14 October 2006

It's Hi to Sentosa again.... this time with Kym, birding buddy I'm trying to convert to a running partner as well. Fine runner too! Negotiates the ups and downs (& there're many!) effortlessly, with nary a hint of breathlessness...

And the synergy you created when you're with another! Without her, I wouldn't have explored the isolated Serapong Hill, which I always bypassed after the telecoms tower(today we saw a whole flock of cuckatoes cackling like nobody's business). It's a neverending upslope which rewards the persistent with a panoramic (or at least as panoramic as it can get with a small window framed by luscious leaves) view of the golf course & harbour. We heard the elusive barbets chatting to each other across trees, possibly talking about us humans, for all their propensity for modern gadgets, not having eyesight sharp enough to spot them....

We detoured after the freefalling slope to Palawan Beach & inched stealthily up the stairs to spy on a group of striped-tip babblers having a whale of time under the bushes... not sure what it as doing, but the leaves shook violently... saw what's supposedly a pied triller ?(ID according to my book hours after the trip - with band across eye & beige.... somewhat like a bulbul but with a longer tail).... Had also concluded earlier that I saw a prinia hiding away in the bushes of a golf course (which Kym missed) but more likely a less exotic ashy tailorbird... My ID skills are less than perfect of course, having mistaken a golf ball for an egg...