The Sound Of Music: Nature's Beauty @ Pasir Ris Park

[edenstrauss 3]

Hi folks,

After almost completing my mini write-up on potted plants at home, I've decided to move on to create another topic on plants & lived-in insects & animals found at Pasir Ris Park.

As usual, please enjoy the photographs which had been taken painstakingly. We didn't have any issues with the plants becox they don't move around. However, the real challenge came with the insects & animals as they don't stop fidgeting & some flew off at the slightest movement or noise coming from their surroundings.

We hope that readers for this topic would enjoy the photographs as much as we did as the owners of these photographs.

[edenstrauss 3]

At last, here comes the first batch of photographs which I got them painfully edited with what little time I have had with the editing tools.

We were surprised to see how a boat had been used to create a pond & took a snapshot of the boat. Oops, the 2 stalks of withered papaya leaves are showing up in the photographs like sore-thumbs! Forgot to remove them before photographing

FISHES

My hubby had to use fish food to lure these fishes up to the surface of the water in the pool @ Pasir Ris park.

It could be quite a challenge as the fishes were all quite shy & he had many "NG" photographs too!

The first candidate to be featured here in this thread is a 6 inches cichlid who resembled an edible fish known as the Tilapia which is typically sold in supermarkets here in Singapore such as NTUC fairprice.

It's a fish that is supposedly good for those with poor liver health (and skin) & when taken on the long run, there are no side effects.

However, we are not sure if this 6-inch cichlid was a tilapia.

One thing for sure is that it's really camera shy

Edited December 3, 2011 by edenstrauss

[edenstrauss 3]

This is a last shot of the 6 inch cichlid gobbling up his food in a swift finishing stroke before he darts deep down into the pool, going into hiding again.

Swordtail fishes are my hubby's favourites becox he had plenty of them in the pool during his kampong days as a kid.

The photographs below shows swordtail fishes in the pool @ pasir ris park, swirling around in their red scaly cloak & sword-like tail.

We had managed to take a few shots of them coming up to the water surface with plenty of NG photographs :

Edited November 20, 2011 by edenstrauss

[edenstrauss 3]

More photographs on swordtail fishes at Pasir Ris park:

A close-up shot of swordtail fishes meandering & engaged in a "dance" with one another in the pool:

Edited November 20, 2011 by edenstrauss

[edenstrauss 3]

We discovered quite a number of tadpoles at the sides of the pool. Since they were jetblack in colour, these are babies of a toad.

And perhaps food for the larger fishes too???

Edited November 20, 2011 by edenstrauss

[edenstrauss 3]

HORSES

There's a permanent stable of horses that had been stationed at the Pasir Ris Park where riding lessons were being conducted by qualified instructors.

As there were no lessons being conducted while we were loitering around those horses, we took a few snapshots of them while they were "off-duty"

Edited December 3, 2011 by edenstrauss

[edenstrauss 3]

For those who haven't seen horse stools before, here comes a photograph of it. Guaranteed to make anyone puke! Yuks!

Just looking at the photograph would have made anybody's stomach turn. Needless to say, it stank!

Edited November 22, 2011 by edenstrauss

[edenstrauss 3]

We came across another chestnut coloured horse in the ring.

The horse was lazing around, flipping its tail to ward off flying insects,

and probabbly nodding off to sleep soon...

Edited November 22, 2011 by edenstrauss

[edenstrauss 3]

Finally, lying down sideways in the sand to sleep:

Edited November 22, 2011 by edenstrauss

[edenstrauss 3]

BIRDS:

The Oriental Pied Hornbill

We were surprised when an Oriental Pied Hornbill (Scientific name: Anthracoceros albirostris / 冠斑犀鸟) came into view! The photograph doesn't have the ideal resolution as we were pretty eager to capture it before it discovered our presence.

It was a shy creature which was at perfect ease until we crept closer towards the tree it was perching at. The hornbill got abit wary & this could be illustrated in the next 2 photographs.

For more information & details about the birds of Singapore, please visit swapsungeibuloh blog at the following link:

http://swapsungeibuloh.wikispaces.com/Oriental+Pied+Hornbill

I assure you that the nature lovers wouldn't be disappointed after visiting the comprehensive website! In fact, both my hubby & myself had been very happy & thankful with the creators of the website as it was almost an encyclopedia of the birds of Singapore. The amount of work involved in creating such a website was gargantuan - sorry schiz0id for pinching the word from your T-blog on your home renovation.

And here is a professionally taken photograph of a cute-looking (male) Oriental Pied Hornbill by Mr Paul Huang:

Disclaimer:

Please note that I do not own any of the photographs of the Oriental Pied Hornbill featured here in this thread. As such, please give the credits of the photograph to the Mr Paul Huang of http://www.naturestops.com.'>http://www.naturestops.com.

I also wish to take this opportunity to thank Mr Paul Huang of http://www.naturestops.com for granting his kind permission in allowing me to use his beautiful photographs in this forum.

It had certainly made an eye-opening difference to a nature lover like myself!

[Postscript: However, my photographs stood out like a sore thumb as compared to his professionally taken photographs. Mine looks simply... amateurish. ]

Edited December 3, 2011 by edenstrauss

[edenstrauss 3]

Spotted Doves

While we were walking home, we spotted a pair of Spotted Doves (Scientific name: Streptopelia chinensis / 珠颈斑鸠) perching on the fence (of a wafer fab factory).

My hubby whose a bird lover couldn't resist the temptation to capture a few photographs of them & I've captioned these photographs to (hopefully) make them more interesting...

For more information & details about Spotted Doves, please visit the following link:

http://swapsungeibuloh.wikispaces.com/Spotted+Dove

Edited November 26, 2011 by edenstrauss

[edenstrauss 3]

ZEBRA DOVES

Zebra Doves are my hubby's favourites & he claimed that it is very popular among bird breeders as they fetch alot of money.

We have taken some photographs of zebra doves which had been spotted by us at Pasir Ris Park.

Edited November 26, 2011 by edenstrauss

[edenstrauss 3]

I'm sorry about repetitive shots of zebra doves in different positions. Since I didn't know which one to delete, I thought that I'll jux throw in everything on this thread.

Edited November 26, 2011 by edenstrauss

[edenstrauss 3]

Edited November 26, 2011 by edenstrauss

[edenstrauss 3]

We spied on this particular zebra dove & see what it's been up to.

These zebra doves looked pretty well-fed even though they were living in the wild. We sincerely hope that things could be kept that way as we are praying that they wouldn't be caught by bird breeders who might just sell them for money or even lock them up in cages.