Singapore Birding 2023: Friday 17 March 2023

We caught a few buses this morning and then walked across the park and along the main driveway. The birding appeared to begin quietly and certainly quieter than my previous visit. We managed to sight a Lineated Barbet at its nesting hole. However, it soon disappeared inside.

Straw-headed Bulbul

Bukit Batok Nature Park is known as a reliable site to find the Straw-headed Bulbul, a bird that is critically endangered globally. It remains heavily trapped across Southeast Asia due to high demand in the bird trade for its distinctive and melodious singing. We could hear them as we arrived but they were reluctant to give close views. We spent some time at the lookout point by the quarry searching for species, and added a disappointing few to the list.

Bukit Batok is one of a few disused granite quarries in Singapore that have been given new leases of life. The commanding craggy cliff walls and quarry lake take centre place in this park, and the granite rock face is apparently an astounding 200 million years old. The 36 hectare park which opened in 1988 also features a network of easy to moderate jungle tracks crisscrossing the secondary forest, leading all the way to the top of the 10 story high quarry cliff. There has been a landslip in the quarry recently which has changed the landscape a little and some of the bare roost trees have disappeared as well.

The granite cliff of the Bukit Batok quarry

This park also has a WWII history. Atop the hill where the transmission towers are now, the Japanese ordered the British and Australian Prisoners of War (POWs) to build a shrine to honour their war dead. The Syonan Chureito shrine and war memorial was a “40 foot high cylindrical pylon capped with a brass cone”. From 1942 to 1945 Shinto services and burial ceremonies were held regularly to honour Japanese soldiers who died in the war around the region. Behind the Shinto shrine was a 10 foot high cross that the Japanese had grudgingly allowed the POWs to build to honour the allied soldiers who perished. The memorial was destroyed however when the Japanese retreated defeated from Singapore, and all that remains today are the 120 steps up.

As we checked out the open clearing near the playground and toilet, a Cuckoo was spied. Initially ID'd as an Oriental Cuckoo it was later updated to a Himalayan Cuckoo the former having never been noted for Singapore. The Himalayan Cuckoo is a split from the Oriental. Although, it too is a rare sighting for this area and it has warranted some interested from the Singaporean birding community.

Greater Racket-tailed Drongo

Banded Woodpecker

As we moved back towards the bus stop and along a parallel trail to the road, we came across three Barred Woodpeckers very close to the path. Soon after, the very tame White-crested Laughingthrushes arrived to say hello and entertained us. The noise and chatter then brought in other species for us to enjoy for a while. The morning was warming, with humidity climbing today. After much needed refreshments (brunch) the rest of the team headed off to Dairy Farm and I called it quits for the day (that reads as tired, hot and sore). I made it back to the hotel in very short order and very easily on the local buses.