3 days of Make-up (I)

All the anticipation for Fraser's Hill trip dissipated when it was cancelled last minute... oh well... can avoid the castrophobic mess of hordes of S'pore cars making the trip back from M'sia over the long weekend from shopping or Formula 1 or just the normal seafood trips...



Anyway I'm determined to make up for it with 3 days of birding over:


Good Fri



Went birding at my backyard with surprise, surprise! Mum, she who always dissuades me from going some 'ulu' places just to see 'a few silly birds'.... but the best strategy to deal with naysayers is to involve them. Though I don't think she's a convert, at least she scored in the nature appreciation bit with her interest in the bananas ("when is the best time to pluck?") and spotting the slinky lizard below:

Better Sat



Went with K, still sore over the cancelled trip, to Bukit Timah Nature Reserve... anyway what I really wanted to see was the pitta & great news wafting in the air was that the hooded pitta has been spotted in the Hindhede part of the reserve.... We went to the birders' choice of hang-out - the outlook facing the waters and the tip of the hill. With the exception of starlings, there was a strange sense of birdless calm.... the birds' own favourite hang-out has withered, and all that remains was a skeletal figures with outstretched hands that point to a glorious past of greenery and fruiting flowers that attract flowerpeckers and the like for their sojourn among the leaves...After giving the birds 5 min to show up (the legendary patience of birders to wait weeks eludes us), we set off to look for the roosting (not roasting) nightjar. K saw 2 on teh forest floor before, so we were hoping to catch the cute fat birdies snoozing... though it was not to be... We had better luck with the straw-headed bubbuls - catching them after an hour of hide-and-seek and playing my song recording to death in a desperate bid to lure them out.

But the catch of the day were the invetebrates... the perfectly white moth perfectly camouflaged against a white paint patch on a tree and the two-horned yellow-blue 'crab' spider with amazing speed & dexterity in devouring anything that lands on its web, which we graded an 'A' for its workmanship... A perfect model of web for other spiders to emulate.... aesthetic in its perfectly round shape and easily negotiated cooking pot for the spider...


Best Sun

Bidadari finally! But visions of lush trees overhanging aged yet dignified graves failed to materialise because as SG said, all the tombs have been exhumed and now, it is more of Bishan Park and a naturalised running track...Anyway, the place looks alive with the green carpet of grass, different species of trees including mango, noni (below) and the majestic tembusu (which is printed on S'pore's 'greenback'). Excitingly, we had a near encounter with a snakie.... we found a very small slough of a very slender snake like a whipsnake.... Most exciting is the brush with 2 spotted scoops owls (must be the lovey-dovey pair pictured on the pages of Nature Watch a few years back) which apparently guards the place with barks akin to that of lions+dogs....eerie ....