Singapore Strait 04May13
Summary from Colin
We went out on a spring seabird hunt on Saturday, and although we didn't record as many Swinhoe's Storm-petrels as we have perhaps done in previous sprngs, the highlight was undoubtedly a juv Christmas Island Frigatebird which saw from a long distance as it came west to east through the Singapore Strait and then gave us an amazing show playing with a fish alongside the boat!
- Swinhoe's Storm-petrel 18 (mainly moving east)
- Bridled Tern 13 (mainly moving west)
- Common Tern 2 (1 ad longipennis and 1 1st winter)
- White-winged Tern 5
- Black-naped Tern 3
- Little Tern 2
- Lesser crested Tern 14
- Crested (Swift) Tern 2
- 'crested sp.' Tern 4
- Christmas Island Frigatebird 1 juv
- "Short-tailed" Shearwater 1 moving east fast (somehow photographed by the equally fast Jia Sheng!). We've now recorded this species three years on the trot and it appears to be a regular spring west to east migrant in small numbers in early May.
Con Foley's traditional amazing photos can be see here.
And my map is here.
Write-up from Con
http://confoley.com/pelagic-outing-may-2013
Videos from Martin
Flying alongside boat fish in bill
Flying high over boat
Photos from JS
Star of the day - juvenile Christmas Island Frigatebird
The Short-tailed Shearwater that almost got away!
Two Common Terns with different plumage. Left adult, right 1st winter.
