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....