Bishan Park 15Mar20

From KH

I did some morning birding at Bishan Park.

First, a Cinnamon Bittern.

Then, a Yellow Bittern stalking fish.

Followed by a non-breeding pond-heron (left) and a Chinese Pond-heron assuming breeding plumage.

The adult Purple Herons were busy mending their nests or bring food to their chicks.

Some juveniles Purple Herons were still in the nest on the tree, while others had fledged.

This Asian Openbill was playing with stick?

This female Brown-throated Sunbird had food in mouth.

This Stork-billed Kingfisher had a fish in mouth too.

An exotic Magpie Mannikin to round up the birds sighted.

The most interesting non-avian creatures were these roosting Common Fruit Bats.

1. Red Junglefowl (Domestic type) 3
2. Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon) 5
3. Spotted Dove 5
4. Zebra Dove 5
5. Asian Koel 1 - Heard
6. dark swiftlet sp. 30
7. White-breasted Waterhen 3
8. Asian Openbill 4
9. Yellow Bittern 4
10. Cinnamon Bittern 1
11. Purple Heron 10 - Nesting
12. Chinese Pond-Heron 1
13. pond-heron sp. 2
14. Striated Heron 2
15. Stork-billed Kingfisher 1
16. Collared Kingfisher 1
17. Blue-tailed Bee-eater 2
18. Coppersmith Barbet 1 - Heard
19. Sunda Woodpecker 1 - Heard
20. Common Flameback 1 - Heard
21. Blue-crowned Hanging-Parrot 2
22. Black-naped Oriole 3
23. Common Iora 3
24. Malaysian Pied-Fantail 3
25. Brown Shrike 2
26. House Crow 5
27. Common Tailorbird 1 - Heard
28. Yellow-bellied Prinia 1 - Heard
29. Pacific Swallow 2
30. Yellow-vented Bulbul 8
31. Arctic Warbler 1 - Heard
32. Swinhoe's White-eye 2
33. Asian Glossy Starling 10
34. Common Myna 2
35. Javan Myna 10
36. Asian Brown Flycatcher 2
37. Oriental Magpie-Robin 1
38. Brown-throated Sunbird 2
39. Olive-backed Sunbird 5
40. Magpie Mannikin 1 - Introduced
41. Scaly-breasted Munia 2
42. Eurasian Tree Sparrow 5

SBG 16Nov19

From KH

The star bird at SBG is the male Daurian Redstart (below), shown here with a Common Kingfisher.

It was also nice to have a Cinnamon Bittern flew by.

This Long-tailed Parakeet was enjoying the Simpoh Air fruit.

While these Black Swans were resting.

Finally, a Common Treeshrew to round up this short walk around SBG Eco Lake.

1. Red Junglefowl (Domestic type) 20
2. Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon) 20
3. Spotted Dove 3
4. Zebra Dove 3
5. Pink-necked Green-Pigeon 10
6. dark swiftlet sp. 10
7. White-breasted Waterhen 3
8. Cinnamon Bittern 1
9. Black Bittern 1
10. Little Egret 1
11. Common Kingfisher 1
12. Banded Woodpecker 1
13. Long-tailed Parakeet 2
14. Blue-crowned Hanging-Parrot 1 - heard
15. Black-naped Oriole 2
16. Malaysian Pied-Fantail 2
17. Ashy Tailorbird 2 - heard
18. Yellow-vented Bulbul 2
19. Olive-winged Bulbul 1
20. Swinhoe's White-eye 10
21. Asian Glossy Starling 20
22. Javan Myna 10
23. Oriental Magpie-Robin 2
24. Daurian Redstart
25. Scarlet-backed Flowerpecker 2 - heard
26. Olive-backed Sunbird 2

Rifle Range, SBWR, NTL2 19Mar16

From KH

Danny and I spent the day chasing phantoms, namely Little green-pigeon at Jelutong Tower and Lesser adjutant at Sungei Buloh and Neo Tiew.

Nicholas and See Toh were also at the tower. There were the usual resident flowerpeckers (Orange-bellied, Scarlet-backed), sunbirds (Crimson, Van Hasselt's, Brown-throated), bulbuls (Cream-vented, Olive-winged), mynas (Hill, Javan), Asian fairy-bluebirds, Blue-winged leafbirds, Greater racket-tailed drongos, Asian glossy starlings, Dark-necked tailorbirds, Dollarbirds, Plaintive cuckoo, Banded woodpecker, Long-tailed parakeets and lots of Pink-necked green-pigeons, but no Little green pigeon. Migrant-wise, we had an Asian brown flycatcher, an Oriental honey-buzzard and the migrant breeders, Blue-throated bee-eaters.

Left: Male Orange-bellied flowerpecker. Right: Male Pink-necked green-pigeon

The "bird" of the day was a 1.5-m-long Oriental whip snake, near Dillenia Hut.

Its lunch - a succulent Common house gecko - was hiding at Dillenia Hut!

Soon it was getting hot. See Toh, Danny and I headed for Sungei Buloh Eagle Point. There were not much bird activities at this time of the day, except for some Olive-backed sunbirds, Common ioras, Ashy tailorbirds, Spotted doves, Collared kingfishers, Sunda woodpeckers, egrets (Little, Great), Common sandpipers and one Common greenshank. We ran into Francis, who was also looking for the adjutant.

Many Little egrets waiting for low tide to start feeding

Common sandpiper assuming breeding plumage

Spotted dove at Eagle Point with no eagle

Then, we had our minute of excitement as a faraway stork flew into view and raise our hope for the adjutant. Alas, it turned out to be a Painted stork or its hybrid.

The highlight at Kingfisher Pod was a young Estuarine crocodile.

An Arctic warbler kept us busy for awhile as we were trying to turn it into something else.

Near the visitor centre, a male Laced woodpecker was busy drumming way.

After lunch at the new visitor centre, we decided to check out the newly-reopened Kranji Marsh. The star here was of course the Black-backed swamphen. We saw a pair at the Swamphen Hide. <Updated on 19 Feb 2023: As fate would have it, this pair turned out to be two separate species! After the split of Purple Swamphen complex to various species, the subspecies in Singapore viridis was initially attributed to Black-backed Swamphen (Porphyrio indicus), but was later moved to Grey-headed Swamphen (P. poliocephalus). The former has a darker face, while the latter has a paler face.>

The Common moorhen seemed to prefer the Swamphen Hide rather than the Moorhen Hide.

This is the time of the year that both bee-eater species can be found in Singapore. Blue-tailed bee-eater (left) eating what else but a bee. "Don't steal my bee!" said the Blue-throated bee-eater (right).

Also showing was a Cinnmon bittern.

Its relative, Yellow bittern, was also around. The other birds here were Scaly-breasted munias, Baya weavers, Yellow-bellied prinias, Asian glossy starlings, tailorbirds (Ashy, Common), Spotted doves, cuckoos (Little bronze, Plaintive), and surprising a female Pin-tailed whydah. I hope NParks will control its population. We do not need another little Africa in Singapore!

Pulau Ubin, SBWR, Fort Canning 14-16Apr06

From Yamane

At our "Good Fri Weekend" birding, the place was changed. At last we went to P. Ubin, because we could not find the first target point.

Oriental Pied-hornbill couple. In both photos, the female is on the right. Distinguished from the male by more markings on the bill.

Brahminy Kite

Male Brown-throated Sunbird

Lunch

Great Eggfly

And I went to SBWR 15Apr06 Sat morning. Some PGPs' breasts were changed to black color. Many sandpipers, whimbrels and plovers were still there.

Cinnamon Bittern

WBSEs of Fort Canning were gone. At last I could not see their juvenile. For these 6 months I could not see more than 2 WBSEs there. They might not have bred.

From Peck Chan

We toured round and round Old Tampines but could not locate the big temple that was there 10 yrs ago. In place were all private housings. Nevertheless, would get a map from Joe on the exact location in future. Fortunately, I've prepared Easter eggs and kaya toasts for Danny and Yamane-san to prevent them from grousing.

The trail to locate the hornbills are infested with mozzies. You need strong mosquito repellent such as that from the army. Yamanesan and I were busy scratching while Danny was happily checking for birds.

We managed to see a pair of hornbills, 2 baby PNG flanking their mother amidst the drizzle that started about 10.30 a.m.

On the way back to the jetty, Yamanesan and I witnessed a Caucasian mother running her bike across the neck of her toddler who has fallen from her tricycle seconds earlier.

We have seafood lunch as Yamanesan craved for it the moment we stepped onto P. Ubin. He reminisced the wonderful birding and seafood lunch he had with that Turkish student, Cagan, last Oct.