Bidadari Park

Not exactly a park. Just a patch of forest land that is soon going to go the way of the dodo bird. So thought before it disappear forever, to go down there and try to take a shot at the birds that abound there. And I wasn't disappeared. Could hear many different type of bird call. But Uncle's eyes not so good and has to rely on friends and other photographers who were there to spot them.

One thing I long realised is that a 70-200 lens is not enough to take photos of little birds perched high up in the trees or far away. So while other photographers with the tokong lens captured beautiful close up, all I managed to do was get many blur blur shots of little birds. Fortunately, some cropping helped and I didn't go away empty handed though the quality could be better. Oh well....

White Throated Kingfisher

Spotted Flycatcher, I think

Rusty Breasted Cuckoo

Hodgson's Hawk Cuckoo

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

Of Rats, Cats and Dogs

The rats at Bukit Batok have been hogging the headlines for the past week. The authorities and pest controllers have been blaming the people there for the infestation. It seems the people have been feeding the stray dogs and the leftover food have attracted the rats which it seems is enjoying life there. Of course the people who are feeding the dogs are denying that the problem was caused by them..

The way I see it, the rat problem at Bukit Batok is the same as the monkey problem at Bukit Timah, the stray dogs problem at Punggol and other places and the crow problem at food centres. What they have in common is that all these are caused by us human. 

Like the monkey problem, we human have encroached into their territory. While that would have ordinarily driven them further into the remaining forest, we human decided to feed them. And when the monkey got used to human food and human presence, they start to move into our area and the conflict with human then begin.

Ditto the stray dogs problem. Most of these dogs are the offspring of previous house pet kept by people living in farms and kampungs. When these people were resettled into HDB flat which does not permit keeping of large dogs, the dogs were abandon and left to fend for themselves, Left alone, the dogs starts to hunt and breed and become progressively aggressive as they fight to survive.

The cats have the same problem. But fortunately for the cats, there are many cat lovers who feed the cats daily. So all the cats need to do daily is to sleep and eat.

Which brings me to the rats and crows. What has these got to do with the monkeys, dogs and cats. I believe in the theory of the survival of the fittest. My theory is this:

• Human feeds the monkey, stray dogs and cats.
• The monkey, dogs and cats become well fed and indirectly "domesticated". Because they are well fed, they lost their ability to forage and hunt and with more time on their hand, they end up doing what comes naturally to all living beings - reproduce.
• So we end up with 2 new problems - growing population of monkeys, stray dogs and cats
• And the growth of pests like the rats, crows and cockroaches. Why? Because the dogs and cats are well fed, they no longer need to hunt. Here in Singapore, there is not much other creatures down the pecking order below the dogs and cats excepts the birds, rats and  cockroaches. And since the dogs and cats are not eating these pests, they are allowed to breed with no natural prey to curb their population. 
• Compound that with the indiscriminate feeding of the strays with leftover not removed which means a steady stream of food source for these pests, what we have is a blooming growth in the population of rats, cockroaches and even crows and bingo, problem like those at Bukit Batok!

Nature has its own way of dealing with problem. But when human steps in and upset the eco system, what we get is nature goes haywire. And we see it everywhere all over the world - leopards going into villages, snakes creeping up toilet bowls, locust infestation, 

The way to deal with the rat problem after the pest control has done it job? Stop feeding the stray dogs and cats. Certainly the weaker animals will die. But the stronger animals will be forced to hunt. And when they start hunting, they will have less time to mate. Which means less strays. And they will also eat up the pests which will help to control the population of rats and crows and other pests. And over time, everything will balance out. 

Just take a look at this video. This is what I mean when we allow Mother Nature to do its job.

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.

Edinburgh Zoo, Scotland

Our last main stop before we move over to London was to the Edinburgh Zoo. It seems we must make a pit stop at a zoo in every major place that we visit. There are quite of marine park and zoo in Scotland but Edinburgh is one of the bigger and better zoo in UK so we felt obliged to drop in.

Edinburgh Zoo is one of the few zoo in the world to have the Panda bear. But it is more famous for its Penguin Parade where the Penguin goes on a real march through the zoo, Unfortunately we were there at the wrong time so did not get to witness this spectacular sight.

But we did managed to catch the feeding of several of the animals like the Oriental Short Clawed Otter gobbling down the mouse.

And the Asiatic lion running away with a piece of meat.

We also saw up close the Amur Leopard

The very rare Scottish wild cat

And surprise surprise surprise the Koala bear. This is the first time I seen one outside of Australia.

And another import from another country, the Stellar Sea Eagle.

And last but not least, this beautiful snake aptly named Taiwan Beauty Snake.

But overall I was disappointed with the layout of the zoo. It was a bit messy and most of the primates were kept behind glass enclosures. Maybe it is to protect them from the cold but the view of them were spoilt by the glass which were badly scratched. The variety of animals were not as great as I had hopped as compared to say Ueno Zoo or the Shanghai Zoo. 

Isle of Mull, Scotland

One of the thing that we decided to do before we go over was to go on a "wildlife expedition" trip. So after some research, we signed up for one on the Isle of Mull, a place that is renown for its wildlife.

The trip to the Isle of Mull was an adventure by itself with beautiful scenery. We had to drive a long distance from Glasgow after which we had to take a ferry across. Along the way, there are the usual beautiful landscapes both on land and in the sea. Unfortunately, the Isle of Mull by itself is quite a boring place with nothing much to do if you are not into nature. 

This is Tobermory, the main town of Isle of Mull. It is also a "ghost" town after 6 pm when all the shops closes. 

We drove 20 miles to this place to find everything closed. Our consolation was that the only remaining place still opens for business happens to serve the best seafood in the whole of Scotland!  More of the food in another blog post later.

Back to the wildlife expedition. We were picked up at our hotel the next morning and driven around together with some other nature lovers to look for porpoise, eagles, otters and deer. We drove all over the Isle stopping at strategic spots where everybody will rush to bring out their super binoculars and telescope and long lens. We had brought along a binoculars but soon put it aside after realising that what we had was totally inadequate for the task it was supposed to perform! We found this out when everybody was going gaga over a sighting of porpoise in the sea. Me with my 200mm camera and M, with the binocular saw nothing! We put aside our gear and borrowed the spare binoculars from the guide. And the whole world changed!

Here we are staring out to sea. What did they see?

This was what I captured on my camera's 200mm lens.

See anything? How about this cropped photo?

Yes seal. They were just a speck in the sea and the guide saw them while driving and stopped so that everybody can get a "closer" look. Its amazing how he navigates the small narrow road and yet see birds and all sort of animals.

What do you think this people are looking at here?

Inland and up in the sky. What I saw was this

A beautiful sky. But there was something there. Like this eagle soaring high up in the sky. 

Oh pardon me, did you say what eagle? There, that speck in the middle of the photo just between the 2 trees in the middle of the photo. And to be honest, almost all the sightings of wildlife were like this. The animals and birds were far far away and only visible via the powerful binoculars and telescope. Like this sighting here for otter.

See the otters? No? Neither did I until I borrowed some of the more powerful binoculars and telescope.

And with the powerful equipment it was like we were up next to the animals and birds! No wonder these people got so excited every time they spot something. 

About the only animal we can spot with our naked eyes other than the cows and sheep were this pair of Red Deer. Unfortunately we were in the van and could not get down to watch them close up. 

But overall, while we were disappointed that we did not get to see the animals closed up like what we imagined in an African safari, we were happy that we still managed to spot almost all the animals that were present on the Isle of Mull, although abide from a long long distance. Still, it was a great experience for newbie birdwatcher like us. The guide from Isle of Mull Wildlife Expeditions, David was warm and friendly and very knowledgeable. We enjoyed ourselves very much despite it being a long long day and counted this as one of the highlight of the trip to Scotland!

More photos on FB here.