Singapore - Botanical Gardens - Under Starters Orders!

I arrived in Singapore on Saturday evening on a Qantas flight from Heathrow. The first thing I noticed was how spotlessly clean everywhere is. I purchased an NETS Flashplay card featuring Sesame Street big bird. The card is an oyster style card to use on the MRT underground and bus services. There is also a Tourist pass which gives you unlimited travel for a daily fee. The latter is more suited to hop on hop off multi journeys and can be purchased for up to three days travel. The MRT is very efficient and a cheap way to travel taking you to all the main areas for birds.

Today (Sunday) I visited the Botanical Gardens which is an amazing place attracting different species of bird to the diverse habitats within the large park. I arrive just after dawn and was not surprised to see local people jogging and participating in yoga and Tai Chi type classes. I seemed to be the only tourist type in the park. The tourists arrived later on in the morning followed by the picnickers who were going to take advantage of the sunny spells.

The first couple of hours I did not make a lot of progress as there were was a fair bit of movement around the Eco Lake, overhead and in the trees. The first confirmed species on my trip list was Common Myna which were scattered about the grassy areas. Red Junglefowl was also numerous turning over leaf litter in search of breakfast. Blue Crowned Hanging parrot and Coconut Lorikeet were moving from roosting site to feeding grounds. 

Bee Eaters are a favourite of mine and it did not take long to observe both species that frequent the gardens. The Blue Tailed was the more obliging of the two putting on a hunting display using the same perch to observe any unfortunate insect to venture too close to its position.

The Blue Throated seemed to keep its distance preferring a high perch to observe its surroundings.

Oriental Magpie Robin was very vocal during the early morning symphony. A Purple Heron put in an appearance in the trees on the Eco Lake.

Mystery warbler of the day was photographed in the trees. Having looked at pictures of both Arctic and Eastern Crowned I am still not certain about the natural colour of the vent and how dark the eye stripe was. Both feature with the former more common in the area.

White breasted Waterhen were seen in the margins of the areas of open grass. One parent had been separated from its young who quickly dashed across the path ahead of me.

The sun had its hat on by mid morning I moved on to the Symphony Lake where I had fantastic views of Crimson Sunbirds, Hill Myna and Striated Heron.

Having walked the perimeter of this lake I spied a White Throated Kingfisher feeding from a small tree set back off the path.

  

The reward for keeping one eye on the sky at all times was a White bellied Sea Eagle which circled the forest canopy walk. Koel was heard in this area but this species was not seen all morning despite hearing three birds.

The last bird of the day was a female Olive Backed Sunbird feeding on white flowers on a bush near the Eco Lake.

Over thirty species were recorded with a few that got away. By early afternoon the park was very busy therefore an early morning visit at the weekend is a must!