Venus Drive 23-27Jul21

From Con and Danny

From Con on 23 Jul

The most interesting bird sighting for me today is the nesting Stork-billed Kingfisher high in a tree at Venus Loop. Nesting in a termite nest high in tree. Never knew Storky nests so high, and not in river bank but rather in termite nest!!

From Danny on 24 Jul

SBKF feeding chick around 12:20pm, according to 2 photographers on site, last feeding was around 10am. Food was a small fish.

From Con on 27 Jul

I went back today to the Storky nest at Venus Drive, still very active.

Venus Loop, Pulau Punggol, SBWR 07Sep13

From KH

Danny, JS and I started the day at Venus Loop for the specialties here - Blue-rumped Parrot and Glossy Swiftlet. No parrot was seen, but a pair of very vocal Abbott's Babblers put on a good show. The Glossy Swiftlet was indeed flying low. The challenge was to pick it out from the other swiftlets and swallows.

Next, we went to Pulau Punggol. No one else except Francis Yap here. The pond was full and glad to know the whistling ducks and grebes are doing well. Raptors present were a pair of Ospreys, a pale morph juvenile Changeable Hawk Eagle, some White-bellied Sea Eagles and Brahminy Kites. Otherwise, there were not many birds.

Finally, at SBWR, entrance was free, but the cafe was closed and Hide 1C was also closed for renovation. Looks like no nasi lemak this season! Fortunately, an uncommon wader - a Grey-tailed Tattler - made up for this short visit. Here's a moth thrown in for good measure.

Venus Loop 19May13

From Con

Unlike the bad luck of yesterday, where the Blue-rumped Parrot didn’t show up all day, I arrived at about 9:30 am and the pair were already there feeding high on the tallest of the star fruit trees. But very difficult to photograph.

About 30 minutes later the pair flew over to the the lower tree we all got some better shots.

The pair stayed on the lower tree for about 15 minutes and then flew off and many folks left satisfied.

Venus Loop, Sime Forest, Halus 18May13

From KH

Con, Danny and I headed to Venus Loop for the pair of Blue-rumped Parrots which have been found feeding on star fruits. We had a very vocal Abbott's Babbler. A Greater Coucal was heard calling. However, since no parrots showed up, Danny and I decided to take a long walk, through HSBC treetop walk to Jelutong Tower.

At Jelutong Tower, the usual forest birds were still around. On the way back to Venus Drive, a White-rumped Shama was singing its heart out, but not showing.

Juvenile Greater Racket-tailed Drongo with dark eyes and without rackets on the left; adult on the right showing red eyes, very worn tail end and one racket lost.

From Danny

Next drove to Pulau Punggol, on the bridge next to Seletar Airport, could spot the dusts churned up in the direction of the pond, sure enough on arrival, apparently, contractors hard at work, driving along could see many trees being cut down on right side of road towards Punggol Marina, not much trees left for next migratory season, sigh!

We ended up at Halus, surprisingly a lot of birds activities, from waxbills, tailorbirds, sunbirds, buttonquails, little terns (breeding plumage) and ten smooth otters fishing and feasting on plentiful supply of fish. The otters as a group had clever way of fishing, by crowding and forcing the fish to surface for easy catch, the entrapped fish practically jumped out and hit the otters guarding the surface, amazing!

Photos from KH

Smooth Otter family having a good time fishing.

Little Tern pair - the male (top) feeding the female.

Barred Buttonquail pair - female on the left.

Golden-bellied Gerygone - the smallest bird in Singapore. Crimson-rumped Waxbill - one of several African waxbills released.

Venus Dr, Neo Tiew, SBWR 07Nov09

From KH

This morning, Danny, Con and I went to Venus Drive to 'hunt' for the elusive Japanese Paradise Flycatcher. We did not get the target bird, but it was nice to see a Red-legged Crake, at least two Black-capped Kingfishers, an Indian Cuckoo and some common birds.

This female Indian Cuckoo sat quietly on a tree beside the Ranger Station.

Amongst the creepy-crawlies were these tiny termites and a 5-cm-long millipede.

These Saddle Barbs were common in the streams.

While we were leaving, a stunning male Crimson Sunbird came close for a photoshoot.

In the afternoon, Danny and I went to Sungei Buloh hoping for rare waders. On the way, we detoured to Kranji Resort. Here, A male Olive-backed Sunbird and Common House Geckos stayed for some close-ups.

En-route to NSRCC, Danny spotted a Black Baza. As we entered NSRCC, a flock of about 50 Yellow Wagtails flew passed.

A pair of White-breasted Waterhen and their single chick came to play with us for some minutes.

At Sungei Buloh carpark, a Banded Bullfrog was hopping on the road. Fortunately it got onto the grass patch before any hit-and-run could occur.

As we walked towards the main bridge, a lady was observing an Oriental Whip Snake.

At Hide 1C, there were lots of waders. As there was a good number of stints, Danny and I decided to hunt for our much desired Little Stint. Here's a digiscope photo from Danny. Is the stint right in the middle a Little Stint??

Most of the birds were at hide 1C:
1) Red-necked Stint 25
2) Broad-billed Sandpiper 2
3) Curlew Sandpiper 150
4) Common Sandpiper 3
5) Marsh Sandpiper 50
6) Grey-tailed Tattler 1
7) Ruddy Turnstone 1
8) Common Redshank 110
9) Common Greenshank 100
10) Whimbrel 100
11) Lesser Sand Plover 250
12) Greater Sand Plover 2
13) Pacific Golden Plover 50

Here's the lonely Ruddy Turnstone with two Common Redshanks. The turnstone has the Sungei Buloh flag on its right leg.

There are three species of Vinegar Crabs in Singapore. Here are the Violet Vinegar Crab (left) and the Pink-and-white-fingered Vinegar Crab (right).

Venus Dr, Pulau Punggol 23Feb08

From JS

Today, we went to Sime forest and P. Punggol. The weather was great; no rain from morning to afternoon. Also, the rain came a day earlier, encouraging some ground activity from an Abbott's babbler and the white-rumped shama. For the former, we had some good views but photography in the thickets proved too great a task for me.

The day started with the sighting of two common snipes in the open grass patch beside Venus Dr Carpark. We approach one bird to less than 5 m. Interestingly, it just go lower, trying to hide behind the very short grasses.

Common Snipe

In Sime forest, we did better than in Panti by getting 4 migrants, more than the 3 we got in Panti. The migrants we saw in Sime are Arctic warblers, an asian brown flycatcher, a wingbar-less female yellow-rumped flycatcher and an Oriental honey-buzzard.

At P. Punggol, we had several surprises. First, we saw no rare raptor. Second, a ruddy-breasted crake came so close to me that I could only photograph its head! Third, a pair of barred buttonquails foraging by the road.

Female Barred Buttonquail

Oriental Reed Warbler

Ruddy-breasted Crake

Zitting Cisticola

Sime Forest
1) Pink-necked Green-pigeon
2) Thick-billed Green-pigeon (2)
3) Emerald Dove (1)
4) Orange-bellied Flowerpecker
5) Olive-backed Sunbird
6) Crimson Sunbird (1)
7) Purple-throated Sunbird (2)
8) Javan Myna
9) Hill Myna
10) Asian Glossy Starling
11) Red-crowned Barbet (h)
12) Coppersmith Barbet (1)
13) Pacific Swallow
14) Swiftlet spp.
15) Dollarbird
16) Common Flameback (2)
17) Banded Woodpecker (2)
18) Abbott’s Babbler (1)
19) Chestnut-winged Babbler (h)
20) Striped Tit-babbler
21) Arctic Warbler
22) Common Iora (h)
23) Black-naped Oriole
24) Blue-winged Leafbird (2)
25) Oriental Honey-buzzard (1)
26) White-bellied Sea-eagle (h)
27) Brahminy Kite (1)
28) White-rumped Shama
29) Greater Racket-Tailed Drongo
30) Common Snipe (2)
31) Asian Brown Flycatcher (1)
32) Yellow-rumped Flycatcher (1 female)
33) Large-tailed Nightjar (h)
34) Collared Kingfisher
35) White-throated Kingfisher
36) Blue-crowned Hanging-parrot (3)
37) Long-tailed Parakeet
38) Asian Fairy-bluebird (2)
39) House Crow
40) Ashy Minivet (>5)
41) Olive-winged Bulbul
42) Cream-vented Bulbul
43) Yellow-vented Bulbul
44) Common Tailorbird (h)
45) Dark-necked Tailorbird (h)
46) Rufous-tailed Tailorbird (h)

Pulau Punggol
47) Barred Buttonquail (2)
48) Ruddy-breasted Crake (>5)
49) White-breasted Waterhen (2)
50) Osprey (1)
51) Black-winged Kite (1)
52) Black Baza (3)
53) Common Kingfisher (1)
54) Common Sandpiper (2)
55) Grey Heron (>3)
56) Little Egret
57) Oriental Reed Warbler (>4)
58) Zitting Cisticola
59) Paddyfield Pipit
60) Yellow-bellied Prinia (h)
61) Spotted Dove
62) Zebra Dove
63) Blue-tailed Bee-eater
64) Black-headed Munia (2)
65) Scaly-breasted Munia
66) Baya Weaver
67) Yellow-fronted Canary
68) Asian Koel
69) Lesser Coucal (1)
70) Brown Shrike
71) Oriental Magpie-robin (h)

Venus Drive, Mousedeer Trail. Pasir Ris Farmway 29Sep07

Venus Drive, Mousedeer Trail

Yamane was back in Singapore. Danny brought him to Venus Drive. Here's his report:

Welcome back to equatorial birding, too bad you don't have time for more. Not many migrants at Venus Drive short loop, only forest wagtail and tiger shrike. After I left your hotel, I went to Mousedeer Trail to look for flycatcher. It was very quiet for the 1st 35 minutes, no call except for a RTD. Just when I was about to leave for my car, the bird wave started with a male plain-throated sunbird, followed by crimson, striped tit babblers, orange-bellied flowerpeckers and then the female yellow rumped flycatcher turned up before being harried away by the flowerpecker. Another early migrant was an Artic warbler.

Before I left at 12 noon a troop of banded leaf monkeys came along and I was glad to spot a baby in the arm of its mother. Behind the troop was a female Asian fairy bluebird feeding on insects harassed by the swinging monkeys.

Venus drive (short loop left of wooded bridge)
1) dollarbird
2) GRTD
3) koel
4) common tailorbird
5) dark-necked tailorbird
6) yellow-vented bulbuls
7) striped tit babblers
8) long-tailed parakeets
9) black-naped oriole
10) straw-headed bulbul (H)
11) white-rumped shama (H)
12) AG starlings
13) Eurasian tree sparrows
14) common iora
15) forest wagtail
16) tiger shrike
17) house crow
18) myna
19) banded woodpecker (H)

Mousedeer trail (11am to 12noon)
20) brown-throated sunbirds
21) crimson sunbirds
22) orange-bellied flowerpeckers
23) female yellow-rumped flycatcher
24) Arctic warbler
25) cream-vented bulbul
26) pink-necked pigeons
27) female Asian fairy bluebird
28) olive-backed sunbirds
29) changeable hawk eagle
30) chestnut-winged babbler (H)

Pasir Ris Farmway

Last weekend after chauffeur duty to Changi Airport, headed to Pasir Ris Farmway with wife. Visited the various fish farms and rekindled my passion for the non-avians, more specifically the fishes. This place is great to see all types of fish, from freshwater to marine, from the largest to some of the smallest. These are some of the fishes that I managed to name:

Arapaima (agreeably the largest freshwater fish!)
Arawana
Garfish (huge!)
Koi & Goldfish
Oscar
Gourami (including giant gourami)
Flowerhorn cichlid (the out-dated 'luo-han')
Various catfish species (e.g. the huge red-tailed, armoured, etc)
Fighting fish (lots of them, ranging from a few bucks to more than a hundred!)
Black-tipped reef shark! (small one though)
Bullhead shark (similar to horn shark or Port Jackson shark)
stingray (including blue-spotted stingray)
Pufferfish
Triggerfish
Clownfish
Surgeonfish
Trunkfish
Cleaner wrasse
Angelfish & Butterflyfish
Pipefish
Tang (blue, yellow)
Ribbon eel
Frogfish (who keeps this ugly fish anyway!?)
Lionfish
Gobies

Also present was an hugh alligator snapping turtle, as well as some geese and chicken.

At the end of the Farmway is a trail into Loyang. There's a gantry that prevents cars from entering but ok to enter by foot. Didn't have a chance to go far, but heard a changeable hawk eagle.

Moving on to Halus, realized that there was a cycling event going on for both days of the weekend, so did not manage to visit the grebes.

Venus Dr, Changi, Hindhede 10Feb07

From JS

We went to Venus Drive today for Robert's final bird outing before he leaves for the Middle-east.

Despite the nearby disturbance from groups of students, we were still able to spot a pair of short-tailed babblers, looks like the disturbance wasn't so disturbing after all. The dip was we failed to reach Jelutong tower, no regrets though. The forest was packed!

After looking through Craig Robson's Guidebook, I can conclude that there is 1 Asian house martin flying around the large fig tree. At that point of time, I have id the swallow-like bird as a Pacific swallow. However, no swallows have such a distinct white rump and the lack of colored throat. Compared with the nearby swiftlets, that lone martin had a notable broader tail and wing.

Tiger Shrike ©Lau JS

Back to the trip report, Robert left us at Venus Drive carpark and we went on to Changi Cove. Nothing special except a very dry grassland.

Kok Hui and Con bid farewell with my dad and I after lunch. We carried on birding at Hindhede. Crakes and thrushes was a common sight. There was simply nobody in the afternoon, so deserted until the thrushes fed on the pavement with the crakes. Never had such good view of them!

From Danny

After stingless bee hive, head straight just before the sandpit, to your left. Look thru' opening on ground. The large-tailed nightjar was spotted on the ground around 4 pm sunning itself thru' an opening where lights flow thru'. JS was about to take a 2nd shot when it wobbled up & disappeared into hiding, likely too hot. Around 5.30 pm it re-appeared at exactly the same spot!

Large-tailed Nightjar ©Lau JS

It's amazing the whole afternoon there was no birders except Sree who dropped in at 5 pm. The whole Hindhede only two of us with 3 OHTs, 3 RLCrakes, 2 straw-headed bulbuls, 1 WRShama but no pitta. We got very close to the OHTs and the RLCrakes, sometimes only about 6' away. At about 7.15 to 7.30 pm the 3 crakes promptly went down to the canal (where we found the rat snake) for their evening showers similar to SBG.

gibsonhilli. Prominent white-tipped median coverts and two black ear covert bars ©Lau JS

gibsonhilli's brush with death (monitor lizard in background) ©Lau JS

innotata. Lacks prominent white-tipped median coverts and two black ear covert bars ©Lau JS

More photos from Con

Left: Female gibsonhilli. Right: Male innotata. gibsonhilli has white-tipped median coverts and two black ear covert bars. Female has olive-grey upperparts, while male is bluish-grey. Also female is duller orange than male. Juvenile has rufous primary tips. ©Con Foley

There are 11 subspecies of orange-headed thrush! However, it is possible to identify the subspecies based on distribution. Only innotata and gibsonhilli are likely to winter in Singapore.

Indian subcontinent
citrina: W Pakistan to n Myanmar; winters to Sri Lanka
cyanota: Peninsular India (north to Gujarat and Andhra)

China & Indochina
melli: SE China (Fujian and n Guangdong)
courtoisi: E China (Anhui Province)
aurimacula: S Vietnam and Hainan

Malay Peninsula
innotata: S Myanmar to s China and Indochina; winters to Malaysia
gibsonhilli: Central Malay Peninsula (s Myanmar to s Thailand)

Islands
andamanensis: Andamen Islands
albogularis: Nicobar Islands
aurata: Mountains of n Borneo
rubecula: Java

Venus Drive 23Jul06

Attendees: Danny and JS

From Danny

Typical overcast evening, managed to take a few id pics of the Banded Bay Cuckoo & a poor pic of the Short-tailed Babbler at the drain off Rangers' office.

Banded Bay Cuckoo

Artistic shot of Short-tailed Babbler

However, the hi-point of the short trip was not a bird but a pair of Colugoes - mother & child.

Venus Drive 05-06Jul06

5Jul Wed

Banded woodpecker nesting ©Tan KH

Con, Danny & KH went on 6Jul Thu

First interesting bird was a Rufous Woodpecker. Saw 3 babblers in the drain. Further down, after the landslide region, was a leafbird with some Orange-bellied Flowerpeckers high up on the tree, backlit. Finally, all the Large-tailed Nightjars were calling when we were leaving.

Venus Drive 05Nov05

Danny, JS, Soo Yen and I started from Venus Drive and then through SICC to Terentang Trail. "We're here for the game!" said Danny. The most interesting birds were three Banded Woodpeckers just above us bickering away as well as a pair of Chestnut-bellied Malkohas at Jelutong Tower. Only 20 birds for the morning.

Banded Woodpecker