Date and Day: 26/01/10, Tuesday
Start Time: 7.05 am
End Time: 12.10 pm
Location: Kent Ridge Park, Car Park A NUS (Kent Ridge), site 1
Surveyors: HW & WZL
Weather: Cloudy; sunny later on with a brief drizzle
Comments: Bird calls heard but there was little to no activity in the early morning; activity only picked up closer to noon.
As most of Singapore slept on, ZL and I were already on our way to Kent Ridge Park (KRP) where, hopefully, the multiple walls of Simpoh Air would not disappoint. Save for a hard core team of pro cyclists, a handful of joggers and the occasional car, the park was all quiet at 6 am. Using the narrow beam of light from our pocket torches, we hunted for ripened Simpoh Air fruits in near darkness. A lone jogger asked us what we were doing, and then left us to our own devices.
I can honestly say that that was the most excitement we had during the recce. Simpoh Air is certainly plentiful at KRP, but there were only 4 or 5 ripened fruits in visible range out of the walls of the plant. Only 1 or 2 were in reach. Discouraged, I decided that we should head back to campus, where good ol’ site 1 awaited. While waiting for a taxi to pick us up, I recorded the following four videos. Help in identifying which birds the calls belong to would be greatly appreciated!
Upon reaching site 1, we immediately got to work, searching for ripened fruits, recording the seed count and tying numbered tags. Noticed a lot of these spider webs on the ground!
Numerous spider webs on the ground. What spider makes them?
Close-up shot of a web. The morning dew gathers on the fine threads of the web, sparkling in the early morning rays.
7.05 am – ??+05+20+??+01+??+04
?? represents ripened fruits that are in the process of splitting open, but which still have their seeds concealed.
These fruits looked as if they were going ripened, but got stopped in the process of doing so. Hmm…
7.43 am - Sustained calls of YVBs.
8.00 am - 04+07+20+??+02+02+08+04
Numbers in red represent ripened fruits that were not noticed before (or had not split open previously).
9.00 am - 04+07+20+??+02+02+08+03+04
10.00 am - 04+07+20+??+00+01+08+03+04
Tagged fruit number 3 was still untouched at 10.00 am.
10.15 am - Saw a YVB fly towards the tree above the patch from the ‘home tree’ (Jamaican Cherry Tree?), and then make a sharp U-turn back the way it came.
10.20 am - 4 YVBs flew in quick succession from behind the patch, towards the Jamaican Cherry Tree.
Mid-morning break
11.00 am - 04+07+01+01+00+01+07+03+02
Seeds of tagged fruit number 3 were finally taken (while I had my mid-morning break D:).
11.10 am - YVBs feeding on seeds/leaves (couldn’t really make out) of a tree (legume), possibly an Albizia.
11.15 am - Light drizzle began. YVBs in the unknown tree flew back towards the Jamaican Cherry Tree.
First time seeing YVBs foraging on the ground. Or maybe I haven’t been observant enough…
11.18 am - Female Olive-back Sunbird was seen ‘playing’ among the Dillenia leaves, but did not see it take any seeds. Note: it was probably bathing!
11.20 am - Drizzle stopped.
11.25 am - Plantain Squirrel crossed the road.
11.55 am - Plantain Squirrel (different from the one above) ate petals and flower buds of Dillenia.
12.00 pm - 04+07+01+01+00+01+07+03+02
Could not locate tag number 4 during retrieval.
Towards the end of the observations as I sat baking in the sun with only a umbrella for shelter, a guy working at the Singapore Synchrotron Light Source came up to me (plenty of people have walked past but no one has approached me till today o.o) and we had the following conversation:
Guy: Girl, why don’t you sit in the shade?
Me: Oh no, I can’t. I’m birdwatching.
Guy: Ohh.. I thought you were punishing yourself!
Me: *laughs* Nope, I’m not..
Haha.. That was a welcome distraction from roasting, nonetheless.
Further observations/questions:
Some fruits appear to split open only later on (ie. at least after the first round of counting). However, it could also be the case where such ripened fruits are overlooked as the first round of counting is typically done when the sky is still dark.
The main concern about today’s observation is how subdued the activity was despite the yield and quality of fruits being comparatively good. Cannot help but wonder if it is a coincidence that the seeds in fruit number 3 were all removed except for one during the time I went for a mid-morning break. Could the low/non-existent activity levels be due to my presence (however, the birds carried on feeding slightly past 7 am the first few times observations were carried out) and/or the colour of clothing that I was wearing – red sleeves, white tee and grey pants (but this does not seem that probable either as I did wear more brightly coloured clothing previously)? Is it breeding season now such that the YVBs become territorial (read up on this)? Yet, this is not likely to be the case as a small group of them were seen feeding together on a tree (probably a legume) when I returned from my break. Note: breeding season spans a few months and some YVBs do breed late into the season. Then again, feeding ceased soon upon my return, but it could also be attributed to the brief drizzle that ensued around the same time. Do YVBs vary their food source – maybe they require different nutrients that can only be obtained from varying their food sources accordingly? Do birds ‘learn’ to wake up earlier/later when they ‘realise’, for example, that there is no competition for food (seems that the seeds at the patch is only taken by YVBs, without competition from bigger birds like Pink-necked Green Pigeons)?
Find out about the white and orange seeds – start counting them and the ovules separately?
Film a good quality ripened fruit (make myself scarce) to confirm if the birds really are sensitive to human presence (as today’s survey indicates) or not.
This seems a bit silly but I’ll just include it anyway: could my use of Aerogard (insect repellent) be contributing to the weird behaviour of the YVBs?
