Saturday, March 22, 2008

A Visit to Pulau Ubin--Day 4

"Waterworld" as I will call it--(where famililies live full time on the water raising the small nursery fish they sell to fish-farmers for commercial enterprise. A Stork-billed Kingfisher--who eats little if any fish but more amphibians and other prey) and a Brahminy Kite flying overhead.









The village waterfront, its temple and what may be the last remaining community operahouse--of the Asian/not western type.

Pulau Ubin is island home to Singapore’s last village (or “kampong”) and has been given temporary designation as a national park area—a multipurpose spot receiving 300,000 visitors yearly. We saw many elementary and adolescent school kids pass us on the road—they were there for a nature education adventure and these young citizens were in great spirits about their trip. We took a ferry from Changi after meeting our guide---Subaraj Rajathurai and arrived pre-dawn alongside a prawn pond. As daylight neared, Subaraj identified many bird songs and sounds from the growing wake-up and connection calls the feathered friends made.

Among many, we heard the song or saw :Night jar, spotted wood owl, greenshank,brown throated sunbird, kingfishers-collared and multicolored?, magpie robin, common sandpiper, hii myna, stork billed kingfisher, hornbill, brown-throated sunbird, Bramley kite, laced woodpecker, abbots babbler, and twenty or more extra.

It is clear that people cherish this island—and we were here on a weekday—we were told the numbers of visitors is striking as a weekend getaway from city life/ day-to-day.

This certainly parallels our local seashore that includes Diamond City and Portsmouth Island—our last/now abandoned outer banks villages that are now abandoned but whose surroundings serve as multiuse for fishing, viting rambles, exploring, picnics, camping, etc.

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