Jurong Eco Garden

Been meaning to drop by the Jurong Eco Garden but never had the time until recently. Not very easy to find place set within NTU itself and with small teeny weeny signboard. To get there, it is easier to look for Thow Kwang Pottery, the last remaining kiln in Singapore. The Jurong Eco Garden is just next to it.

Disappointingly, the garden is another cultivated park. Perhaps there used to be a big forest patch there but most of these are gone now replaced by neat cultured landscaping, bridges and proper footpaths. Great for those looking for a stroll in the park but not great if you are looking for the great nature. And without the big trees, the place was hot hot hot!

About the only "natural and wild" portion left was a 1 km Nature trail but sadly that will also have to go in due course. There was a sign at the trail head that stated that the nature trail will only be opened till year 2019.

Nothing much to see there but still did managed to spot a fair number of critters.

A few different butterflies flitting around but despite our "request" for them to pose for my camera, none of the butterflies took heed except this one

At least the dragonflies were more co-operative

There were also a number of lizards on the trees

And I could hear the sound of parakeets and koel but they were nowhere in sight. Still I did managed to spot some birds

And these group of swifts or swallows flying over the pond. Too bad my camera skill and setup was not good enough to take a close up shot of them

Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve Extension

When the Nparks announced the opening of the extension, I was fairly excited. So one afternoon I went there only to discover that it was the former Kranji Trail which I had visited before and which sadly is now "sanitised to become the new Sungei Buloh Extension. The former nice trail has been partially replaced with a concrete path and there are now more beautiful viewing structures but somehow it seems more like a park now than a nature reserve.

Board Walk with shelters

Rope walk including one that goes partially into a pond

Nice looking shelter. There are a number of them all over

Didn't spot many birds. Some of the things we spotted in the short time that we were there

Common Nerita snails

My first hornbill photo

Mud crab

Tree climbing crab

Mudskipper

Of course the monitor lizard

Golden Orb spider

 Waterhen

A slug

Birds & Butterflies of Scotland

Beside the birds in the zoo and bird parks, we saw many wild birds on top of the countless sea gulls and ducks. Here are some of those that I managed to take a picture of.

A magpie. They are supposed to be pretty common but I only saw them in a few places.

 Another of the more commonly sighted bird which unfortunately like in Singapore has outlive its welcome

 And this is the famous Robin!

This was spotted in London all over the place outside the London Tower but I believe it is native to the whole of UK. I think it is a thrush. Somebody correct me if I am wrong.

And my one and only photograph of a butterfly - spotted right on top of Cow's Head Summit. This is a Red Admiral butterfly.

Moths in Kota Kinabalu

We went for lunch at this place at Bundu Tuhan. Apart from our group, there was no other customer. But there were a lot and seriously a lot of moth. None of those gigantic moth that we are seeing now in Singapore but small one, medium size one, plain one and colorful one and one odd shape one. Too bad I only had a compact camera with me and with the poor lighting indoor these was the best that I could manage.

This was on a door frame. It would have blend well if it was on a tree trunk

One of the smaller one but so beautiful

The biggest moth that we seen

Another one on a door frame. What with moth and door frame?

This small one looks like ready to take off soon.

The odd shaped moth. Very difficult to get it fully in focus with the compact camera

Another beauty

And this one is the brightest looking of the lot

I love the pattern on this one

This one looks like the same species as the first one but is more white

Can anybody name all the moths?

Lyssa Zampa Tropical Swallowtail Moth

There have been a lot of sighting of the giant moth, the Tropical Swallowtail moth in Singapore. Social media have been awash with photos of them except me. until now...

Since the mass outbreak of the moths, I have seen them five times. One dead in front of my office, 2 high up on the wall at the Tanjong Pagar MRT station and 2 flying around at the void decks around my place. But no photos so far as they were all dead or out of reach of my camera phone.

Until today. On my way to lunch saw this moth on the glass wall of the building next to my office building. On the way home, it was still there and at eye level too! So I got a nice shot with the camera phone.

 Too bad I cannot go into the bank and take the photo from the other side of the glass wall. That will be a first - the underside of the moth.

Vistaprint.com

Somewhere late last year I ordered a calendar from Vistaprint.com, an online printing company.

Subsequently, according to the delivery note, the item has been shipped and was expected to reach me on 7 January 2014 via Singpost. When I saw the name, Singpost, I was like "uh-oh" and true enough, by the 10 January, I had still not receive it. So I duly wrote an email to Vistaprint to inform them that I had not receive the calendar. I received the usual standard acknowledgement  and that was that or so I thought.

The next day, the calendar came. In my excitement at looking at the calendar, I forgot about the email that I had sent out. 

That night, I got a notification from Paypal informing of a credit to my account. That was odd. What was that for? Before I can delve further, I got an email from Vistaprint informing me that they had refunded my postage and on top of that - sent me another new calendar! Feeling embarrased by now, I quickly sent another email to them to inform that I had the calendar and there was no need to send me a new one. But it was too late. Seems like they had already shipped it out.

I am truly impressed! I had when I sent out the first email expected them to tell me to wait a few more days for the item to be delivered.but instead what I got was superb service with no question ask. And so now for the price of 1, I got 2 calendars.

This is the 2nd time I ordered items from Vistaprint. Unlike other online photo book sites, they have a wide variety of products. I am happy with the pricing, the quality and most of all the service and I will certainly order from them again.

Weird Insects

Some photos of unusual looking insects taken at the 2 Butterfly Parks in Cameron Highlands

Giant grasshopper
 

Some sort of leave insects. If you can spot it that is
 

Another leaf insect. Can you find it?
 

A stick insect

 

Another leaf insect


Some sort of leaf insect or beetle

Which is the insect and which is the leaf?


A giant beetle

 

A white praying mantis


Somehow this one remind me of the Transformer

A beautiful red beetle