Bird Watching at Fort Canning

Every time we  run or jog at Fort Canning park, I hear bird chirpings all around but I can barely see any bird because birds are staying high in the densely leafed trees, and they camouflage very well.  When they are in flight, I see only their silhouette. The exceptions include the ubiquitous Javan Mynah, the roaming red jungle fowls or the pigeons - which can be easily spotted in or out of the park. For the sake of sighting record: On a drizzling day, I saw a white breasted waterhen while strolling at  Istana park 

Javan Mynah

Red Jungle Fowls

White Breasted Waterhen @ Istana Park

Two weeks ago, a beautiful Sunday morning, we went to Fort Canning for the sole purpose of bird watching. With my Sony alpha  camera which is equipped with an entry level tele lens, I hoped to see some birds.

Once we got on to the trail from Clemenceau entrance I could hear many birds in big trees, looking up I saw nothing! I paused walking, looked up again, and followed the chirping. I saw small birds, with light color chest, and grey feathers hopping from branch to branch, pecking at blooming flowers, and drinking  nectars. I snapped away, took many pictures but mostly with blurry images of the birds except a handful. The birds are warbling white-eyes.

As we walked into the park, we heard bird chirpings only occasionally. It was mid morning already, not  the best time for bird watching. Nevertheless we marched on. I saw a large plant with flower ahead of me. It is a flowering banana, Musa ornata. Looked at it again, I saw a bird with dark head, bright yellow breast! It did not chirp, kept hopping around the flower for better positions to drink nectar. When I got closer, it flew away before I could get a good picture of it. There are a lot of Musa Ornata at Pancur Larangan, or Forbidden Spring. While enjoying the views, a bird flew onto one of the flowering banana, and then a second. We got a feast for eyes, and took many pictures - Lily took the good ones shown here. This is brown-throated sun bird.

I saw a couple other birds, either too far for a good picture for bird identification, or no picure at all. As we were heading back, I saw a bird flew overhead, and perched on a tree branch in a tree some 10 meters away. I could see it well, but only a silhouette to my eyes. Lily actually could not spot it!!  The camera, with its high zoom, got a better view of the bird for us. It was a forest kingfisher.

Notes

1. Total of 6 new species are added to my personal bird sighting list.  

2. Curiosity and patience are key to bird watching, additionally

• Be quiet. Birds are easily startled by loud noises and will flee to cover.
• Avoid sudden movements. Just as loud noises startle birds, so does sudden movement.
• Follow the crowd.
• Study habitat.
• Work the flocks. 

Warbling White-eye

Warbling White-eye

Warbling White-eye

Brown-throated Sun Bird

Forest Kingfisher - zoomed in

Forest Kingfisher in a big tree - can you see it?

The Wonderous Ficus Trees

The first time I saw the tree in the following picture, I was intrigued. So many branches of the tree go downward and into the ground! Were the branches grew ground up or up to down? Looking at the joints of the branches, the connections look organic and seamless, it seemed to be unlikely that the branches grew ground up. If they grew top down, then how can they grew into the ground - assuming the downward growing branches are like typical branches with leaf tips? While I was thinking through this, I sawn another tree that has similar branch structure.  I could not figure out the answer to my questions.

Literature search revealed that the big tree is a type of ficus trees.

A big tree with prop like branches

A different and much smaller tree has similar branches

Some species of ficus produce aerial roots from their branches that grow down towards the ground. When they grow into the ground soils, they develop into strong and reasonably sized prop roots. These prop roots provide anchorage and support to the branches from the main trunk of the tree, allow them grow much further away from main trunk than typically possible. Species of these characteristics, typically grow into huge, majestic trees. As the following picture shows

A majestic ficus tree at Fort Canning

The big tree is home to so many birds, they flew in and out the tree, one at a time, or in groups. Many only hopped around the perimeter of the tree, one branch to another. The tree is a paradise to them, they chirped continuously, one after another, when I was there.

Later, on another trail path, I saw a ficus tree with aerial roots hanging in the air!! 

aerial roots

 Amazing what evolution can do!

The wonderous ficus tree is just one of many wonders of nature.  

Notes

1) This prop roots made me think of what is done in 3D printing. When an overhang is 3d printed we add support to the bottom of it, just like prop roots of some ficus tree. A necessity for high quality 3d printing of a structure with overhang.  

                                                The supports to a 3D printed part (reference)

2) There is a sign by the tree with many aerial roots, from CUGE (center for urban greenery and ecology), which stated the facts about the ficus tree. It stated that aerial roots often die before they reach ground in urban environment. They have experiments on the tree to help selectively stimulate the aerial roots to form prop roots, in hope of improving its stability and helping to grow larger!

Flowers and Plants at Fort Canning Park - by Lily

I have heard many good things about Singapore before getting here. But what impressed me most during my first week of exploration is the tropical plants. Singapore reminds me of Tokyo with its city design. Although many commercial and residential buildings, it managed to have well maintained green spaces in between with big trees and beautiful flowers. Within walking distance of the hotel we are staying there’s Fort Canning Park. We can easily visit there any time of the day. The trails are mostly covered by trees, it is well shaded even in the middle of a sunny day. The trails wind through the small hill, branch out or intersect, allowing us to get up close to many of the hill’s natural habitats.

The Flowers

I am drawn to their vibrant colors and unique shapes. I could not tell most of the flowers, and have to rely on an app SEEK which helped me to identify over 20 species in the park. Many have very interesting names.

Here are close up of some of the flowers.

Bamboo Orchid

Beach Spider Lily

Crepe Ginger

Hanging Lobster Claw

Parrot's Beak

Peacock Flower

Red Button Ginger

The Trees

The majestic tree trunks and intricate root systems make us wonder at the nature’s creativity.

Webbed tree trunk

Earpod Tree - other plants grow in the earpod 

Ariel roots grow top down

Cannonball tree - the fruit really looks like a cannon ball

The Fruits

The fruits dropped on the ground led me to look up and find its source.

First Glimpses of Singapore

First glimpses of Singapore showed us that Singapore is what it has claimed to be, attributed to be and more.

Weather 

With latitude of 1.3521 degree North, Singapore is almost right on equator. It has typical tropical weather, with little variation in temperature. It rains year round,  and Singapore's rainfall is largely influenced by the northeast (winter) and southwest (summer) monsoon. While winter monsoon (December to March) causes the highest rainfall of the year, southwest monsoon (June to September) has also an important role.

July 11 to July 18 weather forecast

So Singapore is "hot" and humid but average high 90 deg F is not that hot for us Texans.

Tropical Flowers and Birds

Tropical weather leads to tropical plants and flowers. During a 4 km morning run at Fort Canning Park we saw many trees, plants and flowers we haven't seen before.

Heliconia chartacea

Crepe ginger

Crinum Asiaticum (Spider Lily)

Cannonball tree

Red Button Ginger

We read about many colorful birds in Singapore, but have seen few. I saw a bright yellow bird flying in front of me a couple times but have not been able to catch it on camera. I saw a few roosters calling at Fort Canning. I also saw a white breasted waterhen this morning at Istana Park (a garden opposite to Istana - Singapore president's residency), a few Javan Mynah, a crow like bird, with yellow beak, yellow eye and white tip at its tail. Another interesting observation at Istana Park was a hairless squirrel - slender squirrel, which is in contrast to what I saw at north Texas.

white breasted waterhen

Javan Mynah

A red jungle fowl (rooster) at Fort Canning

slender squirrel

Streets in Singapore

The streets in Singapore are clean, typically with well maintained leafy trees. The high rises and buildings are crowded in downtown core and surrounding areas. Even in these places, it has plenty of trees and green spaces. 

high rises near downtown

Apartment buildings and Office buildings

Residencies building at Sentosa

Singapore River at Dusk

The small restaurants along the river walk 

Night at Marina Bay

Miscellaneous 

The variety of restaurants here is amazing, Chinese, Indian, Malay, Thai, Western, you name it, from street vendors, to food courts in malls, to high end restaurants, from not expensive to very expensive. Since most food (vegetables, fruit, meat, fish …..) are imported, the food, raw or cooked, are generally more expensive than what we have in Texas, sometimes multiple times more expensive!

To move around in Singapore, one must have TraceTogether, a government app, installed on their phone for tracking. One must have a Singpass to do anything in Singapore. I guess Singpass is equivalent to driver license in US since most people in Singapore don't have cars. 

Singaporeans follow the laws and rules very well. The mass has no issue with government imposing harsh punishments for the few who violate the rules, e.g. S$300 fine for not wearing facemask in public place, S$3000 for fishing at Riverwalk at downtown core. I saw a news story about a girl violating parking rule and was fined S$320 which was more than her one day earning as a food delivery person! 

One can find bad apples in any society including the world model Singapore. Yesterday we were surprised to see a man using self check out  at Cold Storage, the big supermarket in Singapore, without paying. When we told the clerk on duty, she calmly cancelled the items on the screen, and made no comments!

As we live here longer, we will observe more blemishes, and will discover more amazing things. 

All in all our first glimpses into Singapore made us feel very good about the place.