sgbeachbum: March 2012

Thursday, March 8, 2012

pitta and bathing waterhen @ pasir ris - feb 2012

At about 7pm, the light level had dropped considerably and the lower light levels below the mangrove canopy made it difficult to capture the busy Mangrove Pitta which was still actively running about its muddy little patch flipping leaves and looking for food. The rest of the photographers had left leaving the air clear of persistent clicks from motor drives.

The pitta suddenly made a beeline deeper into the clump of mangrove trees. I followed it along the boardwalk and managed to get a good angle. The pitta had been distracted by a waterhen which had intruded into its little patch of the mangrove. The waterhen had started to have a bath in a shallow stream of water flowing through the mangrove clump and the pitta must have been distracted by the sounds of water splashing. It kept a close watch on the intruding waterhen for a few seconds before deciding that the waterhen was not to be a bother and then running off continuing its search for dinner. The waterhen was probably 'recognised' by the pitta as a resident neighbour from the surrounding mangrove. I wonder if the pitta would chase off any other intruding bird.

Monday, March 5, 2012

hunting waterhen @ pasir ris - Feb 2012

White-breasted waterhens are probably one of the most common bird species seen in our parks, gardens, mangroves and in fact just about anywhere there is a body of water...and in some places far away from water too.

I've always wondered what they eat and where they go about looking for food. I was fortunate to come across one at the Pasir Ris mangrove boardwalk and it did not seem very bothered with me being just only about 2 metres from it. It was amazing to me how accustomed the bird was being in close proximity with visitors on the boardwalk. The Pasir Ris mangroves are truly a magical place for budding birdwatchers!

It was about 5.45pm and the bird was out walking about the drainage channels and turning over dead leaves which had settled on the muddy ground. As it turned over the leaves and discarded them to the side, a bare patch of mud or sand was uncovered. The waterhen very quickly pecked at the ground as if it had seen a small worm or crab which had been suddenly exposed by the removal of the leaves.

This particular section of mangrove housed many mangrove tree climbing crabs as well as burrowing crabs. I did not see the waterhen eating any crabs that time but have a reasonable hunch that crabs do play a big part of its diet, amongst other things, at the Pasir Ris mangroves ... especially the smaller crabs.

Read more about the white-breasted waterhen here :

http://www.naturia.per.sg/buloh/birds/Amaurornis_phoenicurus.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White-breasted_Waterhen

http://singaporebirds.net/npassers_02/white-breasted_waterhen.html(incl. audio link)

http://www.besgroup.org/2011/03/22/call-of-the-white-breasted-waterhen/ (w video)

http://ibc.lynxeds.com/species/white-breasted-waterhen-amaurornis-phoenicurus

http://www.xeno-canto.org/species/Amaurornis-phoenicurus (incl. audio links)

http://www.ecologyasia.com/verts/birds/rails.htm

http://www.oiseaux-birds.com/card-white-breasted-waterhen.html

electronic drongo @ bukit brown - March 2012

Was out looking for a lineated barbet making its distinctive repetitious call but totally missed it whilst looking in a thicket close to the stream. Instead i was lucky enough to get close to a greater-racket-tailed drongo. It started singing a mixture of tones and some of the tones in the repertoire were particularly 'electronic' ... (much like what one would expect from a space-voyaging white-domed droid on three wheels from the Star Wars trilogy - R2D2)

The greater racket-tailed drongo is known to be a mimic and a rather good copycat of other bird songs and calls. Perhaps it takes on electronic sounds just as well....or maybe the sounds are natural to the drongo and we just think they sound 'electronic'. Maybe the R2D2 sound effects team had copied the sounds from a drongo?