Mersing Beach 21Apr18

From KH

At Mersing Beach in Johor, there were still some waders around.

Grey Plovers (left and right) and Bar-tailed Godwits.

A lone Pacific Golden-plover.

1 Great Knot (centre), 2 Grey-tailed Tattlers, some Terek Sandpipers (upturned bill) and Lesser Sand-plovers (shortest bill).

2 Ruddy Turnstones with a Greater Sand-plover assuming breeding plumage (left) among the Lesser Sand-plovers in non-breeding plumage.

2 Grey-tailed Tattlers with Terek Sandpipers (upturned bill), and Lesser Sand-plovers, some of which are assuming breeding plumage.

A lone Little Egret was hanging around with Common Greenshanks.

This lone Caspian Tern was prowling the coastline for fish.

1. 1 Little Egret
2. 4 Black-bellied Plover
3. 1 Pacific Golden-Plover
4. 100 Lesser Sand-Plover
5. 10 Greater Sand-Plover
6. 3 Bar-tailed Godwit
7. 8 Ruddy Turnstone
8. 2 Great Knot
9. 40 Terek Sandpiper
10. 5 Gray-tailed Tattler
11. 3 Common Greenshank
12. 1 Caspian Tern
13. 1 Collared Kingfisher
14. 5 Pacific Swallow
15. 1 Common Tailorbird - Heard
16. 5 Javan Myna

Turut Track, SBWR, Mandai Mudflat, Seletar Dam 6Sep14

From KH

Thanks to Danny's good suggestion, we started at Turut Track and managed to reach Kranji Marsh from there. It is a great place for almost all the breeding resident raptors - GHFE (1), BWK (1), WBSE (1), Brahminy Kites (2) and CHE (1 heard).

Other notables were Cinnamon Bitterns (4), Common Moorhens (2), Red-wattled Lapwings (>5) and Common Kingfishers (2).

Also present were common birds like Laced WP (1 male), Common Goldenback (1), Sunda WP (1 heard), bee-eaters, Banded Bay Cuckoo (1 heard), Lesser Coucals, Long-tailed Parakeets, Purple Herons (4), waterhens, Large-billed Crows (1), Oriental Magpie Robin (1 female), laughingthrushes, fantails, ioras, Ashy Tailorbird (1), Common Tailorbirds.

The greatest surprise was a Malayan Box Terrapin! ©Danny Lau

A quick check at NSRCC yielded Little Ringed Plovers (2) and Yellow Wagtail (1).

Soon it was high tide and we reached SBWR in time to catch Black-tailed Godwits (5 juveniles), Grey-tailed Tattler (1 in partial breeding plumage), Whimbrels (>25), Common Sandpipers and lots of Redshanks.

Grey-tailed Tattler molting out of breeding plumage ©Danny Lau

At the sluice gate opposite Platform 1, we saw Marsh Sandpiper (1), Greenshanks and more Redshanks. There was also a Saltwater Crocodile (~2.5m) sunning itself with mouth agape. ©Danny Lau

A loop round the mangrove boardwalk near the entrance yielded nothing much except for Violet Vinegar Crab's diet - one was feeding on fallen leaf, the other on moss.

After lunch, tide was still high, but receding. A scan of Mandai Mudflat revealed Red-necked Stint (1) and lots of Lesser Sand Plovers. A scan in another direction revealed another Grey-tailed Tattler - this time a juvenile. Soon more and more waders came - PGPs, Whimbrels, Greenshanks, Redshanks, Common Sandpipers and more LSPs. No GSP, but another croc!

Estuarine Crocodile with Whimbrels, Redshanks, PGP and Grey Heron ©Danny Lau

There were also Little Terns (5), Great Egret (1), Little Egrets, Grey Herons, Little Herons.

Next up: Seletar Dam. There were not many waders around - Curlew Sandpiper (1 juvenile), PGPs, LSPs, Common Sandpipers. Again no GSP.

A quick check on P. Punggol revealed busy construction work and guarded entrance. Many trees have been felled. Now we worry about shelter and Booted Eagle during raptor watch!

Pulau Punggol, Halus, SBWR 28Dec13

From JS

Welcoming Kok Hui back from Down Under, we headed over to Pulau Punggol in the morning (not early enough as See Toh arrived before us) to find the Lanceolated Warbler. Unfortunately, Kok Hui, my father and I were only able to obtain brief views of this singing skulker while Con would need to come back another day to get his lifer. In any case, this season is proving to be good for this species. We noted at least 3 singing individuals. For future attempts, it is advisable to be there as early as possible to catch the bird singing in the short, less dense trees and to bring as many different recordings of its song to keep the bird singing. Besides seeing the Lanceolated Warbler, we enjoyed views of two Booted Eagles (1 dark morph 6-fingers and 1 rufous morph 5-fingers individuals). It is comforting to know that Pulau Punggol still had the conditions to attract the migrant raptors and the rarities.

With the sun nearly above us, we dropped by our new raptor site, the bridge at Lr Halus, to wait for the thermaling raptor. During our stay, we saw a single Oriental Honey-buzzard and a female subadult Chinese Sparrowhawk. I guess this site is only good for observing cross-island raptor movement. Oh well...

Lunch was a straightforward affair but choosing the site for the afternoon birding wasn't. Besides the Pied Cuckoo and Lanceolated Warbler, there wasn't any other interesting birds to look for. Since our birding could have ended then, we decided to pay SBWR a visit. Even if there are no birds to entertain us, we could always admire the amusing development. I am really interested to find out how did a site that used to have so many waders become a site that had only 1 PGP, 3 Marsh Sandpiper, several Common Sandpipers, hundreds of Common Redshanks and a century of Whimbrels? It took us almost an hour of walking before we saw something that looked different from the Common Redshanks. Sigh... The development could be Nparks' long term strategy but it doesn't look all that rosy. Some glimmer of hope came in the form of a Bar-tailed Godwit, a wintering Grey-Tailed Tattler and a Terek Sandpiper. While SBWR is celebrating its new find, a Brown Hawk Owl, we were simply chasing after any birds that we could get our bins on. On hindsight, I was quite desperate. I tried to turn every Arctic Warbler into something else - to no avail. Just when it seems that SBWR was as miserable as the weather, we found another warbler and this may be a real deal, a Kamchatka Leaf Warbler.

Worn Kamchatka Leaf Warbler - confirmed by call.

Non-breeding Grey-tailed Tattler

Summary of raptors seen on 28/12/13:

Pulau Punggol
1) White-Bellied Sea-eagle (2)
2) Changeable Hawk-eagle (1)
3) Black-winged Kite (2)
4) Brahminy Kite (2)
5) Black Baza (3)
6) Booted Eagle (2)
7) Chinese Sparrowhawk (1)

Lr Halus
1) Changeable Hawk-eagle (1)
2) Oriental Honey-buzzard (1)
3) Chinese Sparrowhawk (1)
4) Brahminy Kite (>2)
5) White-Bellied Sea-eagle (2)

SLE
1) Oriental Honey-buzzard (1)
2) Brahminy Kite (1)

SBWR
1) White-Bellied Sea-eagle (4)
2) Accipiter sp. (1)

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

Sime Forest, SBWR, Singapore Quarry 24Oct09

From KH

Today, we started at Rifle Range. There was a 100-km trail marathon going on, so we were not optimistic about rare birds. Besides the usual birds, there was also 1 OHB, 1 Indian Cuckoo, AB and YR FCs, 3 Blue-crowned Hanging Parrots and 1 Short-tailed Babbler.

The most interesting find was, however, a Blue Malayan Coral Snake.

Next stop, SBWR. While having our favourite SBWR lunch, a SBKF flew pass the pond - a tick we missed last Sun... 1 Grey-tailed Tattler, 4 juv BBSP, at least 4 RN Stints, at least 1 GSP were still around besides the usual waders. While leaving, 2 Ospreys soared in - another tick we missed during the race.

Danny: More on the GT Tattler. Refer pic on the left, clearer why it is called grey-tailed. Pic on the right shows the Tattler on the tree due to rising tide - possibly reason why you don't find it at Main Hide or 1C.

Danny: How many Broad-billed Sandpipers in the attached pic?

Danny: Below is another pic showing the same waders but cropped to focus on the essentials. There are total 3 Broad-billed Sandpipers, 2 juvenile (right and centre) and one non-breeding adult (centre top) as in the attached pic. One of the feature separating the BB from the Curlew Sandpiper as pointed out to me by JS but not mention in text in any reference books (note have 2 only) is color of the legs - Curlew Sandpiper has black legs but BB has grey greenish or light yellow legs (sometimes become black due to habitat). Size wise, Curlew Sandpiper is slightly bigger than LSP (usually black legs as in pic for comparison). The split supercilium of the adult bird is visible and the relatively straight bill (not sharp but apparent in the 1st pic). Based on the 4 features mentioned, think it is an adult BB.

Besides birds, there were also these mudskippers. The Giant Mudskipper (left) is very common at SBWR, while the Yellow-spotted Mudskipper (right) is less commonly seen. The Giant Mudskipper is the largest of the mudskippers, while the Yellow-spotted Mudskipper is medium-sized.

Finally, at Sg Quarry, no needletail, no fork-tailed swift, but it was nice to see these:
1 Osprey (flight shot: Kok Hui. perched shot: Danny)

Danny: Notice the yellow eyes and the eye band did not touch the eye - feature of male. Visible is the bluish grey tinge on cere and feet.

1 CHE (dark morph)

4 WBSE (1 juv, 2 subadults, 1 adult)
1 Black-capped KF and 1 Common KF
3 species of swallows
1 Straw-headed Bulbul
>6 Little Grebes

SBWR 23Oct09

From GC

This morning it was low tide at SBWR and pretty quiet. Good numbers of Mongolian Plovers at Hide 1C but not a lot else.

Hide 1D and 2B were really dry.

Hide 2D was also very quiet, only had some redshanks closeby to keep me company. After a while, a Ruddy Turnstone turned up. Hide 2D is quite a walk but is one of the better places to see the Ruddy Turnstone.

I was occupied with the turnstone for quite a while and then when i looked up, the Grey-tailed Tattler was just a few metres away from the turnstone! It's really like a giant common sandpiper, complete with tail bobbing!