Singapore questions (1 Viewer)

[dwatsonbirder]

Hello,

I've a few questions ahead of a few days in Singapore next May/June, and wondered if anyone would be kind enough to assist me please? We will be staying at the Village Hotel Albert Court, which is hopefully fairly central and seemed comfortable without emptying my bank account...

- Any reliable locations for Otter in the city (Jurong Lake? Bishan Park? Gardens by the Bay?) and tips for catching up with them - I understand that the behaviour is considerably more sociable than Eurasian Otter!

- Any chance of Mangrove or Blue winged Pitta on Pulau Ubin, or possibly Botanical Gardens? I've found some old gen suggesting Jin Wat Siam/Mountain Bike trail junction or German Girl Shrine for Mangrove, and Chinese Garden at Jurong for Blue winged, but I would be indebted if anyone could give me more specific gen (PM welcome!). I'm hoping that the timing will be pretty much spot on for birds vocalising.

- Recommended areas/trails in the Botanical Gardens for general birding, or it is generally fairly good? Any good locations for Red-legged crake?

Thanks in advance for any assistance offered!

 

[DMW]

Can't answer most of your questions, but the best areas in the Botanical Gardens for Red-legged Crake have traditionally been the Heliconia Walk and Ginger Garden. Go early as the park gets busy by mid-morning.
For the otters, you could try Pasir Ris Park.
I recommend using the MTR for transport for more central locations, it's excellent and cheap.

 

[THE_FERN]

I don't know anything about Singapore but note one of the headline ebird images for the crake is from Windsor nature park

 

[lammergeier05]

I can help on this one as I visited Singapore as a stopover on a peninsular Malaysia trip this summer (late July). Both pittas were seen well and vocal and active. Mangrove was at 1.413821, 103.954823 in the center of the island. The best area for blue winged is apparently near the boardwalk and tower on the east side but I heard one at 1.413821, 103.954823 and did not go further. Recent reports find 6+ individuals in a day so they shouldn’t be too hard to hear, at least. I did not try the botanical gardens. Some other options include Dairy Farm Nature Park (Jambu Fruit Dove) which I did not visit, and Sungei Buloh (Milky Stork, captive bred, not technically countable), Neo Tiew Harvest Lane (Pied Imperial Pigeon) and Pas Ris Park (which held a staked out Spotted Wood Owl at the time of my visit) which I did

 

[dwatsonbirder]

Can't answer most of your questions, but the best areas in the Botanical Gardens for Red-legged Crake have traditionally been the Heliconia Walk and Ginger Garden. Go early as the park gets busy by mid-morning.
For the otters, you could try Pasir Ris Park.
I recommend using the MTR for transport for more central locations, it's excellent and cheap.

Thank you very much, I will try those areas early doors. Hopefully we will just bump into the Otters at some point.
The MTR looks the best bet for getting about, I have heard that taxi's are rather expensive!

 

[dwatsonbirder]

I can help on this one as I visited Singapore as a stopover on a peninsular Malaysia trip this summer (late July). Both pittas were seen well and vocal and active. Mangrove was at 1.413821, 103.954823 in the center of the island. The best area for blue winged is apparently near the boardwalk and tower on the east side but I heard one at 1.413821, 103.954823 and did not go further. Recent reports find 6+ individuals in a day so they shouldn’t be too hard to hear, at least. I did not try the botanical gardens. Some other options include Dairy Farm Nature Park (Jambu Fruit Dove) which I did not visit, and Sungei Buloh (Milky Stork, captive bred, not technically countable), Neo Tiew Harvest Lane (Pied Imperial Pigeon) and Pas Ris Park (which held a staked out Spotted Wood Owl at the time of my visit) which I did

Thank you so much Daniele, that is really helpful indeed and very much appreciated!
May I ask what sort of time the birds were vocal, and if it was easy to get to the island early am? Will you be writing a trip report?

 

[lammergeier05]

Pulau Ubin was every easy to get to. I actually landed at Changi on a red eye from Vancouver and cabbed it to the ferry terminal for around 7:15 am by which time regular ferry service had begun. You just need to wait for enough people to fill the boat which was ~10 minutes. (Introduced) Tanimbar Corellas were viewable during the ride. Unless you rent a bike you will take an hour walk to get to the pitta sites.

Bird activity throughout the trip was generally high. For example the pittas singing regularly (unprompted) at mid morning. I used the xenocanto app for bird songs in Malaysia. Merlin has a pack for Singapore but unlike in other regions many species’ songs aren’t included, beyond the ones considered sensitive on eBird. I haven’t written up a full report but you can see all my eBird checklists using the new trip report feature at https://ebird.org/tripreport/68857 and you’re welcome to ask any questions about any of the sites I visited or species I recorded. I only spent one and a half (very high pace) days in Singapore before transferring to Kuala Lumpur so I am not sure how much more info I can offer on Singapore.

 

[dwatsonbirder]

Pulau Ubin was every easy to get to. I actually landed at Changi on a red eye from Vancouver and cabbed it to the ferry terminal for around 7:15 am by which time regular ferry service had begun. You just need to wait for enough people to fill the boat which was ~10 minutes. (Introduced) Tanimbar Corellas were viewable during the ride. Unless you rent a bike you will take an hour walk to get to the pitta sites.

Bird activity throughout the trip was generally high. For example the pittas singing regularly (unprompted) at mid morning. I used the xenocanto app for bird songs in Malaysia. Merlin has a pack for Singapore but unlike in other regions many species’ songs aren’t included, beyond the ones considered sensitive on eBird. I haven’t written up a full report but you can see all my eBird checklists using the new trip report feature at https://ebird.org/tripreport/68857 and you’re welcome to ask any questions about any of the sites I visited or species I recorded. I only spent one and a half (very high pace) days in Singapore before transferring to Kuala Lumpur so I am not sure how much more info I can offer on Singapore.

Brilliant, thanks so much Daniele! I'll likely drop you a PM once I've had time to digest the info,but thank you very much in the meantime!