Introducing Black Dillenia

As part of a research module that NWQ and I are currently taking, a new blog has been created to document our observations. Have a look!

Black Dillenia (http://blackdillenia.wordpress.com)

Systems at Peril: Climate Change, Agriculture and Biodiversity in Australia

Thanks to Alan Goh for sharing this with me!

Though the seminar is in the Australian context, there is still much for Singapore to learn. We are merely countries apart; globally connected.

Feathered Friends at NUS 200209

It started with a Yellow-Vented Bulbul (Pycnonotus goiavier)...

...and a few moments later, the quiet of the otherwise peaceful evening was broken by very loud and discordant "AARRK-AARRK-AARRK!" cries made by one of the following - ...

...a cockatoo!

Whoa..had two sightings of birds that I have never seen before in the wild in a matter of minutes! Though drained after a very long day at school, I suddenly found the energy to go bird-stalking. Haha. If not for meeting and Meryl and Lynette, I wouldn't have had the chance to end the day on such a high note :) However, I did feel like kicking myself when I realised that the long shots I took of the cockatoos (YES, there were like three or more of them 'obediently' perched on a branch) were aimed too high/low and contained no birds. Argh. Didn't have a chance to take more shots upon this realisation as they had all flown to a tree opposite the road, too high up for a good shot. Argh.

Acknowledgements:

As I initially had no idea what the first bird was, I googled 'cockatoo' and one of the websites to come up was from ClubSNAP which solved the 'mystery' for me. See the page which has close-up and clear shots of both the Yellow-Vented Bulbul and cockatoo.

Thoughts:

First and foremost, I really have to do something about my 'shaky' hands problem. It gets bad when I get excited at a new sighting.

In case you were wondering, we were at the bus-stop outside the OED which is just opposite Raffles Hall and the Kuok Foundation House. I've often heard bird cries at that bus-stop while waiting for the internal shuttle bus.

Back to the unidentified cockatoo. As they all stayed pretty high up and I only saw their underside, it's hard to tell exactly what species they are. Some species of cockatoos with white plumage which can be found in Singapore are the Sulphur-crested Cockatoo (Cacatua galerita), White Cockatoo (Cacatua alba) and Tanimbar Corella (Cacuata goffiniana). Edit: There's also the Yellow-Crested Cockatoo (Cacatua sulphurea) as pointed out by Ivan. Thanks! See his full comment for more info.

For more posts of birds sighted at NUS, take a look at KS's blog entry here.