Wallace Education Centre, Henderson Waves, SBG 02Dec17

From KH

Con, Danny and I went Wallace Education Centre today. The star birds were all gone, but we did get an Oriental Whip Snake.

So we left for Henderson Waves after a while.

Adult Brahminy Kite

Crested Goshawks

Juvenile pale Changeable Hawk-eagle (lower left) in comparison with juvenile Oriental Honey-buzzard

Without much else going on, we decided to go learn something at the Learning Forest at the Botanic Gardens.

Adult pale Changeable Hawk-eagle

Male Red Junglefowl

Adult Yellow Bittern

Common Snakehead with its fries

Pasir Ris Park, Pulau Punggol 18Feb17

From KH

Danny and I started the day at Pasir Ris Park.

How many Black Bazas do you see?

This family of Red Junglefowl (or chicken?) was happily scratching the ground for food.

Female Brown-throated Sunbird busy nesting.

Guess love is in the season for this pair or Dollarbirds too.

Yellow-vented Bulbul just hanging out.

Lastly, the Batik Golden Web Spiders were having a great time too - the female busy as bees and the male sneaking in on his distracted mate.

Next stop was Pulau Punggol.

This juvenile Black-winged Kite looked ready to fledge soon.

This Plaintive Cuckoo was very vocal.

Finally, a cricket to round up the day.

NTL2, SBWR 26Sep09

From KH

We started the day at NTL2. Nothing spectacular, but it was nice to see a family of Slaty-breasted Rails (1 adult and 2 juveniles) along the path. Brown Shrikes were common. An Osprey perched on a tower. At the pond were 2 Purple Swamphens and 2 White-browed Crakes. We were looking out for terns and out of nowhere a group of people headed for the gate to the bund - they were Alan, Kenneth, Alfred and members of the public. NSS has a public tour today and we get to go onto the bund! A lucky day it was. We were able to get better views of the White-winged and Little Terns. There was also a Yellow Wagtail on the bund.

Before heading to SBWR, we dropped by NSRCC and sure enough there were about 20 Yellow Wagtails there. However, Little Ringed Plovers were nowhere to be seen.

At SBWR, the first birds of interest were a family of Chicken (1 female and 4 chicks) foraging in the undergrowth at the boardwalk from the carpark to the entrance! ©Tan KH

Wader-wise, besides the usual suspects, there were also 1 Asian Dowitcher, 3 Red-necked Stints and 1 Ruddy Turnstone.

Photos of Curlew Sandpipers, Lesser Sand-plovers and Pacific Golden-plovers ©Danny Lau

Pulau Ubin 14Feb09

From Con

A Great-billed Heron flew in to where Danny Lau, Jia Sheng and myself were viewing on Chek Jawa this morning around 9am. Shortly after landing, this large bird caught a fish, and remained in view for until we left 30 minutes later.

From Danny

Little Egret.

Great-billed Heron.

Female Red Junglefowl.

Just for record birds seen at Ubin East. No signs of Monarch, Whistler or M Blue Flycatcher.

1) AG Starlings
2) Purple-backed Starlings - flock of 20 +
3) PNG Pigeons
4) Abbott's Babbler - H
5) Striped Tit Babblers
6) Arctic Warblers
7) Ashy Tailorbird
8) Dark-necked Tailorbird
9) Rufous-tailed Tailorbird
10) Lesser Coucal
11) Tiger Shrike
12) Pied Fantails
13) Common Goldenbacks - 3
14) Olive-backed Sunbirds
15) Brown-throated Sunbirds
16) Purple-throated Sunbirds - more than 8 around flowering tree
17) CHE - adult pale morph - 2
18) WBSE - 2
19) Osprey - 1
20) Brown Hawk Owl - H
21) Red Junglefowls - 2F, 1M
22) Olive-winged Bulbuls - > 10
23) YV Bulbuls
24) Straw-headed Bulbuls > 2
25) BN Orioles
26) Common iora
27) Orange-bellied FP
28) Scarlet-backed FP
29) Javan Myna
30) Long-tailed Parakeets
31) Great Crested Terns - 5
32) Bar-tailed Godwits - 4
33) Whimbrels
34) Little Egrets - 2
35) PGP
36) Grey Plovers - > 20
37) Great-billed Heron
38) Grey Heron
39) House Crows
40) Pacific Swallows
41) Barn swallows
42) Oriental Magpie Robin
43) White-rumped Shama - H
44) GRT Drongo
45) Collared KF
46) White-throated KF
47) Stork-billed KF
48) Dollarbird
49) Banded WP - H
50) Asian Koel
51) Common Sandpiper
52) Asian Brown FC
53) Spotted Dove

Pulau Ubin, Changi 28Apr07

As Danny put it, "It was a marvellous weekend of local birding." As a change of style, I'll do a photographic write-up instead. Photos from Danny unless otherwise stated.

The cuckoo was little bronze, juvenile. The bronze-green coloration on the wings gave it away. We were hoping for a Horsfield's, but fat hope.

The junglefowls are probably feral birds, not true wild birds, because they continued to forage despite seeing us at a distance.

As for the buttonquails, initially we thought they were chicks as they were tagging along behind the chickens. Upon closer examination, the pair of 'chicks' turned out to be a pair of buttonquails! The female has a black throat.

I think the best time to catch the elusive mangrove pitta is probably early morning (earlier than 9am). After that, the chance diminished exponentially ;).

lucionensis should have grey cap, right? So this is probably the typical brown shrike we see so often (i.e. cristatus or confusus). Dunno what's the diff between the latters though.
cristatus: E Siberia to nw Mongolia; winters to India and Malay Pen.
confusus: Manchuria and Amurland; winters to Malay Pen. and Sumatra
superciliosus: S Sakhalin and Japan; winters to Sumatra and Lesser Sundas
lucionensis: Korea and e China; winters to Philippines, Borneo, Sulawesi

After these exciting birds at Ubin, Danny and I went to Turnhouse Road (at Changi) and saw OP hornbill, Tanimbar corellas, red-breasted parakeet, all nesting on the 2 tall trees. Thanks to the many tip-offs from Con! I took a shot of the male hornbill and the pair of corellas.

Danny:"How did the Parakeet brought a piece of rock/brick into the nest? If you get too close, it may drop onto you!!"

Also, we went to the black-naped terns' nesting rocks. With Danny's scope we could see the terns and chicks (and eggs!) from the Changi boardwalk. There were also 4 little terns (3 in breeding plumage) on one of the rocks offering clear comparison of size and plumage with the BN terns. There were also many AG starlings nesting in the pole-tips at the boardwalk. The nesting season is really fantastic isn't it?! :)

SBWR, Mandai, Hindhede, Poyan 13Jan07

From JS

Last Saturday was a wet one with slight showers at dawn which subsided to light drizzle till before lunch, at 3 pm. As a result, there was only Con, Kok Hui, my dad and me. We covered SBWR, Mandai mudflat, Hindhede and Poyan. In terms of diversity, it was mere satisfaction but talking about the species seen, well, it was a fruitful Saturday.

SBWR was typical, very few species of waders, e.g. redshank, greenshank, common sandpiper, etc. However, we managed to see a few great crested terns, "rare" greater coucal and the 4 common kingfishers.

Singapore Vinegar Crab ©Tan KH

Red Junglefowl ©Tan KH

2nd stop of the day was Mandai Mudflat, 2 ospreys and a little cormorant were seen, the usual resident birds. No terns or gulls.

After some miserable birding at the mangrove and mudflats, we decided to try the present favourite birding spot, Hindhede. Within an area of 10 m², we saw all the birds that made Hindhede rather popular, 2 orange-headed thrushes, 1 female Siberian blue robin and a hooded pitta. Finally, after >5 trips to Hindhede, I have managed to digiscope a snake and the orange-headed thrush on a tree! Sadly, no shot of his friend and the beautiful hooded pitta.

Banded Woodpecker ©Tan KH

Orange-headed Thrush ©Lau JS

White-bellied Rat Snake ©Lau JS

Dragging our feet away from Hindhede, we had our lunch and headed for Poyan. No Jerdon's Baza to add on to the list. The most interesting bird was a juvenile Indian cuckoo with some adult features.

Juvenile Indian Cuckoo ©Lau JS