Since I got into photography and started looking at bird photos of the other parts of the world through Instagram, I started thinking about organising holidays at places where I could do birding as well. While I have not done that yet but while booking my trip to India I had thought of having a stopover at Singapore and go out for birding there.
Turns out the ticket works out cheaper as well if you choose a layover in Singapore, and a couple of my colleagues had done that previously and went on a City tour and such. So I had booked my travel with a layover during two times I visited India after getting into birding.
First time it was only during one way, but on the 2nd trip I booked a stopover for both leg of the journey albeit Covid-19 ruined that plan and I could only have a stopover on the first leg of the journey.
During the first trip I decided to visit Gardens by the bay with plans to do some birding in the morning and check out the tourist attractions during noon when light gets harsh. The first thing I noticed when I reached the gardens was it was very humid. I also did not do much homework so I was just walking around the garden looking for birds. If I would visit there again I would go to the areas where the flowering and fruit bearing plants are so that I could find the birds particular to those areas.
Very early in the morning I saw a Peaceful Dove/Zebra Dove and due to the humidity there it created this dreamy blur in the photo. I also had to use an app to identify all the birds later on as I had no idea about Singaporean birds.
I noticed a few birds were very tame and would often land too close to my camera’s minimum focus distance and I had to step back to take a photo. This was probably due to them being used to all the people that visited gardens everyday. Though there were few kingfishers and bee-eaters whom I could not manage a photograph as they remained distant.
One familiar bird species I saw there was an Olive-backed Sunbird which I saw in Australia during my trip to Cairns. Although I could only manage photos of females on the first trip. During both my outings in Singapore it was overcast hence in shade it was very hard to photograph few of the fast moving birds.
After walking a bit and not seeing many birds I found an area with a small pond and few flowering plants around it, there I saw Scaly-breasted Munia and Brown-throated Sunbird, the latter took me by surprise with its colourful plumage.
Around here I saw few other birders and they all meant business as every one of them was carrying a tripod and a long lens, I was a bit hesitant approaching them. But later on at the food court they saw me and invited me to sit with them and offered me free food as apparently the restaurant was running a deal and they had gotten way more food. Which I thought was still very nice of them. We then started talking about birds and I found out one of the guys had relatives in Australia and he always wanted to visit there to photograph all the Australian birds. All of them were very welcoming and gave me few other locations for birding around Singapore.
This became a common theme throughout that day in the gardens as I met quite a few local birders due to a Cuckoo species being spotted there recently, all the birders seemed to have flocked in. And all of them were so friendly and welcoming towards me, giving me ideas and telling me about birds they have spotted that day. That made my day even more special as the famous line by Christopher McCandless goes ‘happiness is only real when shared’.
After lunch I visited the touristy areas of Gardens by the bay and then headed back to the garden where there was a water body full of water lilies and saw a Grey Heron there. Due to the pathway around the pond it wasn’t bothered by my presence and I could get a few portrait shots as well.
Around afternoon time I came across the beautiful Scarlet-backed Flowerpecker. Which was busy eating and only allowed me a few clear shots. A bit further down the trees was a female pink necked green pigeon hiding with perfect camouflage. I saw the male in the 2nd trip which better explained their name.
A White Breasted Waterhen, Sunda Pygmy Woodpecker, Asian Koel and an Ashy Tailorbird were among the other birds I managed to photograph before calling it a day.
During my 2nd trip after almost two years I did some research and decided to visit Jurong Lake Park during my first leg of the trip. It was an amazing place for birding where I saw Scaly-breasted Munia, Yellow-vented Bulbul, Olive-backed Sunbird, Scarlet-backed Flowerpecker and White-breasted Waterhen same as the first trip.
As in Gardens by the bay, here also there were few tamer birds but some kept alluding me. When you only have one day to photograph birds I prefer to walk around and take photos rather than waiting at one place for a bird to return as I am unfamiliar of their behaviour.
One of the finds of this trip was Asian Openbill/Open billed Stork which I found out had just recently started visiting Singapore. I saw one particular bird hunting for clams and successfully ate five or six while I was sitting there.
Just like my last trip this time around as well a Cuckoo has caused a lot of traffic here. At first I saw a lot of birders gathered at a tree all looking upward and upon pointing my camera I found out a Rusty Breasted Cuckoo nicely sitting there not bothered by the crowd. Although this time around there were no chatty birders, they all kept among themselves.
Couple of other noticeable finds were a White Bellied Sea Eagle and a Brahminy Kite. And this time around I managed to get a shot of Kingfisher!
On a non birding related side, things I look forward to when transiting through Singapore is their Kopi and all the food! Jurong garden also had a restaurant which was a relief on a hot day and I had quite a big feast with two to three different cold drinks from their menu.
In my return leg of the journey I planned on visiting Sungei Buloh Wetland but due to Covid-19 pandemic I had to change my itinerary. So until next time, happy birding!