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