Unexpected Bird Watching at Pulau Ubin

We went to Pula Ubin again today and toured the island on a tandem bike, our primary focus was the Chek Jawa Wetlands, which we did not visit the first time when we visited the island on foot.

One highlight of the day was hiking on Chek Jawa trail which has two sections, one is boardwalk in the sea, and the other section is boardwalk over intertidal area. We biked to trailhead and hiked the trail. Beautiful shoreline, sea breeze and period of Sunshine made the hike really pleasant.

When we got to the boardwalk, we saw a white bellied sea eagle soaring in the sky, and later, 2, and then 3 eagles. 

From viewing jetty on this trail we could see Pulau Sekudu from land really close. The tiny island has special meaning to us since we kayaked around it in April, 2022, when it was low tide. This morning it was high tide, and the wetland, and many boulders were submerged. The high tide made grey herons, great egrets stay on top of trees instead of shallow waters.

Pulau Sekudu ...surround wetland was submerged in water due to high tide

 As we walked away from viewing jetty, I looked back and I saw many grey herons and egrets were landing on big trees on shore. Pacific swallows were flying in and out of woods by the shore, one perched on the boardwalk rail for a few seconds. Huge airplanes were approaching Changi airport for landing one after another.

Herons and Egrets

a pacific swallow

An airplane approaching Changi

After lunch, we biked to the west side of the island, and stopped at Pekan Quarry for a photo, herons and egrets stood at the water's edge as usual and then I saw a blue feathered bird flew into a tree, thinking it was a white collared kingfisher. When I got closer, I found that it was not a kingfisher at all. It was a yellow collared lovebird! 

yellow collared lovebird

After the stop, we continued to Ketam mountain bike park, stopped at Ketam quarry but did not continue on the blue trail in the bike park - the tandem bike was not for the mountain trail.

On the way back to Pulau Ubin Jetty, we went to Butterfly Hill. There were many butterflies in blooming flowers. We rested in a gazebo. We heard the oriental pied hornbills chirping then a pair of hornbills flew to us and landed on a tree nearby, preening themselves.

A couple minutes later, another pair of hornbills landed on a tree just outside the butterfly hill. 

What an exciting end for our day at Pulau Ubin!

Note

It seemed that we had special connection to oriental pied hornbills on this day. When we returned to the main island, we did a bit looking around for kayaking launching place at Changi beach park. A oriental pied hornbill came into sight followed by Mynas. The hornbill ignored them, and the pesty birds stopped making noises.