Punggol Promenade 16Dec19

From KH

I took a short late morning walk along the west end of Punggol Promenade Nature Walk.

First, the residents: an immature White-bellied Sea-eagle was patrolling the area.

And a Grey Heron flew past with a fish in mouth, but I was too slow to catch the moment.

Next, the migrants: here's a Brown Shrike in front of some green construction object in the background.

And a Common Sandpiper strolling along the water edge.

And finally, half a dozen Great Crested Terns hanging around fishing kayaks.

1. Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon) 2
2. Spotted Dove 1
3. Asian Koel 1 - heard
4. dark swiftlet sp. 1
5. Common Sandpiper 1
6. Great Crested Tern 6
7. Gray Heron 1
8. White-bellied Sea-Eagle 1
9. Collared Kingfisher 2
10. Blue-tailed Bee-eater 1
11. Common Iora 1 - heard
12. Brown Shrike 1
13. Ashy Tailorbird 1 - heard
14. Pacific Swallow 1
15. Yellow-vented Bulbul 2
16. Asian Glossy Starling 2 - heard
17. Common Myna 2
18. Javan Myna 10
19. Olive-backed Sunbird 1 - heard
20. Eurasian Tree Sparrow 5

Singapore Strait 13Oct18

From KH

Danny, JS and I joined this pelagic trip organised by Martin. The tern numbers were still good, but the storm-petrel numbers have dropped significantly.

We counted 24 Aleutian Terns! Here are some of them:

Bridled Tern swallowing fish while in flight.

The one and only Common Tern on this trip - of the longipennis subspecies.

Yellow for Great Crested Tern and orange for Lesser Crested Tern.

Swinhoe's Storm-petrel resting on the sea.

1. 24 dark swiftlet sp.
2. 116 Bridled Tern
3. 24 Aleutian Tern
4. 1 Little Tern
5. 1 Common Tern
6. 54 Great Crested Tern
7. 20 Lesser Crested Tern
8. 16 Swinhoe's Storm-Petrel
9. 1 Little Egret
10. 15 white egret sp.
11. 1 Gray Heron
12. 2 Brahminy Kite
13. 2 White-bellied Sea-Eagle
14. 13 Barn Swallow

Singapore Strait 30Sep18

From KH

On the way to One Degree 15, I heard a Large-tailed Nightjar and a Sunda Scops-owl on Sentosa.

Out on sea, we got Swinhoe's Storm-petrels heading east, and Bridled Terns heading west.

As well as the usual cast of terns, like this Aleutian Tern,

and this Great Crested Tern.

The buoys, like this yellow buoy, is a good place to look for perched terns.

1. 10 dark swiftlet sp.
2. 82 Bridled Tern - East to West
3. 10 Aleutian Tern
4. 10 Little Tern
5. 1 White-winged Tern
6. 2 Black-naped Tern
7. 2 Common Tern - longipennis
8. 10 Great Crested Tern
9. 20 Lesser Crested Tern
10. 259 Swinhoe's Storm-Petrel - West to East
11. 2 Accipiter sp.
12. 1 Brahminy Kite
13. 2 Tanimbar Corella
14. 12 House Crow
15. 1 Pacific Swallow
16. 2 Asian Glossy Starling
17. 5 Javan Myna

Singapore Strait 03Mar18

From KH

20 of us went out in 2 boats and got 2 adult Arctic Skuas - 1 pale, 1 dark!

Here's a Black-naped Tern.

And a bunch of Great and Lesser Crested Terns, the former being larger and yellow-billed, compared to its smaller orange-billed cousin.

There were 2 Large-billed Crows flying from the Indonesian side to Singapore.

1. 5 Gray Heron - P. Bukom
2. 1 Purple Heron - flying from SG to Indon
3. 3 Brahminy Kite
4. 2 White-bellied Sea-Eagle
5. 2 Parasitic Jaeger - adults
6. 2 Black-naped Tern
7. 1 Great Crested Tern
8. 40 Lesser Crested Tern
9. 20 dark swiftlet sp. - flying from Indon to SG
10. 2 Large-billed Crow - flying from Indon to SG
11. 3 Barn Swallow

Then, we landed on Pulau Hantu for the Mangrove Whistler, but it was not home.

1. 1 Brahminy Kite
2. 1 Spotted Dove
3. 3 dark swiftlet sp.
4. 2 Collared Kingfisher
5. 1 Blue-tailed Bee-eater
6. 1 Sunda Woodpecker
7. 1 Golden-bellied Gerygone - heard
8. 1 Black-naped Oriole
9. 1 Malaysian Pied-Fantail
10. 1 Pacific Swallow
11. 1 Yellow-vented Bulbul
12. 2 Asian Brown Flycatcher
13. 1 Oriental Magpie-Robin
14. 1 Common Myna
15. 4 Plain-throated Sunbird

Singapore Strait 14Oct17

From KH

Con, Danny, JS and I joined this pelagic organized by Seetoh and Francis.

A couple of Cattle Egrets accompanied us as we cleared customs off Sisters' Island.

The bird of the day - Arctic Skua.

It was terns galore. Here're some of them.

Aleutian Tern

Lesser and Great Crested Terns for comparison

Little Tern

The pelagic won't be complete at this time of the year without Swinhoe's Storm-petrels.

A panting Oriental Honey-buzzard crossing the Strait to go further south.

Glad to end the day with a mixed pod of dolphins - Indo-Pacific Bottlenose and Indo-Pacific Humpback.

1. Swinhoe's Storm-petrel 8
2. Grey Heron 1
3. Cattle Egret 2
4. Oriental Honey-buzzard 1
5. Japanese Sparrowhawk 2
6. Brahminy Kite 3
7. Oriental Pratincole 48
8. Parasitic Jaeger 1
9. Bridled Tern 15
10. Aleutian Tern 2
11. Little Tern 8
12. Black-naped Tern 5
13. Great Crested Tern 40
14. Lesser Crested Tern 20
15. Pacific Swift 8
16. Barn Swallow 25
17. swiftlet spp. 25

Pulau Ubin 31Dec16

From KH

Knowing that the Imperial eagle has been hanging around Pulau Sekudu (aka Frog Island), Con, Danny and I went to Pulau Ubin. JS was still in Korea, so he'll have to make another trip. We waited for a couple of hours at the jetty overlooking Pulau Sekudu, but the eagle didn't show... This bird had first been found on Frog Island by LKS on the 19 Dec 2016 and was since sighted at Changi too.

Nevertheless, it was good to see Grey Plovers, Whimbrels, Common Sandpipers, Great Crested Terns and Grey Herons roosting on the rocks of Pulau Sekudu. Brahminy Kites and White-bellied Sea-eagles also visited the rocks.

Mixed flock of Grey Plovers and Whimbrels

Con left for the female Black Hornbill. After a while, Danny and I left for the mangrove boardwalk, but there were nothing much here.

Soon it was lunchtime and we headed for the main jetty to meet up with Con. When we were reaching, Con informed us that LKS had spotted a Mountain Imperial Pigeon and the female Black Hornbill on the fruiting tree at the HSBC Hub at about 11 am!

Seeing that there were only Pink-necked Green-pigeons, Oriental Pied Hornbills and Asian Glossy Starlings around, we decided to fill our stomach first.

After lunch, I spotted the Mountain Imperial-pigeon and Danny and I quickly spread the news. Fortunately, Con and friend hadn't left the island. See Toh and friend weren't so fortunate as they were already back on the mainland by now, so they quickly took the boat back to Ubin.

After Con left, the female Black Hornbill showed up!

We also solve the mystery of the "Ubin squirrels". There were indeed squirrels on Ubin. Here's a Plantain Squirrel near the HSBC Hub.

Soon it was going to be low tide and time to head back for the imperial eagle. We reached the jetty overlooking Pulau Sekudu at about 4-something. As there were nothing much going on, I spent some time counting the number of Great crested terns. There were about 100 of them.

Then a Great-billed Heron flew past and landed on Pulau Sekudu.

The Eurasian Wild Pigs were also out for dinner.

At about 5:30 pm, the Imperial Eagle flew out from the Ubin mangrove! It has been hiding in the mangrove forest on the Ubin side all this while. After some time, it flew to Pulau Sekudu and that was the closest it got to us before flying back into the mangrove forest at about 6:30 pm. Game over and time to head back.

It's been awhile since I last wrote a list, so here it is:

1. Red junglefowl 5
2. Great egret 42
3. Grey heron 12
4. Great-billed heron 1
5. Imperial eagle 1 juvenile
6. Brahminy kite ~5
7. White-bellied sea-eagle ~5
8. Grey plover ~20
9. Whimbrel ~40
10. Common sandpiper ~5
11. Great crested tern 100
12. Mountain imperial-pigeon 1
13. Pink-necked green-pigeon ~10
14. Oriental pied hornbill ~10
15. Black hornbill 1 female
16. Large-billed crow 2
17. Straw-headed bulbul 5 heard
18. Olive-winged bulbul 2
19. White-rumped shama 5 heard
20. Asian glossy starling ~20
21. Crimson sunbird 2

Batu Gajah, Sawah Ring, Sg Balang, Parit Jawa, Malacca Strait 22-23Sep12

From KH

Con, Danny and I joined Ang and his friends for birding at the padi fields and Malacca Strait.

We spent the first day in the padi fields and what a hot day it was. As the padi fields were pretty dry, there were not many waders, although we did find Wood Sandpipers, Common Sandpipers, Pacific Golden Plovers and Red-wattled Lapwings. Herons (Purple and Little), egrets (Cattle, Little, Intermediate and Great) and bitterns (Cinnamon and Yellow) were common in the fields. Other birds of note were a Watercock, Oriental Reed Warblers and Grey Wagtails. In one of the rivers, there were Common Moorhens, Purple Swamphens and Lesser Whistling Ducks.

At Sungei Balang, there were many grassland birds - munias (White-rumped, White-headed and Scaly-breasted), Baya Weavers, Zitting Cisticolas and a Paddyfield Pipit. We managed to locate two boxes with Barn Owls in them. As it was still too early for raptors, we only saw Black-winged and Brahminy Kites.

The second day, by contrast, was really wet! It rained on and off the whole morning. While having breakfast, a pair of Oriental Pied Hornbills on antenna were a welcoming sight. After breakfast, we took a boat trip from Parit Jawa to the Malacca Strait and spent about 4 hours out in the sea (around 9 am to 1 pm).

Lesser Adjutants - the iconic birds of Parit Jawa.

Lesser Adjutants

First, we encounter the commoner terns, like Little Terns, White-winged Terns and Great Crested Terns pretty near the coast and at the kelongs.

White-winged Tern

Great Crested Tern

As we went further out, we started seeing Bridled Terns heading south. We counted about 100 birds by the end of the boat trip.

Bridled Tern

The first star bird of the trip appeared around 9:45 am. It was an Aleutian Tern - a lifer for the Malaysian birders. The bird can be told apart from others by the white forehead, thin black bill, thin black trailing edge on the secondaries, white leading edge and pale rump.

Aleutian Tern

Before long, we encountered our first Swinhoe's Storm Petrel - another lifer for the Malaysian birders. We would see another two later. Finally, we spotted a pod of dolphins on the way back.

The final count of pelagic birds:
Swinhoe's Storm Petrel 3
Aleutian Tern 1
Common Tern 2
Bridled Tern ~100
Lesser Crested Tern 1
Great Crested Tern ~50
White-winged Tern ~10
Little Tern ~5

And water birds at Parit Jawa:
Lesser Adjutant 15
Grey Heron 5
Little Heron 3
Little Egret 5
Greater Sand Plover 1
Lesser Sand Plover >20
Common Greenshank 1
Common Redshank >20
Common Sandpiper 3
Terek Sandpiper >20
Whimbrel 1
Black-tailed Godwit 2
Red-necked Stint 5

From Con

http://confoley.com/parit-jawa-september-2012