Tuesday, 1 January 2019

Singapore - Bukit Batok Nature Park - New Year Birds!


I spent New Years Day at Bukit Batok Nature Park which is about a km walk up from Bukit Timah Nature Reserve which looked as though it was very busy as I approached from Beauty MRT.

I was venturing into a thirty two ha area of secondary forest with paved trails and early morning joggers. This of course meant that birding was going to be tough with many species heard but not always seen. I am also getting to grips with resident species bulbuls, pigeons and sunbirds being the most regular at each site.

The main tactic for today was to find open areas of forest and sit and wait for the birds to come to me. This proved fruitful but I had to have my wits about me as some species whizzed over my head and were out of view in a couple of seconds.
I had a target species for the day Straw Headed Bulbul and it was not long before I had a couple of birds passing through the trees near the picnic table that I had set up watch from.
A Lineated Barbet was next up and a bit of phishing kept the bird interested long enough to get it on the cameras memory card. A White Throated Kingfisher also made a brief stop in a dead tree above my position.
I moved down to the old quarry and continued my watch literally bumping into a White Crested Laughingthrush which was bouncing along the path en route.
Brahminy Kite was in the area one passed over the quarry early afternoon.

Pin Striped Tit Babblers appeared to be nesting on the slope up to the War Memorial and Red Breasted Parakeets passed overhead early on.


The next couple of days are forecast to be fairly rain free therefore an adventure out of the city could be in order.
Happy Birding New Year to Everyone!

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