Weekend Birding at Bukit Batok Nature Reserve 2013-07-06

I went to Bukit Batok Nature Reserve during the weekend for some birding. I started out a bit late, when I arrived there it was already half past 9 in the morning. It doesn't make sense to go there early anyway because during my past visits there, it was crowded with people doing their exercise during the early morning hours. Being a bit late has some merits as most of the people are done with their morning exercise, and only a few joggers remain.

I took a different path to the park via the Upper Bukit Timah road, when I reached the former Japanese WW2 memorial area, there was a citizen army unit doing their morning jog as well. I initially thought I will have a hard time finding birds in the area due to the number of people, so I decided to explore a bit. I walked past the twin antenna tower and find myself in another residential area road with trees on both sides. I listened and found a group of birds, the common Asian glossy starling.

Asian glossy starling

When I reached a dead end, I walked back to the WW2 memorial area but along the way, I was surprised by 4 noisy White crested laughing trush. After they left, I proceed to the quarry lake area, but before I get to the exercise area, I saw another group of WCLT.

White-crested laughing trush

When I reached the exercise area, I saw a local bird photographer. Initially, I didn't know what he was trying to capture, but I immediately joined him when I saw the tiny bird on a shrub about 10m from me. I realized the colorful plumage after I took the shot and was surprise that it was a lifer. I knew that it must be some species of flowerpecker due to it's size and shape but I was not exactly sure what it was and was able to identify it only when I searched the web later. I tried to be friendly and talk to him, but he just ignored me, oh well.

Orange-bellied Flowerpecker

Along the way, I saw 2 WCLT again and above was a Lesser racket-tailed drongo.

Lesser racket-tailed drongo

I stayed a few more minutes at the exercise area, but didn't see any other birds aside from the uninteresting Javan myna. So I started walking to the exit via a side trail and at one point saw a green bird that flew past me. I initially thought it was a parrot, but it was after I managed to capture a shot that I realized it wasn't. I continued walking and meet another birder, I told him about the bird and he was able to identify it as a barbet species.

Lineated barbet

Along the trail, I also captured some dull brown bird which I initially thought was a yellow-vented bulbul, but realized that there's no white on the head.

Olive winged bulbul 

A few meters from the exit, I saw a group of tiny pin-stripped tit-babbler, but wasn't able to capture any of them due to their constant movement. I tried a few minutes, but failed each time so I simply gave up.

When I left the park, I decided to visit Little Guilin again. After visiting the park, I proceed to the Bukit Gombak town center, look at the shops and head home.

Comfort Birding

Living on a high-rise with a tall tree in front of your window, birding can be a joy sometimes. That's how I am able to enjoy birding while inside the room. All I have to do is leave a small gap on the curtains, to allow me a view of the branches, then hide and wait. Sometimes, I don't even need to wait. I just need to keep listening to bird calls while doing some other stuffs. If I hear something, I take a peek and see if a bird is there. :)

Olive-backed sunbird (male)

Olive-backed sunbird (immature)

Olive-backed sunbird (female)

Scarlet-backed flowerpecker (male) -
on a parasitic mistletoe growing on a branch of the same tree

Scarlet-backed flowerpecker (female) 

Black-naped oriole

Spotted dove

Yellow-vented bulbul

Javan myna

Oriental white-eye

These bird pictures were all taken from the same tree.

MacRitchie Nature Trail 2013-06-02

Together with my friend, we meet up at Khatib MRT early in the morning to visit the MacRitchie Nature trail. Across the street opposite the station, we took bus 852 bound for Bukit Batok Interchange. Less than 30 minutes later, we get off at St. Theresa stop and proceed to the park.

We walked a few kilometers stopping here and there to listen and look for some birds. Unfortunately, the bird count was relatively poor. When we reached the Treetop walk, we decided to just continue along the trail instead of going back to where we came from at Marymount road. We're already at 4.6Km from the entrance. If we go back, we need to walk another 4.6Km, so we just decided to take the 10.2Km route to Bukit Timah which is only 5.6Km ahead.

View from the treetop walk

At one point after the Treetop walk, we could hear many sunbirds calling and we stopped in-front of a flowering tree. Here we were able to photograph a Crimson sunbird, which is the best bird of the day.

When we reached the end of the trail, we were expecting to reach the Bukit Timah Nature reserve. But we probably took a wrong turn earlier and didn't see the other trail. In the end, we just decided to call it a day and took bus 157 to get to the MRT station.

The marker at the end of the trail

 
We had lunch at Toa Payoh community center, then took the MRT to Novena. My friend wanted to visit the church there, so I accompanied him. After the short visit, we took the MRT home.

Here are the other pictures I was able to capture.

Squirrel gnawing on the bark 

Giant ant, about an inch long