New Zealand - Park

New Zealand


After a 9 hour flight again with Singapore Airlines, we arrived at Auckland Airport where we were staying with Julie and Shaun and of course our 2 grandchildren Erin and Quinn, 10 and 6 respectively.

Brilliant to see them all as you can imagine and as I write this we have now been with them a week, it has been marvellous for both me and Chris to catch up with them all and become part of their lives for 2 weeks while we are with them. We are both worn out trying to keep up with Erin and Quinn but wouldn’t miss a minute and are enjoying and making the most of every moment; Julie and Shaun have been great and have put up with us olduns well.

Needless to say I am teaching them about birds, there is already a big connection to Nature in New Zealand which is great to see, they are already aware of birds around but they have helped me in exploring the park next door.
For a small park it’s quite incredible what is in it, we are now in spring and many species are territorial and preparing for breeding.

Spur Winged Plovers, Pukeko’s, White Faced Herons all use the park along with Eastern Rosella’s, there are also up to 12 Australian Magpies, a very sociable bird and quite well marked compared to our Crows.
It looks as if the Spur Winged Plovers are trying to breed in the park; they alarm call as soon as they see anyone.
A Drake Paradise Shelduck also dropped in briefly, native species like Tui, Fantail and Silvereye are also common, especially Silvereye.

Every night I hear the call of the Morepork, can’t see me getting a photo of that.

Our English species are also present like Song Thrush, Blackbird, Goldfinch, Chaffinch and House Sparrow are very common, House Sparrows in particular seemingly everywhere.

Still trying to catch up with Kingfisher, should be around soon as they are a different bird here, quite happy in parks/open field habitat.

On the road and out and about I have seen Wild Turkeys, New Zealand Pigeon (enormous) and Australasian Harrier.

We are off to Queenstown soon on the South Island, one species I am hoping to catch up with here is New Zealand Falcon, watch this space.

Singapore - Botanical Gardens

Sept 30^th

Having seen and felt the previous day’s heat and humidity, we both decided on an early start after spending the night and having breakfast at the Furama Hotel, recommended by the way although prices were high.

The Botanical Gardens I knew was likely to hold good numbers of species having done a bit of research, Evan had also forwarded some info, also being a bit of a Bird of Prey nut I knew there could be some raptors present. Arriving early I thought there would be hardly anyone present, however many people were jogging and exercising including a number of them undertaking group Tai Chi. Great to see and it looked very relaxing ,I would imagine very therapeutic and something we could both enjoy, both of us were transfixed just watching it.

Right from the start I could hear a number of bird calls, of course I didn’t have a clue but quite exciting hearing the range of calls, some I suspect weren’t even birds but possibly animals.

First up as we walked in was a Water Monitor, couldn’t see all of it but it looked around 3 feet long, laying in a water fall very hard to see.

Watching

From there we moved on to Swan Lake, there were a number of species overhead and this included 2 Hornbills which flew in, from the book I would say Oriental Pied, really big birds presumably quite common here.

Underneath on an island was a Striated Heron and yet another Water Monitor, however this one was bigger, around 5 feet and actually swam towards us, this was when Christine’s voice pattern changed and went up 5 octives. Impressive looking animal and I would imagine it might associate people with food as they do scavenge, I am told that they grow to 3 metres.

Very Large Reptile

Walking on birds started to show including the commoner species like Yellow Vented Bulbul, Asian Glossy Starling and Black Naped Oriole, Javan Mynah’s were everywhere.

Another bird seen was 7 Red Jungle Fowl, heard the cockerel early on but then he showed with the others, these are wild, from what I understand they are the origin of the chicken.

Eventually we came to Keppel Discovery Wetlands and here we struck gold again, 2 Smooth Coated Otters were fishing, quite a spectacle and judging by the photographers present possibly regular.

Naturally we spent quite a while watching these, it’s not often that you see them in the UK so we took this opportunity with open hands, we stayed there for a couple of hours, the views and activity here was even better than the Gardens by the Bay animals.

Lots of birds going by, some I had started to recognise as the commoner species but there were many more that gave tantalising glimpses before disappearing, I knew there was so much more to see here, we needed more time.

We didn’t cover it all, the heat was there as per the previous day and we were both wilting being English, I could see why everyone was out early a.m

Raptors – I was constantly looking and eventually I got a large raptor come up from the forest, a big white breast identified it as a Brahminy Kite, my 1st one ever so well chuffed.

The 2nd raptor seen was a male Northern Sparrowhawk, not sure if they are common here but good to see, presumably they breed here and are not migrants.

Despite constant sky watching I didn’t pick up any other Raptors, I had also been looking for Peregrines in the City, it looks ideal for them on many of those high risers.

We also came across a monster of a Spider, easily 4 inches across aloft in one of the palms, looking it up later I think it may be a Giant Golden Orb Weaver, as the name suggests it was big.

We found the Botanical Gardens absolutely stunning, the landscape, fauna and wildlife was great, I know I missed out on a lot of species but well happy with what I had seen, a great day.
Hopefully I have the ID right on the species above,if not let me know,happy to be corrected.

Next stop New Zealand.

Singapore – Gardens by the Bay

September 29th


We flew with Singapore Airlines from Heathrow, great flight with no turbulence on a Boeing 777,was hoping to go on one of the A380’s but suspect that will happen at a later stage of our month long holiday. The flight was 12 hours 50 minutes, Singapore Airlines were excellent and we both enjoyed the meals.

This was our 1st visit Singapore and we love the place, the friendly and sincere people, the culture and the high rise city is quite a spectacle and very pleasing to the eye, it’s also clean and tidy, no litter anywhere. Being a relatively small country, to reduce the pressure on the environment, they have gone up and headed for the clouds, the skyscrapers here are enormous and some of the designs quite spectacular.

As we were on a 2 day stopover we decided to try and make the most of it and try and see some of the sights, Gardens by the Bay and the Botanical Gardens being top of the list and the 2 must see places. 

Neither site was undertaken as full on birding, just a wander round through the grounds for a couple of hours taking in the stunning landscape and scenery, however this still produced quite a good number of ‘exotic’ birds and obviously all firsts for me. 

Gardens by the Bay is quite famous for its eco giant towers, they are quite a sight and well worth a look see, like something out of Avatar and very futuristic. 

We arrived late morning, very very hot (36 degrees) we were told, so suspect many species were already in the shade, I had myself an old Collins field guide Birds of South East Asia, back at school again identifying species, however it’s not ideal as many of the plates are black and white and not enough info.

One of the highlights of the visit was coming across 3 Smooth Coated Otters, these were on the target list for both of us after info kindly provided by local birder Evan, his info was spot on and we came across 3 at Satay by the Bay, thanks.

Obviously chilling out and staying cool in the shade, they attracted a lot of interest from passersby not surprisingly, from what I understand from locals they are seen pretty regular but its pot luck if you are in the right place as it’s a big area. 

A great visit and a place I would love to come back to one day, stunning, a cold beer was calling, next stop the Botanical Gardens.