7th Singapore Raptor Watch Report 7th Singapore Raptor Watch Report Autumn 2014 Migration - 9 Nov 2014 by TAN Gim Cheong Oriental Honey Buzzards at Telok Blangah Hill Park, 9 Nov 14, by Alan OwYong. The 7th Singapore raptor watch was held on Sunday, 9 November 2014 and involved 52 participants across eight sites. It was another raptor watch of records! Record number of raptors - 2161 raptors counted (previous high was 1022 in the year 2012). - 1933 migrant raptors counted (previous high was 774 in the year 2012). 1 of 6 7th Singapore Raptor Watch Report This year's raptor watch was marked by a shift in 3 sites. Alan OwYong's team returned to Telok Blangah Hill Park after trying out Marina Barrage for the last few years and they were glad they did so as the raptors arrived in numbers over Telok Blangah. Tan Kok Hui & Danny Lau had to shift from Seletar West to Halus Wetlands due to ongoing construction works at their usual site. Lioe Kim Swee's team had to shift from Chek Jawa to Puaka Hill due to works at their usual site and Puaka Hill delivered! The count on Pulau Ubin was also supplemented by a morning count at Pekan Quarry. Puaka Hill, Pulau Ubin Halus Wetlands Pekan Quarry, Pulau Ubin Japanese Gardens Changi Business Park Kent Ridge Telok Blangah Hill Park Tuas South Figure 1 : 2014 Raptor Watch Sites. (source of basemap – maps.google.com.sg) The day started well with fine, partly cloudy weather and held more or less so throughout the day. This was in contrast with previous years where it would drizzle/rain in the mid afternoon. The 'slow' morning was made up for by a huge surge in the afternoon when hundreds of migrating Oriental Honey Buzzards flew across several sites. The peak period for raptor activity was between 13:00 to 15:00 hrs, a distinct shift from the peak of 11:00 to 13:00 hrs in previous years. Raptor Watch 2014 - Numbers by 1-hr Time Period 900 850 833 800 700 600 500 400 300 185 200 125 83 100 51 17 0 26 7-8 8-9 9-10 10-11 11-12 12-1 1-2 2-3 3-4 Figure 2 : Raptor numbers by 1-hour time periods 2 of 6 7th Singapore Raptor Watch Report 5 sites had between 225 to 551 raptors each, quite a good spread of raptors across the various sites. Another 3 sites had between 25 to 39 birds. The richest site in terms of number of raptors was Kent Ridge Park (with a high of 551 birds), followed by Telok Blangah Hill Park (458), Puaka Hill (447), Tuas South (380) and Japanese Garden (225). SITE Kent Telok Ubin Tuas Japanese Halus Ubin Changi Grand Ridge Blangah Puaka South Garden Wetlands Pekan Business Total Park Hill Park Hill Quarry Park TOTAL 551 458 447 380 225 39 36 25 2161 Figure 3 : Total counts by Site (descending order) The 1933 migrant raptors were identified to nine species, an incredible jump from last year's 292 birds and another 132 probable migrants were un-identified, also a jump from last year's 31 birds probably because birders are getting better at spotting dots in the sky! This year, the high count at 5 sites is notable. Kent Ridge had the highest count of 510 migrant raptors, followed by Telok Blangah Hill Park with 455. Close behind was Tuas South with 366 migrant raptors, then Puaka Hill with 344 migrant raptors and Japanese Garden with 206 migrant raptors. The nine migrant species recorded included rarities such as a single Booted Eagle and a single Jerdon's Baza, both seen at Halus Wetlands. Observers at Kent Ridge Park was well rewarded with 3 Greater Spotted Eagles in the afternoon, flying together with flocks of Oriental Honey Buzzards. A single Osprey was recorded at Japanese Garden. Peregrine Falcons were recorded at Kent Ridge Park, Puaka Hill and Pekan Quarry. As for the resident species, the single Crested Serpent Eagle at Puaka Hill, Pulau Ubin was notable. Kent Ridge Park was the only site with Crested Goshawks (3 birds). This species was also recorded there in previous years. Pekan Quarry was the only site with records of Grey-headed Fish Eagles, and a pair was observed mating. RW 2014 - Raptor sub-totals by Site Migrants Un-Identified Residents 600 510 500 455 366 400 344 300 206 200 100 77 28 25 26 20 8 6613 13 0 3 2 12 15 1 12 3 10 0 Tuas South Japanese Kent Ridge Park Telok Blangah Halus Wetlands Ubin Puaka Hill Ubin Pekan Changi Garden Hill Park Quarry Business Park Figure 4 : Raptor Sub-totals by Site 3 of 6 7th Singapore Raptor Watch Report The richest site, by migrant species, was Kent Ridge Park with 6 migrant species. This was followed by Halus Wetlands and Puaka Hill - both with 5 migrant species. Notably, Tuas South had the least number of migrant species - only 2. The other sites had between 3 to 4 migrant species. RW 2014 - Species Richness by Site 6 55 4 4 4444 3 3 3 3 3 2 2 Tuas South Japanese Kent Ridge Park Telok Blangah Halus Wetlands Ubin Puaka Hill Ubin Pekan Changi Business Garden Hill Park Quarry Park Migrants Residents Figure 5 : Species Richness by Site The most numerous migrant raptor was the Oriental Honey Buzzard with 1710 birds, more than 12 times compared to last year's 140 birds! The Black Baza was a distant second with 141 birds, the bulk of which (125 birds) were recorded at Puaka Hill, Pulau Ubin. In third place was the Japanese Sparrowhawk with 67 birds (22 were at Telok Blangah Hill Park, with the rest distributed across all the other sites). Next was the Chinese Sparrowhawk with 5 birds. There were 3 Greater Spotted Eagles, 3 Peregrine Falcons, 1 Booted Eagle, 1 Jerdon's Baza, and 1 Osprey. There were another 132 unidentified raptors, the majority likely to be migrants. Of these 132, 10 at Puaka Hill were suspected to be Grey-faced Buzzards, an uncommon migrant for Singapore. S/N Species (Migrants) Count 1 Oriental Honey Buzzard Pernis ptilorhyncus 1710 2 Black Baza Aviceda leuphotes 141 3 Japanese Sparrowhawk Accipiter gularis 67 4 Chinese Sparrowhawk Accipiter soloensis 5 5 Peregrine Falcon Falco peregrinus 4 6 Greater Spotted Eagle Aquila clanga 3 7 Booted Eagle Hieraaetus pennatus 1 8 Jerdon's Baza Aviceda jerdoni 1 9 Osprey Pandion haliaetus 1 Total Migrant Raptors 1933 10 Unid. Raptor 52 11 Unid. Accipiter 80 Total Unidentified Raptors (probably migrant) 132 Figure 6 : Migrant Raptors Counted 4 of 6 7th Singapore Raptor Watch Report The 1710 Oriental Honey Buzzards were fairly well spread out across 5 sites delighting the observers. Based on the difference in the timing of the flocks and known flight paths, double counting seemed to be minimal. Counters at Telok Blangah Hill Park took care to discount those birds seen nearer to Kent Ridge Park. Oriental Honey Buzzard by Sites, RW14 600 481 500 431 400 357 300 197 215 200 100 12 98 0 Tuas South Japanese Kent Ridge Telok Halus Ubin Puaka Ubin Pekan Changi Garden Park Blangah Hill Wetlands Hill Quarry Business Park Park Figure 7 : Distribution of Oriental Honey Buzzards across the sites The most numerous resident raptor was the Brahminy Kite with 49 birds, followed by the White-bellied Sea Eagle with 20 birds and the Changeable Hawk Eagle with 17 birds, similar to last year's line up. There were 4 Black-winged Kites and 2 Grey-headed Fish Eagles. The 3 Crested Goshawks showed up at Kent Ridge; their regular site. A single Crested Serpent Eagle was recorded at Puaka Hill. S/N Species (Residents) Count 1 Brahminy Kite Haliastur indus 49 2 White-bellied Sea Eagle Haliaeetus leucogaster 20 3 Changeable Hawk Eagle Spizaetus cirrhatus 17 4 Black-winged Kite Elanus caeruleus 4 5 Crested Goshawk Accipiter trivirgatus 3 6 Grey-headed Fish Eagle Ichthyophaga ichthyaetus 2 7 Crested Serpent Eagle Spilornis cheela 1 Total Resident Raptors 96 Figure 8 : Resident Raptors Counted Summary Number of raptors 2161 raptors counted, including: - 1933 migrant raptors. - 132 unidentified raptors. - 96 resident raptors. Number of species 16 species counted, including: - 9 migrant species. - 7 resident species. 5 of 6 7th Singapore Raptor Watch Report A complete breakdown of the species counted at each site is presented in the table below: SITE Tuas Japanese Kent Telok Halus Ubin Ubin Changi Grand South Garden Ridge Blangah Wetlands Puaka Pekan Business Total Park Hill Park Hill Quarry Park SITE TOTAL 380 225 551 458 39 447 36 25 2161 Migrants = 1933 Total Osprey 1 1 Jerdon's Baza 1 1 Black Baza 8 2 3 125 3 141 Oriental Honey Buzzard 357 197 481 431 12 215 9 8 1710 Chinese Sparrowhawk 3 1 1 5 Japanese Sparrowhawk 9 8 14 22 8 2 3 1 67 Greater Spotted Eagle 3 3 Booted Eagle 1 1 Peregrine Falcon 1 1 2 4 Residents = 96 Black-winged Kite 2 2 4 Brahminy Kite 2 4 7 2 3 15 10 6 49 White-bellied Sea Eagle 1 1 1 5 4 6 2 20 Grey-headed Fish Eagle 2 2 Crested Serpent Eagle 1 1 Crested Goshawk 3 3 Changeable Hawk Eagle 1 1 2 1 2 6 2 2 17 Un-identified = 132 Unid. Accipiter 7 13 28 1 30 1 80 Unid. Eagle 2 2 Unid. Raptor 1 1 45 1 2 50 Figure 9 : Raptor numbers by Site and break down of Species Thanks to all the 52 wonderful people, both leaders and participants, for spending their Sunday in the hot sun counting raptors.