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