Chlidonias
Well-known member
I have just put a couple of birds in the ID section: http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=281438 and http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=281436 if anyone wants to look and tell me I'm correct or otherwise.
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Chlidonias Goes To Asia, part three: 2013 (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Chlidonias
- Start date
McMadd
You should see the other bloke...
Hi
Link to post with shots of Chinese Egret for you to compare against
http://www.birdforum.net/showpost.php?p=2974777&postcount=1052
Manas was a blast - 51 lifers over 2,5 days birding plus rhino, heffalumps, guar and water buffalo...glad I went so cheers for the impetus
McM
Chlidonias
Well-known member
ah but those are breeding birds -- they are easy when they're breeding!
Good to hear about Manas: I assume the florican showed well for you then?
McMadd
You should see the other bloke...
Showed in flight after some big-lens weilding d*ckhead (I heard he was some sort of minor local official afterwards) wandered into the habitat and flushed a male...
I'll be posting the shots somewhere but nice to note that once he'd left the bird came right back to where he'd booted it from...
I naturally gave him a public dressing down congratulating him on setting a wonderful example of the value and fragility of endangered species to his two children and expressing the full richness of my agricultural, anglo-saxon vocabularly upon him in front of the assembled guides and drivers from his jeep and mine...
I'd like to think it had an effect but he had the look of one who's too used to having things his own way...a cnut of the first order and lucky for both of us I was up the viewing tower not down at "sea level"...I imagine it'd have ended in physical violence...
Rather liked the driving back in the dark each evening and did keep an eye peeled for any funny rabbits for you but no joy there I'm afraid...
cheers
Mark
Chlidonias
Well-known member
Singapore. Ninth month, ninth country.
Malaysia didn't end great. When I woke up in the morning at the Hotel E.V. World the floor was flooded from the air-con (which I had been told didn't work, and it wasn't even turned on!). My bags and everything I had sitting on the floor were soaked. Luckily my laptop and camera were on a shelf.
The bus to Singapore was supposed to leave at 9.30am and take five hours. It left at 9.45 and took seven hours! There was one toilet stop after the first hour and that was it. No stops for food. There were some pretty disgruntled people on board I can tell you!
Once in Singapore I headed to the Cozy Corners Backpackers where I always stay. It is cheap (S$15 for a dorm bed) but as I wrote at the time of my last visit it hasn't changed one bit since I first starting sleeping there, from the old soccer flags on the walls to the broken tap. Now unfortunately it has reached that point of un-change where it has tipped over from basic budget accommodation to scummy dump, bed-bugs included. It will be my last time staying there. On my last day there the manager was in an argument with one of the guests because he was using his phone to use the WIFI in the breakfast area. Not unreasonably there is a rule not to use the breakfast area for using laptops during 7am and 11am – but this guy was using his phone, an object only the size of, well, a phone!
I had some plans for Singapore, mostly involving spending way too much money on zoo visits. Singapore is of course replete with zoological collections – the Singapore Zoo, Night Safari, Jurong Bird Park, Sentosa Aquarium, the Butterfly Park, the Live Turtle And Tortoise Museum, and the two newest ones, the River Safari and the SEA Aquarium. The latter two were the ones I wanted to see most, but I was planning on, at the least, also visiting the Night Safari for the first time and making another visit to Jurong. I have been to Singapore several times over the last eight years and have visited all the major animal collections (and some of the smaller ones). This trip I was trying to work out which ones I visited in which years and was rather shocked to find that I had last been to Jurong Bird Park in 2006! That would definitely have to be rectified! Having checked into Cozy Corners and sorted out some stuff on the internet I caught the MRT train and then a bus to the Night Safari. It opens at 7.30pm but I got there at 8.30pm. The WRS (Wildlife Reserves Singapore) operates the major zoos in Singapore and they offer a combined park pass. To save a bit on money I opted for just the three-park pass (Night Safari, River Safari and Jurong), leaving out the zoo. Later I remembered that I did want to visit the zoo after all because I hadn't seen the new wolverines. Another time though.
The Night Safari turned out to be a zoo which is half good and half terrible. The walking trails where the smaller species are displayed are mostly very good in terms of the size and quality of the enclosures. Highlights were the Malayan pangolin (at least I've seen a living one now!), tarsiers, cloud rats, hog badgers, and giant flying squirrels of two species. Lowlights were the awful small enclosures for large animals along the tram route in which rather obvious stereotyping was commonplace. While the tram was stopped at the sloth bears a wild colugo came zooming in out of the night and plastered itself onto a nearby tree-trunk, then clung there swivelling its head about. I don't think anyone else knew it was there. I stayed until 11pm and then caught a bus back to the nearest MRT station where I found the trains were stopping service in half an hour. I went as far as I could in the time and then luckily found another bus the rest of the way back to where my hostel was so I didn't need to pay for a taxi.
The next morning I visited the River Safari, the newest of Singapore's zoos. I had been looking forward to this a lot. The first half of the zoo was mostly brilliant and took me about two hours to get around, but the second half was a joke, mostly composed of an eight minute boat ride past tragically small enclosures, saved only by the amazing manatee aquarium at the end.
With two of the required zoos out of the way, the next day was a wild animal day. Destination: Pulau Ubin. This is a fairly-undeveloped island off the coast of Singapore which still contains a lot of wildlife. There are some people living there, but there's no city life, no traffic, no potable water. In fact it is so opposite of Singapore that sometimes animals swim across the strait from Malaysia for a holiday. There have been isolated records of tapir, elephant and even tiger on the island. Resident wildlife includes wild pigs, otters, pangolins, civets, red junglefowl and Oriental pied hornbills. To get to Pulau Ubin you first take a bus to Changi village. Changi is well-known to bird-watchers because there are established wild populations of two introduced parrots here, namely moustached parakeets (which I saw) and Goffin's cockatoos (which I did not see). I've seen them here before, but I wanted to add another tick on my year list. From Changi you take what are called bum-boats across to Pulau Ubin. This only costs $2.50 each way. Once on the island you can hire bicycles to get around. All the hire places have signs out front saying “from $2” but that's only the price of the tiniest childrens' bikes. Mostly you're paying $10-20. I had a fun time cycling round the various paved and unpaved roads, getting eaten by mosquitoes. I saw a straw-headed bulbul for the first time. They used to be a common bird but I keep reading how they are difficult to find now due to the cage-bird trade (they are one of the favoured “singing birds”). I guess it is true because I've never been able to find one before now! At the eastern end of the island is the Chek Jawa wetland area. There are a couple of boardwalks there, one through mangroves and one around the coastline. Out on the mudflats there were a number of whimbrels and grey herons. One of the grey herons was much larger and darker than the others and when I looked at it better it turned out to actually be a great-billed heron. I had, at one time, great-billed heron on my Singapore list based on a “wild” bird seen at Jurong Bird Park back in 2004 but eventually I discovered that wasn't a wild bird at all. I didn't see a real wild one until 2009 in Sabah and then also Komodo the same year. This current one returned the species to my Singapore list. Also scattered about on the mud-flats were several white egrets hunting in the shallows. At first I thought little egrets but through the binoculars they all obviously had bright yellow bills. Eventually, after much looking, one of them showed its feet which were also yellow. Chinese egret. Not sure about the others though – five Chinese egrets seems a bit far-fetched so I choose to assume the others were intermediate egrets.
The following day I had two activities in mind, firstly the wetland reserve of Sungei Buloh in the morning and secondly the new S.E.A. Aquarium in the afternoon. Sungei Buloh is easy to get to – really everywhere in Singapore is easy to get to! There's a bus which goes most of the way there, followed by a fifteen minute walk (except on Sundays and public holidays when it goes literally to the entrance). The bus had a warning sign inside saying “By Law: pay the correct fare; no smoking; no vandalism; no assault on the bus captain”. Sungei Buloh is a prime wader spot in Singapore but this is the end of the wader season, most of them having already departed back to Siberia and Alaska for breeding. There were some few small flocks still to be found – mostly common redshanks and whimbrels, with just a handful of common greenshanks and marsh sandpipers. No curlew sandpipers or plovers to be seen. I also saw what appeared to be a mixed group of milky and painted storks – both species breed at liberty at the zoo and apparently hybridise there, and birds are consequently seen all over the place. A large-tailed nightjar sitting on one of the tracks was nice, but it flew before I got any proper photos. I was particularly looking out for smooth-coated otters while at Sungei Buloh because they are regularly seen there, but there was a lot of construction work going on where they were renovating the visitor centre and one of the boardwalks. No otters seen.
After Sungei Buloh I caught the bus back to one of the MRT stations and took the train to Waterfront station, and from there walked across the boardwalk to Sentosa Island where the new S.E.A. Aquarium is located. This was brilliant, the best public aquarium I have ever been to. The monstrous Open Ocean tank, inhabited by manta rays and with the largest aquarium viewing window in the world, was fantastic.
On what became my last day in Singapore, a Saturday, I visited Jurong Bird Park in the company of another zoo nut of my acquaintance. In camera news, my little camera had given up the will to live in Kuala Lumpur (as most people and objects do in Kuala Lumpur I guess), so I can't use it anymore. I had filled the memory card on my big camera at the S.E.A. Aquarium the day before. I thought I had a spare memory card but it turned out I didn't, and in a grave oversight of management they don't sell memory cards at the Jurong gift shops! So I had exactly 31 photo spaces available for the whole of Jurong!! We had a splendid visit at Jurong nevertheless, by my estimation the best bird park in the world. Highlight were the Peruvian cocks-of-the-rock. Amazing birds. I saw four common iguanas roaming free while there. According to my colleague they result from escapes/releases from the now-defunct reptile park which used to be next door. One of the ones we saw was a bright green juvenile, maybe a year or two old, so they are obviously breeding in the wild now and I therefore am counting them on my wild animals lists.
With my wallet haemorrhaging money like it had been stabbed in the throat by the tooth-fairy, I caught a bus on Sunday morning back up into Malaysia. In four and a half days I spent 440 Singapore dollars, roughly S$100 per day (and the Singapore dollar is almost equal in value to the NZ dollar). Of course S$118 of that went on entry fees for zoos and aquariums, and another S$75 was accommodation and S$33 on buses and trains around the city. In an effort to save money I was eating a lot of burgers! There was a place called Mos Burger opposite the backpackers and they had (really good!) burgers for S1.80. Cheap fuel.
Anyway, my money is gone. The trip is officially super-duper cross-my-heart honestly over, with sugar sprinkles on top.
On a completely unrelated note: I am now in Melaka
BIRDS:
612) Straw-headed bulbul Pycnonotus zeylanicus
613) Great-billed heron Ardea sumatrana
614) Chinese egret Egretta eulophotes
615) Laced woodpecker Picus vittatus
616) Copper-throated sunbird Nectarinia calcostetha
617) Brown-throated sunbird Anthreptes malacensis
Malaysia didn't end great. When I woke up in the morning at the Hotel E.V. World the floor was flooded from the air-con (which I had been told didn't work, and it wasn't even turned on!). My bags and everything I had sitting on the floor were soaked. Luckily my laptop and camera were on a shelf.
The bus to Singapore was supposed to leave at 9.30am and take five hours. It left at 9.45 and took seven hours! There was one toilet stop after the first hour and that was it. No stops for food. There were some pretty disgruntled people on board I can tell you!
Once in Singapore I headed to the Cozy Corners Backpackers where I always stay. It is cheap (S$15 for a dorm bed) but as I wrote at the time of my last visit it hasn't changed one bit since I first starting sleeping there, from the old soccer flags on the walls to the broken tap. Now unfortunately it has reached that point of un-change where it has tipped over from basic budget accommodation to scummy dump, bed-bugs included. It will be my last time staying there. On my last day there the manager was in an argument with one of the guests because he was using his phone to use the WIFI in the breakfast area. Not unreasonably there is a rule not to use the breakfast area for using laptops during 7am and 11am – but this guy was using his phone, an object only the size of, well, a phone!
I had some plans for Singapore, mostly involving spending way too much money on zoo visits. Singapore is of course replete with zoological collections – the Singapore Zoo, Night Safari, Jurong Bird Park, Sentosa Aquarium, the Butterfly Park, the Live Turtle And Tortoise Museum, and the two newest ones, the River Safari and the SEA Aquarium. The latter two were the ones I wanted to see most, but I was planning on, at the least, also visiting the Night Safari for the first time and making another visit to Jurong. I have been to Singapore several times over the last eight years and have visited all the major animal collections (and some of the smaller ones). This trip I was trying to work out which ones I visited in which years and was rather shocked to find that I had last been to Jurong Bird Park in 2006! That would definitely have to be rectified! Having checked into Cozy Corners and sorted out some stuff on the internet I caught the MRT train and then a bus to the Night Safari. It opens at 7.30pm but I got there at 8.30pm. The WRS (Wildlife Reserves Singapore) operates the major zoos in Singapore and they offer a combined park pass. To save a bit on money I opted for just the three-park pass (Night Safari, River Safari and Jurong), leaving out the zoo. Later I remembered that I did want to visit the zoo after all because I hadn't seen the new wolverines. Another time though.
The Night Safari turned out to be a zoo which is half good and half terrible. The walking trails where the smaller species are displayed are mostly very good in terms of the size and quality of the enclosures. Highlights were the Malayan pangolin (at least I've seen a living one now!), tarsiers, cloud rats, hog badgers, and giant flying squirrels of two species. Lowlights were the awful small enclosures for large animals along the tram route in which rather obvious stereotyping was commonplace. While the tram was stopped at the sloth bears a wild colugo came zooming in out of the night and plastered itself onto a nearby tree-trunk, then clung there swivelling its head about. I don't think anyone else knew it was there. I stayed until 11pm and then caught a bus back to the nearest MRT station where I found the trains were stopping service in half an hour. I went as far as I could in the time and then luckily found another bus the rest of the way back to where my hostel was so I didn't need to pay for a taxi.
The next morning I visited the River Safari, the newest of Singapore's zoos. I had been looking forward to this a lot. The first half of the zoo was mostly brilliant and took me about two hours to get around, but the second half was a joke, mostly composed of an eight minute boat ride past tragically small enclosures, saved only by the amazing manatee aquarium at the end.
With two of the required zoos out of the way, the next day was a wild animal day. Destination: Pulau Ubin. This is a fairly-undeveloped island off the coast of Singapore which still contains a lot of wildlife. There are some people living there, but there's no city life, no traffic, no potable water. In fact it is so opposite of Singapore that sometimes animals swim across the strait from Malaysia for a holiday. There have been isolated records of tapir, elephant and even tiger on the island. Resident wildlife includes wild pigs, otters, pangolins, civets, red junglefowl and Oriental pied hornbills. To get to Pulau Ubin you first take a bus to Changi village. Changi is well-known to bird-watchers because there are established wild populations of two introduced parrots here, namely moustached parakeets (which I saw) and Goffin's cockatoos (which I did not see). I've seen them here before, but I wanted to add another tick on my year list. From Changi you take what are called bum-boats across to Pulau Ubin. This only costs $2.50 each way. Once on the island you can hire bicycles to get around. All the hire places have signs out front saying “from $2” but that's only the price of the tiniest childrens' bikes. Mostly you're paying $10-20. I had a fun time cycling round the various paved and unpaved roads, getting eaten by mosquitoes. I saw a straw-headed bulbul for the first time. They used to be a common bird but I keep reading how they are difficult to find now due to the cage-bird trade (they are one of the favoured “singing birds”). I guess it is true because I've never been able to find one before now! At the eastern end of the island is the Chek Jawa wetland area. There are a couple of boardwalks there, one through mangroves and one around the coastline. Out on the mudflats there were a number of whimbrels and grey herons. One of the grey herons was much larger and darker than the others and when I looked at it better it turned out to actually be a great-billed heron. I had, at one time, great-billed heron on my Singapore list based on a “wild” bird seen at Jurong Bird Park back in 2004 but eventually I discovered that wasn't a wild bird at all. I didn't see a real wild one until 2009 in Sabah and then also Komodo the same year. This current one returned the species to my Singapore list. Also scattered about on the mud-flats were several white egrets hunting in the shallows. At first I thought little egrets but through the binoculars they all obviously had bright yellow bills. Eventually, after much looking, one of them showed its feet which were also yellow. Chinese egret. Not sure about the others though – five Chinese egrets seems a bit far-fetched so I choose to assume the others were intermediate egrets.
The following day I had two activities in mind, firstly the wetland reserve of Sungei Buloh in the morning and secondly the new S.E.A. Aquarium in the afternoon. Sungei Buloh is easy to get to – really everywhere in Singapore is easy to get to! There's a bus which goes most of the way there, followed by a fifteen minute walk (except on Sundays and public holidays when it goes literally to the entrance). The bus had a warning sign inside saying “By Law: pay the correct fare; no smoking; no vandalism; no assault on the bus captain”. Sungei Buloh is a prime wader spot in Singapore but this is the end of the wader season, most of them having already departed back to Siberia and Alaska for breeding. There were some few small flocks still to be found – mostly common redshanks and whimbrels, with just a handful of common greenshanks and marsh sandpipers. No curlew sandpipers or plovers to be seen. I also saw what appeared to be a mixed group of milky and painted storks – both species breed at liberty at the zoo and apparently hybridise there, and birds are consequently seen all over the place. A large-tailed nightjar sitting on one of the tracks was nice, but it flew before I got any proper photos. I was particularly looking out for smooth-coated otters while at Sungei Buloh because they are regularly seen there, but there was a lot of construction work going on where they were renovating the visitor centre and one of the boardwalks. No otters seen.
After Sungei Buloh I caught the bus back to one of the MRT stations and took the train to Waterfront station, and from there walked across the boardwalk to Sentosa Island where the new S.E.A. Aquarium is located. This was brilliant, the best public aquarium I have ever been to. The monstrous Open Ocean tank, inhabited by manta rays and with the largest aquarium viewing window in the world, was fantastic.
On what became my last day in Singapore, a Saturday, I visited Jurong Bird Park in the company of another zoo nut of my acquaintance. In camera news, my little camera had given up the will to live in Kuala Lumpur (as most people and objects do in Kuala Lumpur I guess), so I can't use it anymore. I had filled the memory card on my big camera at the S.E.A. Aquarium the day before. I thought I had a spare memory card but it turned out I didn't, and in a grave oversight of management they don't sell memory cards at the Jurong gift shops! So I had exactly 31 photo spaces available for the whole of Jurong!! We had a splendid visit at Jurong nevertheless, by my estimation the best bird park in the world. Highlight were the Peruvian cocks-of-the-rock. Amazing birds. I saw four common iguanas roaming free while there. According to my colleague they result from escapes/releases from the now-defunct reptile park which used to be next door. One of the ones we saw was a bright green juvenile, maybe a year or two old, so they are obviously breeding in the wild now and I therefore am counting them on my wild animals lists.
With my wallet haemorrhaging money like it had been stabbed in the throat by the tooth-fairy, I caught a bus on Sunday morning back up into Malaysia. In four and a half days I spent 440 Singapore dollars, roughly S$100 per day (and the Singapore dollar is almost equal in value to the NZ dollar). Of course S$118 of that went on entry fees for zoos and aquariums, and another S$75 was accommodation and S$33 on buses and trains around the city. In an effort to save money I was eating a lot of burgers! There was a place called Mos Burger opposite the backpackers and they had (really good!) burgers for S1.80. Cheap fuel.
Anyway, my money is gone. The trip is officially super-duper cross-my-heart honestly over, with sugar sprinkles on top.
On a completely unrelated note: I am now in Melaka
BIRDS:
612) Straw-headed bulbul Pycnonotus zeylanicus
613) Great-billed heron Ardea sumatrana
614) Chinese egret Egretta eulophotes
615) Laced woodpecker Picus vittatus
616) Copper-throated sunbird Nectarinia calcostetha
617) Brown-throated sunbird Anthreptes malacensis
Last edited:
thirudevaram
Trapped in mist ***s
SG, does sound like the most expensive country. Looks like almost all the east asian countries have their (national)cage bird. In China Hwamei, in Thailand, it was the Red-whiskered Bulbul, so i guess in SG it's Straw-headed Bulbul.
By the way, Rufous-collared Kingfisher is making an appearance in Panti forest, incase if you are interested.:t:
Cheers>
By the way, Rufous-collared Kingfisher is making an appearance in Panti forest, incase if you are interested.:t:
Cheers>
Chlidonias
Well-known member
you know what, I was actually planning on going to Panti when leaving Singapore but somehow forgot! I'm not sure if I'll get back down and visit or not.
viator
Well-known member
Couldn't agree more. The boardwalk covering the world's major rivers is great (some decent wild birds as well possible) but the boat ride pathetic; of course the majority of visitors only actually do that! The manatee aquarium is amazing and having visited a couple of times the absolute highlight (the boat ride won't be visited again).
My biggest problem with the River Safari is why should I pay extra; it's adjacent to the zoo, open the same hours and besides the boat ride for the avg person a way of getting a lot more money to see a panda!
Not any time recently....
They are actually still common on Ubin and not hard to track down in other locations in Singapore e.g. Hindehede Park, Sg Buloh. Especially on Ubin a very common song but far from easy to actually see a bird. Ubin has to be the easiest place in the region to see one due to the hunting for the bird trade which has made them rare in the rest of their range.
I have a better record on Ubin than Sg Buloh! But certainly not common, less than 10% on Ubin for me.
Stunning yes. Only been once and by far my worst experience at any tourist trap in Singapore. A Saturday and all of Singapore, Hong Kong, China and Malaysia seemed to have chosen to be there at the same time...will be a long time before paying again and NEVER on the weekend
viator
Well-known member
You have to one day; an incredible list in total and many species easy which are hard everywhere else. It's not just the diversity but the pure numbers of birds. Not in Singapore but without a doubt Singapore's #1 birding attraction given the proximity. Personally, can never have enough of the place but even a day trip from SG stunning; the diversity of species that no longer exist in Singapore but used to is amazing.
Chlidonias
Well-known member
I had been warned off visiting S.E.A. on a weekend!! It is expensive (as pubic aquariums always are because of costs); if you pay at the counter it is Sg$38, but booking online Sg$33 -- they gave me a voucher for Sg$10 off my next visit too, not that I can use it. There are all sorts of extras which can be added on to increase the price even more as well!
I don't put in depth discussion about zoos on here because lots of members don't like them, but anyone who is interested, I do put detailed reviews on Zoochat (Singapore reviews here for viator: http://www.zoochat.com/forums/country/singapore/ )
I've been told the smooth-coated otters are also being seen (regularly?) at the new Gardens In The Bay (I think it is called).viator said:
Chlidonias
Well-known member
I have always planned to and wanted to.... somehow just never have!!
Chlidonias
Well-known member
Last time I was in Melaka, back in 2011, I arrived at the main bus station (Melaka Sentral) and there was a guy there asking everybody on the buses if they wanted to stay at his guesthouse, Le Village. I stayed there, it was good and cheap (20 Ringgitts for a room). However I understand it has had a change of ownership since then and gone way downhill. This time when I arrived at Melaka Sentral from Singapore there was a different guy there asking everybody on the buses if they wanted to stay at his guesthouse, Travellers Planet. So that's where I stayed this time! It is also good, and is actually right round the corner from Le Village so I know the area already.
First priority was buying a Taylor Swift ice-cream. I had been keeping on seeing these advertised all over Malaysia and Singapore, so I had to try one because.... because... aargh, too many jokes about Taylor Swift as an ice-cream!!!
Second priority was buying a Nestle Drumstick ice-cream. “Life Is An Adventure” was the slogan on the promotional posters. I can with fair certainty say that I have never done anything as adventurous before as eating roast chicken flavoured ice-cream. Sadly the ice-cream was not named a drumstick due to it tasting of chicken. Another adventure ruined.
I didn't do any bird-watching in Melaka, it was totally zoo visits.
At Travellers Planet there was a pamphlet for an aquarium on the wall. Excellent, I thought, I've never been there! Hmm, Coral Wonderland was the name .... why did that sound like something I had heard before? “Malaysia's Most Touchable Aquarium”.... that sounded awfully familiar! With the emphasis on “awful”! The photo of a gormless cretin holding a horseshoe crab up for the camera by its tail helped me remember why I would never visit such a place.
The first animal collection I did visit in Melaka was the Melaka Zoo. All the animal collections in Melaka (except the Coral Wonderland) are clustered in Ayer Keroh, about 12km outside the main city. There are two buses from Melaka Sentral which go past the zoo, the number 19 (Ayer Keroh) and the number 1B (Tampin-Alor Gajah). These two buses could never be accused of being regular – the number 19 appears to make the trip only once every 1.5 to 2 hours, and the 1B about once an hour. You'll probably spend longer sitting at the bus stop waiting to get back to the city than you spend inside the actual animal attraction.
I had last been to the Melaka Zoo in 2011 and then it was amongst the best zoos in Asia (if one overlooks the horrific Small Mammal and Small Carnivore houses which were there then). Since then it has had a fall from grace with literally hundreds of animals “mysteriously” disappearing during a changeover in operators in 2012. Now the zoo is a shambolic half-empty shadow of its former self. Almost all the birds are gone, including all the birds of paradise, and there are hardly any mammals left smaller than a serow. A real tragedy.
Directly opposite the zoo – literally on the other side of the road – is the Taman Buaya Melaka (“Melaka Crocodile Park”). I didn't really feel any great desire to visit this place but it was right there and I had read it was free so I crossed over. It was not, as it happened, free. It cost ten Ringgitts, about NZ$4, so I decided to leave that and head instead to the Melaka Bird Park which is in the Botanic Gardens just up the road. On the way I happened across a sign with an arrow pointing to “Akuarium”. This was a little place which a friend of mine had also happened across unexpectedly on his visit to Melaka in early 2013. It had been closed but he visited anyway, because that's just the way he rolls. The aquarium was in a tiny little building, about the size of a one-car garage, painted on the outside with an attractive undersea mural (sharks, octopus, clownfish). Unfortunately the building was locked up tight. I looked through the windows and all the tanks were empty. They looked like they had been empty for a while. The car-park had been rendered obsolete by the simple expedient of covering it in dozens of large potted shrubs. I don't think it is going to be re-opening any time soon!
I continued on to the Melaka Bird Park which is fairly new, having only opened in March 2013. This was rather disappointing to be honest. It claims to be the largest walk-through aviary in Malaysia, which it may well be. However due to its newness it is also incredibly bare still, and it doesn't really look like they even intend it to be anything more than “dead trees on lawn” inside. The result is that from any point at all you can literally see every single other point in the aviary which significantly decreases the appearance of huge size. Plus there is very little to see. There are quite a few birds in there but most sit out of sight under the supports of the aerial walkways. I had my binoculars so I could see where and what things were, but your regular visitor probably not so much. Most of the birds are exotic parrots. Maybe in ten years it will be good, now not so much.
With the bird park having been little more than a thirty minutes visit I decided to give the Crocodile Park a try, and returned there. The bus back to town left from outside the zoo, so I had to walk past the park anyway to get to the bus stop! There's not a lot to say about the Crocodile Park: it's a small crappy zoo with crocodiles and a few other animals. That's about it.
The next collection to visit in Melaka was the Melaka Butterfly and Reptile Sanctuary (Taman Rama-rama & Reptilia). I had tried to visit it in 2011 and hadn't been able to find it! I had a pamphlet from the park, written instructions found on the internet, and a mental map courtesy of Google Maps, but no luck. I knew the road to the park was right before the highway toll gate but the guards at the toll gate had never heard of the butterfly park and after wandering around fruitlessly for a couple of hours I gave up. It didn't help that the road sign arrows to the park pointed in every single possible direction! This time, with exactly the same resources, I found it no problem at all! Life is funny sometimes.
I'm really glad I made it to the park this visit. I can honestly say that it was better than the zoo, bird park and crocodile park combined! It is a small site but they make the most of the space, everything is kept well, reptile enclosures were often large, everything was healthy, there were no cringe-worthy moments. Definitely recommended. The most, er, interesting sights were the open-fronted scorpion display and the walk-through mangrove snake enclosure where most of the snakes were clustered in a ball of death above the walkway right at my head-height.
And that is Melaka done and dusted for a second time. Sorry no birds to mention, but tomorrow I am back on a plane to another place which does have birds!
First priority was buying a Taylor Swift ice-cream. I had been keeping on seeing these advertised all over Malaysia and Singapore, so I had to try one because.... because... aargh, too many jokes about Taylor Swift as an ice-cream!!!
Second priority was buying a Nestle Drumstick ice-cream. “Life Is An Adventure” was the slogan on the promotional posters. I can with fair certainty say that I have never done anything as adventurous before as eating roast chicken flavoured ice-cream. Sadly the ice-cream was not named a drumstick due to it tasting of chicken. Another adventure ruined.
I didn't do any bird-watching in Melaka, it was totally zoo visits.
At Travellers Planet there was a pamphlet for an aquarium on the wall. Excellent, I thought, I've never been there! Hmm, Coral Wonderland was the name .... why did that sound like something I had heard before? “Malaysia's Most Touchable Aquarium”.... that sounded awfully familiar! With the emphasis on “awful”! The photo of a gormless cretin holding a horseshoe crab up for the camera by its tail helped me remember why I would never visit such a place.
The first animal collection I did visit in Melaka was the Melaka Zoo. All the animal collections in Melaka (except the Coral Wonderland) are clustered in Ayer Keroh, about 12km outside the main city. There are two buses from Melaka Sentral which go past the zoo, the number 19 (Ayer Keroh) and the number 1B (Tampin-Alor Gajah). These two buses could never be accused of being regular – the number 19 appears to make the trip only once every 1.5 to 2 hours, and the 1B about once an hour. You'll probably spend longer sitting at the bus stop waiting to get back to the city than you spend inside the actual animal attraction.
I had last been to the Melaka Zoo in 2011 and then it was amongst the best zoos in Asia (if one overlooks the horrific Small Mammal and Small Carnivore houses which were there then). Since then it has had a fall from grace with literally hundreds of animals “mysteriously” disappearing during a changeover in operators in 2012. Now the zoo is a shambolic half-empty shadow of its former self. Almost all the birds are gone, including all the birds of paradise, and there are hardly any mammals left smaller than a serow. A real tragedy.
Directly opposite the zoo – literally on the other side of the road – is the Taman Buaya Melaka (“Melaka Crocodile Park”). I didn't really feel any great desire to visit this place but it was right there and I had read it was free so I crossed over. It was not, as it happened, free. It cost ten Ringgitts, about NZ$4, so I decided to leave that and head instead to the Melaka Bird Park which is in the Botanic Gardens just up the road. On the way I happened across a sign with an arrow pointing to “Akuarium”. This was a little place which a friend of mine had also happened across unexpectedly on his visit to Melaka in early 2013. It had been closed but he visited anyway, because that's just the way he rolls. The aquarium was in a tiny little building, about the size of a one-car garage, painted on the outside with an attractive undersea mural (sharks, octopus, clownfish). Unfortunately the building was locked up tight. I looked through the windows and all the tanks were empty. They looked like they had been empty for a while. The car-park had been rendered obsolete by the simple expedient of covering it in dozens of large potted shrubs. I don't think it is going to be re-opening any time soon!
I continued on to the Melaka Bird Park which is fairly new, having only opened in March 2013. This was rather disappointing to be honest. It claims to be the largest walk-through aviary in Malaysia, which it may well be. However due to its newness it is also incredibly bare still, and it doesn't really look like they even intend it to be anything more than “dead trees on lawn” inside. The result is that from any point at all you can literally see every single other point in the aviary which significantly decreases the appearance of huge size. Plus there is very little to see. There are quite a few birds in there but most sit out of sight under the supports of the aerial walkways. I had my binoculars so I could see where and what things were, but your regular visitor probably not so much. Most of the birds are exotic parrots. Maybe in ten years it will be good, now not so much.
With the bird park having been little more than a thirty minutes visit I decided to give the Crocodile Park a try, and returned there. The bus back to town left from outside the zoo, so I had to walk past the park anyway to get to the bus stop! There's not a lot to say about the Crocodile Park: it's a small crappy zoo with crocodiles and a few other animals. That's about it.
The next collection to visit in Melaka was the Melaka Butterfly and Reptile Sanctuary (Taman Rama-rama & Reptilia). I had tried to visit it in 2011 and hadn't been able to find it! I had a pamphlet from the park, written instructions found on the internet, and a mental map courtesy of Google Maps, but no luck. I knew the road to the park was right before the highway toll gate but the guards at the toll gate had never heard of the butterfly park and after wandering around fruitlessly for a couple of hours I gave up. It didn't help that the road sign arrows to the park pointed in every single possible direction! This time, with exactly the same resources, I found it no problem at all! Life is funny sometimes.
I'm really glad I made it to the park this visit. I can honestly say that it was better than the zoo, bird park and crocodile park combined! It is a small site but they make the most of the space, everything is kept well, reptile enclosures were often large, everything was healthy, there were no cringe-worthy moments. Definitely recommended. The most, er, interesting sights were the open-fronted scorpion display and the walk-through mangrove snake enclosure where most of the snakes were clustered in a ball of death above the walkway right at my head-height.
And that is Melaka done and dusted for a second time. Sorry no birds to mention, but tomorrow I am back on a plane to another place which does have birds!
Chlidonias
Well-known member
This part of the trip is called “Back In Borneo, Baby!”. Otherwise known as “Good God Will This Trip Never End?!”. Or to MKinHK as “Um, Are You Following Me?”
I have been to Borneo before, back in 2009 for seven weeks. I wasn't going to go back this year but some cheapish flights came up so I thought what the heck. What's a bit more money right? I have ten days there and I was going to spend it all at Mt. Kinabalu (looking for Mt. Kinabalu ferret-badger!) but then I remembered that Bornean slow loris and Horsfield's tarsier are quite gettable at Sepilok so I added that as well because both those species have so far eluded me in the wild (although I have seen both in captivity). No proboscis monkeys or elephants this visit though. I have no books with me for Borneo (birds or mammals) so I will be relying on memory and google to help me out with what I see!
I just arrived in Kota Kinabalu a couple of hours ago (about 7.30pm) and have found my way back to Lucy's Homestay where I stayed last time. Tomorrow, Mt. Kinabalu.
I have been to Borneo before, back in 2009 for seven weeks. I wasn't going to go back this year but some cheapish flights came up so I thought what the heck. What's a bit more money right? I have ten days there and I was going to spend it all at Mt. Kinabalu (looking for Mt. Kinabalu ferret-badger!) but then I remembered that Bornean slow loris and Horsfield's tarsier are quite gettable at Sepilok so I added that as well because both those species have so far eluded me in the wild (although I have seen both in captivity). No proboscis monkeys or elephants this visit though. I have no books with me for Borneo (birds or mammals) so I will be relying on memory and google to help me out with what I see!
I just arrived in Kota Kinabalu a couple of hours ago (about 7.30pm) and have found my way back to Lucy's Homestay where I stayed last time. Tomorrow, Mt. Kinabalu.
kittykat23uk
Well-known member
We got the Tarsier at DVFC and the Loris at Tabin. Tried spotlighting a bit at RDC in Sepilok but didn't come up with much after dark- more on that soon in my TR. They do guided night walks on certain nights at RDC, so that might improve your chances as at DVFC the tarsier was found on a guided night walk and when we tried the same area we came up empty. I believe Hog Badger is also possible at Sepilok. Good luck!!
Chlidonias
Well-known member
I did one guided night walk at Sepilok in 2009 but it had been raining heavily and nothing but frogs were out. That's where I saw red giant flying squirrels though. The other nights I did my own thing at the RDC and saw red giant and black giant flying squirrels, lots of frogs etc, but no loris or tarsier. Apparently Sepilok is very good for those, despite me missing them last time, so fingers crossed.We got the Tarsier at DVFC and the Loris at Tabin. Tried spotlighting a bit at RDC in Sepilok but didn't come up with much after dark- more on that soon in my TR. They do guided night walks on certain nights at RDC, so that might improve your chances as at DVFC the tarsier was found on a guided night walk and when we tried the same area we came up empty. I believe Hog Badger is also possible at Sepilok. Good luck!!
MKinHK
Mike Kilburn
Yup - arrived 15 minutes after you, found a killer flashlight in the night market, which sells loads of them at great prices (durability assessment to follow), and also heading up to Mt Kinabalu after visiting the bookshop to pick up a field guide!
Collared Kingfisher in the tree next to the hotel this morning along with a bunch of swiftlets and some Asian Glossy Starlings have made for a nice start, but forest birds is what it will all be about . . .
Cheers
Mike
Collared Kingfisher in the tree next to the hotel this morning along with a bunch of swiftlets and some Asian Glossy Starlings have made for a nice start, but forest birds is what it will all be about . . .
Cheers
Mike
Chlidonias
Well-known member
I'm guessing glossy swiftlets (those are what I am seeing, and I'm just down the road
), but I remember there were lots of Asian house swifts round KK as well last time.kittykat23uk
Well-known member
There's swiftlets nesting at the shops down the road from Kinabalu national park.
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