The newly exposed mudflats showed a surprising 5 Terek Sandpipers together with some Lesser sandplovers, 3 Common Greenshanks and a lone Whimbrel. (There could have been a sixth Terek as the few were running about quite a bit over the mudflat and I was a long way off).
These birds are not normally resident in Singapore....so what are they doing here?
Find out about the East Asian Flyway :
http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/userfiles/file/sowb/flyways/8_EastAsia_Australasia_NEW.pdf
5 Terek Sandpipers @ Seletar - 24Sep2015 from SgBeachBum on Vimeo.
Find out more about the Terek Sandpiper :
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terek_sandpiper
birdlife.org/datazone/speciesfactsheet.php?id=3026
environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/sprat/public/publicspecies.pl?taxon_id=59300
audubon.org/field-guide/bird/terek-sandpiper
nzbirdsonline.org.nz/species/terek-sandpiper
birdguides.com/species/species.asp?sp=057025
Find out more about the Common Greenshank :
http://www.naturia.per.sg/buloh/birds/Tringa_nebularia.htm
http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/species/factsheet/22693220
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_greenshank
https://www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/common-greenshank
Find out more about the Lesser Sandplover (a.k.a. Mongolian Plover) :
http://www.naturia.per.sg/buloh/birds/Charadrius_mongolus.htm
http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/speciesfactsheet.php?id=3138
http://www.arkive.org/lesser-sand-plover/charadrius-mongolus/
http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/22693855/0
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lesser_sand_plover
http://www.wetlands.org/Portals/0/publications/Book/lesser%20sand%20plover.pdf
http://birdingfrontiers.com/2013/07/29/mongolian-lesser-and-greater-sand-plovers/
Find out more about the Whimbrel :
http://www.naturia.per.sg/buloh/birds/Numenius_phaeopus.htm
http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/species/factsheet/22693178
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whimbrel
http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Whimbrel/id
http://www.rspb.org.uk/discoverandenjoynature/discoverandlearn/birdguide/name/w/whimbrel/
https://www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/whimbrel
Showing posts with label seletar. Show all posts
Showing posts with label seletar. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 6, 2015
Monday, January 28, 2013
kingfishers & herons @ seletar - Jan2013
How many birds can you spot in this clip?
There are a total of four. Two kingfishers and two herons.
From left to right, there is the White-Throated Kingfisher, then the Little Heron(?), followed by a Common Kingfisher and lastly, the Pond Heron in the shadows below the fallen branch. Fabulous!
Find out more about the birds here :
Sunday, January 27, 2013
egret v egret @ seletar - Jan 2013
Whilst the openbills were taking centrestage, two egrets (probably Cattle Egrets) decided to fight it out. Both had been provoking each other for about half a minute before the recording started. They had been flapping their wings at each other lifting off a couple of feet as if they were daring the other to get physical.
Eventually, things got heated and the birds went at each other with one bird managing to step on the other and giving the fallen bird a good strong peck at the back of its head. That was a convincing enough show of strength and the loser flew off in a hurry. The victor stood still for a bit and then itself flew off to a spot about 25 metres away.
read more about the cattle egret :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cattle_Egret
http://www.besgroup.org/2011/08/15/cattle-egrets-feeding-at-rubbish-dump/
http://www.besgroup.org/2007/05/14/cattle-egret-a-potential-urban-scavenger/
http://www.besgroup.org/2007/03/30/cattle-egrets-have-colonised-the-world/
http://www.ecologyasia.com/verts/birds/herons-small.htm
Saturday, January 26, 2013
asian open-billed stork I @ seletar - Jan2013
The Asian Openbill or Asian Open-Billed Stork made a rare appearance in Singapore last week. There are 6 birds currently in the Seletar area hanging about a tiny patch of soft marshy ground.
I got to the site at 7.15am in time to see one bird fly in to roost at a tree across the marshy field. I was soon joined by a slew of cars (and 2 motorbikes), tripods and mega-glass. The 6 birds flew down to the marshy patch one-by-one. Pretty soon, there was a firing line focused on the birds watching their every more as the birds went about looking for breakfast. The birds soon got spooked by a passing Brahminy Kite and flew off to the safety of the trees for about 20 minutes before returning to resume their hunt for breakfast.
Here is a clip of the birds going about breakfast.
The early bird gets the ... snail. They seem to like Apple Snails (Link1, Link2) which are seen to be an invasive pest organism in many countries.
More about this rare visitor here :
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
daurian starlings @ seletar link mangroves - 16Sep2012
A friend had posted on facebook that there were a whole lot of starlings at Chong Pang just a few days ago. I had not expected to see a horde of starlings at the Seletar Link mangroves seeing that it was a mangrove area and thinking that the starlings would prefer trees in the heart of a bustling city neighbourhood.
I was surprised to see a swarm of birds flying in the skies over Seletar. it was only when I got directly below the roosting trees that I could see exactly what they were when they took their turn to set foot on the muddy ground.
This exercise to get close to where the birds were resting saw some gymnastics over pudgy mangrove mud. The ground was however heavily littered with aged plastic bags and this provided sufficient footing without that 'sinking feeling'.
The birds were not concerned with me being below the clump of trees. I guess the 'safety in numbers' psychology was at work.
Waves of birds flew to a tree close to the edge of the mangrove and then proceeded down to the mangrove mud. Strangely, the water the birds seemed to be drinking and getting themselves wet in was actually seawater. It was a low tide and therefore the little mangrove puddles were filled up residual salt water which got left behind when the tide receded. The green on the ground was algae. I wondered how the birds could tolerate the salty water.
There was a mix of both Daurian Starlings (aka Purple-backed Starlings) and Asian Glossy Starlings (adults and juveniles) in the swarm...freely mingling about with no perceptible indifferences.
Time : between 6 to 7 pm
Date : 16 September 2012
Further away from the mangrove, i saw two dead birds about two meters apart. Both were easily identified as adult Asian Glossy Starlings due to their red eyes and glossy green plumage. Was this a mere coincidence ... or were they being poisoned? Starlings are unfortunately sometimes seen as pests by many people who live or work too close to the roost trees. The Seletar Link mangrove is just beside the Seletar airfield. The birds do seem to be well able to steer clear of obstacles and it seems unlikely that they would pose any danger to the aircraft in the area.
The Seletar Link mangrove has its own set of problems as the resident jetty operators (squatters until mid-2012) have had no trash disposal service nor hygenic sanitary arrangements. (They do not have an address). Human waste has been (and will probably continue to be) disposed off via the direct 'gravity-assisted' plomp method straight into the mangrove from the outhouses strategically lining the jetties. Other unwanted trash (plastic etc) is simply burnt openly although open burning was outlawed in Singapore many years ago. The resulting ash and bits are then dumped into the mangrove. When I first visited the mangrove about 3 years ago, there were giant mudskippers to be seen all over the mangrove at low tide. I did not see one this evening and I hope there is still a healthy population at the site.
Sad that this persists in 21st century Singapore.
It can take just a few hands to destroy a rare coastal habitat and some apathy on the part of lazy ostriches practising selective amnesia.
Find out more about these swarming starlings :
Sunday, February 26, 2012
spotted dove @ seletar link mangrove
Was walking out or the Seletar Link mangrove settlement when 'kuh-kruuu' vocalisation of a bird caught my attention. It was sheltering deep within the foliage of a sea hibiscus tree. I guess it was preparing to settle down for the evening. It had a beautiful white-spotted black neck collar covering the sides and rear of its neck. I guess that is where it gets its name from.
Read more about the Spotted Dove here :
red-breasted parakeet @ seletar link mangrove
This bright green bird caught my eye at the top of one of the mangrove trees. I think it was a Sonneratia Alba tree. The bird picked select leaves and chewed off the stems before discarding the leaves. The stems and the parts of the leaves near the stem seemed to the only part of the leaves the bird was interested in.
Time : about 6.40pm, 24th Feb 2012.
I initially thought this was a long-tailed parakeet but this bird had a bright reddish upper mandible and a slightly paler yellow/orange/cream lower mandible and it had a grey-blue crown and head instead of the more reddish cheek patch seen in the long-tailed parakeet. I've identified it as a male red-breasted parakeet although its lower mandible is not black but seems to be a pale yellow/orange/cream colour.
Find out more about the red-breasted parakeet :
Saturday, February 25, 2012
brown shrike @ seletar link mangrove
Came across what i initially thought was a sparrow sitting on a scrubby bush at the mangroves. On a closer look, it had a black stripe across the eye. Checking my bird guide showed it to be a Brown Shrike.
Read more about the brown shrike :
Time : 6.35pm, 25 Feb 2012
Location : Seletar Link mangrove
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
trashy seletar link mangrove ~ 21Aug2011
the video speaks for itself...
(but its a silent video)
We really should take much better care of our last remaining natural mangroves!
Where is this place? 'X' marks the spot :
We really should take much better care of our last remaining natural mangroves!
Where is this place? 'X' marks the spot :
Monday, August 22, 2011
greenwashed chemical drumming & fishfarming? @ seletar 21Aug2011
A friend informed that there were lots of black and blue drums accumulated at the corner of Seletar West Link near where the Seletar North Link bridge starts.
'X' marks the spot :
Initially, it was assumed that these had dumped there. The area looks like it has been neglected for long time.
'X' marks the spot :
There is a small but thick patch of mangrove along the shore here. However, there are also quite a few makeshift buildings and wooden piers along the stretch. Some of these are in various states of disrepair. It appears that these makeshift buildings and piers serve the surrounding fishfarming and fishing community. The drums are used as cheap floatation tools.
However, the worrying thing is that some of these drums had contained various types of flammable and
However, the worrying thing is that some of these drums had contained various types of flammable and
otherwise concentrated chemical liquids in them.
there were all sorts of warning labels on them
the one below obviously contained concentrated yellow ink manufactured by Fujifilm. Concentrated photographic chemicals or printing inks are not known to be very environmentally friendly.
a close up (click for larger pic) of the FujiFilm Gekko Yellow Ink caution label -
"this product contains a biocide at <500ppm which is very toxic to aquatic organisms. However, at the concentrations present in this product, adverse environmental effects from the biocide component are not expected due to the dilution of the biocide by other product components. Discarded product may be a hazardous waste under RCRA. TCLP should be completed prior to disposal. Empty container retains product residue. Observe all hazardous precautions. Do not distribute, make available, furnish or reuse empty container except for storage or shipment of original product. .."
!
There was a patch of ground a feet away stained by various colours.
Looks like someone had emptied the residual ink onto the ground.
I wonder if the ink companies know where their ink ended up? Did they dispose of their containers properly? or entrusted them to a professional waste disposal company?
Some drums had an "NEA-Licensed Contractor - Purechem Veolia Environmental Services" sticker pasted on them. Perhaps Purechem Veolia has been tasked to professionally dispose of the residual contents before getting rid of the drums. I wonder how these drums ended up at this corner of Singapore....and how the ink ended up on the ground. There was no data written or printed on the stickers indicating the who-what-when-or whether the contents had been 'hazardous waste'.
The access holes on some of the drums were stuffed with thin orange-coloured plastic bags. Was this to stop the contents from leaking out? I wonder if the containers had been washed before being released for 're-cycling' in this way. Do all of Singapore's offshore fishfarms use such drums as a floatation supports? Where do they get their drums from? And have those drums been 'professionally cleaned' before use in a floating fish pen?
one of the makeshift floating pontoons being built close to the shore
a close up of the drums being used as a base layer for the makeshift pontoon.
There were quite a few of these pontoons offshore just beyond the mangroves and they seemed to be used for various purposes by fishermen. Some looked like storage pontoons whilst others looked adapted for accomodation and one even as an outhouse! A direct launch toilet in Singapore?
Omigosh!!! Sulfuric Acid 96%!!! That's super corrosive!
another blank Purechem Veolia sticker on another container ...with no disposal data on it.
another pile of chemical containers...at one of the many makeshift 'huts'
on the edge of the mangrove patch.
and even more large drums waiting to be used at another establishment.
If (when) there is seepage from these drums, it is likely that the chemicals will be directly introduced into the surrounding environment....apart from that already poured out onto the ground at the edge of the mangrove. This should not be how these chemical containers are professionally disposed of or made available for re-cycled use by the fishfarming or any associated community.
Does your fish taste funny?
There was a recent announcement of a mangrove trash study being conducted by the National Parks Board at Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve. See this link for more information. Perhaps the study should also take into account pollutive factors introduced by the fishfarming community where such greenwashed chemical drums are used. There are many fishfarms located just offshore from SBWR.
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