Was afraid that I might have to guide the group of 120 boy scouts... but they didn't want a guided tour; and there were other volunteers to take on the other school groups. Phew. I dislike guiding sec school students. And big groups. I guided a couple instead. As in... adult, parents kinds of couple. After I said a few sentences the father asked me, "Are you from the UK?" I raised my eyebrows, "Erm, I'm not from there, but I study there..." He went, "Ahh... I thought so. Your accent..." (-_-)' Sigh... I am certain I do not have an English accent! Aussie, maybe, but not British English! Anyway, he asked me where I was studying, and it turned out that he was from Imperial! He joked, "Is it still male-dominated? When I did engineering then, there wasn't a single girl in my course." To which his wife gave him a playful push. Heee... they are planning to send their daughter -who is in my batch- to Imperial to study Medicine. Asked me how it's like there... how I'm finding it... the lecturers, London in general, etc etc. ;)
Besides that little bonus, the day was extremely rewarding.
I sighted a lifer - a Chinese pond heron. Or a Javan pond heron, for all I know. Even the experts can't really tell. According to my field guide: "Chinese Pond Heron, adult non-breeding plumage: Possibly indistinguishable from other pond herons but may tend to show more obvious dusky tips to outermost primaries than Javan" and "Javan Pond Heron, adult non-breeding plumage: Possibly indistinguishable from other pond herons but may tend to show less obvious dusky tips to outermost primaries than Chinese". Rrright... veeery helpful.
I managed to photograph and film, through the scope, a milky stork feeding on a mangrove whipray.
Lots of migratory waders are still here, even when 'officially' their stopover break in S'pore should have ended.
I digiscoped a Pacific Golden Plover in all the slendor of its breeding plumage.
I saw and took a pic of an orange jellyfish.
I didn't get any sandfly bites, even though I went to Route 3 and Kranji Nature Trail as well.
It didn't rain, although the forecast said it would.
... and best of all, I saw a CROCODILE from the Main Bridge!! :)
I didn't see it at first. Rather, I was looking at a bird (the Chinese pond heron) which was perched on a branch above the croc... and trying to figure out what species of heron/bittern it was. I walked towards Robert who was in the middle of the bridge (he went there earlier) and pointed in the direction of the bird.
I asked, "Do you see that?"
He went, "Yah."
"Do you know what that is?"
He nodded, "Yah. It's a crocodile."
"?!?!!!"
Then I saw it. I practically whooped with excitement, and started shooting away with my digi.
Very often, you just need to be at the right place at the right time with the right people, a combination which is not that easy to come by.
More new pics: Birds, Herptiles, and Fish and Others exhibitions.
Ps. The pics of the 'rooster' I took on Friday is not an ordinary rooster! It's a male Red junglefowl, the ancestor of the domestic chicken! In other words... this is the great, great great etc. grandfather of all chooks...
The croc (which I presume is a Siamese aka Freshwater croc... or a hybrid Saltwater-Siamese):
Edit: Ooh... one more anecdote... we (Thiha - yeah, he was there the whole day as well -, Robert, and I) were having lunch in the cafeteria, and this annoying person kept playing with his phone ringtones for a good 15 mins or so, and Robert said at first "I wish phones have a self-destruct function. You play more than 5 ringtones in a row and it goes 'BOOM'!". Then when the ringing failed to cease, he got up and left, "I go to the main bridge. If they follow, I jump." lol. Quite a humorous guy for a German, as TH likes to say.
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