Going to Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve had always been one of my favourite occasion. It made me travelled away from the bustling city life into a surrounding of calmness and serenity, listening to the sounds of mother nature. As soon as I arrived at the wetland reserve visitor center, I was greeted with a fall of branches from above. I looked up and I saw a huge giant bird trying to catch its stand on the branches. Oh man, it was heavy because the thinner branches were breaking off as it made its way to thicker branch. It was the Oriental Pied Hornbill!! I felt so amazed.
It had a beautiful beak and its calls were loud. It was a rare opportunity to be able to catch a glimpse of this hornbill. I was feeling happy and satisfied. The lotus pond located at the visitor center had a buzzing life of dragonflies and pond birds. The common dragonflies spotted there were the yellow-barred flutterer, the oriental scarlet, the common scarlet and the red-veined darter.
Off I went into the wetland pathway, expecting to see a monitor lizard along the way. I had been here several times and I always had these big lizards obstructing the walkway attracting lots of attention. And there it was, busy sun-tanning itself while people just walked past it.
I walked on and the sounds of cicadas were loud and clear in my ears. I was trying hard to spot them but I could not because I did not know how it looked like on the trees, probably camouflaged within the trunks of the trees. Interesting grasshoppers were spotted along the walk and spiders too, huge spiders to be exact. There were more spiders spotted on the outside of the wetland nature walk, that is the new extension walkway towards Kranji Trail.
There were mangrove crabs crawling around at those observation hide if you looked carefully onto the ground. They were too tiny to be seen in a glance. I stood along the wooden walkway of a few observation hides and gazed to find some activities happening down below me. There were also other insects spotted but I had no idea what were they called.
I arrived at the dragonfly pond and saw lots of them hovering around. There were amazingly lots of them. I had managed to snap a few of them because they had stopped to take a rest before setting off again.
Note that no lives were taken in the last shot. The dragonfly was released after this picture was taken. This was how you judged if the dragonfly was a male or a female. There were eggs beneath it. As I headed out of the wetland reserve, I could hear the sounds of the cicadas loud and clear. It felt like it was beside me on that very tree. I decided to train my eyes, that is to spot that little insect. Soon enough, I found it, positioned on the branch above me. It looked like branches bud on the trees. Once you spotted the very first one, you could easily spot the others.
I had a great accomplishment in the wetland itself, and now I am heading out to the new extension which was completed at the end of the year 2013. The extended area also comprised of mangroves and allowed close interaction with little mangrove creatures where you could have close-up shots.
I loved Sungei Buloh!! There were so much nature here. I walked on and encountered snakes too but they were too fast for my camera to shoot them. They were basically tree snakes. And now, spiders time!! You could easily see them as you walked because they were huge and easy to spot. Most of them were the Golden Orb spiders, big belly with long legs. They were beautiful.
It was out here that I finally saw birds. I had not seen any birds inside the wetland except for the Pink-Necked Green Pigeon. Perhaps the migratory season wasn't here yet. I will be back again for more birds.
There were also other discoveries and the most fulfilling moment was seeing the otters!! They were hunting for fishes and were quick. Luckily I was able to snap a picture of them. They were cute... Well, there were also other little creatures seen here.
And finally for the beautiful scenery of Sungei Buloh. No sounds of vehicles could be heard except for the calls of mother nature. With that I ended my 5 hours walk.
Nearest Station: Kranji (hop on Bus 925 at the station bus stop)
