Raptor Count 2016 in Tanjung Tuan

5th March 2016, Saturday was my first day of Raptor count and the 6th day of the Official Raptor count which had begun on 29th February 2016. Met fellow birdwatchers from Singapore who were Andy, Jacky, Han and Alyce. We were led by Oon Teik from KL. He had arrived earlier that Friday afternoon with Cheng Yam. I arrived later in the afternoon as I was recovering from a slight fever earlier that day. We had dinner at Weng Yin restaurant on Friday night and as we drove back to Kin Villa in Oon Teik's car, we spotted five (5) Large-Tailed Nightjars. We were up by 6.30am that Saturday morning, and headed out for breakfast by 7am. We climbed the stairs up towards the Tanjung Tuan Lighthouse, before 9am. With
wind/temperature/barometer reading tool, count sheet and our respective binoculars in hand, we waited for the arrival of the migratory raptors. Andy had a scope which made it easier to spot the raptors when these were in flight, further away from the lighthouse. Whilst waiting for the Oriental Honey Buzzards, some of the forest birds and resident raptors kept us company and fully occupied:) These included......  

Changeable Hawk Eagle. It flew above and around the lighthouse before perching on a dead branch high above the forest of Tanjung Tuan. Another picture of the CHE below:-

A pair of Orange-Bellied Flowerpecker were flitting about that morning amongst the trees that grew on the hill slope which rises above the rocky waters of Malacca Straits. The lighthouse serves as the warning beacon to caution passing ships against coming any closer to these rocky waters which form a part of the Malacca and Negeri Sembilan coastline.

The male and female Orange-Bellied Flowerpecker flew into the Cherry Tree that grew within the compounds of the lighthouse. This Cherry Tree provided us counters much needed shade from the hot sun.

The male Orange-Bellied Leafbird also had a lovely orange patch on its back as in picture below:-

Leaf monkey with baby in golden coat greeted us when we arrived at the lighthouse that morning at 8am.

Pink-necked pigeons, a pair (pics below) were perched on tree facing the rocky waters of the Malacca Straits. Also heard bulbuls singing away in the thick foliage and trees. Can only catch a glimpse of them when they flew. Bulbuls had such rich, bubbly songs and all I could see were their brown and olive green bodies. 

The Blue-throated Bee-Eater perched in this tree on top of the Tanjung Tuan forest, was counted that Saturday morning. Heard a few bee-eaters later that day but just couldn't see them against the bright skies.

A pair of Dollarbird were perched on the wire near the lighthouse building. One of the Dollarbirds caught a large cicada which buzzed in alarm and a very loud buzz indeed that morning. It was the Dollarbird's meal for that day. We saw this same pair again the following Sunday morning with another cicada. This lighthouse pair of Dollarbirds seem to be having a daily meal of cicadas!

Changeable Hawk Eagle appear to be a dark morph. It perched on this tree for quite sometime (see picture below):-

Thanks to Mark Ng for including me as part of the early March 2016 weekend count group. Thanks to Swee Seng for hosting the counters in Kin Villa. Seng had conducted a Raptor ID workshop earlier in February 2016, pointing out that the five (5) main migratory species were the Oriental Honey Buzzards, Japanese Sparrowhawk, Chinese Sparrowhawk/Goshawks, Grey-Faced Buzzards and Black Bazas. The next blog post will feature pictures of the Oriental Honey Buzzards and a resident Brahminy Kite.