Sungai Buloh (October 27)

A lovely Saturday morning and I made a long overdue trip to Sungai Buloh to see what are the migratory birds from the Northern Hemisphere (Japan, China, Siberia)  that have arrived to Singapore. I was gamely rewarded with a sighting of the Bar-tailed Godwit at the main hide, 1A (the hide directly after the main bridge)

Bar-tailed Godwit

Other sightings spotted here were groups of Whimbrels, Marsh Sandpipers, Little Egrets and 3-4 Intermediate Egrets. The Bar-tailed Godwit i saw was the only one and it was very active, hunting for mud worms, etc in which during my observation, it caught a few.

At observation point 1.2, the beautiful and large Milky Stork's were busily feeding gave me some good shots, but very few of them looking up. There were 5 Milky stork's feeding in that group, one of the largest i seen so far in a group.

Milky Stork's busily feeding 

Observation point 1B drews more rewards, with sightings of 2 more Milky Storks (different from the below) preening themselves and a solitary Otter catching its breakfast for the day. Right below where i was standing, was a water snake (sorry i haven't check what tye of snake it is). There, we sighted the Reef Heron together with a Chinese Egret (a globally threaten bird), feeding on the rocks on the Johore Strait, but i am not able to take close up shots of it because of the great distance, but a birdwatcher with a spotting scope allowed me to take closer look of it. The Chinese Egret definitely drew the attention of several bird photographers.

Otter

water snake 

Milky Stork preening itself 

Other waders that were present included the Pacific Golden Plover, Common Greenshank, Common Redshank and Marsh Sandpiper.

Pacific Golden Plover 

When at the bird hide's or huts, it is good to look up at the roofing above to spot for any snakes. At one of the hides, we saw the beautiful Paradise Tree Snake, a mildly poisonous snake to humans, but deadly to small reptiles.

Paradise Tree Snake 

unable to identify

The juvenile Estuarine Crocodile (estimated 1 meter long) basking on a log behind some trees was the icing on top of the cake for today's great outing of the birds, reptiles and a mammal i saw today.

Estuarine Crocodile