A Her-man BY with Kit 2021

[Kitsafari]

238. Yellow-rumped Flycatcher, Dairy Farm Nature Park and a first visitor to our neighbourhood in Eastwood.

 

DFNP: 

male

female

 

Eastwood - too distant in a neighbour's garden. we aren't sure if it's a female or a first-year male

 

[Galana]

So many Flycatchers but I share your excitement at spotting the rare visitor. Good to read that you were dressed appropriately and belated Many Happy Returns.

[Kitsafari]

Thanks much @Galana!

[Dave Williams]

More cracking birds and images! I hope there are enough flies to satisfy all those migrating birds!

 

As an aside, I do remember seeing Spotted Flycatcher in Kenya but not further east.

[xelas]

More lovely birds from Singapore; you don't even have to travel far as birds come to you!

Edited October 19, 2021 by xelas

[Galana]

Following Mr Tortoise's @Dave Williamscomment I looked up this bird.

Should really be an African species as they all seem to winter there. However they head off to breed throughout most of the Paleartic from Spain and UK in the West to Mongolia and Siberia in the east. I wonder if your little chap took a wrong turn at the Himalaya?

[PeterHG]

A really beautiful flycatcher collection and good to have such a rarity visit you there!

[Peter Connan]

Wonderful photos!

[michael-ibk]

On 10/19/2021 at 2:37 AM, Kitsafari said:

Come to think of it, i don't think i've seen this species in Africa as well. 

 

You did, I was present - in Zambia. 🙂

 

Beautiful selection of Flycatchers, I'm very fond of them. 

[Kitsafari]

6 hours ago, michael-ibk said:

 

You did, I was present - in Zambia. 🙂

 

Beautiful selection of Flycatchers, I'm very fond of them. 

 

we did? see i wasn't doing BY then so I don't recall it and probably didn't chase for a photo!

 

On 10/20/2021 at 7:04 AM, Galana said:

Following Mr Tortoise's @Dave Williamscomment I looked up this bird.

Should really be an African species as they all seem to winter there. However they head off to breed throughout most of the Paleartic from Spain and UK in the West to Mongolia and Siberia in the east. I wonder if your little chap took a wrong turn at the Himalaya?

 

Potentially yes. 

I didn't explain very well about the spotted flycatcher. Its usual migratory route is from Europe straight  down to Africa, Middle East, central Asia and north-western India, according to ebird. It looks very similar to our Asian Brown Flycatcher but with a slightly longer body with a streaked crown and black bill. speculation made on why it popped up so far east - hitching a ride on a ship to SIngapore, blown off course, scrambled internal signals in a juvenile/young adult, and a potential change in migratory routes. A spotted flycatcher was also seen further east in the Philippines earlier this year and past records of it in Taiwan, Yunnan in China and Japan. 

 

 

[Kitsafari]

Thank you @Dave Williams  @xelas @PeterHG @Peter Connan @michael-ibk

 

 

 

[Kitsafari]

Since we hadn't gone beyond a mile out of Singapore in the last 17 months, we decided to take a 4-day cruise that started and ended in our island with no other stops. The cruise ship essesntially circled in the South China Sea somewhere between Peninsular Malaysia and the Riau islands. we thought we could see some migratory birds flying through but we weren't able to see many, and when we did, they were just to distant to ID. but we saw dolphins and we saw tens of aleutian terms above some churning waters where we could faintly see fish jumping up and down. our last sighting saw the school of dolphins heading in a direction which eventually resulted in the churning water and the terns feeding, which made us suspect that the dolphins were driving the fish up to feed and the terns took advantage of it as well. those were really cool sightings and as I mentioned, I was stupid not to film them.

 

Just one shot from our cruise of the aleutian tern.

 

239. Aleutian Tern, South China Sea/Singapore Straits

 

South China Sea, at dusk with the birds taking rest on driftwood.

 

Herman took a pelagic trip in mid-September in Singapore straits, which I declined given my propensity to being nauseous on a stationary boat in open sea waters. 

 

Singapore straits

 

[Kitsafari]

240. Greater Crested Tern, Pulau Ubin

 

The terns were really distant in the sandbar during low tides. 

 

[Kitsafari]

241. Whiskered Tern, Rower's Bay Park

 

another distant shot (white-winged tern on the left and the whiskered on the right)

 

Edited October 23, 2021 by Kitsafari

[Kitsafari]

242. Blue Rock Thrush, Pinnacles@Duxton

 

This is a rare migrant that is found more at home in mountains and sea cliffs but has found a favourite spot to return to annually to a roof garden on the 50th floor of a residential tower. 

 

 

[Kitsafari]

 

243. Northern Red-billed Hornbill, East Coast Park

 

Another African species that is probably an escapee here. 

 

[Kitsafari]

In one of his solo forays into our small forests, Herman came across a beautiful and rarely seen mammal that lives in our childhood fables and which I have yet to see. I was very jealous, naturally. 

Lesser Mousedeer or Lesser Malay Chevrotain or Kanchil

 

 

 

[michael-ibk]

Oh, what a lovely sighting! 

[PeterHG]

A great find and beautifully photographed! A magical creature, indeed.

[Galana]

What a haul of birds you can get within a mile of your home and what a great little mammal sighting.

[Peter Connan]

Beautiful!

[pedro maia]

Your numbers are growing, I liked the flycatchers section, I wouldn´t mind seeing them all except the one you prefered .

[TonyQ]

A beautiful selection of Flycatcher photos.

And a very cute deer!

[Kitsafari]

Thank you @michael-ibk @PeterHG @Galana @Peter Connan @pedro maia @TonyQ .

 

Last Monday, I took a day's leave and had planned to go raptor watching at a high pedestrian bridge spanning across a wide busy road. Around this time of the year, hundreds of winter migrants of eagles, buzzards, sparrowhawks, swifts, sometimes pratincoles would fly across our island from the north on their way down south and many of them can be seen from the bridge. of course many of them would be black specks in the sky but craning our necks to see tens of them flying in the skies is spectacular for us starved of birds in the skies.

But the minute we parked the car, we learned that a mega rarity was sighted in a place not too far away.  we chose to go with the rarity.

 

Now i don't think a pipit would rouse such desire in many birders and definitely an LBJ is no attraction. 

But this is the first time ever this pipit has been sighted in Singapore. Moreover, Singapore is way off course of its normal migratory route!

The Tree Pipit is probably common in the European backyards, and it migrates only to Africa and as far east as to South Asia. SIngapore is more than 3,000km from India in a straight line. 

It was at first identified as a lark, as there are only 2 pipit species that occur here  - paddyfield and red-throated. Since it was a first sighting ever, the expert birders took one day to debate its ID but finally confirmed it was indeed a tree pipit. but they are baffled - just like the spotted flycatcher - how and why the tree pipit is here. Yesterday, the fairy pitta was seen here again. the first ever sighting was last year. the fairy pitta flies straight from north asia to borneo bypassing mainland SEA. It seems to suggest the migrant birds are starting to vary their migration routes. Which is very exciting for Singapore!

 

244. Tree Pipit, Clementi

 

Just had to put a few photos of this rarity then

 

 

 

 

 

  

[Kitsafari]

245. Von Schrenck's Bittern, Hougang Canal

 

a winter migrant hunting in the dusk.