24 September 2006, Sunday

Spent Sunday morning in a cemetery, but not just any cemetery... it's the Bukit Brown Chinese Cemetery! Finally got to see this place after hearing so much about it that it's almost legendary... Was not disapointed, with the first sighting being a whole tree of squawking long-tailed parakeets, in their brilliant green tinged with pink plummage. Sharing the tree with a lone dollarbird.

Being the first to arrive, I could take in the sight of usually elusive birds coming out to enjoy the early rays of the day.... an iridiscent flamebacked woodpecker preening itself....turned out to be 1 of only 2 I saw for the day, though their distinctive calls seem to be stalking us. While the crowd gathered, a flock of purple-backed starlings (lifer!) came swooping on the bare branches vacated by the parakeets. Migrants who have been spotted here last year. This is the place that changed my mind - I'm definitely going to get a scope this year....

Anyway, we had much fun checking out bird nests (iora's?), looking at carvings on the tombstones - which year they died, the figure (like Nezha and the Chinese equivalent of an angel). Particularly striking was an extra large tombstone, flanked by two Gurkha guards with a
guard dog each.

The much touted raptors did not appear, though we spotted a small one hovering above with black tips against white belly, supposedly a sparrowhawk.... which I read counts kingfisher as a favourite food.... so it's good luck to the 2 white-throated kf I saw earlier... Kim spotted something else on her way out but unidentifiable ....

I'll be going again soon..... with a scope to shoot on sight and decipher later....