Yishun Pond

I had an early morning walk around the pond located next to Khoo Teck Puat Hospital. It was nested within the HDB precinct to cater both the hospital patients and the residents living around nearby. It was a pretty hot morning at 8 am and I could feel the sun's heat burning my arms. Luckily there were ample trees for me to hide myself away from the scorching sun. My walk began at the hospital foodcourt which I had in mind, that I would be back here by noon for lunch. There were lots of butterflies around the area where we first started off.

There were many other interesting insects discoveries. Some of which I would not even know until it went near the flower, then I thought that it should be a bee instead any others. There were different varieties of butterflies too.

As I was busy capturing shots of the hovering insects, another buddy was peering behind me. I did not realize its existence until my friend called out to me. 

These pictures were still taken near the hospital vicinity. Good that the environment here felt so natural. I had my last few shots before I continued my walk.

I was hoping that I could complete my walk within 2 hours because it was not a really huge place. I could see people jogging past me twice while I had only moved a short distance. I sighted some wild birds sun tanning on the branches located on the pond away from people disturbances.

I moved on with sweat flowing down my face, and my skin feeling hot as the sun went up higher and higher. 

I made my way down to the edge of the pond and spotted damselflies flying around. Suprisingly, there were not many dragonflies here as I thought there were. But there were alot of tree lizards. You could almost see them on every couple of trees. And it felt like they were sun tanning too. The tall bushes at the edge of the pond were home to small insects. It was where I spotted the grasshopper and the cockroach. 

I made lots of discoveries so far and I was pretty happy and satisfied. I did not expect to have such findings in a neighbourhood pond. There were many mimosa plant near the pond, and it reminded me of my younger days when I was playing with it when I was a kid. It would close up the moment you touched it. 

I walked on with quicken pace when there were no trees above me. I could see the morning activities of the residents and people trying to make themselves adopting a healthy lifestyle.

Water was running low and hunger sets in. I checked my time and realized it was noon. Time to fill my tummy. I headed back to where I started to find food, and along the way, some other discoveries too. And that called for the end of my walk around Yishun Pond.

Nearest Station: Yishun

Admiralty Park

Located in the north of Singapore, just opposite Woodlands Waterfront and beside Republic Polytechnic, a quiet park lies over the hill consisting forests, mangroves, grasslands, and of course, flowers and insects where many of them called home here. I was here previously for my morning workout, but this round, I am back here to capture the nature of Admiralty Park. I took a short bus ride on an early Saturday morning, hopefully to avoid as much sun as possible. Weather these days had became hotter in Singapore, with temperatures soaring high at 34 degrees.

I had a slow walk from the entrance through the forest to reach to the mangroves to capture shots of the Giant Mudskipper. Along the way, I was accompanied by some interesting insects and chirping of the birds where I could not catch any view of.

It was a cool walk under the shady trees where you could still see the beautiful morning dew drops on the leaves of the trees. It was so natural. Ants were basically everywhere, big and small. At last, I had reached my destination, the mangroves of Admiralty Park. It was quiet still and quiet on the beds of the mangroves. I found a comforatble spot on the rocks leading to the mangroves, sat down and waited. Then something moved within the puddles of the water of the mangroves floor. My eyes were set on it and soon enough, the giant mudskipper emerged. Wow, it was huge!!! There was only one of them so I decided to trigger some movements. Had a small rock in my hand and I threw it onto the mangrove floor, Surprisingly, there were movements everywhere. There were a few of the mudskippers lying around but because they were hard to spot as the colour was submerged within the floorbeds colour, my eyes had had a tough time with it.

While waiting for the mudskipper to move around, a beautiful bird caught my attention on one of the trees on the mangrove, the collared kingfisher. It was a rare sight to see it. Well it busy busy hunting food.

There were also other discoveries in the mangroves other than mudskippers. There were lots of crabs, especially mangrove and tree climbing crabs. There were very tiny and spotting it wasn't easy because it was far. Cameras were able to see it though but because they were too mini, I had a hard time playing it.

As I moved on across the bridge over to the other side, I spotted a baby Malayan monitor lizard in the water, also hunting for food. As it was crawling out of the water, I managed to snapshot it. 

I proceeded on with my journey, heading towards the amphitheatre where Sakura International Buffet Restaurant was located. There were many interesting encounters along the way too. A unique grasshopper with a buddy beside it.

 

The trees of Admiralty Park had made it as shady as possible especially in the forest walk. There were many different species of trees and flowers and they looked beautiful if you could appreciate it. 

Other encounters included monkeys, dragonflies, and birds. There were many bird species in that area but I could not find much. They were hidden among the long grasslands of nature. I could hear the sounds of different chirpings but I could not see them. 

I had finaly reached the pond located beside the restaurant. It was full of drangon flies and water lilies!! It was so beautiful. I stood under the sun admiring it with my heart. There were lots of dragonflies hovering over the liles bud and also bees buzzing around it probably extracting nectar. It was indeed a delightful sight.

As I ended my walk, I headed back to where I had initially started and was greeted farewell by the baby Malayan monitor lizard, a huge spider, and a Cattle Egret. 

Nearest Station: Woodlands