I saw the Black-crowned night heron, a species not so commonly seen, and digiscoped it. Other birds seen and scoped were the bulbuls and Blue-tailed bee-eaters. The Blue-throated bee-eaters' season is over; taken over by the Blue-taileds. There were also more Yellow bitterns around Eco Lake than usual (the norm sighted being nil).
Another highlight was a juvenile Green-crested lizard. That was my first-ever sighting of a Green-crested juvenile that young. It was so small and cute!
It would also do the cicada injustice if I didn't mention it. Walking back towards the Visitor Centre from the Eco Lake, I noticed an extra silhouette below one of the numerous empty cicada shells on a tree trunk. I took a closer look -- a newly-emerged cicada! We (not forgetting my companions for the day - my sis Jane, Kris, ThiHa and Yu Chung) went closer, and it fell from its spot onto the ground! Jane picked it up -gently of course- and placed it back on the trunk. We whipped out our cameras again and clicked away. I had a headshot of it while it was in my hand... that one turned out so clear that the three simple eyes on its forehead could be seen.
An most interesting observation concerned a Straited heron. I trained my scope on a particular individual, thinking that it had a fish in its beak (and it's always a good idea to try to take a pic of it feeding), but saw that it was bread instead. Expecting it to swallow the bread, I kept an eye on it, and saw it hop a little ways towards the water edge, look in, and drop the piece of bread. Very clearly, it knew what it was doing; and it didn't drop the bread by mistake. What ensued was a frenzy of movement in the water - ripples caused by the fish which were attracted to the bread - and very quickly it dived in and came out with a small fish between its bills. I was elated by this... discovery. That a heron has such an advanced, so to speak, feeding strategy? I've heard of the classic case of Great tits pecking open bottle caps to get to the milk inside, but not of herons using baits to catch their prey. :)
More than 200 pics taken in all today; more pics are up in the gallery (an upgraded version!) in the Arthropods, Birds and Herptiles exhibits.
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