Fort Canning Monday ( Hari Raya ) 28-Jul-2014

Nice weather on Hari Raya Holiday Monday.  After Sat / Sun trips to Bukit Timah Reserve we planned to do something new and revisit Fort Canning instead.  We took the Hill Street entrance. 

Looking across the Hill Street Fire Station you can spot partial view of the Light House in Fort Canning.

Partial view on the Hill Street Fire Station domes. Noticed On the left lightning conductor you can find strands of roots from the seedlings trying to reach for 'soil' or support.

Colorful MDA buildings.

August is around the corner National Day celebration for the 49th nation building.

A reprieve from the direct hot sun under the shade of this Fig tree ( Ficus auriculata) .

Wilderness  in the middle of downtown?

Tarap ripening.

Artorcarpus elasticus  

Artorcarpus elasticus up in the tree bearing sterile fruit.

  IN past visit, there were no pods seen so i do not know much about this Madras Thorn except they have knotty trunk.  

Myna feeding on the Madras thorn seeds. Birds were strewing the bit and pieces of seeds, pulps. 

Seed pods, pulps, and arils(?) rained from above. There are a couple of Madras Thorn Pithecellobium dulce big trees. The stringy bean pods was mistaken to be tamarind and hence the nickname of manila-tamarind.

Pithecellobium dulce's bean pods

View from inside the Fort Gate

The recessed ceiling accommodates the swing back of the large doors

Fort Gate with row of peek holes above.

Staircase up to the roof-top of Fort Gate

The opening of the stair case to the roof top.

A brown color bat was seen flying out ( disturbed by squirrel) and returned to hide underneath the dried fern leaves of the rain tree

The peek hole from inside. It is easier to aim a gun at different angles from inside but it restricted the incoming bullets from hitting someone specific behind the wall.

Gothic Gate

Cupolas - domed shaped resting place. It looks small but the dome is empty so you cant reach the ceiling from inside.

Colugo Bukit Timah Nature Reserve Sat 26-Jul-2014

Colugo find @ Bukit Timah Nature Reserve  near HQ

Started on the left from Car Park B -  Dairy Farm Road > Seraya>Jungle Fall> Summit Path> Catchment   Rock Path*> South View> Hindhede Park

Intro to our friends of BTNR before it close down in mid Sept

Main features - climbing the stairs Seraya ,  look out from Seraya Hut for Singapore Quarry,  must visit Summit Rock 163 Metre,  Rock path for the climbing down the granite rock face and Hindhede park for the pretty H. Quarry serene scenery and not forgetting the HQ for changing / wash up. Last but not least is the Ranger displays of wing seeds,  Coluga, snakes specimen in alcohol etc and chatting with them.

Dipterocarp wing seed and colorful runners

Flowering near HQ

The ladies strike a post with the majestic forest giant. Rock Path

Spotted the calugo against the trunk straight away.

Unlike the few weeks before, this time the Colugo was just on a tree nxt to the walkway to Hindhede Park.

The conspicuous pair of tiny red ears

The inner lining of the flying machine

Add caption

Singapore Quarry - T platform Different activities today. Assignment under the hot sun!

Saw a floating object thought was a water monitor. Closer look  in x50 zoom resolved into three ducks! They have the whole quarry by themselves.

Well camouflaged and blended  in well with the tree trunk color and texture

Leave study - a still living leaf with 'eaten' away portions.

Hindhede Quarry Cliff Face close crop

Chng Tng ( Scaphium macropoda)  Boat-shaped leaf

Jack fruit ( as contrast with the white one from Tarap)

Group members for this Sat BTNR trekking