November…..

We had a pleasant drive to Bt Tinggi and stayed a couple of days at Colmar Tropicale and while we did not get to see the Silver-breasted Broadbill we saw lots of birdlife at the Botanic Gardens and other parts of the Berjaya Hills development. The star bird must be the "resident" Blythe's Hawk-eagle that was sighted over the 3 days we were there.

Friends from Houston visited on their way home from their 2-week diving trip to Manado and Sorong  in Indonesia, we took them to P. Ubin for a glimpse of Singapore as it was in the 1960’s.  It was a nice dry day and the friendly wild boars and oriental pied hornbills were out and about to the delight of Ross & Terri.  

    

On 7th at Telok Blangah Hill, one of the NSS third Raptor Watch sites, there was a lot of cloud cover, that reduced our sightings considerably. Even though the raptors were few there were many other birds active in the vicinity.

A friend mentioned he spotted the Spotted Wood Owl at the SBG so we met at the Jacob Ballas car park and were amazed to see this beautiful bird snoozing up in the tree.

While many different birds have been earlier recorded feeding on the fruits of the Ficus benjamina at the Bukit Timah summit our trip on 23rd was not so fruitful as only a few bulbuls were seen picking on the few remaining figs.  However on the way up we sighted the Black-bearded Gliding Lizard and a female Colugo hugging a tree.   Nearing the summit we heard loud bird calls and found 2 White-Bellied Sea eagles on a romantic rendezvous.   Unfortunately in the heat of activity the male fell off leaving the female disappointed.

On Thursday, as we were leaving Bidadari park at 8.30am we heard a few loud bird calls, looking up we saw about 4 barbets flying onto a tree,  followed by 3 larger birds that turned out to be the Oriental Pied Hornbills.  With such a good view and camera ready, we took many shots.  One of the Hornbills was trying to feed a female who did not show interest in the fig that was offered, while a 3rd bird was on another branch looking also not too interested in the male OPH.   For a few minutes the activity on this tree increased with a White Throated Kingfisher and some Yellow-Vented Bulbuls joining the congregation.   On the ground the Variable Squirrel that we had sighted earlier was busy eating.  We have not seen this species in other forest areas  that we have been and on checking we read this Variable Squirrel which is also known as Finlayson's squirrel could be escapees or released by pet owners.

October….

was a busy month which left little time to update our blog until now. In the first week of October we were out early in the mornings helping with a bird count along the Southern Ridges and learned a bit more on bird calls and managed to capture a few images of some of these flitting birds that are commonly heard but hard to see.

We made a trip to other bird spots in Tuas West and were thrilled to see a pair of Sunda Pygmy Woodpeckers and some migratory birds.

On a morning walk in SBG, a Crimson Sunbird was confronting its reflection.

Earlier this year we had visited the temples in Borobodur and Prambana that were built in the 9th century AD.  As we were keen to follow up with a visit to the ancient temples of Angkor we took a trip on 12th to 16th October to Siem Reap and Phnom Penh to visit the Angkor temples that were built in the 12th century AD.  While the Borobdur and Prambana temples were older, we found similarities at Angkor an example being the Ramayana stories carved into the stone blocks.   While Borobodur was built as a Buddhist temple and Prambana a Hindu temple, the Angkor temples had both Hindu and Buddhist influences as the times changed.  Of the Angkor temples uncovered, the most intact is Angkor Wat which is  the most well known.  We spent one day visiting the Angkor Thom temple complex and the Royal Enclosures where what remain are the Terrace of Elephants and the cut-off limbs of the statue that gave it the name of the Leper King. The next day we explored the famed Angkor Wat complex and also visited the Ta Prohm Temple and spent the late afternoon on the Bakheng Hill enjoying a sunset view of the Angkor Wat.  Apart from visiting the Angkor temples we also took a cruise on the lake, Tonle Sap, the largest fresh water lake in South East Asia and finished our trip with a visit to Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia.

Back home we took part in the NSS Bird Race on Ubin where we were able to sight 25 species while others found more than 50 species in the 7-hour race.  It was tiring in the hot sun but an interesting new experience.

At the end of October we drove across to Tanjong Piai with Alyce to checkout the most southern tip of mainland Asia. We found Tg Piai’s mangrove boardwalk a worthwhile location for a future trip.