Bishan Ang Mo Kio Park

We visited Bishan Ang Mo Kio Park in January 2022, and liked it very much - it was an oasis in the jungle of concrete! beautiful, elegant and full of Flora and Fauna... This Sunday (August 11, 2024) we went to Bishan Ang Mo Kio park again for an easy hike and the beautiful landscape. Somehow the park we visited today was similar but different from what we remembered!

It turned out that the park is divided by Marymount road into two parts, the west part, which we visited in 2022, and the east part we visited today. 

East Bishan Ang Mo Kio Park

Kallang river runs by at the south side of the park. Many buildings line both north and south side of the park. The park has beautiful greenery - trees, grasses, plants, bushes. The resident birds include grey herons, purple herons, white breast waterhens, and black napped orioles.

There is a small butterfly habitat in the park, it has a few species of butterflies, including Tawny Coster.

The sculpture "An Enclosure For A Swing" is the unique feature at the east Bishan Ang Mo Kio park. The sculpture stands on a small hill - recycle hill, where one can view the entire east park from west to east.

pedestrian bridge over Kallang river

stepping stones for river crossing

a grey heron resting on a tree

a purple heron standing on plants in the river

a waterhen standing in a side stream to Kallang

Tawny Coster 

An Enclosure For A Swing

West Bishan Ang Mo Kio Park

We visited west side of the park in 2022. At that time I wrote about that visit in a wechat Moment.

"In the jungle of concretes - Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park 

As we were approaching the Park, it was depressing to drive between the massive high-rise apartment buildings. So it was really a big pleasant surprise to see this beautiful garden park...truly an oasis in the jungle of concrete.

Lush plants and grasses along the storm drainage river, elegant ponds, with many familiar birds ... mag pie robins, black napped orioles, yellow vented bulbuls, great grey herons, egrets, and a couple 'new' species - orange cheeked waxbills, cocoi heron. Many fishes in the river. Beautiful and lively. 

The place is worth a visit"

orange cheeked waxbills

Note

I was surprised that I did not write about the first visit to Bishan Ang Mo Kio park in my blog. Looking back, it turned out that I was busy writing blogs about our Maui trip at that time. I recounted the first visit in 2022 year end summary of our Singapore outdoor experience.

Sight, Sound, and Colors of Birds

On the morning July 21, we went to Sungei Buloh for nth time. It was high tide. Birds were mostly in trees, and on lands. It was a dull day  as far as bird watching and wild life viewing were concerned , no crocodiles at the reserve, no owls, no sight of eagles, or even the collared kingfishers. 

But as walked on the trail of the reserve, we noticed a large group of big birds soaring in the sky, circulating over the Buloh Basar River. Through high zoom via my camera, they turned out to be painted storks, a large wading birds. Painted Storks, like egrets and herons, they typically stand by water's edge, and fly short distance in solo or pair. It was a rare sight to have the painted storks flying in group in the sky for substantial time.

painted storks soaring in the sky

painted storks standing by water's edge

On the trail, I heard an unfamiliar, very bright, loud bird chip a few times, but could not locate the birds. When I heard the bird chirp one more time at Mangrove boardwalk, I finally spotted the bird. To my surprise, the chirp was from an ashy tailorbird.  In memory their sound were not this loud, but a short and sweet voice in series. I had my big lens on already, and got some very good photos of it since it stayed at its perch for quite sometime making calls. 

an ashy tailorbird singing loudly

There were a lot of house crows at Sungei Buloh, making loud noise. The color of a house crow is typically grayish black. Near the Buloh Basr river, we saw red dot in the air. Looking again, we saw a pitch black crow with a red fruit in its beak, quietly perched on a tree branch, after a few seconds it flew away with the red fruit.  If it was not the red fruit in its beak, I won't see it.

Can you see the crow?

Flame woodpecker is a quiet bird. I have not heard its chirp yet, not even the sound its pecking tree barks. But it has bright colors - red head, black neck and yellow plumage/wings. It seems to hop, not walk or fly on the tree trunk. Last week we saw it for the first time at Singapore Botanic Garden. 

The lineated barbets, on the hand, make calls for extended stretch at a time. But they are really hard to spot because they are so well camouflaged with green leaves of the trees they make call from. 

Can you see the lineated barbet in this photo?