Fort Canning revisited and a short stay

I waited for the fellow to walk further to lend a scale to the traveler's palm and staircase. 

The light house and the autumn looking foliage.

Nice figs.

This is terap Artocarpus elasticus. This time i can reach the fruit using my x50 optical zoom and hugged the lamp post as a giant monopod.   I recalled in past years i brought back a fruit and sectioned only to find it was sterilized and could not form any seeds inside.

Have to look up what this is being called. My version is Dr WHo disappearing / teleporting  chamber....

Now i  saw a tree house up there. My guess is the Horn-bill Project. Didn't see any occupant though....

Coming to the Fort Canning Park from Funan side I notice this pretty wild fowl perching on a tree branch. 

This little fellow - Asian brown flyeater was making a loud two syllable note.  

The fort - wide enough for a car to drive through. A side door on the inner left allow you to to the top

A police car was seen patrolling the trails  - my first time encounter in this park. Immigrant workers were seen  enjoying themselves picnicking gathering singing etc. There was even a dance fighting going on.  Little Indian rioting last week was still fresh in everyone's mind.  There are still places for photo shoot i didn't cover in this short trip.One day i will return.

Armenian church - from across the street i noticed something was sitting there. But the profile was  just too thin..  I walked up and saw a angel statue instead.

This is not from Fort Canning but from Yishun. Was heavy downpour on the saturday and this lone Collared KF taking a break.

Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve Nov 3 2013

Egrets took off - trying to catch them

Egrets above.

Birds on the sandbars - they just dazzled the eyes

Nov 3, 2013 Sunday -  Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve via bus SMRT 925. On Sunday this bus will bring  you to the bus stop outside the reserve whereas on other days you will have to walk in from Kranji Reservoir.

Whimbrel notice one of them with widely open beak. ( mid left)

Egrets - there are swamps of them flunking the pure white feathers . 

Archer fish -  uses jets of water to dislodge insects on branches and they became meals.

Cicada - just one of this can deliver a loud singing. Imagine  thousands of them singing at the same time.

Oriental pied hornbill - this is our 2nd time seeing hornbill. The last one were in Pulau Ubin. A kind chap eagerly pointed out the pair to us while we just stepped into S Buloh Wetland Reserve. Soon a gathering of the skyward lens resulted. The feathery friends seem to be least bothered.

Horn-bill

Biggie - guess what are they focusing on ? [ collar KF ]

Here is the pair.  According to the survey there are about 100 hornbills in Singapore. They were doing the morning grooming i suppose.

Collared KF.  Several 'biggie' - large telescopic lens were seen training on them behind observation deck. I have to feel contented with the x50 optical zoom instead.

Tides coming in.

Mangrove Arboretum This is the boardwalk worth visiting. I remembered there was a visit before where the sea water were mere inches away from flooding the walk way.

E. versicolor or Tree climbing crab or Vinegar crab.  A delicacy -mum told me grandfather used to prepare them with vinegar and lime juices and preserved them in glass jar. She mentioned about the squarish look. Indeed they are ( see image below)

Boardwalk with shelter.

Tower Hide 2C. My watch tells me about 10m in elevation so about the same height of the larger Aerie ( see below)

Sunday Oct 06 2013 - Yishun park ( yet again )

Yishun park Sunday 07 Oct '13.  

 I didn't expected anything new but I brought along the camera just in case as well as the tiger balm cream to ward-off mosquitoes bite. Near the ponds the usual water birds were there but I  ignored them having taken so many shots of them before.  Further into the park  a few birds were seen picking off the orange-red berries from the tree branches. I stood beneath the tree and trying to get a few decent shots with most of them heads obscured by leaves. From the lens i can see the berries were tempting.

Attracted by the small orange red berries several birds were busy feasting on this tree. 

 We revisited this tarap tree in the park and found it bears plenty of small young fruits. They never manage to grow into the mature size i saw in Borneo.  I zeroed in a sun lit pair - picking a sterile one and a successfully formed one for comparison. You can discern the bristle hair found on terap. ( as contrast to breadfruit and jackfruit ).

Tarap fruit - sterile and normal fruit ( larger one)

Handkerchief tree flower

I bet most will look up the durian trees there and i am no exception. Small clusters of durian fruits  can be seen dangling from the branches. A few spoiled ones were the work of squirrels which managed to shear off the spiky thick outer husk.  Else where the rambutans ( hairy lichee) are fruiting too. 

Kite and a tiny white dot of a passing jet. The kite is the leading kite pulling a string of other cartoons characters which appeared to fail to get airborne.  The threads rewinder looks like a small wheel to me. 

Small rambutan fruits

Bukit Timah Police transmitter station? Used to be one tower but recent time they have added another one.  

This monkey  snatched away a small girl's  HelloKitty bag thinking there is food inside. 

Near the entrance to the Dairy Farm Loop I noticed the 'grass' patch had blossomed with  tiny purplish stamens and pink pedals.

On the stony steps down the Renghas road the familiar flowers bloomed again. This time I flipped the LCD so i can shoot the yellow orange thick petals straight up.  What you see is an almost empty interior - nice cavity for taking a shelter underneath this bell shaped flower perhaps.

Bukit Timah Dairy Farm Loop - Summit.  On Saturday I managed to get a shot of the racket-tailed black color Drongo near Bukit Timah Summit ( 263 M). This bird can mimic the call of others.

A green color snail inches her way up the trunk but sensed my presence and retracted the feelers.

those little things - Nikon P7000 manual macro

Flaming x3 projectiles?

Near the Bukit Timah Summit ( 163 metre).  Like a little flaming bullet does it?

A touch of autumn near  the Dairy Farm Hut. I  looked up and shot it using manual macro from P7000.. A stone throw away you get the pretty orange-red leaves from rubber trees. The day was warm and the rubber seeds are cracking up.

Picked up this tiny flower on starting trail to Dairy Farm Loop. After the rain flowers bloomed.

My neighbour planting the green leafy vegetable in styrofoam box filled with soil. She told me it took 3 weeks before harvesting. 

Two green 'chai xin' vegetable plants were left to mature for collecting the seeds for propagation. Do you know where to get the seeds? Look for the seed pods.

water  caltrops - horned nuts - buffalo  nuts

At Bidadari, near Woodleigh MRT   attracted by the red sheath 

Bidadari - hot noon sun