Man hurts hornbill by grabbing it around the neck just to take pictures

Storks at Seletar

A few weeks ago, Singapore saw the arrival of a species of stork previously unrecorded from our island, the Asian openbill (Anastomus oscitans).

(Update 19th March 2013: A paper with details about the behaviour and movements of the small flock of Asian openbills in Singapore has just been published in Nature in Singapore)


Asian openbills, Seletar West Link;
(Photo by ltk2505)

International Vulture Awareness Day: Vultures in Singapore

(Photo by reurinkjan)

Today is International Vulture Awareness Day, and I thought it would be appropriate to write about records of vultures in Singapore.

But why do we need a day to celebrate vultures? As stated on the International Vulture Awareness Day website:

Vultures are an ecologically vital group of birds that face a range of threats in many areas that they occur. Populations of many species are under pressure and some species are facing extinction.

The International Vulture Awareness Day has grown from Vulture Awareness Days run by the Birds of Prey Programme in South Africa and the Hawk Conservancy Trust in England, who decided to work together and expand the initiative into an international event.

It is now recognised that a co-ordinated international day will publicise the conservation of vultures to a wider audience and highlight the important work being carried out by the world's vulture conservationists.

Saturday Seringat-Kias

A small group headed out to visit Lazarus Island on one of the last early morning low tides of the year. While the rest headed towards the rocky shores of Lazarus Island, Kok Sheng and I decided to explore a lagoon located in the north of Seringat-Kias; James and I had previously checked out this area in April 2010. On that occasion, we visited that lagoon during the day, and it was raining, so we might have missed out on a lot of the marine life that lived in that lagoon. Hopefully, we would find a more interesting variety of critters this morning.

The Naked Hermit Crabs' National Day celebrations on Chek Jawa

Today, the Naked Hermit Crabs celebrated National Day with a guided tour on the Chek Jawa boardwalk.

Sharing Singapore with visiting scientists

Several marine scientists from all over the Asia-Pacific are in town for a workshop on marine biodiversity in the South China Sea. I was able to spend a day helping out with the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research (RMBR) as a guide, sharing about Singapore's natural heritage to specialists from the region. (Edit: Mei Lin was a participant as well, and shares more about the workshop in this post)

The Serangoon stork

Mouth of Sungei Serangoon, which has since been dammed up to create the Serangoon Reservoir;
(Photo by Food Trails)

Hello from SG (@HellofrmSG), Singapore's very own rotation curation project on Twitter, has just been launched, and our very first curator is journalist and history buff Eisen Teo (@eisen).

As part of his self-introduction, Eisen shared the etymology of the name of his neighbourhood, Serangoon:





(Note: an alternative explanation is provided in the 27th March 1950 edition of The Straits Times)

Thoughts on Roadkill, Part 1: A video collection

Road sign on Sentosa;
(Photo by scubawatters)

Despite my morbid fascination with dead animals, I still get a little shudder every time I encounter roadkill. Maybe it stems from the fact that motor vehicles (through the actions of the people who operate them) can also cause serious injury and death to other people, so it's a twinge of empathy, acknowledging that it is a nasty way to get killed, and the grim realisation that it could just as easily be a fellow human being lying on the road. Not to mention the fact that despite near-universal knowledge and education on road safety, there is no indication that we will ever be able to eliminate vehicular traffic as a significant cause of human mortality. What makes one think that animals, being unable to comprehend the purpose of pedestrian crossings or road signs, would fare any better?

Hot Mangrove Action at Pasir Ris

On a hot and sunny afternoon, I decided to drop by the Pasir Ris mangroves, as a show of support for the Mangrove Action Squad, who have been conducting guided tours on the boardwalk for the June holidays.

Chek Jawa in June with the Naked Hermit Crabs

(Photo by Kok Sheng)

With it being the June holidays, the Naked Hermit Crabs received an overwhelming response for our monthly guided tour on the Chek Jawa boardwalk. And so 5 guides showed up on Saturday morning, ready to take on the crowds and share the sights and sounds of this very special place.

Please help me find my missing blue baby bird

Is this a rare species? Unusual blue-plumed bird spotted on tree in Bukit Gombak

Seven Links Blog Project: A Milestone Year

We're almost a week into the new year, and while I'm not really the sort who likes to reflect on the past year and mull over my successes and failures, Crystal Riley from Crystal and Bryan in Singapore has tagged me to take part in the Seven Links Blog Project, where I repost links to seven of my posts from different categories. Although I was tagged last year, I only found out last night, and I guess it's still not too late for me to look back on 2011.

Timberland Earthkeepers: Like the deserts miss the rain...

Over the last two days, as part of Timberland's contributions towards fighting desertification, we helped to prune poplars, and also planted pine saplings. Today, we bade farewell to Inner Mongolia, and embarked on the next leg of our journey, to the city of Chengdu in Sichuan Province.

To find out why I'm so gleefully holding a leafy branch, read on.

Timberland Earthkeepers: Circle in the sand...

(Photo from Timberland Singapore)

Yesterday, it rained for most of the day, making our pruning of poplars a cooling and enjoyable (if somewhat wet) experience. While it meant that we didn't end up baking and getting burnt to a crisp, I was somewhat hoping that the weather would change, and we would get to experience the desert. After all, deserts are defined by low amounts of precipitation; it would be ironic (and disappointing) if we ended up spending our days here in the Horqin Desert getting soaked in the rain.

Today, we finally found out what it was truly like being out in the desert. I'm just hoping that I don't suffer too much from this sunburn.

Timberland Earthkeepers: With you in the summer rain...

(Photo from Timberland Singapore)

During one of our briefings before this trip, Cheryl did mention how it rained unexpectedly last year, catching the Timberland Earthkeepers participants unaware and out in the open. I came here expecting to experience the scorching sun and blasting winds of the desert, only to end up cold, wet, but definitely not at all miserable here in Horqin.

Rare sight: Skillful weaver birds build intricate nest in Punggol

Passers-by distracted by swinging monkey near Woodleigh MRT station

Harry Potter and the Parliament of Owls

Today marks the opening of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2. The final instalment in the movies based on JK Rowling's best-selling series of novels, countless people all over the world have followed the adventures of Harry Potter and his friends at Hogwarts for more than a decade, ever since the first of the books was published in 1997 (and the first movie released in 2001).


(Image from Harry Potter Wiki)

Given that the stories take place in a world populated by wizards and witches wielding magic, much of the 'wildlife' appearing in the stories are completely fictitious. Unfortunately, muggles like us will never get the chance to learn more about acromantulas, Hungarian horntails, phoenixes, hippogriffs, or basilisks. However, there is one group of animals that are very real creatures indeed, the owls.

I covered the owl species that can be found in Singapore over at the Celebrating Singapore's Biodiversity blog, so here I will be talking about the owl species that are featured in the Harry Potter stories. A lot of information about the owls in the books and movies is available on this page by bird enthusiast Laura Erickson ("Professor McGonagowl").

Man puts birdcage 'trap' in tree with mango as bait -- why is he catching birds?