Bintan

On Friday we walked with Heather and June through Bukit Brown Chinese Cemetery. Of the estimated 100,000 graves, nearly 4000 have been exhumed to make way for a new 4-lane road that will cut through the cemetery. Roadworks are well underway but if you ignore all that, there is still a large area to wander through and the cemetery is home to many bird species and other wild life, making it popular with nature lovers. 

Among the flocks of many common birds we were fortunate to see a first sighting of a pair of Long-Tailed Parakeets and a good view of a family of Banded Woodpeckers. Of the three species of parakeet found here, the Long-tailed is the only native representative, and is sadly a globally near-threatened species. Males of this species are very colourful with bright red bills, peach coloured cheeks, black malar band and long flowing tails. The female lacks the long tail feathers and the reddish coloration on the head is limited to the cheeks. Like others in the parrot family, they might not always be seen but they most definitely make their presence known with loud, screeching calls. I had seen the banded woodpecker once before at McRitchie Res but this was a first for Eric and Heather. 

It has been announced that the rest of the cemetery will make way for a new public housing town in about 40 years time, but in the meantime we are likely to revisit this densely-treed pocket of land where nature has clawed back some of its territory and the spirits of the dead and so many birds call home.   

Both Bev and Jo came over to our place on Sunday night after work from Jurong to sleep the night and have a much quicker trip to the Tanah Merah Ferry on Monday morning. They had to let themselves in because we first had dinner at Grapevine on the way home and a few of those who joined us followed us home.

We were thrilled to get a phone call from Tahlia and Luke while we were at Grapevine and to hear all is good with them. They boasted about the fruits of 'their' garden and followed up with a picture including the red dragon fruit and red grapefruit but also mentioned the limes and jack fruit. 







We were reasonably careful and went to bed at a reasonable hour, but still the alarm on Monday morning roused us from sleep way too soon. Fortunately all 11 of us were at the ferry terminal in plenty of time because it departed an hour before the advertised time on the schedule! The sea was flat and I kept my breakfast for a change.

We were all heading to Bintan Lagoon Resort where Heather had booked a villa for us to share and celebrate her birthday. Nothing ever goes exactly to plan when there are that number of people involved and you are making arrangements with people who don't speak English as a first language and whatsmore, they are working on local time. Suffice to say it was a fun weekend with plenty of good company, food and alcohol. There were lots of laughs, dips in the pool and some new bird sightings to boot. 

The Bintan Lagoon Resort

Our private villa

The birthday party was held at the villa where a cook did a magnificent bbq for us. Enough food was served to feed us all the next day for lunch. It all began in quite a civilised fashion but then developed as the home grown entertainment began. 

Birding opportunities were plentiful. In fact a pair of sunbirds were building a nest in a small bougainvillia right outside the villa's kitchen window. We had a number of opportunities to watch them come and go with materials.  With the Jack Nicklaus Sea View Golf Course and the Ian Baker-Finch Woodlands Golf Course attached to our resort we went for a number of walks with our binos and were thrilled to see Hill Mynas with their characteristic yellow lace collars (middle top), the long tailed parakeets nesting (right) and a chestnut bellied malkoha (middle bottom). Of course we would have loved to have played them too, almost nobody else was, but at about $100 a round it was all getting a little expensive. 

The early ferry trip back on Wednesday morning was very smooth too so we all got to work on time. It was a long day though and I bet we all had quiet nights once work finished at 9:30.