Yesterday Gun Kiat and I went to Seletar to take a good look before construction and development starts for a new aerospace centre. Was introduced of this wonderful place by this show that I was glued to watching, called "Hey! Singapore" hosted by Lisa Ang. Many many years ago, I wanted to go in and take a look but at that time, ICs are needed for verification before entering the Seletar complex. I forgot mine so it was a wasted trip back then.
This time managed to go there finally with GK since he has a vehicle, thanks GK!
After a sumptuous lunch at Jalan Kayu roti prata shop, we headed in and you'll be surprised you feel that you are not in Singapore anymore when you are inside. Everywhere looks so countryside and even the road names are so English, for example: The Oval, Oxford street, Park Lane etc.
Resting on top of a signboard is this pacific swallow (Hirundo tahitica). These birds eat insects, catching them during flight.
I managed to catch another shot of two interacting.
After a brief tour of Seletar marvelling at aeroplanes and the nice architectures (please visit my personal blog if you want to see), we headed to the dam or land cutting across Lower seletar reservoir.
At the seaward side, we can see there are mangroves growing on the fringes.
And more mangroves! Wonder how is this place like during low tide.
Looking closer, we saw a couple of grey herons and one special bird that I couldn't id on the spot.
It has distinctive breast bands. After searching through the net, realized its a painted stork (Mycteria leucocephala), a bird that prefers swampy area. It is found easily from India through Southeast Asia, that includes Malaysia and Singapore. But the population in Singapore is most probably escapee from the Bird Park. The favorite food of the Painted Stork is fish, though sometimes they will eat frogs as well. They also eat snails.
Info from http://www.nature2pixel.com/blog/?p=121
Visible from the reservoir is Pulau Seletar, with kelongs nearby at Johor straits.
Before leaving, took at photo of Pulau Punggol Barat where construction is going on to build a bridge across from mainland.
Friday, July 13, 2007
The tranquility of Seletar
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4 comments:
Hi Kok Sheng,
Considering that the Singapore Zoo has free-ranging populations of Painted Stork and its close relative the Milky Stork (Mycteria cinerea), I'm quite certain that these storks fly out from the Zoo to forage.
Was at Sungei Buloh in May and saw a Milky Stork feeding with the herons and egrets.
Ivan
Reading your entry reminds me of my army days - I was with 1 Guards, and our battalion used to be located at Seletar Camp before we moved to Dieppe Barracks. Used to do river crossing and amphibious operations at the river. That was like 12 or 13 years ago?
welcome! :)
Ivan, thanks on the storks. I was quite excited to sight it on that day. Haha. Sad that it's not a resident bird though but an escapee from Zoo.
Hi Ron, didn't know you were from Guards too! Cool, catch up with you on that another time.
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