RR Duty @ Singapore Zoo 27 May 07 Sunday

RR Duty @ Singapore Zoo 27 May 07 Sunday

Super-crowded day with the SPH Family Day... but I still managed to catch a glimpse of some wild visitors like the oriental magpie robin hovering over the tents of the camping site near the general office. And while the visitors were going gaga over the ambidextrous white-handed gibbons swinging to and fro, I spotted a rather dirty-looking storkbilled Kingfisher perched overhead, seemingly eyeing the fishes in the moat. On better days, the creature is a one of the, if not THE, handsomest of all kf, vermillion mandibles, brilliant hues of yellow and blue as if painted by some generous-with-pastels impressionists.

Really kicked myself for taking out the camera at the last minute....

The King Cobra feeding went on smoothly though, with the large crowd of enthusiastic kids and trigger-happy parents. Ranger again looked quite menacing, good posturing for the crowd but not for Xena, who sensibly did not tussle for the dead mice (used instead of their usual diet of snakes for some fresh protein). Instead, she did not risk antagonising him and went for a dip in the cooling waters with the fly river turtle. The solo turtle earned a mention in our commentary when the crowd was intrigued at why the keeper stepped into the enclosure and hurled a string of veggies into the water, like a fisherman with his bait.

But of course there's no such thing as a vegetarian snake, and in the wild, kings of course deserve to eat other snakes, and even their own kind, in lower ranks...

20th May 207: Rambling in Changi Coast

Dr Ho, whom Kim always describes as the warrior of Singapore nature, led us on a 4-hr walk around the stretch of 2 canals you turn in from the Tenah Merah Ferry Terminal. This man really walks his talk and I was really surprised when he divulged that he's not been to Malaysia for birding for 2 years already... while so many of us hanker after the birdwaves of Jelai in Fraser's Hill or the forests of Taman Negara...

Anyway, it got off on an auspicious start of spotting a yellow-and-green parakeet ... and followed two flocks of another species, I think... can only see the distinctive silhouette with a trailing tail, against the strong sunlight. More surprising was that the white-collared kingfisher were nowhere in sight, though we heard them something like a hundred times throughout the walk. The canals look like their favourite hunting ground and reminds me of Sembawang Park where they just whizz past you and land on bare branches for you to admire closely without the magnifying help of bino...

Dotted along the canals, however, were half a dozen fallen trees, a sad reminder of the lady who died in Bukit Batok Nature Park....

Going Going Gone....

Take a good look at the pic above (taken on Mothers' Day 13/5/07)...No, am not being narcissistic ...but on the top left hand corner, you'll see some destruction taking place. The 'old' ferry terminal is making way forTHE resort.

Thought that was a pity . The building still looks sprightly! And of course part of the reason is that it has been part of my more disciplined days in training for the New Balance Real Run, which I don't suppose will be held at Sentosa anyway since part of the rugged upslope-downslope-down-downslope-beach route will be partly obscured by one of the integrated resorts, euphemism for CASINO$$$

Hornbill Project

Yesterday attended at the Botanic Gardens the eye-opening Oriental Pied Hornbill Project at Pulau Ubin, our little rustic, passport-less getaway. My interest was piqued after two sightings from the jetty (they like the zinc roofs), the village elder's house and the early morning quest to see them in Sabah. Dr Geh Min was there at the talk too! She certainly looks better than in pics but the speakers were Dr Ng SC, Dr Mark and two nudergrads from NTU.

Anyway, the stars were the hornbills captured on video mating, laying eggs, helping the kids to fledge (which some did by jumping off the nest) and even cannibalising the littlest ones to feed the others! The captive ones in Jurong Bird Park and their wild cousins in Ubin were studied using never-used-in-S'pore before cameras perched inside on the ceiling of the nest and some others stationed outside too ....

Some interesting observations:
* the wild ones like Durian trees as nesting places

* but it doesn't stop them from using a ready-made one the researchers planted

* the female would let the male seal herself in the nesting hole for 3 months

* the sealing project takes one day.. even though I thought the nesting cavity, a vertical slit,
looks rather small for big birds like them. Material: soil and small rocks.

* the ideal size of the nest is approx 25cm (diameter) by 50cm (height) --> some head room
necessary for the huge casque

* females molt before laying eggs ....why? I dunno, maybe like how S'porean preggies like to cut
their hair short?

* not all eggs laid will be fertile

* not all eggs hatched will survive... in one brood of 4, 2 were cannibalised by the mum! She ate one after unsuccessfully feeding another young 'un.

* they don't lay all eggs at one go... interval of 2-4 days
* males diligently feed the female and fledglings after they were hatched. (SNAG!)

* diet include: olivebacked sunbird, lizard, young pinkneck green pigeon and even bats

* growth of babies measured by the size of the beak, since it's most easily viewed from the top

Check out Asian Geographic Issue 35, 2/06 for more details about the hornbills!