A White-bellied Sea Eagle's nest

The White-bellied Sea Eagle is one of the largest resident raptors (bird of prey) found in Singapore. The markings on this bird are unmistakable. It has a white head, neck and underparts, with white upperwing-coverts contrasting sharply with blackish flight feathers. The juvenile may be a bit more confusing to the untrained eye but still easily identifiable.

White-bellied Sea Eagles. The female is the bigger one.

I was very fortunate to have spotted this nest. The parent birds have chosen to build their very large nest on a dead tree at the edge of a big field, which happened to be right next to a busy expressway! Food was not a problem because this was near a reservoir with plenty of fishes.

When I found them, the eggs have already hatched and I could see two chicks. The parents usually came back with food for them in the mornings. Maybe they fed them in the afternoons too but I was not there to witness it. As the nestlings grew bigger, they stood up more when eating their food and it gave me more opportunities to photograph them. Most of the time, one parent would be perched on a nearby tree to keep an eye on the young ones. I have seen crows trying to harass them and the parent would swoop down to drive them away. 

Adult caught a fish and came back to feed the chicks.

As the nestlings grew stronger, they frequently flapped their wings while standing on the nest to build their wing muscles. It soon progressed to the point where they were able to lift themselves several inches off the nest and they may spend time perched on nearby branches.

Testing testing...

I am very happy to say that these two chicks fledged successfully. White-bellied Sea Eagles are known to mate for life and reuse their nests. Unfortunately, this particular host tree was not a very large one. There was some construction going on nearby and over time, the nest fell apart and is no longer there. Hopefully, the parents have found a better location the following breeding season and the juveniles are doing well.

Juvenile learning to fly.

Spending more time out of the nest.

 

Birdwatching at Tampines Eco Green

Tampines Eco Green is a 36-hectare park bordered by Sungei Tampines (Tampines River), Tampines Expressway (TPE) and Tampines Ave 12. As the human traffic in this park is low, it is an excellent place for birding. With the exception of the pathways, many parts of the park are left as is. There is a secondary forest, freshwater wetlands and open grasslands. This is a green oasis among the housing estates in the Tampines/Pasir Ris area. It is not uncommon to see raptors perched on some of the dead trees found all over the park.

Start of trail near main entrance.

Open grassland.

Shaded trails.

Ashy Minivet.

Lesser Coucal.

Rufous Woodpeckers.

Oriental Honey-buzzard.

Black-winged Kite.

Blue-throated Bee-eater.

Some of the birds I have seen here are:

Red-breasted Parakeet
Rose-ringed Parakeet
White-breasted Waterhen
Sooty-headed Bulbul
Yellow-vented Bulbul
Common Flameback
Laced Woodpecker
Sunda Woodpecker
Rufous Woodpecker
Brown Shrike
Yellow-bellied Prinia
Dollarbird
Blue-throated Bee-eater
Blue-tailed Bee-eater
Black-winged Kite
Brahminy Kite
Oriental Honey-buzzard
Jerdon's Baza
Malaysian Pied Fantail
Oriental Magpie Robin
Javan Myna
Ashy Minivet
Asian Brown Flycatcher
Little Bronze Cuckoo
Plaintive Cuckoo
Large-billed Crow
Common Kingfisher
White-throated Kingfisher
Olive-backed Sunbird
Scarlet-backed Flowerpecker
Common Tailorbird
Baya Weaver
Pied Triller
Common Iora
Black-naped Oriole
Zebra Dove
Pink-necked Green Pigeon
Rock Pigeon

How to get there

The main entrance is located at the junction of Tampines Ave 9 and Ave 12. There are no car parks here. If you are driving, please park at one of the public car parks near Sun Plaza Park.

If going by train, alight at Tampines MRT and make your way to Sun Plaza Park and follow the MRT track. After crossing Tampines Ave 9, walk a short distance along Tampines Ave 12 and you will find the entrance to the park.

There are buses from the bus interchange at Tampines MRT that will take you a little closer to the park entrance, but I find that the wait for the buses are not worth it and the walking distance saved is not very much.

Birdwatching at Nam Sang Wai, Hong Kong

In April this year, I visited some popular birding places in Hong Kong with the intention to photograph the birds rather than just watch them. I brought along a 300mm F4 lens, a 1.4x extender, an APS-C camera body and a monopod. This setup fits nicely into a compact photo backpack and allowed me to walk pretty long distances without getting very tired.

Nam Sang Wai

This is a wetland area located in Yuen Long and very popular with birdwatchers and photographers during low tide, especially if it coincides with the early morning or late afternoon hours. The Inner Deep Bay, Mai Po Nature Reserve and the Hong Kong Wetland Park are nearby and it is not surprising to find shorebirds moving between these few areas for food.

This scenic area, consisting of mainly fish ponds and farms, is bordered by Kam Tin River and Shan Pui River. It became very famous in 2003 when a 1.5m saltwater crocodile (most likely someone's pet) was found here and evaded capture for many weeks! Pui Pui is now residing at the HK Wetland Park.

If you wish to walk the entire Nam Sang Wai Road, it is doable and about 5km long. The best place to start birding is at location A. Walk towards B and end at C. Look out for birds on both sides of the river.

What you will see on a good day at location A. This was taken a few years ago.

What I saw recently on a not-so-good day at location A.

Pied Kingfisher. This kingfisher hovers before diving to catch fish.

Chinese Pond Heron flying off with a mudskipper meal.

Black-faced Spoonbill with catch.

Plain Prinia.

Yellow-bellied Prinia singing its heart out.

Selfie hotspot known as the Nam Sang Wai Little Wooden Bridge.

Crossing the river the old-fashioned way at Location C.

Press bell for ferry.

How to get there

The quickest way to get to location A is by taxi (green ones) from nearby Yuen Long MTR Station. This will save you a lot of walking unless you plan to do so. Please make sure you get the taxi company's telephone number if you wish to call them to pick you up after the walk. When you get to location C, you may want to consider taking the one and only river-crossing ferry in Hong Kong. After crossing the river, follow the signs to Yuen Long MTR Station. You will arrive at a bus-stop for mini buses. Ask for help if you do not know which bus to take to the station.

This was my bird list at Nam Sang Wai on 5 Apr 2019 morning. I was there to look for a pair of rare Glossy Ibises not seen in Hong Kong since 1994. Unfortunately, they chose to feed elsewhere that morning.

Common Redshank
Spotted Redshank
Common Greenshank
Common Sandpiper
Marsh Sandpiper
Pied Avocet
Black-winged Stilt
Little Egret
Great Egret
Grey Heron
Chinese Pond Heron
Black-crowned Night Heron
Black-faced Spoonbill
Plain Prinia
Yellow-bellied Prinia
White Wagtail
Pied Kingfisher
Black-capped Kingfisher
Common Kingfisher
Black Kite
Chinese Bulbul
Red-whiskered Bulbul
Common Koel
Cormorants
White-breasted Waterhen
Common Moorhen
Spotted Dove
Collared Crow
Masked Laughingthrush
Oriental Magpie Robin
Greater Coucal
Swallows

Birdwatching at Hong Kong Mai Po Nature Reserve (2018)

If you wish to learn more about Mai Po Nature Reserve, you may want to read my first article here, or visit their website for more information.

After an interval of 4 years, I re-visited Mai Po this year in the second half of November. Not just once, but 3 times! My sister, who lives in Hong Kong, managed to book me on 3 different tours:

• WWF - Exploring Mai Po (3 hours)
• WWF - Mangrove Boardwalk (4 hours)
• Birdwatching at Mai Po with the Hong Kong Birdwatching Society (6 hours)

The first 2 tours are conducted by World Wildlife Fund - Hong Kong volunteers. You pay a fee, which should be considered more of a donation to the reserve. The 3rd walk with the HK Birdwatching Society includes birding at one of the Mangrove Boardwalk hides and priority is given to members. This is a highly popular walk with serious birders. I was on the waiting list for quite long and lucky me was given a spot a few days just before the walk!

Exploring Mai Po is a walk that introduces the visitor to the main features of Mai Po - the intertidal ponds, fish ponds and bird hides. You get to do a little bit of birdwatching at the only 3-storey hide in the reserve. The walk takes you to the Education Centre and back. Look out for a Pied Kingfisher that shows up frequently at the pond next to the Centre. The Pied Kingfisher has a habit of hovering before diving for fish!

Intertidal ponds.

View from the 3-storey bird hide.

The Mangrove Boardwalk takes you to the famous floating boardwalk in the middle of the largest mangrove forest in Hong Kong. This boardwalk was built by volunteers and floats according to the tide levels. The boardwalk 'floats' because it is supported by floating drums on both sides which are anchored to the ground by chains. On this particular day, it was low tide when we visited the hide and there were not many birds to be seen. But it was still a good day with 36 bird species in my list.

Volunteer guides, Peter and Judy, for the Mangrove Boardwalk tour.

Inner Deep Bay mudflat on a low tide day.

One of the Mangrove Boardwalk birding hides.

The last session in late Nov with the HK Birdwatching Society was the most exciting for me because we spent almost 2 hours at the mangrove hide looking at migratory birds feeding at Deep Bay. It was high tide at noon and was a suitable time for watching shorebirds when we got there. It was such an experience for me because most of the shorebirds were not commonly seen in Singapore and I got to learn from the experts how to identify them. I saw 53 bird species on this day! See list below.

Migratory birds feeding close to the hides during high tide.

The Floating Boardwalk.

Most of these tours are conducted in Cantonese. It does help to speak their language or have someone with you who does. Otherwise, look out for the English tours, which may not be so frequent.

NOTE: This is a restricted area and permits to visit are required, especially to the Floating Boardwalk. Please book the tours in advance or look for professional birding guides who can make all the necessary arrangements for you.

This is my birding list for the 25 Nov 2018 tour with the HK Birdwatching Society:

Spotted Dove
Eurasian Collared Dove
Asian Azure-winged Magpie
Oriental Magpie Robin
Siberian Stonechat
Little Bunting
Yellow-browed Warbler
Japanese White-eye
Masked Laughingthrush
Plain Prinia
Cinereous Tit
Common Koel (female)
Chinese Pond Heron
Grey Heron
Purple Heron
Black-crowned Night Heron
Great Cormorant
Collared Crow
Black-collared Starling
White Wagtail
Red-whiskered Bulbul
Chinese Bulbul
Little Grebe
Common Moorhen
White-breasted Waterhen
Common Kingfisher
White-throated Kingfisher
Yellow Bittern
Little Egret
Great Egret
Black-faced Spoonbill
Eurasian Spoonbill
Common Sandpiper
Wood Sandpiper
Marsh Sandpiper
Common Greenshank
Common Redshank
Eurasian Curlew
Pacific Golden Plover
Grey Plover
Little Ringed Plover
Kentish Plover
Bar-tailed Godwit
Temminck's Stint
Pied Avocet
Black-winged Stilt
Dunlin
Black-headed Gull
Northern Shoveler
Northern Pintail
Garganey
Tufted Duck
Osprey

Birdwatching at Pasir Ris Park

Pasir Ris Park is a very large park, with a 6.6km stretch of coast and is located at the North-eastern part of Singapore. It has 3 sections. The first section stretches from the Pasir Ris Farmway area until Sungei Api-api (Sungei means river in Malay). The 2nd section is located between Sungei Api-api and Sungei Tampines. The 3rd section is connected to Downtown East, a playground with holiday chalets.

My favourite section of the park is the 2nd section, where there is a small plot of mangrove forest next to Sungei Tampines. This area has been very happening for the last few years because many bird species have been spotted here. They include the Spotted Wood Owl, Buffy Fish Owl, Sunda Scops Owl, Oriental Pied Hornbill, Red Junglefowl, Stork-billed Kingfisher, Black-crowned Night Heron, Malaysian Pied Fantail and a Grey Heron heronry. If you are really lucky, you may even see wild boars and Smooth-coated Otters! It is not unusual to find bird photographers with their bazooka lenses looking for their favourite birds there at any time of the day.

Getting here is easy. Take the MRT East-West line to Pasir Ris Station and walk towards Pasir Ris Park. Look for Car Park B or Car Park C. These two places are good locations to start your birdwatching.

Happy birding!

Mangrove forest at Sungei Tampines.

Red Junglefowl. Isn't he handsome?

Nesting Malaysian Pied Fantail.

Black-crowned Night Heron.

Laced Woodpecker.

White-throated Kingfisher.

Smooth-coated Otters.

HK Nature Walk - Mai Po Nature Reserve

There is a very important piece of wetland that lies in the north-western corner of Hong Kong - the Mai Po and Inner Deep Bay Ramsar Site. The Ramsar Convention's mission is "the conservation and wise use of all wetlands through local, regional and national actions and international cooperation, as a contribution towards achieving sustainable development throughout the world". Not every wetland qualifies to be a Ramsar site because a number of ecological criterion must be met. Hong Kong was invited to the Convention in 1979.

In 1995, the Hong Kong Government designated the Inner Deep Bay area as a Ramsar site, which means it has an international obligation to protect its valuable wetlands. This 2,700-hectare site is home to a diversity of habitats supporting a wide range of species, and it is a haven for migratory birds to rest and feed. Hong Kong lies at the mid-point of the East-Asian Australasian Flyway and as many as 20,000 to 30,000 shorebirds regularly use the site's inter-tidal mudflats, feeding on the fish, shrimps and crabs among the mangroves.

Mai Po Nature Reserve is a 380-hectare area in Deep Bay. It has been managed by WWF-Hong Kong (World Wildlife Fund, not World Wrestling Federation!) since 1983, where staff and volunteers carry out habitat and infrastructure management, research and monitoring, community, wetland training, education and visitor marketing works.

Access to Mai Po is restricted and you must apply for a permit. To make things easier, WWF-HK organises guided tours for visitors with different interest levels.

Last November, I finally made my first visit to Mai Po after talking about it for several years. It was a much bigger place than Hong Kong Wetland Park and had more birds.

Traditional shrimp ponds called gei wai. Not only do they support lots of aquatic and marine life, they are also a food source for other wildlife such as waterbirds, mammals and reptiles.

The tall buildings in the distance were in Shenzhen. Yes, we were that close.

Getting briefed by a WWF-HK volunteer.

Water lily pond.

Lots of waterfowl spend their winter months here.

The highlight for me was the Mangrove Forest and the Floating Boardwalk. This was in the Frontier Closed Area (FCA) where yet another permit was required.

The boardwalk floated because it was not anchored firmly to the ground. It was constructed on top of planks which were secured on top of pairs of plastic drums. During low tide, the drums sat on the mud and the boardwalk was stable and easy to walk on. However, during high tide, the drums floated and the boardwalk became a little bouncy. This was an interesting design because it meant the boardwalk would always remain above the highest tide levels.

The forest was another surprise for me. I have never seen such a thick mangrove forest where the trees seemed to go on forever. It was definitely quite different from the mangrove forests we have back home.

The famous Floating Boardwalk which lead to a hide facing Deep Bay. The mangrove was within a fenced up area and we entered it under the watchful eyes of a couple of policemen. The distance to the hide was about 1.8km.

Sparring Fiddler Crabs. Did you notice one has a large LEFT claw while the other has a large RIGHT claw?

At the end of the boardwalk was a floating hide and there was this huge expanse of mudflat in front. There were many small little bumps on the mudflat which I realised later were lots and lots of crabs and mudskippers. I finally understood why so many thousands of birds stop by Mai Po to feed because there was so much food for them there. This place will definitely be on my to-visit list when I visit Hong Kong again.

The mudflat at Deep Bay facing Shenzhen. There must be millions of crabs and mudskippers and other creatures feeding there during low tide. There were also birds feeding out there.

How to get there

From MTR stations Sheung Shui or Yuen Long, you can take a green taxi to the entrance of the nature reserve. The ride is about 15 to 20 minutes and costs not more than HKD80.

If you prefer to take the public or mini bus, which is definitely cheaper, you have to alight outside Mai Po Village and walk about 20-30 minutes to the reserve entrance. For what buses to take, please refer to the Getting There instructions at the WWF-HK Mai Po web site.

Admission

Access to Mai Po is restricted and there are daily quotas. Please apply early for your permits to avoid disappointment.

For overseas visitors, you can become a member of WWF-HK and apply for a one-year permit. Or you may apply for a single visit permit if you satisfy certain criteria. Please check the latest fees and instructions for permits on the website.

There are guided tours organised by WWF-HK too. Please check the website for the latest information.

Tip

This is a great place to visit if you are a hard-core nature lover. Spring and autumn are good for watching migratory shorebirds. Winter is a good time to look for waterbirds. Binoculars is a must, having a telescope is even better. Be prepared to do a lot of walking because some of the hides are located at least 2km away from the entrance. If you want to photograph birds, bring the longest telephoto lens you own but make sure you can walk long distances with your heavy equipment.

Mai Po is not for everyone. If walking long distances to get to a hide, or waiting patiently for a particular bird to appear is not your cup of tea, I suggest you visit Hong Kong Wetland Park instead. HKWP is easily accessible by public transport and the visitor centre has loads of educational information about wetlands.