A morning well spent @ Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve

It's been many months (ok a few years) since we thought of bringing the kids to Sungei Buloh. It was either the rainy season or the busy schedule we had to keep over the weekend that deterred us time and time again. Today, there were no more excuses! We finally decided to make that trip down to the nature park despite the hot weather and what a beautiful day for a photography trip!

We arrived around 9.30am and were pleasantly surprised to be invited to join a conducted tour by the park's volunteers. What was even more surprising was that the 2 guides were westerners! *urmmm ok it was quite embarrassing to have them bring us around when we are in Singapore! But I guess if you put any nature lover regardless of any part of the world, they would be more than happy to bring you around :)  I'll introduce them in the later part of this post.

The park is huge so we managed to only cover a part of it which took us almost 2 hours to explore.  I am not really a nature lover at heart but I would go with the flow as long as I feel its beneficial as a family to do stuff together. It was a treat for the children and us too, as we learned more about the mangroves, saw a crocodile, heron and a number of monitor lizards, just to name a few.

This trilogy of photographs were captured by my son, Brandon. Both the kids had fun trying to spot these animals in the midst of the greens. Truly challenging.

These photos were taken by my hubby! :)

Here are some photographs I took while we were walking along the trial.

This is a sea hibiscus. Lovely lovely flowers scattered on the ground. This was the only one I saw that was not crushed.

This is a bloomed sea poison flower dropped on the ground.  Though its really beautiful to look at, it is not advisable to handle it thus the name of the flower. :p

At a few look out sites, trying to do some bird watching.

 

These were our guides today! And what a privilege to have both of them to ourselves! :p

Roger (left) is a Canadian. He must love Sungei Buloh so much to volunteer because he had just got back from Canada and was adjusting to our local time. I asked him how often he volunteers at the park and he says only about once a year when he comes here for a visit as his Singaporean wife visits her family. Wow, talk about the love for nature! He had been so nice to explain about the mangroves and how it helps with our eco system.  Whenever he was in the littlest doubt, he would be quick to whip out his trusty mangrove knowledge book to show photos and explain further.

Luke (right) is from Manchester, England. A young and knowledgeable chap living in Singapore, he has a vast knowledge of the bird species. Unfortunately, we got to understand that we couldn't see much of most species this time of year. He says the best period would be between December to April where there would be more migratory birds. I too, asked him if he volunteers regularly at the park. And he says he is there probably once or twice a year. What a rare treat for us to have them as our guides then! As we got to chat a little at the later part of the trial, I found out that Luke is a food blogger. And has a very interesting blog address at that! Check his blog out at www.hungryangmo.com

As we were walking out of the park, a huge monitor lizard bade us goodbye as it crossed our paths.  

It has left us with wanting to explore the rest of the reserve. 

We will be back Sungei Buloh!!  I don't know when but... we will be back! :p

Till the next post, have a blessed week!