Oriental Pied Hornbill / Anthracoceros albirostris / 冠斑犀鸟

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!

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.

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.

Horses

HORSESThere'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"






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!
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...






Finally, lying down sideways in the sand to sleep:

Fishes & Tadpoles

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.





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 :






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




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???

The Sound Of Music: Nature's Beauty @ Pasir Ris Park (Brief Introduction)

After Hubby Dearest brought me for a long-distance jog into Pasir Ris Park, it was tough to ignore the beauty of mother nature in there.

So, I have decided to do a write-up of plants, lived-in insects and animals found at the Pasir Ris Park.

As usual, please enjoy the photographs which had been taken painstakingly by both Hubby Dearest & myself.

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. :)

I was 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.

 

Please stay tuned for more photographs of the inhabitants of Pasir Ris Park & we promise nature lovers that you wouldn't be disappointed in the outcome! :)

Demise of my three "musketeers" ... *SOB*

Finally, the potted plants breathed their last breath and didn't manage to get revived even when I brought them down to the community garden.  ;(

These plants had brought us plenty of joy & happiness, helping us to get closer to mother nature in befriending yellow spotless ladybirds & olive-backed sunbirds.

Even towards their last remaining days, they had never failed to add beauty to our environment with their pretty blooms.  And for that, we're extremely grateful to their existence & their subsequent recilience against diseases.

As such, we would like to recite an eulogy in this blogging entry to commenmorate our precious plants who had died at our hands of excessive kindness (too much fertiliser) & we shall do so with deep regrets.

There is no night without a dawning

No winter without a spring

And beyond the dark horizon

Our hearts will once more sing...

For those who leave us for a while

Have only gone away

Out of a restless, care worn world

Into a brighter day

(No Night Without, by Helen Steiner Rice)



Adieu my darling plants, for I am sadly reminded by your presence through your "babies" who are found to be thriving so beautifully in the community garden. *SOB*

But perhaps, we felt a strong sense of consolation that you are survived by your young ones that are growing so vigorously & healthily at our neighbourhood's community garden!

The story of My "tree" musketeers - Signs of ailing health

After pruning off stalks which had aged beyond their ability for further growth, we were pretty relieved that new shoots had made its way out of the surface of the soil.

However, we did notice that these new shoots aren't as healthy as before because one of them came up with holes "burnt" into the stem as shown in the photograph below.




The rest of the green shoots seemed to have a reasonably healthy appearance as shown in the photographs attached below:

The Yellow ladybird - A faithful friend of my ailing plants

This regular visitor who is a friendly companion to my "Ginger" plants was seen frequently by myself.


Isn't it cute?

Doesn't it remind us all of the Volkswagen beetle as shown here in the photograph below?


Disclaimer: I do not own the photograph featuring the Volkswagen yellow bettle as shown above. Kindly give full credits to the owners of this image. Thank you.


More photographs of my "Ginger" plants in a state of blooming :

The Olive-backed Sunbirds' feast

There was a great feast for those olive-backed sunbirds today.

A hole which is clearly seen on every flower is a clear indication that the sunbird/s had already extracted the nectar. I believe they did it by "drilling" (piercing) a hole into the bud with their long sharp, needle-like beak.


After a heavy downpour yesterday, we were surprised that the "Ginger" plants were blooming vigorously. And as usual, we didn't manage to take any snapshots of the birds becox they would fly off the minute they sense any movements near the plants.

Even though the photographs of our "ginger" plants were repetitive in style, we hope that viewers would enjoy them as much as we do.

 

A hopeless struggle against Symphylans ...

Although my plants do have freshly bloomed flower buds which are "harvested" by the olive-backed sunbirds within a day of its appearance, it is sad to notice that the green leaves were infested with fungal spots as shown clearly in the photograph attached below:



Those yellow fungal spots were akin to skin diseases for plants & aren't curable. A strong & effective fungicide would have to be applied thinly on the leaves regularly to control the fungal condition.

The latest photographs of flowers that sprung out of the "scales" of the red "corns".





Although it isn't blooming as vigorously as before, having some flower buds is better than not having any at all.

So we've just got to take comfort in being complacent with the existing situation. We're keeping our fingers crossed that these plants wouldn't die on us...

Struggling against Symphylans (pests) ...

After repeated attempts to till the soil & pruning away many "dead" stalks of the "ginger" plants, I observed that there were improvements even though the plants aren't as healthy & lush in its growth as compared to the past.

These are some of the recent collection of its blooms for the past 1 month:

Invasion of the hateful Symphylans (pests)

Finally, killing my plants with kindess - over-fertilisation. :( 

I've been battling against all odds & fighting plant diseases after the use of the organic worm tea.  I shouldn't have experimented the organic worm tea on my plants... *SIGH*

The situation was further exarcerbated by the over-fertilisation quite some time back - I should have simply lay off all forms of fertilisation & flush out the excess using plenty of water (also known as "leaching").

It was a challenging feat & apart from fighting against the yellowing of the leaves & fungus in the form of yellow-spots all over the green leaves, we were shocked to see that white centipedes had invaded the soil!

After googling up some information of the white "centipede", I would like to take this opportunity to share in this forum that those were not beneficial centipedes or garden centipedes that feast on organic matter.

They were infact pests that are out to harm the plants & are known as Symphylans. I read through extensive reports on this pest & methods for eradicating this creature but apparently, there aren't any cures for it where chemicals are concerned.

They take over the tunnels created by earth worms & occupy them. And their behavioural patterns are such that they do not come up to the surface & would only barrow in soil that are hard in structure. As such, the only recourse is to partially reduce its population by digging into the soil & destroying their tunnels below the soil.

The terminology used by gardeners for an attempt to exterminate them is known as tillage. Meaning that we had to till the soil in loosening up the soil. Once the soil is sandy & easily permeable with water, these symphylans would just die off.

However, even with the most effective method being tilling the soil, this wouldn't cure the problem completely as it would only assist in reducing the population of these pests in the soil.

One of the rules for preventing symphylans is to have good cultivation habits, which includes not over using organic matters in fertilising. Reason being that when the organic matters rot, they introduce bad bacteria which inturn invites such undesirable pests such as Symphylans to your plants.

These pests would chew & eat up all the roots & the poor ginger plants would start to weaken & be unable to absorb any nutrients from the soil.

And in severe cases, the plants would die off due to the lacking in nutrients when it's roots are being eaten up by these pests!

These are some photographs of the hateful Symphylans.





Don't they look like white centipedes with many legs & a pair of fillers on top of their heads?


Disclaimer: I do not own any of these photographs of the symphylans which are posted as above. Kindly give the credits of these photographs to the its owners. Thank you.

More snippets on the Yellow Ladybird "illeis koebelei"

Yet another 2 photographs of a spotless yellow ladybird at our "Ginger" plant... Taken on 26th February 2012...





It was quite a challenge trying to take a snippet of it close-up becox the location it was at was almost out of reach. The spotless yellow ladybird was camera-shy & was crawling towards a hiding place where it could not be easily seen...

Postscript:  My plants are definitely in a bad shape as you could see from the spotty appearance of the leaves featured in these photographs.  They were down on fungal infection which is why I guess it attracted these yellow ladybirds.  However, I've difficulties obtaining an effective fungicide from the nurseries here in Singapore.

More on the Yellow ladybird "illeis koebelei"

After consulting the owner for the following website (Everything on Ladybug), he had kindly advised me that this particular breed of ladybird is known as illeis koebelei.
http://www.everything-ladybug.com/ladybug-pest-control.html

This breed of spotless yellow ladybird is a plant-friendly insect that thrives on cleaning up mildew & fungus attacking plants.

As such, we were more than happy to have it become a permanent resident of our plants. However, we don't see it nowadays. We are hoping to see it coming back to our plants & welcomes it making our plants its home & where possible, breeding there.

I recalled seeing this strange looking chap crawling around my plants a month ago... it moved really fast & I had made several attempts to catch hold of it but was unsuccessful. Now I realised that it might be the larvae or baby of the spotless yellow ladybird.


Disclaimer: I do not own the photograph of the larvae for the illeis koebelei uploaded as above. Kindly give the photo credits to the owner of the following website: http://gaga.biodiv.tw/new23/s7-26.htm . Thank you.
While I was watering my plants recently, I came across another 3 ladybirds loitering around my plants...

By the time I fetched my camera, the other 2 were no longer in sight & the other chap has flown towards another plant in the same pot. However, I have managed to take some photographs of it before it flew off to another location.