{ This post was originally posted on Someday, we will see the world }

When I was seven, my family moved from downtown Singapore up north. Back in those days, Yishun was not just the countryside, but a jungle of sorts. My father wanted his children to grow up with nature and wildlife.

My brother and I grew up spotting monitor lizards cross the roads and once brought an iguana home. We watched the biggest caterpillars turn into cocoons and, later, discovered that they were Atlas moths.

We went to Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve and got our feet muddy when most of our school mates went shopping with their parents at the malls. Thirty years later, while most visitors check out Marina Bay Sands and Gardens by the Bay in downtown Singapore, I’m back at the most remote part of Singapore with my nature-loving husband.

The egrets and herons welcomed us, somewhat like a continuation of our daily walks in Grenada, before we spotted the whimbrels.

It is interesting to know that the longest record for a repeated sighting of an individual Whimbrel in Singapore is twenty years.

And just as we were amused by the fact that there were so many of them, we heard shrieks calling from above!

White-bellied Sea Eagles!!! Wow!!!

That got us walking inland…

We heard unusual rustling and looked around. There, on the strings of yellow and red berries, were two birds camouflaged among the green palm leaves. As a first impression, they had green plumage with rufous tails.

As they started hopping around, it was fascinating to see so many colours on a bird! Learnt something new, this is a Pink-necked Green-Pigeon.

[To be continued]

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