BY 2024 - Herman and Kit's 7th (!what?!) year

[Kitsafari]

267. Watercock

 

male skulking in the shadows

 

female was  more accommodating

[Kitsafari]

268. Yellow-vented Flowerpecker

 

[Kitsafari]

Some repeats

 

Asian Red-eyed Bulbul

 

Black-and-red Broadbill, Sungei Buloh Wetlands

 

Buffy Fish Owl

 

Coppersmith Barbet

 

Green Imperial Pigeon

 

Orange-bellied Flowerpecker

 

[Kitsafari]

Some special birds for Singapore.

 

269. Hooded Pitta

A regular migrant

[Kitsafari]

270. Mangrove Pitta

A rare resident

[Kitsafari]

271. Great Knot

A very rare migrant which is on the Endangered status

[Kitsafari]

272. Little Green Pigeon

A very rare resident that is very difficult to see. 

[Kitsafari]

273. White-throated Rock Thrush

A very rare vagrant that was last sighted 11 years ago. 

A beautiful male

 

[Kitsafari]

Next batch will take a long while to post. I've yet to go through the bird list for the Darwin trip (which was 1.5months ago!), let alone processing the photos! Herman is also still editing them and I suspect we are unlikely to finish before our next trip starts at the end of this month, but hopefully I can make a start first! thanks for the patience.  

[xelas]

4 hours ago, Kitsafari said:

A very rare vagrant that was last sighted 11 years ago. 

A beautiful male

 

How does you find all those rare visitors? Is there a FB group or similar with alerts?

 

[Kitsafari]

1 hour ago, xelas said:

 

How does you find all those rare visitors? Is there a FB group or similar with alerts?

 

 

Hi @xelasThere's a number of chat groups that share sightings of birds. The most important thing though is timely sharing as a rare species could stay for a few days re-fuelling and resting before flying off on the next stage of migration, or appear for a couple of hours. Many of these visitors are one-day birds. Of course such sharings on social media can feed a frenzy so the earlier we go to see it, the less crowded it is. 

 

[michael-ibk]

More great birds and photos Kit. (Somewhat surprisingly) I especially like the Pigeons. Pied Harrer is a bird I would really like to see, very cool raptor.

[Kitsafari]

On 7/8/2024 at 5:46 PM, michael-ibk said:

More great birds and photos Kit. (Somewhat surprisingly) I especially like the Pigeons. Pied Harrer is a bird I would really like to see, very cool raptor.

 

@michael-ibk

Thanks. Green pigeons are an awesome family of birds! seriously, you must have seen a pied harrier before? 

Edited July 21 by Kitsafari

[Kitsafari]

Time to go down under! 

In mid-May, we made a 6-day trip to Darwin, at the top end of the southern continent of Australia. We've not been to this area before. It was a pretty last-minute decision so we couldn't get a guide for a few days. But a very kind stranger - a Malaysian birder who lives and works near Darwin offered to bring us around nearby areas for one day, and gave us really good tips on where to find birds, and we managed to book a half-day boat trip of Buffalo Creek and a couple of more hours to bird in nearby places. We rented a SUV, but the rental agency gave us a massive MPV which we just managed to cope with but it came in useful on off-road drives. It's very easy to drive in Australia and we really love driving there (besides, it's also right-hand drive like in Singapore). 

Darwin is a small city in the Northern Territory and has a very tropical climate, minus the humidity when we were there in their winter in May. We had beautiful weather - sunny, dry and a bit breezy. We missed the migratory birds but the Northern Territory had enough of resident birds that were new to us, and quite a few different from those we saw in Western Australia five years ago.  

Northern Territory is actually so much more than just Darwin and its surrounding areas. We didn't have enough time to go to Kakadu national park nor further south to Katherine Gorge (for the Gouldian finches which we missed), so there is an excuse to return one day. The "furtherest" we had gone on this trip was to Corroboree Billabong which is about 2.5hrs drive from Darwin.  

 

The flight was only 4.5hrs from Singapore and, flying in, I was stunned by the clear blue and aquarmarine waters that bordered Darwin. But no one takes advantage of those beautiful clear waters, because, giant crocodiles and sharks are aplenty in those waters!

 

 

 

 

We stayed at a hotel right in front of the Esplanade park which had quite a few common birds, plus the barking owls which we discovered by chance one night when we returned to the hotel's car park after dinner and I heard those familiar barks. The staff did caution us not to walk around too much and alone after 9pm, but we didn't stay out too long.

 

I'll put up the birds in alphabetical order but all the places we were at, we went twice, except for Fogg Dam and Corroboree Billabong which were too far. 

First day : Esplanade, Darwin

2nd Day : Eastpoint far-end, Eastpoint mangrove board, Howard's Spring, McMinn's Lagoon

3rda day : Buffalo Creek, Lee Point, Eastpoint far-end, 

4th day : Corroboree Billabong, Fogg Dam

5th Day : Lee Point, Eastpoint mangrove board, Esplanade

6th day : Botanic gardens

 

274. Arafura Fantail, East Point

A very pretty and very quiet fantail that occurs only at the top end of Australia and in Port Moresby, PNG. 

 

  

 

Edited July 21 by Kitsafari

[Kitsafari]

275. Australasian Darter, Buffalo Creek

 

 

 

[Kitsafari]

276. Australasian Figbird, Lee Point/East Point/ Botanical Gardens

Distributed in northern and western Australia and PNG

 

male

female

 

Edited July 21 by Kitsafari

[Kitsafari]

277. Australian Ibis, Bicentenniel Park (the esplanade)

 

Described as Australia's bin chicken or dump chook, the Australian Ibis is so widespread in the continent that it has earned a bad rep as it is usually around rubbish bins. 

[Kitsafari]

278. Australian Tern, Rockshelf Nightcliff

 

[Kitsafari]

279. Australian Yellow White-eye, Buffalo Creek 

 

A bit of a  mouthful name, the white-eye is very yellow and ranges along the coastal areas of Western Australia and Northern Territory. 

 

 

[michael-ibk]

Great to see your Australian birds!

 

6 hours ago, Kitsafari said:

seriously, you must have seen a pied harrier before?

 

No, my only chance would have been India I think.

 

4 hours ago, Kitsafari said:

The staff did caution us not to walk around too much and alone after 9pm, but we didn't stay out too long.

 

Why, what is the safety issue? People?

[Kitsafari]

12 hours ago, michael-ibk said:

 

Why, what is the safety issue? People?

 

@michael-ibk yes - mainly robberies. We get that warning from the hotel staff in a few cities in Australia and the streets are pretty quiet all over Australia as in you don't see many people walking. But we did see a handful  of people jogging in the park just after 9pm . 

 

Edited July 22 by Kitsafari

[Kitsafari]

280. Bar-shouldered Dove, Bicentennial Park

distributed in West Papua, PNG and Australia.

 

 

[Kitsafari]

281. Beach Stone Curlew, East Point

Known as Beach Thick-Knee in eBird, this odd-looking bird has a coastal range from Southeast Asia to Australia. 

 

 

[Kitsafari]

282. Bush Thick-Knee, East Point/Hilton Garden Hotel car park

 

This bird surprised us when we got out of the car at the hotel car park after returning from dinner one night. It was walking around the car park catching insects and was unafraid of us making circles around it. Species is found mainly in Australia. 

 

 

 

[Kitsafari]

283. Black-faced Cuckooshrike, Fogg Dam