Friday, October 24, 2008

Birds of the Wetlands

I decided to bring the children out for dinner today. Before that, I took them to 'feed the ducks' at a lake in the vicinity of our neighbourhood. I newly discovered this place when I joined the walking group at our community hub for a morning walk around the neighbourhood. There are a lot of ducks and their feathered kind living there amidst the wetlands and bushes. Just behind the lake, you can see houses and cars parked nearby.


Honestly, I couldn't really believe it at first that all these wild birds could live so near to human beings voluntarily. I was thinking that someone must be looking after them and keeping them, like the bird park. But that's me and my urban 'suaku-ness'. I couldn't see any fences and except for some people who feed them, they seem to be surviving pretty well on their own there.





In fact, today I saw these 2 large pelicans perching themselves lazily on the rocks in the middle of the lake. I actually witnessed one of them 'fly in'. They stayed there for so long, sun tanning and grooming themselves, totally oblivious to me snapping photographs of them. I was very excited to see them, especially so near to home. Back in Singapore, I would have to travel across the island to Jurong Bird Park and pay to see these birds in captivity.



KK had fun throwing the bread to the ducks. It was just a little piece for him to participate as I personally think feeding them too much is no good. If they're really wild, they need to learn how to survive on their own. Interestingly, the pelicans paid no attention to the bread. Think they've had their lunch somewhere else. Or they know it's stale bread anyway... haha.







This is another collage of photos taken at another lake, also in my neighbourhood. Here, we see beautiful black and white swans, in addition to geese and mandarin ducks. Can you believe that there are some lucky people who just have to open their front door to see this beautiful place just across the street in front of them?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

hey looks to me you have finally figured how to do the collage pictures. great job and nice pix.

Ashley said...

Errr.... guess u haven't been to Sungei Buloh. welcome to nature in Singapore! Every year around this time, migratory birds from Siberia make the wetlands of Sungei Buloh their stopover. They feed on the shellfish at low tides.

There's a good variety of birds - egrets, kingfishers etc. (can't remember all lah!) and some are over 1m tall! On weekends at certain times, there are free guided tours by Nature Society volunteers who give very informative tours about the birds and nature in Sungei Buloh. I highly recommend renting a pair of binoculous because the lookout is some distance from the birds. No feeding of wildlife allowed ;)

Sungei Buloh also has its resident iguanas & family of otters. It's a really nice piece of nature in Singapore -a real gem ... i just hope it's not going to be bulldozed & landfilled for more condos!

Pink Lavender 10 said...

How come no one tells me about Sungei Buloh when I was in Singapore??

Heheh, but honestly, I don't think I'll go then even if I knew about it. While I'm interested to see the birds, I'm put off my the thought of sticky skin attracting pesty mosquitoes.

Jessie, thanks! I did the collage with Picasa3. Not sure if you also use this?