Singapore Strait 03May14

Attendees: Con, Danny, JS, KH, Colin, Geoffrey, Albert, Francis, Richard

This is our first pelagic trip this year. We had the usual seabirds:

1. Bridled Tern 3
2. Lesser Crested Tern 1
3. Little Tern 3
4. Black-naped Tern 1
5. Swinhoe's Storm-petrel 1 group of 4 sitting on the sea

Today, we did something different, we disembarked on Pulau Hantu. Sure enough, a pair of Mangrove Whistlers were at the "summit".

So was a Great-billed Heron at the breakwater.

Next, we headed to Pulau Salu for the Pied Imperial Pigeons. Sure enough, three were seen fluttering at the tree top.

Jia Sheng saw a sea turtle, as well as some Ocean Sunfish!

Sungei Pandan, Poyan 15Jul12

From Danny

Went to Sungei Pandan late morning, as it was rising tide went to the National Rowing Center side. No Horsfield's Bronze-cuckoo but clearly heard a Mangrove Whistler, try to whistle and play-back but bird refuse to show. Tide rising, didn't bash in.

1) Mangrove Whistler - 1 heard
2) Pied Imperial-pigeon - 1
3) WBSE - 1
4) Brahminy Kite - 1
5) Common Iora >3
6) Large-billed Crow - 2
7) House Crow > 3
8) Ashy Tailorbird - 1, heard many
9) Common Tailorbird - 1
10) Black-naped Oriole >3
11) PNGP >3
12) Spotted Dove >3
13) Little Bronze-cuckoo - heard
14) OB Sunbird >3
15) Brown throated sunbird - 1
16) Asian Glossy Starling >3
17) Pacific Swallow > 3
18) Zebra Dove - 1
19) Collared Kingfisher - 3
20) Javan Myna >3

I went down to Poyan around 5.30 pm via the NSA gate, no Blue-winged Pitta calls, tried a few rounds of play-back, no response. Went over to the grassland on the side of NSA range to check out any Horsfield's Bronze-cuckoo but no success, only bird of interest was a House Swift other than the usual birds. Around 6.30 pm as I was walking out, the Pitta started calling though a little distance away. Tried two rounds of play-back, the responses remain far off. Decided to head home. While I was driving out, the calls became nearer, back tracked and locate calls from the wooded area (Muslim cemetery) where we seen the BF Owls.

Changi, Halus, Pulau Punggol, Seletar Dam 10Dec11

From JS

Changi Cove
1) Black Baza (>15 - Although we had numerous separate sightings of small parties throughout the accessible cove, as usual, I had estimated the total number based on the largest kettle of approx. 15++ birds. There could be more in the kettle if I am as good in counting dots as counting money.)
2) Jerdon's Baza (>6. The group was skittishly flying away from us among the canopies. We used the road as a reference point, only counting the birds that flew across it from the side that we are on, so there could only be more JB than lesser.)
3) Common Buzzard (2, including the usual winter sentries at the airport.)
4) Oriental Honey-buzzard (4. Interestingly, all the OHBs that we saw were juveniles.)
5) Grey-headed Fish-eEagle (1, including the 2nd/3rd winter individual)
6) White-bellied Sea-eagle (2)
7) Changeable Hawk-eagle (3)
8) Black-winged Kite (3)
9) Brahminy Kite (4)
10) Chinese Sparrowhawk (2, including 1 territorial adult female and 1 immature.)
11) Japanese Sparrowhawk (1, including an immature female)
12) Accipiter sp. (2)

Lor Halus
1) Oriental Honey-buzzard (4 - Still no adult)
2) Changeable Hawk-eagle (1 pale morph adult)
3) Brahminy Kite (2)
4) Osprey (1)
5) Jerdon's Baza (1, including an individual that was seen flying towards Coney Island. It had yellow iris, black barred underwing tip and orange-barred flanks.)
6) Black Baza (7)
7) Japanese Sparrowhawk (1, including an immature)
8) Accipiter sp. (2)

Pulau Punggol
1) Booted Eagle (2. There may be an additional bird, pending review of photos after Kok Hui had spotted 2 of them tussling in mid-air as they flew across the bridge towards the coast, we walked down the road towards the grassland and saw a booted eagle thermalling above the clouds. Conservatively, we left the count at 2.)
2) Peregrine Falcon (1. However, there may be an additional bird, pending review of photos.)
3) Accipiter sp. (5, including 2 calling birds which sounded like the Chinese Sparrowhawk that we heard in the morning while chasing(?) a roosting flock of black bazas.)
4) Osprey (1)
5) Brahminy Kite (4)
6) White-bellied Sea-eagle (4)
7) Black-winged Kite (2)

In short, we had seen a total of 14 species of raptors within a day - which is increasingly becoming easier as we slowly learn more about the passage of previously "rare" raptors like the Jerdon's Baza and Booted Eagle.

From Con

Kok Hui was the first to spot a group of Jerdon’s Bazas, there were about seven birds, we stayed with them for an exciting five minutes or so before the group moved off and we couldn’t find them the rest of the morning. First three images.

We stopped twice at the location for the Mangrove Whistler seen on October 29th. And on the second stop around 10 am, sure enough we all got our bins on the bird. No one took pictures this time. Seems there is just one bird.

From KH

Time: 5:30 - 6:30 pm
Tide: Low, rising
Site: Seletar Dam

1) Common Sandpiper 10
2) Common Greenshank 9
3) Great Egret 1
4) Intermediate Egret 2
5) Little Egret 12
6) Grey Heron 8
7) Little Heron 3
8) WBSE 1
9) Brahminy Kite 3

Changi, Bidadari, Pulau Punggol 29Oct11

From Con

I think the bird of the day for our outing was a Mangrove Whistler seen at Changi Reclaimed Land, a lifer for a couple of us.

We stopped along one of the regular tracks on the West side of Changi Airbase East because we noticed some bird activity, and were hoping for Eastern Crowned Warbler or some other goodies.  I first noticed a bit of an odd “Asian Brown Flycatcher”, but Kok Hui quickly realized it was a Mangrove Whistler.  We observed the bird from at least 10:15am until 10:40am.  Occasionally it would give us quite good views, although all were back light as the sun was generally behind the bird.  In general the weather was fine and getting hot, although there had been a passing shower a bit earlier.

Here are some shots of the Mangrove Whistler, the first four are from today, the last two are from Hantu several years ago.

The bird responded to playback and came forward.  It also sang in response to playback and it’s song was a match with one of Sharringa’s recordings.

I see from Avifauna and Robson that although the core habitat is mangrove, it does occur in coastal areas and other disturbed areas.

From KH

We started off at Changi and then moved on to Bidadari and finally Pulau Punggol.

Raptors seen at Changi:
1) OHB 3
2) Peregrine Falcon 1
3) Accipiter 1
4) CHE 2 (1 dark, 1 pale)
5) BWK 2
6) WBSE 2
7) Brahminy Kite >5

Mangrove Whistler ©Lau JS

At Bidadari, we had a Jambu Fruit-dove, Crow-billed Drongo, Flycatcher (Yellow-rumped and Asian Brown), Asain Paradise-flycatcher, Arctic Warbler, Tiger Shrike, Oriental White-eyes, etc.

Jambu Fruit-dove ©Danny Lau

Danny and I went on to Pulau Punggol and saw these raptors:

1) CHE 2 (1 dark, 1 pale)
2) Osprey 1
3) WBSE 3
4) Brahminy Kite 2