I learned yesterday that from its founding up to about two years ago, Singapore had a law in place that made it very easy for the government to find land for its many infrastructure and housing projects. I forget the name of it, but it was basically emminent domain – the gov’t could take any […]
While I was gone for 2 months I didn’t post on my blog, since it’s supposed to be about Singapore and I wasn’t here to report anything about the place. But according to my blog statistics, 849 hits were generated in July, of whom 356 were new to the blog. So first, my thanks to […]
Gotta love that jetlag! Things are pretty quiet outside, save for the chirping of the crickets and frogs. The buses have stopped, the students have gone to bed (although some were spotted at 2 a.m. emerging from the Pottery Jungle area with flashlights and glow sticks), and only the occasional taxi bringing professors back from […]
I’ve been away for 2 months, drying out my skin and escaping the worst of Singapore’s summer weather. I guess it’s not all that bad, compared to Taiwan, South India and Iraq – temperatures max out at 96, for instance – but still I needed some long stretches of cooler weather. My spouse found this […]
Another restless bird in the Southeast Asian aviary.
Cassowaries are native to Indonesia, I think. They have big feet, whose toes are dangerous because they can eviscerate you if you approach them the tactlessly. The casque on the top of the head grows during the bird’s life and indicates age. Portrait below:
There are about fifty of these in an enclosure at the Bird Park, very colorful. I think they’re African rather than Asian, but they look great nonetheless.
There are plenty of Nicobar pigeons, bleeding heart pigeons and others in the Southeast Asian aviary. What you can’t tell from this picture is that the shorter feathers on this guy’s back are irridescent. The pigeons wander around the central area at will, rather than being confined to cages – I guess nobody’s tempted to […]
This magpie is native to Borneo. Hard to photograph, although not particularly shy, because it moves around a lot. So catching it at a standstill was a minor triumph. So was photographing it before my camera steamed up from the ambient humidity in the Southeast Asian Aviary. This aviary features a pond and a daily […]
You’re not seeing things – his face really is bright blue. This is an asian version of a grouse, in mating plumage. I went back a few weeks later and his face wasn’t as brightly colored. The speckles are beautiful, too, but may be hard for you to see – this guy liked to lurk […]