Pasir Ris Park is a park at Northeast of Singapore, at the bank of Johor Strait. Pasir Ris means fine sand in Malay. It has long stretch of sand beaches with fine sands, palm trees line the bank, the trails from east end to west end is ~ 3.5km, paved, mostly shaded.
Pasir Ris Beach
shaded trail
The park is divided into 4 areas, and the areas are separated by rivers and connected by pedestrian bridges. In addition to hiking, biking and running, another popular sport is water sport, including kayaking, water biking, and standup paddle boarding.
A river separating areas of the park
Johor Strait
Buoys help to keep people from entering main waterway for cargos
There are plenty palm trees and other fruit bearing trees, flowering plants. With trees and plants, there are many birds there, in addition to the ubiquitous Javan Myna, we saw red junglefowl, doves, parakeets (long tailed green bird - saw them many times but did not get good photos), collared kingfisher, black naped oriole, common flameback (woodpecker) and oriental pied hornbill.
hanging flowers
Barn Swallows
Red Junglefowl - rarely see a rooster rest like this
common Mynas
mutated myna?
common flameback 1
common flameback 2
Sighting of oriental pied hornbill was the highlight of our visit to Pasir Ris Park and Beach. Shortly after we entered area 1 of the park, we saw a few photographers congregated around a tree, and then we saw the big horbill - the oriental pied hornbill, which is actually the smallest of all Asian hornbills.
A quick web search reveals that the oriental pied hornbill's diet consists of wild fruits such as figs (Ficus spp.), berries, palm fruit, papaya and fruits of liana plants. They are secondary cavity nesters, meaning that they typically do not excavate their own nesting sites but use those created by other birds or by branches breaking off. When females have selected and entered their nest, they seal the cavity with a mixture of saliva, mud, fruit, droppings and tree bark, leaving only a small opening through which food may be passed in. The male forages for the female and chicks, and the female feeds the nestlings. Chicks remain inside the nest with the female for several months until there are ready to fledge.
These descriptions matched what we observed - the male hornbill fetched the red fruit, and flew to the tree cavity opening to feed the female and chicks.
daddy hornbill foraging
to feed baby hornbill in the cavity of the tree
foraging and feeding
Time flew as we stopped frequently to watch birds, and enjoy the vista. It was ~ 1pm when we were halfway to parking garage and in front of the Restaurant Georges at the Coves. We had a late lunch there, in fact brunch for Saturday. The food was fresh and delicious, the view was beautiful. The price was at high side, but was worth it. :)
Singapore Botanic Garden is horticulture at its best. We enjoy this gem of gardens daily since we moved to the vicinity. In addition to flora as the center piece of the garden, the fauna adds a marvelous accentuation.
Birds
There are numerous birds here but they are frequently heard but not seen. Many of them are so well camouflaged, I don't see them even if they are right in front of my eyes, unless they are moving. Sometimes we saw amusing or unexpected scenes: for example, one day a yellow vented bulbul was on top of a shining car chasing its reflection!
A sunbird
Magpie Robin
A barn swallow
A brown throated sunbird
An ashtailor
yellow vented bulbul chasing its own reflection!
Fowls and Water fowls
Water hens are common water fowls in Singapore. Red jungle fowls are very common as well. One day we encountered a family of red jungle fowl - mom taking her chicks for a walk by the eco lake. We were ecstatic when we first saw solo black swan in the upper swan lake, and a pair of swans in swan lake.
waterhen
mom hen and her chicks - the chick camouflaged with fallen leaves well
A family of jungle fowls on a tree
A black swan
A pair of swans in rain
Larger animals
There is a least one monitor lizard in the symphony lake, we also see many fishes, some are pretty large. It is interesting to see them survive in the pond with a predator. There are also many turtles. We heard about river otters at the garden and looked for them in an futile effort. One day we went out in light rain around noon for late morning walk and saw a family of otters coming out of swamp to scratch themselves on grasses! There is a troop of monkeys living by the Keppel Discovery Wetland.
Pulau means island in Malay, and Ubin means stones.
Pulau Ubin means the island of stones, and it is one of the larger satellite islands northeast to the main island Singapore. We went there on October 9th via ferries at Changi Point Ferry terminal.
The white dash line in the map is the route for the small ferries, which are operated by private operators; each carry 12 persons. The ferry has no schedule, a boat will launch when there are 12 passengers waiting in the line. It takes 10 minutes to get to the jetty on Pulau Ubin.
This stretch of Johor Strait is very beautiful, clean green water with the densely wooded rocky shore of Pulau Ubin on the other side of the Strait from Singapore. We only visited a small portion of the island on foot, Sensory trail, Pekan Quarry, Bukit Puaka and Butterfly Hill.
Sensory Trail
When we got off the small ferry, we took the right side sensory trail to start our visit to the island. It is a less travelled path, quiet, with access to a beautiful beach, and a tranquil pond. The down side of the trail, is that there are many bugs and few people, we became of victims of bugs!
rocky shore at Pulau Ubin
jetty at Pulau Ubin
A beach on the island from Sensory trail
The sensory trail pond
Sensory trail pond - another view
Pekan Quarry
After the sensory trail, we went to the exquisite Pecan Quarry lake. It is also a lake favored by herons and egrets. The lake is fenced off except the look point. The most beautiful views and pictures we took were from behind the fence!
Pekan Quarry
Bukit Puaka and Sam Adventure Lake
Bukit Puaka is a 75 meter hill overseeing Sam Adventure Lake. The trail to the hilltop, carved from dense woods, is of intermediate difficulty, rocky, uneven and pretty steep. The view from the top is amazing - blue lake surrounded by bright green densely populated trees. We found out from map that there was an access to the water level, and went to the access point. Unfortunately the lake is closed, not sure if it is due to covid or it is permanently closed.
Lookout point on Bukit Puaka
View of Sam Adventure lake at water level
Butterfly Hill
It is actually a garden, and does not standout from the surroundings at its entrance. But we decided to go in and took a look on the return trip to the jetty. It was a great decision - the garden was unexpectedly beautiful with many butterflies. I only caught a handful of them on camera. In the garden, a gallery of butterflies at the butterfly hill is posted on a board. It definitely would take a full day and some luck to see all of them.
Notes
1. The island is too large for hiking. We should have rent bikes like most people visited there. Of course one might miss some bird watching or animal encounter on bikes.
2. Pulau Ubin should be a good place for kayaking and camping. For us how to transport our kayak to the island is a logistic challenge. We saw people kayaking to Pulau Ubin from main island,
3. We went to a hwaker center by the Changi Point Ferry Terminal on the main island. We will try restaurants on Pulau Ubin.
