What to Pack for a Trip

How many times have you made a mental list of the items to bring for the list? I find myself doing it everytime I'm going for my travels. So I'm going to make 1 & bookmark this page for myself:

Personal Items:
Clothes - jackets, shirts, bottoms, underwear
Shoes - sandals, shoes, trekking shoes
Toothbrush / toothpaste / toiletries
Passport / Visa (as in for entry to a country or credit card)

Maps / journal

For the outdoors:
Raincoat / umbrella


For Birdwatchers:
binoculars / fieldscope
trekking boots /
camera

(Work-in-Progress.... do tag your comments!)

Snake & the Pigeon ...

Think there's a limit to the number of photos for each post.... but enjoy the following:

Bishan Park Part 2: The Flora

Finally! The pretty flowers of Bishan Park get an airing..

Though I much prefer the fauna (catching a fleeting glimpse of an elusive bird is so much more challneging than a static stalk), I must say the plants are responsible for the hidden allures of the park....

just look at the lotus blooming under the shade ...

Ths poster boy in the Botanic Gardens brochure deserves a special mention especially because of its fragrant, pristine-white-as-stars flowers & curious-looking fruits are presenting themselves at one go...

A surprising Nature trip in Singapore: Bishan Park

Sunday 26 November 2006

My ardent visitors would have realised that a lot of my travels take place in Singapore; the Singapore famed for Changi Airport, Esplanade, Night Safari and all other man-made hardware (like the soon-to-be integrated resort or its less shiny alias 'casino') the government loves to construct when it has some grand plan ahead for the country. Parks are also part of the gameplan...we all know that plants are always a thorny issue... so pretty yet so hard for it to grow heathily and nicely in a manicured way or at least look civilised.

• 
  I hesitated in going for the NSS Bishan Park Nature Park (at the junction of Ang Mo Kio Ave 1 and Upper Thomson Road) walk ... what else is there to learn or even see in a typically highly manicured lawn? (I wish I could afford this kind of high maintenance.)
  
  Anyway I went, since I had already told the enthusiastic Mdm Soh (whom I think will follow my footsteps in joining NSS because of going to Semakau...). Can always pop over to Peirce Reservoir, which I did to look at the (> 40!!) longtailed parakeets which seem to be inexhaustible, flocking out of a single, though big, palm tree... the now-ubiquitous glossy starlings and the nice fig fruits decorating the trunks of some lucky trees....
  
  According to the newsletter, the fig trees in the park sometimes draw wildlife out of the woods, especially when they are in fruit. Not sure whether the pink-neck green pigeons were, but they were certainly an attractive pair. See picture in next few blog entries (something wrong with this post, can't upload pictures) and you'll see the nicest breast on a male... drawing a lot of oohs and aahs from the predominantly female crowd here ..... so rufous... probably the alluring trait which attracted his lady friend (on his right). The sighting also drw our attention to a pretty, white raptor hovering above.... a more graceful and 'feminine' version of the sea eagle.
  
  Other sightings:
• yellow bittern hidden among the shrubs in the biggest lotus pond I've seen in Singapore.
• white-throated kingfisher, rather emaciated, but keeps dipping itself playfully in the drain water.
• streaked heron (? can anyone advise through tagboard? not in either in of bird books & the Google search throws up so many different looking birds)
  
  But nothing can beat the presence of the Paradise Tree Snake, my 2nd favourite snake in the Colubridae family after the oriental whipsnake, much vaunted for its flying (actually gliding) prowess. This guy was rather hapless though, attacked by a few ants on its back (where is a snake's back, by the way?). Its beautiful pattern also provoked the trigger-happy photographers into a frenzy, including yours truly.

Luckily some huys helped the snakie out by swiping the red ants off and the fellow actually posed for us for a while, before scaring us by suddenly hitting the ground... and of course we automatically gave way for it to migrate to another tree....

Travel #2 2006: Kota Tinggi

I'm back! Invigorating trip. Short trips to M'sia are always enjoyable...especially with a huge dose of nature injected into the travel. Though it was overtly a school trip, I wasn't focused on work at all (almost all work done in school already!) but rather on the beautiful Kota Tinggi Waterfalls. Not my first trip there since it was the place I went to nurse my broken heart a few years back (on an SDU trip no less, but no love on the rebound, haha)... The photo on the left was taken on the last trip:

As you can see, my world was in topsy-turvy then..... or is it due to the damage inflicted by rebonding my hair (first & last time!)?

but of course nothing can get me down... or upside down, when I go travelling.

Glad to report some wonderful 'dos' & 'sees' at the Kota Tinggi Waterfalls Resort:

The Fireflies
If the first trip is a blast, the second is a reminder to appreciate beauty in nature.... sad to say, some overused the flash to photograph the busily-matefinding-but-interrupted fireflies. The best way, I feel, to appreciate their beauty is just to look at them.... it was a wonderful sight to behold (& hold)...fireflies clicking on their luminous touches at will to decorate a Christmas tree-like shrub...especially near the surface of the river...
5 stars out of 5

The Waterfalls:
The obvious entry here...Although far from the league of the Niagara Falls, it is the pride of people here.... and the raison d'etre for the resort. Although meetings are not everyone's (or anybody's?) favourite, at least our nerves were soothed by the therepeutic melody of the cascading water... It might not look too impressive but the relentless beat of the waterfall, day and night, shows that this guy has got something up there....

..... and we just have to visit it at the top ....

....not quite.... but we got a good morning workout trekking to where the bridge is. I was glad that so many people help this clumsy gal up the hill...it's not even one-third of the mountain Gunung Panti ... So this is the one Aileen had talked about! The one that's tougher than Lambak... After the rains of the previous day, the damp leaves overran whatever trails there was in the first place. Our footsteps did not once put any imprint on it. The others were alright with the trek but I was left panting 15 minutes into it... anyway, never understood why people had to walk so fast... But as with Lambak, everything was forgotten at the top (I mean of our climb... the entire trek to the top would take something like 5 hours?!):

More rewards as we came down....

Nice trees, but pity there were no birds, or none that I can see, though there was a melodious, unidentified bird at the rest point but my bino couldn't help.... I wonder why? Always thought tall trees should attract raptors like insects to food (as we discovered during dinner near the waterfalls...)

But it's an ideal place to call home.... the little chalets by the forests were like the cottages I dreamt I would live when I can afford it. Imagine waking up to the lovely views of mist shrouding the hills..... so nice..... life would be so nice....

Next stop on my Travels: Kota Tinggi 21-22 Nov 2006

Hi everyone, will be inactive for 2 days.... 'cos I'm going to enjoy the fireflies, jungle trek @ Kota Tinggi... most happening staff outing yet for my school!

Keep you posted on the highlights of the trip :)

Birds of Chinese Garden

On a bright Sunday morning, my friend Evelyn & I ..... haha, sounds so cliched, like some primary school student's essay...

Anyway, after hearing such glowing reports of Chinese Garden from the wildbirds group, it's time to make a well-overdue trip there...who would usually travel there? only for tourists right? Same sentiments most people hold for the zoo (my favourite place!!).... so near yet so far... sadly, sometimes foreigners appreciate our treasures more than us..

Anyway, back to the birding trip. I brought the first (I expect a few more) of my cameras along (I think that deserves a page on its own .... look out for my review and verdict on the Panasonic Lumix FZ7), which is actually more for travel in mind. But I think it somewhat rose to the occasion with my first shot of a Brahminy Kite hovering above some trees almost 20m away... The BK looked miniscule at first (like my hamster lying facedown on a lazy afternoon) but when the power of zoom is unleashed, the bird can be seen looking at something on the ground, probably scrutinizing some appetizing breakfast.


As with my usual bird trips, the start tends to be the most prolific in terms of birdcount. The most spectacular birdwave I witnessed since the Currumbin Park in Australia greeted me once we got past the security regaling us with stories of birdwatchers near and far. The wave was spectacularly performed by a whole host of glossy and purpleback starlings, boys, gals, fathers, mothers all included....











My attention was momentarily diverted by the sudden flight of what seems like a black-capped kf , an elusive bird which remained hidden after the first sighting.

The majestic flight of the purple heron, the small chinese pond heron completes a happy birding trip in an easily accessible yet largely ignored place. :)

Vietnam birds... Here I come!

11 November 2006

One month to my birthday, which is going to be celebrated in Vietnam.... think I enjoyed my birthday overseas last year too.... but can't remember where I travelled to...short-term memory...

Was it in Bangkok? That was with my gang of good frens :) Travel is so much more a joy when you can share it with your buddies. The Vietnam trip will hopefully bring me even happier memories .... with Iris, Mdm Soh & Thila.

I will mostly likely 'bird' in Vietnam. Gleaned a lot of info from this fantastic site on birding in Vietnam:

http://www.worldtwitch.com/vietnam_rheindt.htm

The likes of Sapa, Tram Ton, Di Linh Pass, Mount Lang Bian, Ho Tuyen Lam Reservoir, Mt. Ngoc Linh sound really tantalising where endemic species are concerned.
Laughingthrushes, crocias and so many others!

Would be practising with my newly bought prosumer camera, the Panasonic Lumix, to prepare for my trigger-happy travels in Vietnam from 10-23 Dec.
So, stay tuned!

Poachers :(

It's usually my practice to blog just about the good things. It should be about happy travels and adventures. But sadly, this entry is about something very unpleasant - especially to the birds....

At Marina South (see prev entry), Harry, Kym & I chanced upon this weather-beaten guy out to trap red whiskered bulbuls using another hapless comrade ... and using mist nets!



According to the latest issue of the NSS newsletter, mist nets are banned in Singapore. The poacher is obviously ignorant about the law. When asked, he claimed that he did that not for profiteering but for fun.

For fun indeed! To who?! Such mist nets are usually cheaply made in countries like Thailand and of very low quality which might hurt the bird when it is entangled in it. What's the point of trapping something which is beautiful but hurt? Where's the fun then?

Things turned ugly when Harry advised the poacher to stop, taking photos when he refused to do the right thing. Kym called NParks for help, but I guess they'll be too far away to nab the poacher in time.... I'm not sure what to do.... Call for help and hope the guy will be around when the authorities come? But I must laud Harry & Kym for standing up to the poacher and giving him a memorably bad experience so that he will think twice next time....

Raptors Galore ! ! !

Sunday was a feast for my eyes and a landmark in my Birdwatching Land. Exciting number of raptors @ Marina South, starting with 2 brahminy kites who looked like sea eagles in the early morning sun light. 2 photogenic black-shouldered kites braving the sun to perch on a bare tree to model for us. Perfect Lifer Moment for me! My companions, Harry & Kim, had a field day taking photos or gawking at their majestic mien. What fine birds they are!

As if to restore its rightful place, a seaeagle swooped into sight from afar, even then a big vision, with a fish .... we were speculating it's a pomfret... haha.... but it's too long to be one... not a bad catch, even birds believe in eating like a king!

Every species seems to be outdoing each other .... Harry spotted 8 sparrowhawks (Lifer, not counting the faraway silhouette in Bt Brown) circling around some enchanted spot... which Kim remarked was a conference...hmmm....so it's holding some international meeting @ Suntec city, after which they seemed to adjourn to the Expo...

But the highlight was the oriental honey buzzard (L)...actually I didn't know what it was... only that it was HUGE, notwithstanding the fact it was perched on a tree nearby....even the rufous backed woodpecker (L) did not divert our attention for long.... but 1 of these guys was chased by the ruffians crows...only 3 of them.... but you can see their gangster tactics quite clearly, chasing them & causing the hapless fellow to dip a few times in flight :(

The changeable hawk eagle (L) & black baza (L) were around too, as with an unmoving dollarbird. Just as we thought the birds would all shy away from the heat as the blistering midmorning heat parched the rather tree-less land, we saw 2 red-whiskered bulbuls (L) (wow! I thought they had all migrated to the HK streets, leaving only their distinctive image in some old S'pore notes) and a blackcapped kingfisher too ! (L)(highest no. of lifer for me).... ah, how can I forget to mention the tons of yellow-vented bulbul ( didn't know they fly in flocks ! ) and their noisy neighbours - the shrikes & munias....

All in, 27 species , leaving one satisfied birdwatcher...... happy travels can materialise in S'pore too!