In the continuing series of boat trips into the Straits of Singapore organized by Colin Poole, a group of us gather at 1 Degree North yacht club on a stormy Saturday morning 18 Jun 11. We delayed our departure thirty minutes to give the rain a chance to pass, and weren’t bothered by rain the rest of the day. But the sea was very choppy and several of us weren’t feeling in peak form. We got our minute of excitement early in the day, around 8:20am when two Swinhoe’s Storm Petrels were spotted floating on the water. They took off and we gave chase, but it’s wasn’t the best photo opportunity. Anyway, we can confirm a new late date for this species in Singapore waters, what they are still doing here in June is anyone’s guess.
Later in the day we chased a small tern hoping it was a Roseate Tern, but some grainy pictures confirmed it was a Little Tern. A few more Little Terns, a Lesser Crested Tern (probably an over-staying first summer bird), several Black-naped Terns, a number of Black-nest Swiftlets, several Grey Herons and a couple Brahminy Kites made of the rather sparce list of birds seen.