2nd shot …. Of a different sort

My friend, Icemoon, likes to post Then-and-Now photos in his blog. He calls them “Second shot” – same place, just different time. Today, I too want to do a “second shot”. In my case it’s same place, same time but different subjects.

As usual, I was getting bored with my work and looking out of my window. Then I spotted a Yellow-Vented Bulbul eating away at the guava in our backyard. Suddenly it flew away, and the reason became apparent when a bigger, more aggressive mynah took over its place. No wonder my friend Peter hates mynahs. He calls them Tom and Jerry.

Such aggressive behaviour reminds me of some drivers on the roads; especially the North-South Highway in Peninsular Malaysia. Sometimes when you try to overtake a big vehicle, you see in the your rear mirror a car charging towards you. "Out of my way, or I will ram your behind!" is the apparent message. Sadly many of these cars carry Singapore license plate :(

5 places where you find Casuarina trees in Singapore

I have always been quite fascinated by the humble Casuarina tree. I always associate it with my childhood. I do not know why. At first I thought it was because we had this tree in my primary school compound in Braddell Rise School. But recently, when I enlarged the photo of the view from the front of my kampong house to create the banner you see at the top of this blog, I realized that there used to be few Casuarina trees in front and at the back of the row of shops opposite our house.


There are two things that I remember about this tree. One is the string-like leaves. We liked to pull it apart and join it back again. Secondly, I remember seeing clumps of hair-like dead leaves on the ground.

 

Nowadays, there are not many places in Singapore where you can see Casuarina trees. But if you keep your eyes open, I think you can easily spot 10 places or more. So here’s a quiz for you. Can you identify these 5 places or roads with Casurina trees.


No. 1 is a give-away. There are lots of Casuarinas trees here as to be expected because Casuarinas are supposed to grow well in sandy areas such as the seaside.

No. 2 should also be quite easy. This short road should be called Casuarina Road because it is the only road in Singapore where you can find lots of Casuarina trees growing on both sides of the road. On the contrary, I hardly saw a single Casuarina tree in Casuarina Road near the Peirce Reservoir at Upper Thomson Road.

No. 3 is also quite easy. Hint – it is near to a very famous food centre.

No. 4 is also easy. This is a park where I went recently to take part in the filming of Foodage; a documentary that is coming up this month on Okto Channel. My Foyer friends are sure to blog about it.

No. 5 is probably the toughest as this place is quite secluded. Hint: It is in the Bukit Timah area.

Now let's see if anyone would like to take up the challenge and do a follow-up to this story.

Latest

It appears that my quiz is too simple for you guys. So here are 2 more bonus questions. No hints this time.

Come closer

Come closer
Come closer
Come closer to me now
Can’t wait any longer
Come closer to me now
………
I can feel you in the air
When it’s like you’re everywhere
And the world could disappear
Just as long as you are near

(Know this song?)

Photos by Lam Yuen Wai - taken over more than an hour.

5 places where you still find durian trees in Singapore

Reading YG’s recent article about the Bukit Brown Cemetery brought back some memories of the nearby Adam Road and Lornie Road. During my school days, I often travel along this road. I think it was an alternative route to get to my school - ACS - from my kampong home in Lorong Chuan.

I remember one occasion when our bus passed the Kheam Hock Road junction and I saw parts of a coffin – you know those huge Chinese type - sticking out of the earth. That image stayed in my mind for a long time. At that time they were probably widening Adam Road. I wonder if younger Singaporeans know that at one time, on both sides of Adam Road there were cemeteries.

I also remember seeing many beautiful croton plants with colourful red and yellow leaves. I like this plant. But since it is often associated with cemeteries, (even in Malaysia) not many people grow them in their gardens.

Another thing I remember about this part of Singapore was the kampong houses just after Kheam Hock Road. This would the area between Kheam Hock Road and the PIE. I was especially attracted by the sight of the rambutan and durian trees growing there.

Durian trees are now a rare sight in Singapore, and so I was quite surprised and delighted to see one in Chancery Lane the other day. That gave me the idea to start a meme (I hope that is the correct term) about durian trees.

I will list 5 places where you can still find durian trees growing in Singapore, and challenge fellow bloggers to continue the list in their blogs. I doubt Victor would be ‘taking up the challenge’ because his main interest seems to be another area and not plants; but I am pretty sure YG will be happy to continue with this meme. This guy seems to be exploring Singapore everyday and knows our island like the back of his hand; including places which I thought would no longer interest retired teachers. So here goes.

1) Lorong Chencharu. I took this photo a few years ago whilst on a visit to the AVA Sembawang Research Station to get a permit or something for the pitcher plants that my son and his friends imported from Australia.

2) Woodlands Street 13. I have blogged about this before here.
3) Chancery Lane. This tree has many enticing durians and is clearly visible from the main road. It is actually in somebody’s garden.

4) Brizay Park. This tree is in the garden of a huge bungalow at the junction of Brizay Park and Wilby Road. It certainly looks like a durian tree to me, but strange …. there are no fruits to be seen even though it is durian season.

5) This house is next to a car park near Upper East Coast Road. Peter took this photo when we went for lunch recently in that area. I am afraid, I am not sure of the exact location.

PS – It’s such a coincidence that YG has just posted something about a durian trees here.

A visitor to our garden

Ours is not exactly the Garden of Eden. In fact there isn’t even any fruit tree left. This beautiful guava tree that I used to see outside my window died recently.

Sigh .. and these beauties shan’t be visiting anymore.


Nevertheless, the serpent came a visiting.

My children caught this little fellow recently. In my time, we certainly would have killed it. But thankfully kids nowadays are more enlightened; plus they have the internet to inform them that it is a harmless House Wolf Snake. According to this blog,

“This snake is common (relative to other species) in buildings, probably because their food, geckos, are also abundant in this type of habitat. However, this species is still rarely encountered by people because of their secretive nature. Fortunately to us, it is neither venomous nor dangerous.”

My children kept it in a bottle for a couple of days and then released it in a nearby field. I still do not feel comfortable. They should have brought it to MacRitchie or somewhere far away from houses.

I guess the snake was attracted by the many geckos (chit chat in Malay, yim sare in Cantonese) in our house. Lately, we even spotted a mouse. We set up a mouse trap but caught this noisy mynah instead. Later we did manage to catch a mouse, but again my kids were too humane to kill it. In our kampong days, we would drown it by immersing the cage in a pail of water. My children released it instead – where, I didn’t want to know; as long as it is not my neighbour’s house.

Peeping Tom

This guy is really daring.

Came right to the window.

And in broad daylight some more.

And this is not the first time he is doing this.

Good thing; this time we were waiting for him with our camera and caught him in the very act.

I bet he didn’t know he was on candid camera.

I wonder what is there to see in my children’s study room. Maybe he is just checking to see if there is some privacy in this place.

He must have heard from his cousin that this is a good place to set up a home and raise kids.

Anyway, I am not complaining. In fact I hope he comes more often and set up home here. And when he does, I promise you better photos this time because at least one photo-fanatic friend of mine wants to get in on the action. This friend actually spent two hours photographing my son’s carnivorous plants. It’s called macro-photography so I learned. And the results were fantastic. Must show you one day.


By the way, it’s called a Crimson Sunbird.

Empty Nest Syndrome

My children are all still schooling and already I am experiencing (literally) the empty nest syndrome. This morning my twins flew away without warning; but not without fanfare and drama though.

My wife was pottering around in the balcony, just next to the nest when one of the chicks suddenly flew out of its nest towards our neighbour’s bedroom. She panicked and ran downstairs to tell me. Like all anxious parents, we were wondering, would it be able to fly properly, or would it be stuck in our neighbour’s house. Meantime, the biological parents were making a racket in the garden. And then we spotted a young sunbird chirping among our pitcher plants. We knew it was one of the babies: but which one? I quickly ran upstairs to get my camera and even went quite close to take this shot (below), but still it remained there; fidgeting and chirping. And then it flew off.



We were in a fix. Was that no. 1 or no. 2? If it was no. 2, then no. 1 would still be in our neighbour’s bedroom. I rushed up to my balcony to check the nest, and was relieved to see a single chick in the nest. I moved closer to take a photo, but before I could take my second shot, it flew off. And thus bringing to an end our close encounter with the sunbirds which began here. In the meantime, the parents continued to chirp excitedly in our garden.

Chuck was right. We should have given the babies names. But then with only their heads sticking out, we could not tell the twins apart. Justcate was also right. Letting go would not be easy.

One question remains. What do we do with the empty nest?

My Twins at 2 (weeks)

My my .. see how much they have grown. Can you spot the difference from 1 week ago. The feathers, the colours and the fully developed beaks.



They need lots of proteins.



Don’t rush now. There’s plenty where that came from.



Chew your food properly you hear!



Darn … and now to clean up mess. Good thing I know a bit of 5S and in Singapore we have this thing call baby bonus.

It's Twins!!!

Last Friday, 27 July 2007, I wrote:

Got back tonight and was told by my kids that 2 babies have hatched and their chirps are still rather weak. Will try to confirm for myself tomorrow. Stay tuned for more photos.

Today is Friday, 03 August, and the twins have reached ‘full-week’ and have grown some feathers.



They have developed a ferocious appetite and mummy and daddy are kept busy all day.







I noticed an interesting behaviour. After they have found some food, they would not fly directly to the nest. Maybe, they spotted me lurking behind the curtains with my camera. So what they do (see photos below) is to first fly to a nearby branch and check out the situation for about 10 to 20 seconds. When they are sure that the coast is clear, then they will fly to the nest to feed the babies. I think the one in the top photo is the female and the one with the dark chest is the male.





I also noticed that after feeding the chicks, it will stick its neck right inside the nest and remove some white colour stuff. Could this be the chicks’ droppings?

Any Day Now

I was mistaken when I told you earlier that the sunbirds flew away after building their nest. Actually the female has been coming back regularly and sits contentedly in the nest. She must have laid some eggs.

But the opening to the nest is very small and I cannot see any eggs. I was much tempted to shine a torchlight into it and take a peep, but was afraid it might frighten her away for good.

This has been going on for several days. So, any day now, we can expect the babies to come into the world. Let’s hope that this time, everything will be fine.



Below are some pictures that I have taken. As you can see, the nest looks quite delicate and I am quite worried that the wind may blow it down one of these days.

The nest was built at the bottom of a pot of air plant (Bromeliade) which is hanging from a lamp fixture in a narrow balcony just outside one of our bedrooms (left side of nest). As you can see, it is practically within arm's reach.

Meanwhile, in our backyard, it is guava season, and I managed to catch a couple of yellow-vented bulbuls doing ‘naughty’ things.





Do you see his partner on the right? (above photo)







This chap looks like he too wants in on the action.