Singapore Pelagic - Saturday, 22 September 2018

[Elaine Cook]

Dear All,

Further to my posting in January, I am chartering a boat for a 10 person pelagic on Saturday, 22 September from 6.30 am to 2.30 pm and would be pleased to hear from anyone interested in joining on a cost-shared basis.  Three places are definitely filled and five more are awaiting firm confirmations.  I will run a waiting list.

Kind regards,

Elaine Cook

ela...@elainecook.info

On 24 January 2018 at 18:53, Elaine Cook <ela...@elainecook.info> wrote:

Dear All,

Chances are that I'll be in Singapore on Sat and Sun 22 and 23 September.  I understand that the Singapore Bird Group often run a pelagic trip about that time and I was wondering if anyone knows the date for 2018?  

If anyone has advice on whether it's worthwhile riding the ferries from Singapore to Indonesia to look for Swinhoe's Petrels, I'd be delighted to hear details of which routes might be most worthwhile.

Finally, if the Singapore Bird Group pelagic is not on that weekend, I'd be pleased to hear from anyone interested in joining me for a charter on a cost-shared basis.

Best to all,

Elaine Cook

ela...@elainecook.info

[Elaine Cook]

Dear All,

Two boats went out together on Saturday, 22 September 2018

Here’s what the Nature Society of Singapore boat recorded (courtesy of Alan OwYong)

Swinhoe’s Storm Petrels 532 (the highest total since they started keeping records in 2011)

Bridled Tern 136

Lesser-crested Tern 25

Greater-crested Tern 18

Aleutian Tern 8

Little Tern 4

Whiskered Tern 1

Lesser Frigatebird 1 - second record for Singapore if accepted (I missed it, sadly)

Barn Swallow 10

Swiftlet spp 6

Brahminy Kite 3

Similar was seen by the other boat - chartered by Subaraj Rajathurai (Strix Wildlife Consultancy - wildlifec...@subaraj.com)

plus a single White-faced Storm-petrel.

For others who may be interested in going on a pelagic from Singapore, here’s what I learned about options.

The difficult to get on option is (1) join the Nature Society of Singapore and sign up for the Bird Group.  This group runs a pelagic every September and maybe in the spring too.  But they don’t decide on the date until about a month ahead of time - tricky if you’re trying to combine with another trip.  About 15 August, start daily checking the Bird Group page on the NSS website (https://www.nss.org.sg) to see if the pelagic is listed.  (2) when you see it listed, sign up instantly - there will only be about 8 places and they go within hours.  Don’t wait for the email announcing it unless you happen to be in the same time zone …  

The more expensive but easier to ensure getting out on the sea is to email Subaraj at the above address and ask him to charter a boat for you on the day of your choice.  Here’s info cut from an email about this:

The boat can carry a maximum of 10 passengers. The cost is SGD 1,500/- and this charter is for up to 8 hours. We normally book the boat between 6.30am to 2.30pm, to ensure a quicker clearance by the customs boat before we head for the international shipping channel, between Singapore and the nearest Indonesia island chain, where the seabird passage occurs. We will patrol these Straits of Singapore for most of our pelagic.  If the cost sounds prohibitive or if there is nobody else on your side, the normal arrangement that I make is to open the pelagic to some local birders and try and fill up 6 spaces, if you are willing to cover the remaining 4 spaces (SGD600/-).

Subaraj told me that he’s never failed to find sufficient local birders to make up numbers, so this may not be as risky as it sounds at first reading.  SGD 1,500 is about USD 1,100 or GBP 850 on 5 Oct 2018. 

Hope that helps those interested.

Kind regards,

Elaine

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