Whimbrels flying from Eagle Point towards Sungei Danga/Sungei Sekudai - 12Nov2016

A flock of about 35 whimbrels flying off from Eagle Point (Singapore) across the Straits of Johor (Malaysia) towards Sungei Danga/Sekudai in Johor. The incoming tide chased the birds off for the evening. Eagle Point (part of the Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve) is at the western edge of the Mandai mudflats which is a rich coastal mudflat area which the shorebirds feed at during the lower tides. As the incoming tide rises, the shorebirds fly off to roost at either the Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve nearby or across the Straits of Johor towards the Sungei Danga/Sekudai mangroves. Time : 6.36pm Tide : 0.9m @ 3.30pm, 2.9m @ 9.30pm The clip was shot at 96fps and played back at 24fps. Certain sections were sped up (especially where the focus starts to suffer and the birds are far away enough to start merging into the background.)

Whimbrel Flock flying towards Sungei Sekudai - 12Nov2016 from SgBeachBum on Vimeo.

The red lines show some of the routes taken by various groups of shorebirds to and from the Mandai mudflats from roosting sites at SBWR and the Danga-Sekudai rivers. There may be other roosting areas (eg. Sungai Melayu) closeby too. (Music : Symphony No. 4 in B-Flat Major : Op 60 IV. : Allegro ma non troppo)

harrier @ kranji marshes - 19Nov2016

At first, I thought a brahminy kite was flying low over the marsh but soon realised that this was not a kite but a harrier.... likely a juvenile eastern marsh harrier. The head of the harrier was very visibly pale and the rest of its plumage was in much darker tones of brown with a distinct white rump.

It made several passes over the marsh before flying off towards the north.


harrier @ kranji marshes 19Nov2016 from SgBeachBum on Vimeo.

Juvenile White-Bellied Sea Eagle Fishing @ SBWR Eagle Point - 2Oct2016

This juvenile WBSE appeared out of nowhere in the sky above at Eagle Point, SBWR and quickly drew the keen attention of the few visitors at the lookout point. It swooped down towards a dead fish (probably a milkfish which is one of the types of fish farmed at the nearby offshore 'fishfarms') floating at the water surface which it skilfully picked up with incredible precision. It soon flew off into the fringing coastal mangrove forest. What a wonderful sight!

(no audio - footage shot at 120fps)


Juvenile White-Bellied Sea Eagle Fishing @ SBWR Eagle Point - 2 Oct 2016 from SgBeachBum on Vimeo.

pacific reef egrets @ cyrene reef - 09Feb2016

Cyrene Reef never ceases to amaze. Made up of three submerged reefs, one can only walk on it during particularly low tides. It lies surrounded by shipping lanes in and out of the port at the south-western edge of Singapore. Despite the busy shipping and petrochemical plants surrounding it, Cyrene Reef hosts an amazing range of marine life. With the low tides, the exposed reef and its temporary shallow pools become a feeding ground for wading and shorebirds.

These reef egrets were already on the exposed bit of the reef before we got off our boat and into the dinghy. Both the white and dark morph reef egrets were present and busy darting about looking for food. The dark morphs had smoky dark grey feathers, a white throat and a yellow bill. Both morphs were actively hunting for food in the shallows and they were very good at finding food ranging from tiny crabs, prawns and even fish.

white morph pacific reef egret @ cyrene reef - 09Feb2016 from SgBeachBum on Vimeo.

One peculiar thing both morphs did was to partially open up their wings as if to air their underwings as they were approaching their prey. Perhaps this helped to create a shadow to encourage prey to come out from hiding. Or maybe it helps with maintaining balance during active pursuits.

dark morph pacific reef egret @ cyrene reef - 09Feb2016 from SgBeachBum on Vimeo.

There were a total of 9 egrets seen that afternoon and 3 of them were dark morphs. The remaining 6 were white morphs.

Some links about the pacific reef egret :-
http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/species/factsheet/22696980
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_reef_heron
http://www.arkive.org/pacific-reef-egret/egretta-sacra/
http://www.oiseaux-birds.com/card-pacific-eastern-reef-egret.html
http://www.besgroup.org/2011/08/17/pacific-reef-egrets-%E2%80%93-fishing-in-pulau-tioman-malaysia/
http://orientalbirdclub.org/chinese-egret/
http://npss.org.sg/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=855
http://www.ecologyasia.com/verts/birds/herons-small.htm

More about Cyrene Reef :
http://www.wildsingapore.com/places/cyrene.htm
http://lkcnhm.nus.edu.sg/dna/places/details/55
http://cyrenereef.blogspot.sg/
http://teamseagrass.blogspot.sg/search/label/cyrene#.VsCWNpN95E4

whimlews @ Semakau South - 08Feb2016

I was expecting to see some waders within the mangrove inlet at Semakau South but there was only 1 common redshank and 1 whimlew (that is what you get when you cannot tell a whimbrel from a eurasian or far eastern curlew). 

I had initially thought this was a curlew due to the length of its decurved bill. However, it has the distinctive dark crown stripes on top of its head which seems to be indicative of a whimbrel. There also seemed to be a dark eye stripe which whimbrels usually have.  

It was all alone within the mangrove inlet walking along the sandbank during the low tide. It soon got dive bombed by a collared kingfisher and it took off flying behind a group of mangrove trees but it soon reappeared to land further along the outgoing stream. I was thinking that it was possible that this was the same curlew i had seen a week earlier on 24Jan2016 at the Northern Semakau shore. (Now, I'm not sure whether that earlier ID was correct if this was indeed the same bird). The bird soon flew off and disappeared beyond the coastal forest.

lone 'whimlew' @ semakau south - 08Feb2016 from SgBeachBum on Vimeo.

I thought that it would be the last whimlew i would see that afternoon but i soon spotted two more out on the intertidal sandy mudflats. These two kept somewhat close to each other as they moved along the shallow pools looking for crabs and shrimp. So are these eurasian curlews or whimbrels?

a pair of 'whimlews' @ semakau south - 08Feb2016 from SgBeachBum on Vimeo.

Here are some links to help you sort out or confuse you further in the quest to tell the curlews apart from the whimbrels :-
Here are some weblinks which try to distinguish between the two birds :
http://www.planetofbirds.com/the-slender-billed-curlew-last-seen-in-the-previous-century
http://www.bto.org/about-birds/bird-id/bto-bird-id-curlew-and-whimbrel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vt8ZK8fI3W8
https://photographyandbirds.wordpress.com/identifying-waders/
http://hubpages.com/animals/whimbrelvscurlew
http://www.nemesisbird.com/birding/bird-sightings/whimbrel-and-long-billed-curlew-comparison-cibola-nwr-az/
http://singaporebirds.blogspot.sg/2012/06/sandpipers-and-allies.html
https://www.theguardian.com/science/punctuated-equilibrium/2011/sep/18/4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOXpHnZIq8o


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurasian_curlewhttp://www.oiseaux-birds.com/card-eurasian-curlew.htmlhttp://eol.org/pages/1049389/detailshttp://www.birdlife.org/datazone/species/factsheet/22693190http://www.birdfieldguide.co.uk/Curlew.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whimbrelhttp://www.oiseaux-birds.com/card-whimbrel.htmlhttp://www.birdlife.org/datazone/species/factsheet/22693178http://www.birdfieldguide.co.uk/Whimbrel.html

And a recent earlier clip showing a eurasian curlew amongst a bunch of whimbrels at the SBWR :

http://sgbeachbum.blogspot.sg/2015/09/eurasian-curlew-swallows-stone-sbwr.html

More about SBWR :
https://www.nparks.gov.sg/sbwr
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sungei_Buloh_Wetland_Reserve

And Pulau Semakau :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulau_Semakau
http://www.wildsingapore.com/places/semakau.htm

wintering grey plovers @ Semakau South - 08Feb2016

The receding afternoon tide exposed quite a fair bit of the long sandy Southern Intertidal mudflat shore at Pulau Semakau.   The resident grey herons were out at various puddles picking out small fish which were soon to be trapped as the water drained away from the intertidal zone.  

There were also four smaller birds walking about on the exposed sandy mudflats. These were a little difficult to identify as they did not fit within the list of usual resident birds. The birds were of the plover family and were light grey with a pale underbelly. They had longish legs and a distinct stocky bill.

They were obviously not one of the smaller plovers. When one of the birds took flight, the black ancillaries (the area below the wings closest to the body - the equivalent of our armpits) could be seen clearly. The bird also showed a white uppertail covert with some faint markings at the fringe. 

A check with some good friends confirmed that these were grey plovers which are winter visitors to Singapore and are seen on the quieter shores around mainland Singapore. 

wintering grey plovers @ semakau south - 08Feb2016 from SgBeachBum on Vimeo.

Find out more about the grey plovers :

http://www.rspb.org.uk/discoverandenjoynature/discoverandlearn/birdguide/name/g/greyplover/index.aspx

http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/species/factsheet/22693749

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grey_plover

http://www.bto.org/about-birds/bird-id/bto-bird-id-golden-grey-plovers

http://www.wildlifetrusts.org/species/grey-plover

http://nzbirdsonline.org.nz/species/grey-plover

http://www.xeno-canto.org/species/Pluvialis-squatarola
http://www.environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/sprat/public/publicspecies.pl?taxon_id=865#illustrations
http://www.birdfieldguide.co.uk/Grey_Plover.html

lone whimlew @ Semakau North - 24Jan2016

It was a very windy day and there were 4 grey herons, a great-billed heron, one common sandpiper, two white-bellied sea eagles and a brahminy kite at the shore at Pulau Semakau facing Pulau Bukom. However, there was also another visitor...with a long downward curled bill. This was too long for a whimbrel or was it not?

lone whimlew @ Pulau Semakau - 24Jan2016 from SgBeachBum on Vimeo.

This bird seemed to have a longer bill than what a whimbrel would have. However, this BTO clip mentions that the bill length itself is not a good feature to base an ID on as the 'bill length in both species varies with sex and age'. 

It also looked bigger than a whimbrel although it was difficult to give the bird a proper sense of scale as there were no other whimbrels (or other birds) near it on the shore. Some parts of the clip show it to have a rather long neck....longer than what i think a whimbrel would normally have. Its head however had the dark crown stripes which Whimbrels have on top of their heads and also a dark eye stripe. These are more indicative that the bird was a Whimbrel.

Sadly, i was not able to listen to the calls made by this bird as it was quiet during the period of observation.

I'll just call it a "whimlew" until i can get a confirmation from a more experienced birder.

Update 1 : the weight of initial opinion was that this bird is an eurasian curlew.  However, some others have commented that this was a whimbrel. 

Update 2 : after more consideration, due to the prescence of the dark crown stripes on its head, this bird should be a whimbrel.

Here are some weblinks which try to distinguish between the two birds :
http://www.planetofbirds.com/the-slender-billed-curlew-last-seen-in-the-previous-century
http://www.bto.org/about-birds/bird-id/bto-bird-id-curlew-and-whimbrel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vt8ZK8fI3W8
https://photographyandbirds.wordpress.com/identifying-waders/
http://hubpages.com/animals/whimbrelvscurlew
http://www.nemesisbird.com/birding/bird-sightings/whimbrel-and-long-billed-curlew-comparison-cibola-nwr-az/
http://singaporebirds.blogspot.sg/2012/06/sandpipers-and-allies.html
https://www.theguardian.com/science/punctuated-equilibrium/2011/sep/18/4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOXpHnZIq8o

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurasian_curlew
http://www.oiseaux-birds.com/card-eurasian-curlew.html
http://eol.org/pages/1049389/details
http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/species/factsheet/22693190
http://www.birdfieldguide.co.uk/Curlew.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whimbrel
http://www.oiseaux-birds.com/card-whimbrel.html
http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/species/factsheet/22693178
http://www.birdfieldguide.co.uk/Whimbrel.html

And a recent earlier clip showing a eurasian curlew amongst a bunch of whimbrels at the SBWR :

http://sgbeachbum.blogspot.sg/2015/09/eurasian-curlew-swallows-stone-sbwr.html

More about SBWR :
https://www.nparks.gov.sg/sbwr
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sungei_Buloh_Wetland_Reserve

And Pulau Semakau :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulau_Semakau
http://www.wildsingapore.com/places/semakau.htm

grey-headed fish eagles @ SBWR - 23Jan2016

The sight of a large raptor flying to rest in a nearby tree at the carpark of the Sungei Buloh Wetlands Extension was a pleasant surprise. But it was followed by another which came to rest very close to where the first one was perched.

The initial thought was that these were both the ubiquitous brahminy kites but a sneak of white showed at the tail and this piqued my interest more. Walking slowly towards the more visible bird, it was soon clear that it was a grey-headed fish eagle. The frontal lower legs of the other bird was also visible and it was then clear that both were adult grey-headed fish eagles.

Both stood firm despite the strong winds. Lets hope they are able to find a suitable tree nearby to nest in. This is a cause for concern as there has been much clearing of the tall albizias in adjacent areas.


grey-headed fish eagles @ SBWR - 23Jan2016 from SgBeachBum on Vimeo.

red wattled lapwings & chick @ singapore - 03Jan2016

The unusual white patch on the bird attracted another look and a stop confirmed that the bird was a red-wattled lapwing. It was in a field near a busy main road. There was a pair of adult red-wattled lapwings walking about looking for insects amongst the short grass. Some distance away, there was another smaller head bobbing amongst the grass. This was a very young red-wattled lapwing with a distinctive yellow bill with a black terminal spot at the end of its bill. This was quite likely a recently addition to the planet.

During the 45 minutes of observation, the chick did not fly or stretch its wings but ran amongst the grass looking for food independently of the adults. It was the adults who took flight when a person walked across the field. The adults kept repeating their shrill alarm call at first flying away from the direction of the chick to the opposite sides of the field. The chick continued walking about looking for food ignoring the alarm calls. Later, as the man headed closer to the direction of the chick whilst crossing the field, the adults flew towards the general direction of the chick and repeatedly flying low and repeating their alarm call. The chick disappeared into the grass and was not seen again.

I'm guessing that there may have been a nest in the field and the chick was hatched not long ago.

red wattled lapwings & chick @ singapore - 03Jan2016 from SgBeachBum on Vimeo.

macaque family chasing python @ SBWR-Dec2015

I had seen the macaque family a little earlier in the afternoon complete with a new addition a baby male macaque which was likely only about 3 to 4 weeks old (my guess).  The four (papa, mama, 2 year old and baby) had moved across the main bridge towards the visitor centre about an hour earlier and were foraging in the trees nearby.

All was quiet until a sudden explosion of chatter and the very visible movement of the branches and leaves as the macaques jumped amongst the branches down towards the exposed mangrove mud below the trees.

The family soon showed themselves chasing something on the mud. The snake made headed straight for the water. It looked like a reticulated python about a metre long and it was sliding for its dear life away from the macaques. It managed to get into the water disappearing below the water surface not to be seen again.

Papa must have taken a very aggressive stance against the python due to the prescence of the baby and especially since the tree was amongst its most frequented spots near the main bridge.