stuartvine
Well-known member
Having totally failed to book a tour to Jordan early enough to get a place, we saw a flight deal with Qantas to Singapore. (£400pp return). Renting an apartment (very nice, Alocassia Serviced Apartments, three minutes from Stevens MRT station and one stop from the Botanic Gardens) cost another £550, so not an overly expensive holiday. We travelled by metro and bus and ate in hawker centres and food courts. I'd recommend an EZ card for travel if staying for more than the three days a tourist card covers for use on public transport. This was not primarily a birding holiday, but we seem to have spent quite a lot of the time doing just that...
Day 1: After the usual long and mildly uncomfortable time that is long-distance flying we arrived at about 6:30pm, so the only birds seen were the ubiquitous Javan Mynas.
Day 2 - Botanic Gardens: One thing we didn't realise is that Singaporeans go running and practice other forms of exercise before work, so the Gardens were pretty busy at first light! The Gardens are really rather special, a UNESCO World Heritage Site with a broad range of habitats, from formal gardens to forest trees by the way of lakes and wetlands. The commonest birds were Yellow-vented Bulbuls, Asian Glossy Starlings. Olive-backed Sunbirds and those ubiquitous Javan Mynas. I won't be mentioning them again, just assume that those species are everywhere.
The park has a healthy population of pigeons, on this first visit there were Pink-necked Green and Orange-breasted Green Pigeons, along with Spot-necked Doves and feral pigeons. High in the trees was a solitary Blue-throated Bee-eater. Above the trees, swiflets were hunting insects (mostly Germain's Swiftlets I'm led to believe).
The lakes and ponds yielded adult and juvenile Black-crowned Night Herons, White-breasted Waterhen and a Common Kingfisher. A couple of Collared Kingfishers also put in an appearence. Red Junglefowl were noisily all over the place. Ashy Tailorbirds are also pretty common, while Koel were heard more often than seen. Magpie Robin were both seen and heard.
The more dramatic birds seemed to save their appearence until the last, a pair of Blue-rumped Parrots shot past us, while two feral Yellow-crested Cockatoos were busily shredding a tree. The finale was a point-blank Oriental Pied Hornbill (the only one of the trip) which was engaged in some serious excavation of an earth bank.
As we left a single Black Kite flew over, Not a bad start.
Day 1: After the usual long and mildly uncomfortable time that is long-distance flying we arrived at about 6:30pm, so the only birds seen were the ubiquitous Javan Mynas.
Day 2 - Botanic Gardens: One thing we didn't realise is that Singaporeans go running and practice other forms of exercise before work, so the Gardens were pretty busy at first light! The Gardens are really rather special, a UNESCO World Heritage Site with a broad range of habitats, from formal gardens to forest trees by the way of lakes and wetlands. The commonest birds were Yellow-vented Bulbuls, Asian Glossy Starlings. Olive-backed Sunbirds and those ubiquitous Javan Mynas. I won't be mentioning them again, just assume that those species are everywhere.
The park has a healthy population of pigeons, on this first visit there were Pink-necked Green and Orange-breasted Green Pigeons, along with Spot-necked Doves and feral pigeons. High in the trees was a solitary Blue-throated Bee-eater. Above the trees, swiflets were hunting insects (mostly Germain's Swiftlets I'm led to believe).
The lakes and ponds yielded adult and juvenile Black-crowned Night Herons, White-breasted Waterhen and a Common Kingfisher. A couple of Collared Kingfishers also put in an appearence. Red Junglefowl were noisily all over the place. Ashy Tailorbirds are also pretty common, while Koel were heard more often than seen. Magpie Robin were both seen and heard.
The more dramatic birds seemed to save their appearence until the last, a pair of Blue-rumped Parrots shot past us, while two feral Yellow-crested Cockatoos were busily shredding a tree. The finale was a point-blank Oriental Pied Hornbill (the only one of the trip) which was engaged in some serious excavation of an earth bank.
As we left a single Black Kite flew over, Not a bad start.
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