sgbeachbum

Tuesday, January 26, 2016

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

Saturday, January 23, 2016

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.

Sunday, January 3, 2016

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.

Saturday, January 2, 2016

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.

Tuesday, November 3, 2015

flagged redshanks II @ SBWR - 01Nov2015

Another selection of flagged redshanks at the Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve on 01Nov2015.

2 of the birds (LU and AH) were fitted with geolocators.

The redshanks seen : TH, LU, TE, ET (misnamed in videoclip as UE), NB, TP, AH, UE, RP

A continuation of effort from https://vimeo.com/143501959.

flagged redshanks II @ SBWR - 01Nov2015 from SgBeachBum on Vimeo.

Monday, November 2, 2015

pilky stork hybrid & snake dinner @ SBWR - 01Nov2015

The mid afternoon saw a dense thunderstorm with rain beating down hard across the Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve. The resting shorebirds had spent the deluge turned into the wind and rain. As the rain clouds moved on, the mudflats came to life with the shorebirds actively looking for food on the mangrove mud that was now trickling with rain water running off the surface.

A stork had managed to come across a chunky snake, likely a dog-faced water snake (Cerberus rynchops). It looked like it was about 75cm long. The stork spent some time to juggle the snake head first up its bill whilst the snake haplessly tried its best to get out of really bad situation. The stork went towards the bund out of view to finish despatching its dinner. The snake presumably lost this battle.

There are upwards of about 25 storks flying about the SBWR during the height of the northern migratory season. It is hard to tell whether these are the endangered milky storks or the more likely painted storks or painted-milky 'pilky' stork hybrids.