Birding Trip: Jurong Lake Gardens again

A lizard and a pigeon are the key highlights

There are many Yellow-Vented Bulbuls in Jurong Lake Gardens. I shot this fellow thinking it might be a cuckoo.

I have been to many nature parks in Singapore and have always seen the large monitor lizard many times. It mostly moves in a swaying, slow walking motion or just stays motionless. But this time, I saw it feasting on a bird carcass.

Looking at the feathers of the carcass, my guess is that it was a water hen.

Never would I have imagined that this slow-moving lizard could ever eat a speedy water hen. Maybe it is just that the bird got old and died somewhere, and this lizard just picked up the carcass.

The purpose of this visit is to bring my son to check out the cuckoos I saw on my last trip to the Chinese Garden. Unfortunately, we could not find them. But instead, we met this pigeon.

This is a Pied Imperial Pigeon. It is a large, strikingly beautiful species of fruit dove found in parts of Southeast Asia and Australasia. It has mainly creamy white or pale grey-white plumage. The flight feathers and tail are contrastingly black. The bill is typically greenish or bluish, and the eyes are dark with a surrounding ring that can be greyish.

At the Chinese Garden, it just perched quietly here for me to take many pictures. This pigeon is not often seen as it prefers coastal forests, mangroves, and offshore islands.

We could not find the cuckoos and quail we were looking for. So, on the way out, I just found a couple of birds. An Oriental Magpie Robin just flew towards us and landed not far away.

A blue-throated bee-eater also stopped by for us to snap a picture.

Though we did not get our expected results, we managed to swing by the nearby Kway-Chap store for a nice lunch. Like many cyclists who often end their long ride with a great meal, we (birders) should also end a birding trip with a nice lunch. Thanks for reading this article.