Seletar East 18Mar17

From KH

Danny and I went to Seletar East grassland and there were only 6 Pintail Snipes left, not more than 100 as reported last week by Martin K, plus a Common Snipe.

Common Snipe

Other birds in the grassland included this Lesser Coucal and Pacific Swallows.

Lesser Coucal preening as Pacific Swallow flew above

At the wooded area, many resident birds were nesting - Coppersmith Barbet, Laced Woodpecker, Common Iora, Olive-backed Sunbird, Eurasian Tree Sparrow, Scaly-breasted Munia.

Female Common Iora collecting nesting material. Coppersmith Barbet working at nest hole

Laced Woodpecker. Sunda Woodpecker

Scaly-breasted Munia prospecting for nesting material

Male Olive-backed Sunbird

While some were already feeding juveniles, such as Asian Glossy Starling.

Other residents include a few Oriental White-eyes.

Oriental White-eye

This is the best time of the year where both Blue-tailed and Blue-throated Bee-eaters can be found at the same time.

Blue-tailed Bee-eater

Other migrants present were 2 Yellow Bitterns, 2 Arctic Warblers, 1 male Yellow-rumped Flycatcher and a few Asian Brown Flycatchers.

Yellow Bittern

Asian Brown Flycatcher

After lunch, we went to out favourite place, Pulau Punggol, and got nothing much. Apparently, the Black-winged Kite chicks had fledged and the adults started mating again!

The only migrant raptor was a Black Baza.

Black Baza

The Baya Weavers were busy building nests and so were the African Golden Weavers.

Pulau Punggol 08Feb14

From KH

It was great to see the Long-toed Stint again! There were also 6 Red-throated Pipits around. Boy, the pond's really shrinking under this record dry weather!

Con managed to photograph a preening Common Snipe, showing some of the key features:

• white secondary trailing edges
• uniformly thick tail feathers
• pale tip on rather plain upperwing coverts
• thick dark lore

Danny managed to photograph the Lanceolated Warbler that has been wintering here with his compact camera. The heavy streaks on both the upper and underparts are clearly visible.

Japan 04-06Mar13

From Yamane

4Mar

I visited Maioka Park in Yokohama between 2 business meetings. I report as follows; I attached the pictures of * species.

1. Oriental Turtle Dove
2. Japanese Green Woodpecker
3. Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker
4. Common Snipe*
5. Jungle Crow
6. Bull-headed Shrike
7. Varied Tit*
8. Japanese Tit
9. Long-tailed Tit
10. Brown-eared Bulbul
11. Japanese Bush Warbler
12. Japanese White-eye
13. White-cheeked Starling
14. Red-flanked Bluetail*
15. Brown-headed Thrush*
16. Pale Thrush
17. Dusky Thrush*
18. Daurian Redstart* male, female
19. Hawfinch
20. Eurasian Tree Sparrow
21. Japanese Pied Wagtail
22. Black-faced Bunting* male & female

I could watch Red-flanked Bluetail, but I could not watch Bullfinch, & Common Kingfisher.

5Mar

Today, I visited the lower stream of Tama River, after the business meeting in Tokyo. Near Haneda Airport. Now Fieldfare, there. It’s very rare in Japan.

6Mar

Today, I visited the Tokyo University on my business. I found the garden with the pond in the campus. Luckily I could watch the birds, as follows:

1. Eastern Spot-billed Duck*
2. Oriental Turtle Dove
3. Common Kingfisher*
4. Jungle Crow
5. Varied Tit
6. Coal Tit
7. Japanese Tit
8. Brown-eared Bulbul
9. Japanese Bush Warbler
10. Japanese White-eye
11. White-cheeked Starling
12. Hawfinch
13. Eurasian Tree Sparrow
14. Grey Bunting*

Changi, BTNR, Pulau Punggol 26Dec12

From JS

Yesterday, my father took leave and this means that we would be doing some birding. Expected, we started the morning at Changi (CC). The Short-Toed Snake Eagle was a gamble but still worthwhile to try. Santa must have kidnapped the bird, so we did not see it. Instead, we saw the wintering raptors and the usual residents. Nothing spectacular was seen. In fact, when we were there, I spent a significant amount of the time sleeping in the car.

Although pretty much everything was not in favor of us to continue birding, we still continued and of all places, at the Bukit Timah Summit (BTNR). (On hindsight, we were fortunate to decide against going to Seletar North.) This is what I call fool-hardy determination. If I am not mistaken, this would be my fourth hike in less than 2 weeks and it is not surprising that I saw different birds on each visit. Today, we saw a Chestnut-bellied Malkolha, a juvenile Changeable Hawk Eagle and an adult Dark-sided Flycatcher. While most birders would think that forest birding is best at dawn, late morning could be just as rewarding, if one is not looking for thrushes or owls. As the forest warms up in the late morning, traffic on the main road decreases, resulting in a counter-intuitive increase in bird activities. I am not sure if this phenomenon is the equivalent of Panti's birdwave in the middle of the day at the Shrine. Up on the summit, the most obvious bird is the swiftlet, followed by the vocal Scarlet-backed Flowerpeckers. Without the appearance of the Yellow-Vented Flowerpecker, we left the site with much wanting.

Juvenile pale morph Changeable Hawk Eagle

After a late lunch, we headed back out into the field. The only place that I would want to visit then would be Seletar North (PP), so that would be our final birding destination for the day. Arriving, we saw zero cars at the gantry. That was our closest indication of the events in the morning. Still, we took our chances. Unfortunately, the birds did not show but fortunately, the LTA traffic warden did not show up either. While the pond is pretty much deserted, except for a lone Yellow Bittern, a couple of common sandpiper and a lone Little Ringed Plover, we took no chances. Alas, the day ended as how it started. The focal point of Seletar North went back to the raptors when my father pointed out to Mike Price a dark-morph Booted Eagle. Ever since the runway became more active, the timing of the raptors' gathering became later. Now, it appears that 6.30pm is the starting time and the location has shifted to the casuarina forests by the coast. While my father was busy spotting the raptors, I went to another 2 rain-filled ponds that were hidden in the mimosa field. Bashing around, I flushed 6 Common Snipes, a couple of warblers and grassland passerines. At one point of time, I was actually staring at 3 snipes before their natural reflexes took over them. Hopefully, we will get to see more freshwater waders in the near future.

Common Snipe

Dark morph Booted Eagle

Eurasian Sparrowhawk?

Here's the summary of the raptor sightings:
1) Brahminy Kite (>9, 2-CC, 1-BTNR, >6-PP)
2) Black Winged Kite (3, 2-CC, 1-PP)
3) Changeable Hawk Eagle (2, 2 adult pale-morph-on the way to BTNR from CC)
4) White-Bellied Sea-Eagle (5, 5-PP)
5) Booted Eagle (1, 1 dark-morph-PP)
6) Osprey (2, 2-PP)
7) Eastern Marsh Harrier (1, 1-CC)
8) Oriental Honey Buzzard (2, 2-CC)
9) Common Buzzard (2, 1 dark morph and 1 pale morph-CC)
10) Black Baza (>10, >5-CC, 5-PP)
11) Chinese Sparrowhawk (2, 1 adult female and 1 adult male-CC)
12) Eurasian Sparrowhawk? (1, 1-PP)
Accipiter sp. (3, 1-CC, 1-BTNR, 1-PP)
Unid Raptor (1, 1-PP)

12 of 15 Smooth Otters at Pulau Punggol ©Danny Lau

Japan 7May11

From Yamane

Today I had birding in the seashore in Tokyo Bay. The place is near Tokyo Disney Land. I brought Canadian old couple birders with my young Japanese friend. They are friends of Mr. Shimba, the author of the photographic guidebook. They came from Toronto. Before their visit to Japan, they visited to New Zealand, Fiji, and New Caledonia.

I explain the attached photos as follows.

(1) Cattle Egret : Summer migrator

(2) Common Snipe : We can see sometimes.

(3) Falcon : Peregrine Falcon tried to attack many Black-headed Gulls. But they were not caught.

Around the seashore, there were over 10 Oystercatchers. And Little Terns are already here for their breeding. But we could not see Eurasian or Black-faced Spoonbill.

(4) Sandpipers : From left side, 2 Grey-tailed Tattlers, Dunlin, Terek Sandpiper

The staff of Nature Center said Common Kingfisher has moved to somewhere. Maybe it’s for their breeding, we hope so.

1. Great Cormorant
2. Grey Heron
3. Little Egret
4. Cattle Egret
5. Great Egret
6. Common Teal
7. Spot-billed Duck
8. Common Pochard
9. Greater Scaup
10. Peregrine Falcon
11. Eurasian Oystercatcher
12. Little Ringed Plover
13. Common snipe
14. Whimbrel
15. Common Greenshank
16. Terek Sandpiper
17. common Sandpiper
18. Dunlin
19. Grey-tailed Tattler
20. Ruddy Turnstone
21. Little Tern
22. Black-headed Gull
23. Vega Gull
24. Oriental Turtle Dove
25. Barn Swallow
26. White Wagtail
27. Brown-eared Bulbul
28. Oriental Reed Warbler
29. Azure-winged Magpie
30. Large-billed Crow
31. White-cheeked Starling
32. Eurasian Tree Sparrow

Tuas 28Dec08

From Danny

I went to Tuas grassland late morning, the grass was cut recently and pretty easy to pick out the snipes - good time before the grass grow taller. Just stand at road side along the lorry parking lots and stay quiet.

Common Snipes

Venus Dr, Pulau Punggol 23Feb08

From JS

Today, we went to Sime forest and P. Punggol. The weather was great; no rain from morning to afternoon. Also, the rain came a day earlier, encouraging some ground activity from an Abbott's babbler and the white-rumped shama. For the former, we had some good views but photography in the thickets proved too great a task for me.

The day started with the sighting of two common snipes in the open grass patch beside Venus Dr Carpark. We approach one bird to less than 5 m. Interestingly, it just go lower, trying to hide behind the very short grasses.

Common Snipe

In Sime forest, we did better than in Panti by getting 4 migrants, more than the 3 we got in Panti. The migrants we saw in Sime are Arctic warblers, an asian brown flycatcher, a wingbar-less female yellow-rumped flycatcher and an Oriental honey-buzzard.

At P. Punggol, we had several surprises. First, we saw no rare raptor. Second, a ruddy-breasted crake came so close to me that I could only photograph its head! Third, a pair of barred buttonquails foraging by the road.

Female Barred Buttonquail

Oriental Reed Warbler

Ruddy-breasted Crake

Zitting Cisticola

Sime Forest
1) Pink-necked Green-pigeon
2) Thick-billed Green-pigeon (2)
3) Emerald Dove (1)
4) Orange-bellied Flowerpecker
5) Olive-backed Sunbird
6) Crimson Sunbird (1)
7) Purple-throated Sunbird (2)
8) Javan Myna
9) Hill Myna
10) Asian Glossy Starling
11) Red-crowned Barbet (h)
12) Coppersmith Barbet (1)
13) Pacific Swallow
14) Swiftlet spp.
15) Dollarbird
16) Common Flameback (2)
17) Banded Woodpecker (2)
18) Abbott’s Babbler (1)
19) Chestnut-winged Babbler (h)
20) Striped Tit-babbler
21) Arctic Warbler
22) Common Iora (h)
23) Black-naped Oriole
24) Blue-winged Leafbird (2)
25) Oriental Honey-buzzard (1)
26) White-bellied Sea-eagle (h)
27) Brahminy Kite (1)
28) White-rumped Shama
29) Greater Racket-Tailed Drongo
30) Common Snipe (2)
31) Asian Brown Flycatcher (1)
32) Yellow-rumped Flycatcher (1 female)
33) Large-tailed Nightjar (h)
34) Collared Kingfisher
35) White-throated Kingfisher
36) Blue-crowned Hanging-parrot (3)
37) Long-tailed Parakeet
38) Asian Fairy-bluebird (2)
39) House Crow
40) Ashy Minivet (>5)
41) Olive-winged Bulbul
42) Cream-vented Bulbul
43) Yellow-vented Bulbul
44) Common Tailorbird (h)
45) Dark-necked Tailorbird (h)
46) Rufous-tailed Tailorbird (h)

Pulau Punggol
47) Barred Buttonquail (2)
48) Ruddy-breasted Crake (>5)
49) White-breasted Waterhen (2)
50) Osprey (1)
51) Black-winged Kite (1)
52) Black Baza (3)
53) Common Kingfisher (1)
54) Common Sandpiper (2)
55) Grey Heron (>3)
56) Little Egret
57) Oriental Reed Warbler (>4)
58) Zitting Cisticola
59) Paddyfield Pipit
60) Yellow-bellied Prinia (h)
61) Spotted Dove
62) Zebra Dove
63) Blue-tailed Bee-eater
64) Black-headed Munia (2)
65) Scaly-breasted Munia
66) Baya Weaver
67) Yellow-fronted Canary
68) Asian Koel
69) Lesser Coucal (1)
70) Brown Shrike
71) Oriental Magpie-robin (h)