
http://www.pbase.com/con_foley/image/109664754

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!

Clementi, SBWR, MacRitchie 02Feb09

From Danny

Morning birding at Clementi was relatively uneventful. After 2 hours of Con waiting by the log, no signs of either pitta (Hooded and BW spotted on Sun by Rey). Interesting birds observed were a pair of Red-breasted Parakeets preparing for nesting, Sulphur-crested Cockatoo, 2 Black Baza, snipe, Common kf....

Went to MacRitchie late morning but no signs of our target kf. After lunch headed for Lower Peirce but again no signs of owl or kf. Took break and returned to MacRitchie after 5 pm.

Excitement started after 5.35 pm. There were two Siberian Blue Robins (adult male and female), Short-tailed Babblers kept us fully occupied. Both Con and Marcus took pics of the brilliant male Robin taking bath on a small puddle of water by the boardwalk. All this while two Abbott's Babblers were having a duet but we had no time for them.

After 6.30 pm, the BBKF started fishing at the edge of the reservoir and as per Marcus descriptions last evening the water level was lower hence this evening the kf was fishing further in the canopy. Only my scope could make out the location of the kf and both photographers were firing into the darkness but nevertheless all 3 got our bbkf.

At Sungei Buloh:

Spotted a Dog-faced Water Snake in SBWR on 2nd Feb during high tide at boardwalk.

Please help to id, thought the "orange tape" was sea worm! I estimated the tapeworm between 1 to 2 ft in length, difficult to gauge as it swam with flat body in zig-zag manner.