Bonus dip post!

As you will have surmised, I have been away from home a fair bit of late - 'tis the season of visiting relatives. Thus it was that shortly after arriving on the Isle of Wight on Christmas Eve news broke of a seriously mega Yellow Warbler very conveniently in Kent. As in conveniently not on Shetland or where these things normally arrive. I say 'normally', but you know what I mean. Convenient for someone who lives in London and could get there in under an hour. Except I wasn't in London.

I am not the kind of die hard twitcher who then and there would have said "Something has come up", ditched the family, and got back on the ferry to the mainland. Die hard twitchers don't have families. Instead we proceeded to the the family festivities and I largely forgot all about it for a couple of days. I did note however that it was still there on Boxing Day when we came back and what is more there was a bonus Scops Owl in the same county! Having advanced my UK list by precisely zero birds this year by failing to twitch any rarities at all, perhaps 2024 was finally going to come good! Thoughts of a two tick day began to form....

I was working on the 27th, plus we had yet more family plans, but both birds remained in situ. So far so good. I started composing the blog post in my head, what a triumph, yet another two tick day, 2024 rescued, my UK list nearing 460 etc etc. Ha! I should have known. The title of this blog post sadly isn't one of my misleading ones. So yesterday I waited on news of the Warbler, and when by early afternoon this was not forthcoming I decided I would drop in anyway on the way to the Owl. Cutting to the chase I spent roughly four hours in the car and the only things I saw were 500 green-attired people sporting roughly a million quids worth of optics. And I saw them twice.

It was the usual affair, a huge crowd of people, all chatting away, reminiscing about previous successes given today's failure. None seemed particularly disheartened, they were there as much for the social scene as the bird. That's not me, which is a shame, but I can't bring myself to be part of that scene. Never have, never will, I've always been on the periphery, and this year I've not even been on that. I still recognised a few people though. Four to be precise. Two from Wanstead, one from Walthamstow, and a popular mobile DJ from Buckinghamshire. I gave it an hour milling around, tried a few spots further down the track as frankly the bird could have been anywhere, and then gave up, eager to get down to Broadstairs and tick Scops Owl. Surely that would be there, it had been there a week apparently....

It wasn't. Perhaps the previous evening when it had been chased around a field and lit up by spotlights had put it off, who can say? Certainly not I. So I spent a couple of hours freezing my ass off on a dark cricket pitch listening to the same chat I'd heard earlier that afternoon from the same people, saw nothing, and drove home. Some afternoon. As I contemplated my life choices on the M2 I realised I hadn't exactly dropped everything to rush out. What else would I have done that afternoon? Nothing I expect. I'd been working on my Brazil trip report, and at some point I'd have done a bit of cooking that I now have to do today instead. I probably would have started drinking at around 3pm rather than 7.30pm, so a lost opportunity there, but apart from that I hadn't really wasted the afternoon. Or rather I would have wasted the afternoon anyway, and so only the method of wasting it had really changed. Oh and for completenesses sake I spent £30 on fuel and destroyed the planet that little bit more. Do I regret going? Of course I do! I hate twitching in crowds, and I hate dipping in crowds even more!  So if either of these birds is seen again, what am I going to do?

Non-traditonal end of year post

This is just a short note to say that I simply cannot be bothered to write an end-of-year post. In years gone by I actively looked forward to this, best bird, stupidest moment etc, but this year I find myself strangely ambivalent towards the whole thing.

In summary I've had a fun year birding, with only a pitiful performance here in the UK somewhat letting the stats down. As of right this moment I am sitting on 199 for the year which I find intensely irritating. It was 198, but some oh-so-kosher Barnacle Geese on the Isle of Wight yesterday halved the number required for respectability. I am back in London now, so in a minute I shall head out to Wanstead Flats again to try and see that bloody Barn Owl, which would not only be a nice end to my local patch year but also to my UK and global year lists, getting me up to 200 and 1075 respectively.

In a few days everything resets and I can get excited about everything all over again. Ugh. Let's see what happens, sustaining patch enthusiasm seems like a stretch at times, and on a claggy late December day there is almost nothing I would like to do less than go birding on Wanstead Flats. Fortunately I have avoidance plans in place that will soon be enacted. Yes that's right, I am buggering off again. 

That said, I did genuinely enjoy birding on the Isle of Wight. For starters it enabled me to get out of everyone's hair - there were a lot of people around and I am often not good at that. And secondly Brading Marshes RSPB was very pleasant indeed with stacks of birds showing really rather well, including those Geese. A shame then that I couldn't be arsed with my camera which was with me yet not with me, if you see what I mean. I really must make more of an effort next year. I say this every year of course. 

Here is a Collared Crescentchest, one of the best birds I saw this year. I have not yet written about it as I am so far behind, but it is in the post.

Smashing it at Letham

I've just spent a few days up in Fife, kind of a pre-Christmas. Whilst it was mainly family-based eating (well, more realistically described as gorging) I managed to get out on Saturday morning. The winds were extremely strong, gusts of 50mph, but the birds didn't seem to mind. It took me all of ten seconds to find the regular Brent Geese at Balgove as they were in a field as I slowed down to park the car. I did stop and have a quick look as these are pretty scarce birds in Fife, very low numbers, but equally they are also pretty site-faithful and thus not difficult to squeeze onto a year list. After a quick look at St Andrews Bay, Rock Pipit and Slavonian Grebe the best, I carried on around the coast to Crail and Fife Ness.

Fife Ness

I'd missed the early morning action, with over 100 Little Auk going past in a strong westerly. Clearly I know nothing about Fife seawatching. Little Auk had been my primary target this winter, a much-wanted new bird for the county, but I was under the impression that a wind out of the north was needed to bring them in and that a strong westerly would produce none at all. So much for that theory. 100 past before 9am! But the post-script on the Fife birding grapevine was that they had really dried up after that. Drat! Still, the wind was still howling and I only needed to see one. I figured that if I sat it out then surely that single bird would duly fly past, and that is exactly what happened, with a solitary Little Auk buzzing north close in. It actually pitched on the water whereupon I immediately lost it in the heavy swell, but a short time later it was on its way again. Excellent. When I later checked my records it turns out I had seen only two Little Auk anywhere ever which is a bit ridiculous. The most recent of these was 14 years ago in Suffolk. I have no idea whether it has been a particularly good year for them off the Scottish coast, but since some of those early winter storms there have been regular sightings, not only past Fife Ness but then subsequently all the way up the Forth. I knew I was in with a decent chance once I got up there and was very pleased to finally succeed. The sea was otherwise quite quiet, the only other bird of note an unexpected Puffin that in my excitable state I initially wondered whether it was the Little Auk I was so desperate to see, but couldn't talk myself into it. And a good thing too as when a real Little Auk came by it was completely different, wings a blur and centrally placed whereas the Puffin's wings were set back quite a way.

I finished my circular tour of Fife at Pittenweem where it took a long time to pin down the now regular three Snow Buntings feeding in the stubble with Skylarks and Meadow Pipits. By this time the wind was perhaps even stronger, and it took several circuits of their favoured field to find them. And of course when I did the second they even raised their wings they were immediately blown to Anstruther! I didn't follow them, and instead headed home for a late lunch. 

It had been an excellent morning, with a Fife tick and three Fife year ticks (165), but my personal highlight had actually been the previous morning when I'd had two new birds for Letham Pools. I've talked about this site before and I've now visited it over 40 times as it's close enough to where my family live to be easily birdable in short breaks and so I make a point of going there as often as I can when I am up. I've not seen any truly rare birds there (unless you count Egyptian Goose!), I always seem to be in London when they turn up, but over time there has been a slow accumulation. And whilst Letham's best years may now be behind us due to the permanently high water levels it can still throw a surprise or two, as it did on Friday morning. Even though it is a tiny site I often stay for half an hour to make sure I have seen absolutely everything, and on Friday morning my first scan through bins had produced nothing more than the regular Wigeon and Mallard, but on my second or third pass a Goosander sudddenly appeared. Followed by two more. I was pretty certain this wasn't on my Letham list and a quick check of eBird confirmed it. Excellent. Some more diligent birding, this time with the scope, picked out a Stonechat in the reeds. I wasn't quite sure about this one - I knew I'd seen Whinchat several times and figured that I had surely seen a Stonechat, but it turned out that this was new as well and that in a quick fifteen minutes of birding I'd got two site ticks.

Goosander at Letham. Pro digiscoping once again in evidence.

I returned on Monday morning hoping for more. This time I'd done a modicum of research and knew what my biggest gaps were. Of course what I was really hoping for was for the Angle Park Great White Egret to have flipped across the road, as it has done a couple of time since September, but I had stopped there on my way and it had still been resolutely in the sedge. The other possibility was the Bittern, surely still in the local area and a true Fife rarity, but a careful scan of the reeds drew the expected blank. But wait, what are these small shapes in this field next to the southern pool? Oh yes, Fieldfare, top of my list of wants. There were somewhere between 35 and 45, hard to say as the field undulates a bit and you can't see all of it from anywhere. The max I counted was 35 so I've gone with that. A careful scan also revealed a few Redwing which were also a site tick, and then best of all a Mistle Thrush in with them for the treble. 

My site list has grown from 91 to 96 in just a few days, remarkable for what is basically a flooded field either side of a small road. You can tell it is not even supposed to be there as the telegraph poles go through the water on the south side, and on the north side there is a fence through the middle. A small reed bed has grown up over the years but it has no depth to it, really it is just the fringes. There is no mud to speak of, or at least not at the moment, but the levels only need to drop by a bit in the spring for it to hold significant promise again. There are hedges each side of the road, filled with Yellowhammers and Reed Buntings this weekend just gone, but the site itself doesn't have much vegetation to speak of, just a few bushes on one side that you can't get to, and I reckon there are perhaps half a dozen trees. Of course my definition of site list means any bird I can see from the road, but nonetheless what initially seems of limited promise has actually been incredibly productive since I first paid a visit in 2020. It is my patch away from home. And as mentioned I've not even seen any of the proper rarities. I missed the Pec/White-rumped double a couple of years ago when there was still mud, the GWE this year has been fleeting, the Bittern even more so, but there still lots of possibilities in my view and all that is required are time and patience. I can't wait to get back there.

Catching up

Apologies for the December hiatus, I have been extraordinarily busy with various things, not least two trips up to Scotland, a short trip to Spain, and then all of the various social events that happen in December and that you have to show your face at. Mercifully the work calendar is now finally beginning to calm down - people seem to lose the urge at around this time of year and meetings are quietly cancelled as they slip away. And the potential trip to the USA isn't happening either which is rather a relief. Anyway it has been rather frenetic and I have to say I am hoping for a bit of peace and quiet over the next few days in which to catch up with real life. And blogging.

In fact I already started, and if you have been paying attention you will have seen that a series of posts about a trip I made to Singapore in June have made an appearance. I wrote them all in one go, good news actually as I hadn't written a full sentence since the beginning of the month and was slightly concerned I might not be able to. In the event it came out in one huge splurge and I was able to then line up four or five posts of the usual sort to auto-publish every day up until the end of this week or so. The next challenge is Brazil, an entirely different undertaking from a guided trip to the Pantanal in July. I would really like to get this done before the year is out, but I don't actually have any time off other than the bank holidays so it may not be possible. Allegedly my family would like to spend time with me, no idea why. Let's see.

I have not seen any more birds in Wanstead since I last wrote about that here, and it is looking quite likely that I will finish the year on 117. I've tried a couple of times for the pesky Barn Owl currently in residence on Wanstead Flats, but it gets dark so early that I am normally still in meetings at the ideal time of day, and then I am typically busy or not here at weekends. Nick sees it what seems like all the time which is rather frustrating, but then he keeps pretty much the same schedule as an Owl these days so perhaps it is not that surprising. At least I saw the Otter, I still can't quite believe that. As my calendar becomes more forgiving I'll try again, see if I can squeeze it in before the year is out. It would be only my second ever so I am quite keen to move it from its current italics status. And that's basically it.

In unrelated news here is an American Wigeon from a recent trip to Fife. It was on a small loch that also hosted a Lesser Scaup for a nice Yank double. As you can see my digiscoping skills continue to defy belief. How does he do it I hear you ask? Well, it's a secret.

Singapore - June 2024 - Trip List

As usual here is a list of the species seen, and for the more interesting ones the place where I saw it. A proper eBird trip list is here. In summary I had a great time and came back totally shattered, always the sign of a good trip. Despite all the greenery, finding birds in Singapore can actually be quite hard, and photography can be even harder, especially in the forests. But I tried! I came away pretty pleased with the birds I'd seen, but slightly disappointed I hadn't managed to break 100 species which I always thing of as the bare minimum for a weekend away, especially a long weekend. I also discovered that my days of lugging around a heavy DSLR were numbered, and if you have been following this blog you will know that I did indeed get rid of it all and switch to mirrorless a couple of months ago. I am itching to get back with this new lighter setup, but there are plenty of other places I want to visit as well so let's see what pans out.

Singapore - June 2024 - Day 3 - Jurong Lake Gardens, Dairy Farm Nature Park, and finally Wood-Owls!

I slept in a bit later than I had wanted to, I think just incredibly tired from having walked 18 miles the previous day. This is not what my body is used to, especially with a heavy load, 30 degree heat and 95% humidity. Nonetheless I was birding Jurong Lake Gardens before 8am. The area was thronging with morning commuters, this is a big residential area with a lot of people heading to work. Just outside Lakeside station I found an orange juice machine which for a nominal sum produced me a cup of freshly-squeezed orange juice. As a drank the first I commanded it to make me second, wonderful!

Pink-necked Green-Pigeon

Jurong Lake Gardens had been recommended to me by Mick, but of course he had been here in November and it was now June and so various birds simply weren't present. Nonetheless I had an enjoyable birding session here until late morning and finding all sorts of new birds for the trip. I started at the floating garden at the top end and walked down alongside the lake to the grasslands area. Highlights were Little Bronze Cuckoo, Plaintive Cuckoo, Asian Koel, Black-crowned Night Heron, Crested Goshawk, a group of Swinhoe's White-eye and some Common Iora. I had been hoping for Crakes in the grasslands but apparently you need rain, after which they emerge and run around where you can see them.

Black-crowned Night Heron

Crested Goshawk

Late morning I headed back to the Central Catchment Area and walked up the gentle track to the Dairy Farm Nature Park. I'd found this area on eBird whilst looking for targets, which included two species of Leafbird and general good forest birding. This area is on the north side of Bukit Timah, and indeed you can walk via the Dairy Farm Hut up a much steeper track to the summit and then down the other side to the Hindhede Trail. The whole of Singapore seems to be like this, a huge city but with lots of corridors and you whilst you'd have to cross a few main roads you could spend an entire day in the forest moving along well-maintained trails from one area to another.

The area was pretty busy with walkers and with school groups, but I was amazed to actually find both Greater Green Leafbird and Blue-winged Leafbird feeding in the same fruiting tree along the Wallace Trail, and then along the main track both Short-tailed Babbler and Abbot's Babbler. In breaks in the canopy I could see a pair of Changeable Hawk-Eagle high above Bukit Timah. 

Black-naped Oriole

Greater Green Leafbird

Blue-winged Leafbird

Abbot's Babbler

Time was now running out. It was 1pm and my flight out was at 10.30pm. I still hadn't managed to see the Spotted Wood-Owls, and rather than dip at Pasir Ris again I decided to try a new spot on the other side of the Central Catchment Area, Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park. I jumped in a cab at the bottom of Dairy Park and was soon at the correct spot - as with all Owls in Singapore their presence is given away by photographers. Sure enough two adults and a fat fluffy youngster were sat way up in the trees above a car park. Finally! I took a few photos but mostly admired them through bins, wonderful views in the canopy. I then enjoyed a spot of lunch before walking west through the park along the stream, disturbing a Purple Heron as I did so, to catch a bus to the Singapore Botanic Garden for one final wander. 

Spotted Wood-Owl

This time I entered at the top, and walked down to the bottom, concentrating most of my efforts around Pulai Marsh and the Bambusetum side to the west of Swan Lake. No outstanding birds, but I did get great views of a White-throated Kingfisher in the woodlands reminding me that some of these species are not tied to water in the slightest. My main target here, Stork-billed Kingfisher, remains most-wanted! A reason to return.

SBG

White-collared Kingfisher

Malaysian Pied-Fantail

Spotted Dove

And that was it. It was 5pm and not much light remained. I also needed to get back to my hotel to pick up my small suitcase and pack up, after which I headed to the airport for a much-needed shower and some very cold drinks, this time of an alcoholic nature! And then a very long flight back home - I think I slept nearly the entire way!

Singapore - June 2024 - Day 2 - Central Catchment Area, Botanic Gardens and Marina Bay

I got out of a bus in the dark somewhere along Upper Thomson Road. My destination was the Jelutong Tower above MacRitchie Reservoir, in the lower part of the Central Catchment Area, Singapore's largest green space and a critical part of the island. There is no quick way to get to the tower, and my choice of starting point was driven by where I could get public transport to. A 40 minute walk beckoned, which in fact turned out to be a one hour walk as I took a wrong turn about half way and started heading up towards Upper Peirce Reservoir before realising my mistake at the bottom of a long slope that I had to then climb back up.

The view south from the Jelutong Tower.

The tower is enormous, several storeys high and thus at or above the canopy, and commands fabulous views over the forest. You feel a million miles away from the vast city in the distance. I had missed first light by about a quarter of an hour, but the birding was still fabulous, helped in no small part by a couple of young Singaporean birders who knew what they were doing. Remarkably neither had binoculars but both sported lovely light-weight mirrorless cameras with telephoto lenses. Very envious.... Most of their birding was done by ear, with the occasional look at a dot on the back of the camera to check if they weren't sure. This is how birding happens in Singapore, there are probably fewer than ten pairs of binoculars in the entire city but well over a trillion zoom lenses. I was happy to join in the fun, and although we had to rapidly descend the tower a couple of times to dodge some intense downpours I probably spent at least three and half hours observing up there. The full list is here, and perhaps I stayed too long as it only has 26 species, but what I did see was very good indeed. Violet Cuckoo was perhaps the highlight, but we also had flybys from Banded Bay Cuckoo, Square-tailed Drongo-Cuckoo and Grey-rumped Treeswift. In the trees around the tower itself were Dark-necked Tailorbird, Cream-vented, Olive-winged and Red-eyed Bulbul, Orange-bellied Flowerpecker, Scarlet-backed Flowerpecker, Asian Fairy-bluebird and Blue-winged Leafbird. Blue-rumped Parrots perched in semi-distant palms, Blue-crowned Hanging-Parrots and Pink-necked Green-Pigeons seemed constantly on the move. The majority of these birds were new for me so it had been a very profitable morning.

Asian Fairy-bluebird - male

Asian Fairy-bluebird- female

Scarlet-backed Flowerpecker

Violet Cuckoo

Blue-rumped Parrot

I reluctantly dragged myself away late morning, retracting my steps east to the Country Club. Along the way I got soaked to the skin, caught in heavy rain with no nearby huts in which to shelter. I dried off a bit near at Windsor Nature Park, and then walked the Venus Loop a couple of times. It was very hot. The best birds here were a pair of Crimson Sunbird and my first Common Hill Myna, their bizarre calls drawing me in from quite some distance having no idea at first what on earth they could be. 

Colugo

Mid afternoon I was back in town at the Botanic Garden, a simply lovely spot whether for birds or not. As you know I enjoy tropical plants as much as I enjoy birds, and after a late lunch at the Green Pavilion I had a high-interest botanical amble from the Tanglin Gate at the bottom to the Cluny Park Gate at the top. I didn't see as many birds as I was hoping, but a pair of Lesser Whistling Ducks on the Eco Lake were a surprise as well as a world lifer, a Pied Imperial-Pigeon flew over at some point which was also new, and a Brahminy Kite was perched in a tree alongside Symphony Lake. 

Looking west from Marina East Drive

I just about had time to nip up to Pasir Ris to dip the Spotted Wood-Owls again before finishing the day at Marina Bay East. As time was running out I took a Grab taxi to the top of Marina East Drive and then walked out to the Barrage. On one side there is an uninteresting golf course, but to the east of the road is some excellent wetland habitat and I was able to stock up on Masked Lapwing, Little Egret, Medium Egret and Grey Heron. Best of all an Asian Openbill had taken up residence some time before and was still out on the marsh. As dusk fell and I approached the MCE Ventilation Building I caught some movement above me. Yes! A Large-tailed Nightjar was hunting from a lamp post. Very difficult to see as it sat directly above the light, but there was no doubt about it when it started calling.

Masked Lapwing

Asian Openbill

I spent a bit of time mucking about with a long-exposure shot of the Marina Bay Sands from the bottom of the Barrage, and then crossed over and into the Gardens by the Bay. Fully dark by now this was full of people here to enjoy the light show from the Supertree Grove. I enjoyed it too as I hobbled along now somewhere north of 35k steps for the day. I found my way to the excellent and enormous food court underneath the Marina Bay Sands complex and had Dim Sum for dinner before catching a bus back to Lavender. What a day! Only 52 species but some high quality and 15 world ticks.

Marina Bay Sands from the Barrage

Singapore - June 2024 - Day 1 - Lorung Halus to Pasir Ris, and Buffy Fish-Owl

After a refreshing sleep in my box I woke up nice and early and caught the MTR up to Punggol. The LTR loops were unfortunately closed this weekend but there were replacement bus services and upon enquiring about where I wanted to go I was ushered to the correct line and shortly thereafter was sat on a bus heading just a short distance east towards Riviera. The sun had only just risen and my destination was the Lor Halus Wetland. The bus dropped me off about ten minutes walk away from the Lor Halus Red Bridge, and so just after 7am I had started birding.

It was hard work, much harder than I anticipated, especially carrying a rucksack weighing about 8kg containing my camera and all the supplies I would need for the day. But I persevered, starting off at the small series of ponds and deliberate scrubby areas with paths around them trying to find birds. I ended up doing a full circuit as it wasn't clear how to access the central part of the reserve, and in a couple of hours and over a couple of miles notched up something like 30 species - a decent start. The best bird here were Oriental Pied Hornbill, Coppersmith Barbet, Pied Triller, Brown-throated, Copper-throated and Ornate Sunbirds, Ashy Tailorbird and a White-throated Kingfisher. As with the start of most trips photography was inordinately difficult and I failed miserably to get anything decent of anything.

Javan Myna

Copper-throated Sunbird

Oriental Pied Hornbill

 

Ashy Tailorbird

Golden-backed Weaver

I then walked the Pasir Ris Farmway Park Connector (catchy!) from Lorung Halus to Pasir Ris, essentially walking east for about two miles through what was supposed to be farmland but appeared to be mostly one vast building site and was unfortunately rather bird-free as a result. I found some Pink-necked Green Pigeon along here, and my first Blue-throated Bee-eater, but it was actually rather a slog along an unshaded path busy with cyclists and runners, with a backdrop of JCBs and bulldozers and in increasingly warm conditions. I was pleased to finally reach the tree cover of Pasir Risk Park, and when I sat down on a bench above my head were a pair of noisy Collared Kingfishers. 

Blue-throated Bee-eater

I had a nice break and a bite to eat under one of the numerous shelters here, and also found a water fountain to refill my bottle - the mark of a great city. I also purchased my first of many fruit and ice-based concoctions which proved so so delicious and sustaining over my trip.  As I sipped it I clocked a Black-naped Tern flying offshore between Pasir Ris and the island of Pulau Ubin. I had a poke around the various car parks looking up into the trees for the Spotted Wood-Owls that everybody seemed to see here but drew a blank, and so continued my walk east to the mangrove boardwalk. It was now about 1pm and the rumbles of thunder that had been distant in the morning were seemingly now rather closer. Ambling down one section of the boardwalk the trees suddenly began to wave and within a few seconds a deluge had started. Fortunately I was very close to a shelter and did not have to run very far. I joined a couple intent on taking as many romantic selfies as possible, and soon there were quite a few of us under the corrugated roof as the rain pelted down. The selfies stopped. Lightning was frequent and at times simultaneous with the thunder and I felt rather exposed under this small tin roof. I can't remember how long I had to stay there, but I'd imagine it was probably 45 minutes or more before the rain finally let up and I was able to continue to the small pond where I hoped to find Sunda Scops Owl in the Pandanus.

On the way to the pond there was a Painted Stork along the Sungei Tampines, and a Common Flameback was seen at the pond itself. Of these Owls there was also no sign, albeit that it is acknowledged that they are very difficult to see. Not helping was a renewed amount of water in the air, not as cataclysmic as earlier but still with a good capacity to soak, and so I cut my losses and walked to Pasir Ris MRT where I had a late lunch in a shopping centre and another fruity drink.

From here I then caught a bus to Selatar which dropped me off a short walk away from the Hampstead Wetlands Park. This involved walking up Piccadilly, past Maida Vale and Lambeth Walk, before walking along Mornington Crescent and finally crossing Oxford Street and walking down Baker Street to Hampstead Gardens! If you don't believe me look it up! Once there it was clear I was in the right spot for the Buffy Fish-Owls. It was a hive of photographic activity, with loads of people with enormous cameras camped out by the side of small pond. They were clearly here for the long haul, with seats, camp tables and all sorts. I joined the throng for a while but soon gave up and went birding instead. This was pretty good with four Sunda Pygmy Woodpecker, another Oriental Pied Hornbill, a flyover Grey-headed Fish-Eagle that paused for a moment, some Long-tailed Parakeet, and a pair of Straw-headed Bulbul that I knew were around here but that I hadn't genuinely expected to find. A properly rare bird these days due to the songbird trade.

Grey-headed Fish-Eagle

Sunda Pygmy Woodpecker

Straw-headed Bulbul

Buffy Fish-Owl

Finally a shout, and an enormous Owl glided in from a hidden location and into a tree above the photographers. Cue a cacaphony of motor drives and excited chatter to which the Owl paid no heed whatsoever. It poked around in the nest tree for a while, and then flew off again. My work here was done! I packed up and caught a bus on the main road back down to Bugis, about an hour in air-conditioned comfort back to the City. It had been a hard day - 13 miles walked for only 45 species seen, but it had been an exhilarating one as well, and I still had two days. A quick bite to eat and another cooling drink and I was done.

Singapore - June 2024 - Logistics and Itinerary

 

Logistics

• A three day solo trip to Singapore in early June. I'd last visited in 2019 and thoroughly enjoyed myself over a three day trip, so this time booked an extra day (note that a full day is spent getting there so it is really a four day trip - two days annual leave required). It's an easy city to navigate, is completely safe, and has far more birds than you might expect for a megalopolis  - the island is extraordinarily verdant and I enjoyed the plants as much as the birds.
• Flights: British Airways from Heathrow on Friday night after work which arrived in Singapore on Saturday at around 6pm, too late for any meaningful birding. I used air miles as well as some kind of BA voucher to get there and so just paid the taxes which meant I could travel rather comfortably. I returned on Tuesday evening and as you gain time in this direction I arrived in time for work on Wednesday morning. Yay!
• Transport:  As you would expect public transport in Singapore is top notch so I purchased a three day Singapore Tourist Pass for about £17. These are only available at larger MRT stations -  I bought mine at the the airport, there is a kiosk at the far end of Changi MRT. This grants you full passage on all buses, tubes and light rail and I used it extensively. As it was a three day pass I also bought a single ticket to get me into the city centre that first evening. For some places that were a little out of the way I used Grab a handful of time, the Singapore equivalent of Uber. 
• Accomodation: I booked a room the size of a shoe box at a budget hotel called the NuVe Urbane near Lavendar/Bugis. This was ideally located for me to get everywhere I wanted to go, and seeing as I spent virtually no time there, it made sense for it to be at the lower end of the scale.
• Literature/Resources: As ever I used eBird for up-front planning, identifying target birds and sites, and as I'd been before I knew I also wanted to revisit a few places. Mick also gave me a few tips of places he'd found good in late 2023.
• Food - Street food and food courts are alive and well in Singapore. I also had lots and lots of cold fruit-based drinks.

On this trip I went to eveywhere marked with a red dot.

Itinerary

• Day 0 - Evening arrival into Changi, no birding. Just a quick meal and then bed.
• Day 1 - Early start at Lorung Halus Wetlands, and I then walked all the way from there to Pasir Ris Park where I spent most of the afternoon, including about an hour sheltering from some incredible rain on the mangrove boardwalk. In the late afternoon I went to Hampstead Wetlands Park which is a well-known site for Buffy Fish-Owl.
• Day 2 - An even earlier start to be at the Jelutong Bird Tower in the Central Catchment Area as soon as possible after first light. This is a 40 minute walk from the nearest road hence the very early start. All morning in this area and then a quick walk around Windsor Nature Park which is back towards the Country Club entrance. Afternoon spent at the wonderful Singapore Botanic Gardens before going back to Pasir Ris to try for the Spotted Wood-Owls again. Evening at Marina Bay East and the Gardens by the Bay. 39k steps with a heavy camera nearly killed me.
• Day 3 - Final day! Started at Jurong Lake Gardens before heading to Dairy Farm Nature Park late morning. Mid afternoon stop at Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park for Spotted Wood-Owl again, this time with success! Then another tour around the Botanic Garden before heading back to my hotel to pack my bag and head to the airport.

And in non-bird news....

From time to time I have been known to write about things that are not birds on this blog. Sometimes I even get told off for doing so. Well, get a load of this!

Yes that is what you think it is, but it probably isn't where you think it is. You are probably thinking Shetland, or Fife, or Norfolk, or Devon, or...... The very last place you would probably guess is ON MY PATCH IN WANSTEAD. I can scarely believe it, but this Otter was on the River Roding here in Wanstead just yesterday.

It has in fact been here for several months but this is the first time I've seen it. I've dipped it a few times, cycling over to the Roding as quickly as I could after a sighting but always missing out. Yesterday Tony (thanks to whom for the picture as typically I was not carrying a camera) and I were birding along the river when I saw something dive distantly upstream. So brief was my view that I could not have said bird or animal, but about a minute later TB saw it, much closer to us this time, and I got on it. Yes! 

We stood as still and quietly on the bank as we could, in disbelief that we had just seen an Otter, and that only a few feet away people were playing golf, and just beyond that the roar of the A406 North Circular road. The river was very full after the recent rain, and it was hard to work out where it might be. A Little Grebe and a Moorhen flying up in panic were the best markers in the end. It surfaced a couple of times, the final time (when this photo was taken) clearly checking us out, and then disappeared. A magical moment and one I had not been at all expecting. Easily the best bird this year.