When we go to Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park, we always see one grey heron or purple heron standing in the stream, Kallang river, with green vegetations around, elegant and beautiful.
Last Sunday, we went to the park again in the early afternoon. Walking along the stream, there again, a grey heron, standing in the shallow water, long neck stretched. Enjoying the beautiful sight, we took a few pictures, and moved ahead. Shortly a grey heron flew overhead, this definitely not the one we saw earlier, which was still there in the river. Later yet another heron flew over. There were a lot more herons here than we thought.
A few hundred yards later, we spotted a purple heron foraging in the river. As we got closer, a small bird took off from grasses in the water, and landed on the other side of the stream. zooming in using my camera, I saw a baby purple heron! It was a rare sighting for me to see adult heron and its chick foraging together. The chick gradually moved deeper into the vegetation, and we could not see it clearly.
A purple heron chick perched on a branch of the plant in the middle of photo
Further upstream, I heard quaking sounds above my head under a few clustered tall trees, it must some large birds I was sure, looking around and up I did not see anything. Walking away from the trees, I looked back, I saw a bird nest in one tree, and a heron stood above it.
Looking again, I saw three more herons stood on top of the trees! A heron would take off and flew away, another flew back the trees. This is Heronry!
Heronry is a colony of herons, which is typically near wetland. Herons are colonial nesters, i.e. they nest close to each other in mature trees.
Walking further away so I could see the treetops, I saw many more herons standing on top of trees. I got 5 herons in one photo. I suspect that there must be at least a doze of herons in this heronry.
Seeing herons foraging in solitude, how can I imagine they would nest in colony?
November is usually the best time of the year at North Texas - crisp cool weather, splendid foliage, and the Thanksgiving. This November was no exception.
We spent our Thanksgiving holiday this year at North Texas... where we called home for 18 years. Meeting friends, enjoying food and the brilliant crisp cool weather, it was wonderful.
Dallas Turkey Trot
We started the Thanksgiving day by running at Dallas YMCA Turkey trot. It was a cold cloudy morning with temperature at 7C (45F), wind chill made it feel more like 0C. There were about 22k people joined the trot - mostly for the 5K trot. We were among the less than 10% participants who ran 8 miles around downtown, crossing trinity river and back.
The weather was great for long distance run. For the 8 miles, I ran most of the time, walked occasionally late in the distance, and paused quite a few times to take pictures to take in the beautiful environment, Dalla downtown skyline. I completed the 8 miles in 97 minutes, slowest in my group of 4. Despite this, it gave me hope that I could run half marathon in near future!
my tracked run for the 8 miles
start of group 1
Initial portion of the running trail was a tree lined street
bridges over trinity river
Dallas Downtown Skyscrapers
My name was announced when I crossed the finish line!
Black Friday
We went for black Friday shopping at North Park mall...the first time in a long time since we did such adventure.
We went there in the afternoon, the parking lot was jammed. It took me sometime to find a parking spot. In the age of online shopping, the mall was surprisingly busy. Lego store was one of the few stores people had to wait to get in!! For amusement, I recorded the flow of people passing by the store using hypolapse mode, while waiting for the rest of the group to finish their shopping.
We spent about 3 hours there...bought some stuff...boots, clothes. I didn't buy anything but enjoyed quite a few sculptures and seasonal Christmas decorations.
We had a great party at a Friend's house that night - empty nesters and some of their grown up children. I was very pleased to see the young men and women having a good time together after several years away from each other
Texas BBQ at downtown Dallas
We went to Terry Black's BBQ at downtown Dallas for authentic Texas BBQ. It was a very popular restaurant, and the BBQ meat tasted great. We ordered nearly 4 lb meat and some sides, did not finish all the food
We didn't finish the order - carried leftover back for next lunch
Walking in the Nature
The days at North Texas during the Thanksgiving were cool, sunny and beautiful. In fact we could see Sunrise everyday around 7am from our hotel room! There is a nature reserve nearby, which we hike in every time we are in the area.
Walking in the brilliant foliage in crisp cool weather was a joy.
However, the crown jewel of the outdoor at Dallas is the white rock lake, which we visited after our BBQ at downtown, the lake, bright foliage, water fowls - gulls, egrets, double breasted cormorants, pelicans ....and bald eagles!
blue birds
white rock lake
We enjoyed our Thanksgiving holiday at North Texas, and hope we will move back in near future.
Sungai Teris is the last of the three estuaries on the south bank of Pula Ubin we paddled into. The other two estuaries, or tidal rivers are Sungai Jelutong, Sungai Puaka.
For kayaking to Pula Ubin, we usually launch our kayak Emma from the beach near Pasir Ris Park's car park A, which is close to the shore. In fact, car park E is close to the perfect kayak launch point by Kokomo Beach club at the park. But the car park is small and usually full when we got to the park.
Last Sunday, we left home early, tries to get to Sugai Teris as early as possible due to tide timing. We tried car park E and there were plenty parking at this 14 car port car park.
It had been a while since we last kayaked on March 24th, at Sungei Khatib Bongsu at High Tide, We had to refresh our memory just a little bit. Nevertheless, we finished set up the inflatable kayak Emma in about 10 minutes.
Pasir Ris Beach
To get to Sungai Teri, we had to paddle about 2km on open water in Johor Strait, crossing waterways for ocean freighters. About 1km through the 2km an ocean freighter was moving in our direction, we paused for it to pass. While waiting in the middle of open water, we looked around to see vistas at horizon.
Paddle along the Pasir Ris Beach
a port near Sembawang
the Serangoon east dam (white construction)
The section of south bank of Pula Ubin near Sungai Teris is rustic and beautiful, without any man made buildings, and there is a tiny islet, pulau ketam, there.
Ketam Island
south shore of Pula Ubin
After about 4km paddling we reached the mouth of Sungai Teris. It was sunny, quiet except bird chirpings here and there. Lily put on GoPro, and started recording.
The Sungai is narrow and heavily wooded. It provided much needed shade on this beautiful sunny morning. There were quite a few birds around. We saw clovers, heard black napped orioles and loud calls from collared kingfisher. See video below to see what it was like. I also captured a stork billed kingfisher on my camera.
paddling on Sugau Teris
a stork billed kingfisher
As we were approaching the head of the river, the water became shallower, the kayak was stuck a few times - we had to back away and paddled to the middle of the river. One more sticking kayak, we turned around, paddling back to the mouth of the river.
Lucky for us, a great heron gracefully flew to us and over our heads, and disappeared in the trees. Lily spotted the heron before me and captured the encounter on the GoPro.
Near the mouth of Sungai Teris, an Egret flew over us, and a white bellied eagle was soaring in the sky. Instead of going back to Pasir Ris beach directly, we went to Coney Island's beach - which is straight ahead on the mainland. We beached our kayak a Coney island and took a break there before heading back to out kayak put-in point.
In total we paddled 10km in 3 hour 19 minutes, our average speed was about 3km.hour.
After the kayaking, we had an ocean view lunch at Georges @cove - good food, great view!
A white Bellied Eagle over Johor Strait
Note 1- Rudder - lost and found
As we paddled away from the Coney island beach at 7km marker, we quickly realized something was not right - we could not paddle straight- we must have lost the rudder.
We paddled to the beach, and check the kayak's bottom at stern side, the rudder was nowhere
Where did it happen?
Could it be at Sungai Teris when the kayak was stuck? not likely because we had no issue steering when paddling from 5km marker at the mouth of Sungai Teris to 7km marker on the Coney island beach.
It must be at Coney island beach ...when we relaunched our kayak, I rotated the kayak 180 degree where the stern side was still on beach.
I walked back to the location we beached the kayak. The rudder was right there under water, partially covered by sand. I reinstalled the rudder, we paddled back to the put-in point.
Note 2
Rudder is a must for flat bottom boat, kayak, canoe, for steering.
