Pick of the park - Passiflora foetida ( Letup - Malay)

Ripe fruit with the sweet and delicious pulp...the soft seeds can be be chewed

The early birds have eaten the pulp and seeds...

Birdwatch album - Crimson Sunbird

 It is seen daily at the park especially between 8 am till noon.  It's tiny size makes it difficult to watch and you have to be a little bit more patient to catch a good glimpse of it.  The Crimson Sunbird is a beauty to photoshoot for its bright cheerful colours. I often see it enjoying the nectar from the flowers of the Ixoras, Chinese Hat plant and the Heliconias.  They fly fast to the next branch and thus making it extra difficult to get a good focus or close-up of them....

Crimson Sunbird
Family : Nectariniidae (Sunbird family)

Today's klikz

Insect watch album - Carpenter Bees

They have made the park their home.  In dead trees they make burrows and like any normal bees are busy buzzing away making more tunnels inside.  There is a small colony of them making these nests at Botanic Island One.  They look menacingly beautiful with colourful metallic wings and a face resembling Darth Vader from the from 'Star Wars'.  I noticed they collect nectar from the flowers of the 'Sebduduk' that grow wild and abundantly at the park. 

Carpenter Bee

Collecting nectar from flowers of the 'Senduduk' (Melastoma malabathricum)

Metallic colour wings

The nests are built facing west.

Burrows in a dead tree at Botanic Island One.

Fungi watch album - Lace Fungi

Lace fungi

 I was walking through the exotic fruit trees area and bamboo clumps location when my eyes was caught by something whitish pink on the ground.  On closer observation I noticed a Lace fungi that has just opened its 'net' that looked like a see-through skirt.  What a fanciful work of nature.  I saw red ants attracted to it...but then on zooming the pictures they were so many kinds and colours of flies that are also attracted to the fungi.  I guess I'll start a new watch album about the fungi world...But more of it later.  enjoy the pictures!!

Insect watch album - Red Dragonfly

My observations about the Red Dragonfly is that when they are in abundance there must be some source of unpolluted running water in their immediate vicinity.  They can be watched along the small stream that meanders through the park for about half a kilometer length,  hugging on glass blades or dead twigs for a little rest then hunt for mosquitoes.  Their presence is a live litmus test that the stream water is unpolluted.  The mosquitoes thrive on the swampy grassland areas around the park.

Butterfly watch album - Malay Lacewings

 Both the upperside and the underside of the Malay lacewings are very colourful but more so the underside.  The outer wings are serrated and looking jagged.  The 'lace' patterns on the wings give rise to its name 'lacewings'.  At the park these beautiful butterflies are attracted to the nectar from the flowers of the Ixora coccinea, Wrightia religiosa, Eugenia oleina and the Clerodendron thomsonae or the 'Bleeding heart'.  They do not seem to be seen often and when they do I would feel very cheerful and would chase them around to photoshoot them.  Here's a collection of shots of them at the park....

Malay Lacewings (Cethosia hysea hypsina)

What's fruiting at the park?

Young fruits of the "Cempedak" (Artocarpus champeden), borne on a tree planted more than 60 years ago.

 Coming towards the end of the year there would be a series of local fruits that will come in season.  At the park right now are many Cempedak trees that are gradually bearing small fruits.  These unripe fruits can be eaten as vegetables but better leave them maturing on the branches and trunks to enjoy their sweet and juicy pulp later.  At the park there are about a dozen of these fruit trees that have been planted more than 60 years ago.  I do plant many more since about 5 years ago to add to the collection and many among them also start to bear fruits.  In another blog I wrote about 'smoking' the cempedak fruits....go here to learn how it is done...>>>>http://myussop.blogspot.com/2009/11/smoking-cempedak-fruit.html

At the background on the right hand corner  are the tall Cempedak trees.

Reptilia watch album - Green-crested lizard

 Sometimes you can bump into them.  The Green-crested lizard is an amazing small reptile to see.  Looking like a mini-dinosaur they are curious little creatures and will take time to study at you. Therefore do not hurry or get over excited to photoshoot them.  They will give you plenty of time and then leave you behind quietly if you don't disturb them.

Birdwatch album - Philippine Glossy Starling

Philippine Glossy Starling
(Aplonis panayensis)

The Perlings would visit the park when the jungle trees bear fruits or the ornamental Eugenia oleina trees black berries are produced after every flowering season.  They come in big flocks for days on end but they don't settle or make their homes here. The adults are all black with a green gloss and a conspicuous red iris.  Juvenile or immature birds are whitish below and streaked with black.  When they roost on the dead tree branches they produce loud chatter and will fly off simultaneously if provoked or are alerted.

A juvenile or immature bird have slightly whitish and streaked with black on their breast and body below.
This bird is eating the ripe fruits of the Eugenia oleina trees that are purposely planted throughout the park to attract many forms of wildlife.

Starlings or Perlings as they are generally called are social birds, flocking together and roosting in large numbers.

Birds of a feather flock together.