Tuesday, September 05, 2023
Went to Bird Paradise on the Presidential Election day off. Not gonna talk about the presidential election because I have no skin in the game though I do have some thoughts. The good thing about the presidential election was that there's one and that meant a public holiday. I was like yay! I feel like I don't have enough break, so unexpected day off like that really made me happy. I decided to spend it visiting the new Bird Paradise because I was curious. When I went to purchase ticket, I was stunned at the price. It's hella expensive. Back in the days, years ago when Dewi or my family came to visit, we usually bought multiple parks tickets, but seeing the prices now, it's like a luxury. I was telling Dewi about it; like I'm just getting a ticket for myself and though I get a resident discount, I still found it too expensive to buy multiple parks tickets. For a brief moment I was thinking if I should go to River Wonders too, but no it's too much. I couldn't imagine for a family like Dewi with 2 kids, like I think for an average family in Singapore, bringing the kids out like this would make a significant dent on the monthly budget. I think I have become more concerned with money ever since I moved to my current place and with inflation going on and seeing how food has become more expensive :( Anyways luckily though it's a public holiday, it's not considered peak so the price was a bit lower than the weekend - oh yeah it's more expensive during the weekend. For Bird Paradise, there's a time slot that you have to choose when buying the ticket and I was stunned because I didn't expect that. Initially, I could only see the after 12 pm slots available, but after refreshing there's a slot opening up for 11 AM, so I chose that. It's a mix feeling because I kinda wanted to go as early as possible so that I could go back early and have time to do other things, but at the same time I'm not a morning person. It's almost as if God said, this is the compromise, go at 11, but I still wanted to go earlier. I checked the internet if the time slot is strict and I could only find one person saying it's not enforced, so I was thinking okay let's try our luck and see how early I could wake up. I did manage to wake up somewhat early and set out maybe just before 9 AM from my place. It's a long way to get there, a long journey in the train where I was thinking that it's like seeing Singapore. I know it's a weird thing to say because I live in Singapore, but the areas that the train passes through are just not the places that I've been and though there's nothing unusual about them, it's perhaps the same-ness that is expected that makes me feel like this is the real Singapore. When tourists come they go to the touristy areas, maybe they think they see how the locals live but to really see the ordinary places where the common people live, I guess not many see that. It's actually something that interest me a lot when I go places. I wonder how the locals live, what their houses are like, what's inside the houses, how they interact with people in their neighbourhood. I'm really curious about all that.
Anyways, so I arrived at Bird Paradise maybe at around 10 AM and the staff really didn't check the time slot of the ticket so I felt good about starting the day. The plan for the day was to make it to the two different animal presentations in the Sky Amphitheatre at 10:30 and 12:30. I'm not sure how far the walk is to the amphitheatre, so I decided to talk the tram and it is actually not very far. If I had more time, I would have gone there by walking through the 2 aviaries- Heart of Africa and Wings of Asia. The 10:30 AM presentation was Predators on Wings, so there were American Eagle, vultures, and a Marabou Stork among other birds that I couldn't remember. By the way vultures, at least the ones in Africa, are scary as hell. Here's a video of them eating in Amboseli. I didn't post it that time when I was writing about my Amboseli experience. What's not in the video is actually the fact there were many more vultures around, but only the main few got to eat. The rest, I think depending on their pecking order would stand further away with their backs turned. I found that very interesting actually. I wonder if they had their back turned as an act of submission or if they thought it's better not to see when they couldn't eat. I think more likely it's an act of submission, to appear non-threatening to the main ones because they would fight and it's vicious. Also not in the video are some Marabou Storks around. The Marabou Storks are significantly bigger than the vultures, but even them could only stand back. Vultures are really darn scary.
Anyways after the presentation, I went to the Heart of Africa and Wings of Asia and ended up going back and forth there because I needed to go back to the Amphitheatre again for the 12:30 presentation. Here are some pictures from the 2 aviaries. I didn't take note what the birds name are so I had to google them as I'm writing this. I may get it so wrong. Below the grey parrot, the black birds seem to be the Northern Bald Ibis. The bird with the ball nest seems to be Vieillot's Black Weaver. Even the smallest bird there get tagged. I get why they have to do it, but I do feel a bit sad seeing a reminder all the birds are not really that free.
After exploring those 2 aviaries, I still had time so I went to the Crimson Wetlands aviary first. There's a waterfall here. I guess it's a nod to the waterfall in the old Jurong Bird Park. Though the one in Jurong was man-made too it had a more natural feel to it. I was thinking about this a lot; I'd only been to Jurong Bird Park twice or maybe three times and I couldn't remember what it's like, but the feel that I had was that it's a more old school nature kinda feel where Bird Paradise with all of its features really just felt artificial and me I'm just too sentimental for the old way of things. Anyways, there's the American Flamingoes here and they are redder than the African ones which tend to appear pinkish white. There's also the red Scarlet Ibis which were mostly on the trees at that time (see picture below of the red birds on tree). I then decided to check the nearby foodcourt which was busy crowded. Got myself a spring roll because I didn't have much time and then I went to the amphitheatre. It was pretty full compared to the morning session. I saw an empty space at the front row by the aisle so I just walked straight there with a few minutes to spare. Ate my spring roll and the Malay auntie next to me who ensured I had enough space was so kind that she took my paper bag trash to be combined with her. I was so touched. Seriously little kindness like that often touch me deeply. Anyway, the 12:30 presentation was Wings of the World where they show many different birds. At the end of it, they brought many birds to walk around, like the African flamingoes. I was curious if they're the greater or lesser flamingo. I still couldn't differentiate them :( The list in Bird Paradise website show the lesser flamingo so perhaps it's the only kind they have. After that I went to the rest of the aviaries, starting back at Crimson Wetlands and to Amazonian Jewels, Songs of the Forest, Lorry Loft, Mysterious Papua, Australian Outback. Connecting each of these aviaries are indoor areas which have explanations about the birds - things like eggs, nest, migration, etc. Most importantly these indoor spaces are air conditionned because it's hot in Singapore. The below pictures are from the aviaries mentioned. Some of the Scarlet Ibis in Crimson Wetlands were at the pond this second time around, so it was kinda nice to see them closer. Again I didn't take note of the names so here's what Google told me, but it could be so wrong. First picture seems to be of Blyth's Hornbill. The park collection of Macaw is of course great because I love seeing the colours. The last picture is of the Tawny Frogmouth in the Australian Outback. Because of the way it looks, one of them blended pretty well with the tree it was standing on.
The last section after all those aviaries is the Penguin Cove. The great thing about this is that they had a section where we could see the penguins swim. Not many of them swam though but it was always a delight to see one of them diving down. Kinda hard to take the pictures though.
The only section that I couldn't see was the Winged Sanctuary because it was closed when I was there. I wonder what it contains. Could it be it contains all the predators that they have. Anyways, I ended up spending pretty much the whole day there. For more pictures of birds you can go here. I tried to shoot in raw but then found out I was too inexperienced to process them in Photoshop and it ended up taking too much time which I do not have the patience for - I am embarrassed to admit that.
:) eKa @ 9:17:00 PM • 0 comments
photos.
archives.