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.
