Singapore Strait 15Oct11

From Con

http://confoley.com/pelagic-outing-october-2011

From Colin

Although it was quieter than September and we didn't get quite so far out we recorded the following:

Aleutian Tern – min. 7 (all winter plumage)
Swinhoe’s Storm Petrel - min. 9 (no noticeable movement, mostly disturbed off the sea in pairs)
Bridled Tern - 73 all moving east
Crested (Swift) Tern – min. 44, with a noticeable movement to the east
Lesser Crested Tern - 6
Little Tern – 1
Long-tailed Jaeger (Skua) – 2 ( harassing the terns off the north eastern end of Batam)

Finally we also returned via the Grey Heron colony at Pulau Bukom, where there were about 16 active nests and a nearby white phased Reef Egret, plus a Great-billed Heron on Pulau Jong on the way past.

Route is at the below link.

Singapore Strait 20Aug11

From Colin

The NParks supported monthly Singapore Straits pelagic survey went out again on Saturday and this time we made it all the way to Horsburgh Lighthouse. Highlights were large numbers of Bridled Terns, an adult Long-tailed Jaeger, two different Lesser Frigatebirds and at least one 1st summer Aleutian Tern (which may be a previously undocumented plumage). Thanks as ever to Con Foley for his photos of all the best birds:

Long-tailed Jaeger:
http://www.pbase.com/con_foley/image/137396269
http://www.pbase.com/con_foley/image/137396272

Lesser Frigatebirds:
http://www.pbase.com/con_foley/frigatebird_my
http://www.pbase.com/con_foley/frigatebird_sg

Aleutian Tern:
http://www.pbase.com/con_foley/image/137420001
http://www.pbase.com/con_foley/image/137420002

Our route and the localities of the above are posted on this map link.

In terms of the Bridled Terns there were 80-100 on and around the rocks and buildings of Horsburgh Lighthouse including many birds of the year indicating evidence of successful breeding. There was then a separate feeding flock of about 40 birds comprising largely of young individuals foraging on flotsam along with the Aleutian and 2-3 Common Terns about 18 km west of Horsburgh. In addition throughout the day there were large numbers of predominantly adult birds passing east through the Straits with a final count of 148 birds involved in this movement. We had a day total of six tern species, and that didn't include Lesser Crested!

From Con

http://confoley.com/pelagic-outing-august-2011

From JS

1st Lesser Frigatebird

2nd Lesser Frigatebird

Breeding Common Tern

Immature Bridled Tern

1st Aleutian Tern

2nd Aleutian Tern

From KH

Bridled Tern

Long-tailed Skua

Singapore Strait 16Apr11

From Con

Thanks all for another enjoyable outing and the continuing series of skuas :-)
I'm sure several folks got similar or better pictures, but here are a few to share in order of appearance ...

White-winged Tern

Indo-Pacific Bottlenose Dolphin

Arctic Skua
http://www.pbase.com/con_foley/image/133947190
http://www.pbase.com/con_foley/image/133947191

Where were those petrels :)

From Colin

Although we didn't record any phalaropes we did have another jaeger, this time a Parasitic. Google map.

Apart from that the day was surprisingly quiet with White-winged Terns being the most numerous with a total of 54, the only "crested-type" terns were two distant unidentified birds so most seem to have moved off, and there were also small numbers of returning Black-naped and Little Terns. The other highlight was a pod of five Bottle-nosed Dolphins, only the second record of cetaceans we've had in seven trips.

We've now had five jaeger records since October, and it seems what often happens is that they're sat on the sea unseen (somewhere east of Changi, south to northeastern Batam) and fly only to harass groups of terns when the terns are disturbed into the air, usually from one of the buoys. This time a large group of White-winged Terns were disturbed off a buoy by a White-bellied Sea-eagle bringing its catch to eat, this brought in the jaeger which then chose to harass the Sea-Eagle rather than the terns!

Birds that were noticeable by their absence were perhaps Bridled and Aleutian Terns, but also most interestingly Swinhoe's Storm-petrels. What little is known of the spring passage of Swinhoe's Storm-petrels seems to show that the previous records actually from the Straits have all been in May, so perhaps they all come through next month in a shorter period time than when they're around in the autumn?

From JS

Upper and under wing shots of the Arctic Skua.

WBSE with prey.

The skua in hot pursuit of WBSE with prey.

Unid bird

Singapore Strait 19Mar11

From Con

It was an enjoyable outing today, looks like we got back just in time with the subsequent rain.

Here are my shots of the Pomarine Skua.  I basically got just this view as the skua approached.  When it crossed to the other side of the boat the light was really bad and those shots I don't think add much.

From Danny

Attached are record shots from Jia Sheng taken just below eye level providing different perspective of the young Pomarine Skua. The 1st shot is a head-on view, showing the pale collar between the darker face and brownish breast-band. Refer the left underwing, the large white patch below primaries is separated to two uneven patches by barring.

The 2nd pic is the eye level back view of the uppertail, the colour contrast between the central stub/elongated tip and the rest of the uppertail. The moulting primaries and secondaries on the left upper wing maybe helpful to age the bird.

From Colin Poole

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF&msa=0&msid=204850501291240294288.00049ee833ad68a6a6846

Other than it was pretty quiet, small numbers of Crested, Lesser Crested (24) and Black-naped Terns, and a number of passage White-winged Terns (70+) now returning. Still no Aleutian Terns again.

Singapore Strait, Changi 15Jan11

From Con

Great to see another skua! The behavior is really interesting, this one was harassing a Lesser Crested Tern.

Here's a link to several more photos of yesterday's Arctic Skua.

From JS

What do you do when you are stalked or faced with a robber? Learn from the Lesser Crested Tern and shout your lungs out.

From KH

After their pelagic trip, I joined Danny and JS for the late afternoon session at Changi. But before that, I went to Halus and Pasir Ris Farmway 1. You can now freely enter Halus like good old days, as the guardhouse and gantry were removed. Nothing much here except for an immature male Oriental Honey-buzzard perched and an immature White-bellied Sea-eagle circling.

Immature male OHB ©Tan KH

Next, I moved on to Pasir Ris Farmway 1 to monitor the old CHE nest. No one on the nest, but saw a pale morph Changeable Hawk-eagle in flight.

While waiting for Danny and JS at Changi Beach, saw 2 adult Brahminy Kites in flight.

On the way to LP149, Danny and JS showed me the 2 Common Buzzards at LP165 and 190. Being the keymaster, I let Danny's car in and these were the raptors that we saw inside:

1) Black Baza 1
2) Japanese Sparrowhawk 1
3) Chinese Goshawk 2
4) CHE 1 juv pale
5) Brahimny Kite >2
6) Black-winged Kites >5

Besides the Jambu Fruit-dove, another surprise was a flock of 15 or so White-shouldered Starlings. We also flushed a couple of quails, one of which was a Barred Buttonquail due to the rufous underparts.

Male Jambu Fruit-dove ©Danny Lau

Singapore Strait 2Oct10

From Con

Here are some still photos from a very enjoyable, if rather hot day !

I dropped GPS pins for the Long-tailed Skua here and for the Aleutian Terns here.

The Bridled Terns & Swinhoe's Storm-petrels were in the same general area, which seemed to be the most birdy spot of the day right out in the shipping lanes !

I'm having some trouble distinguishing between the Long-tailed Skua and the Parasitic Skua (or Jaeger) ... however folks with a lot more experience than me think it's a Long-tailed Skua (non-breeding) and I see from David Bakewell's blog they turn up in Penang so it's possible.

Anyway, to answer your question. The most fruitful time of the trip was from about 8:30am to 12:30pm which is when we were in deep water.  I don't think it has very much to do with the time of day, it's where you are.  As soon as we entered the port waters of Singapore and anywhere around the Southern Islands we saw nothing but the usual suspects, Brahminy Kite, White-bellied Sea-eagle, Little Terns, Great billed Heron.