Sanctuary at Sungei Buloh Nature Park

View Photos (4) Image © 2002 Sharon Yap

I wanted to beat the crowd, so I got to the Sungei Buloh Nature Park at 7am sharp, the opening hour on Labour Day (or May Day, which is a public holiday in Singapore.) To my surprise, there were at least five families ahead of me. I guess they wanted to beat the crowd too.

Sungei Buloh Nature Park is Singapore's biggest bird sanctuary. It was the first time I'd been there and I didn't really know what to expect, except that I was hoping for some true peace and quiet, serenity and tranquility and all that; something entirely different from the usual daily hustle and bustle of town, the usual overcrowding in the streets.

I had been warned by a friend that the mosquitoes were a persistent and pernicious bunch, so I came prepared - I wore jeans and a short-sleeved t-shirt, making sure to douse myself with sufficient insect repellent before stepping onto the boardwalk that led to the park's entrance. (Just call me an armchair nature-lover!)

It was a pleasant walk, surrounded by tropical shrubs and trees. The entrance eventually came into sight and I crossed the bridge spanning the beautiful lotus and lily pond to the Visitor Centre. I was even more pleasantly surprised to find that there was an "early bird special" - those arriving before 8:30am could enter free-of-charge. Not that the usual admission charges are hefty - it costs an adult a mere S$1 (about US$0.50?) to get in.

Like a happy camper, I made a quick tour of the Nature Gallery, which featured an exhibition on the kinds of wildlife and environs that the park is meant to conserve. Essentially, the park is an 87-hectare plot of mangroves and wetlands, located in the North-western part of Singapore, an area which is involved in agriculture and farming, and still very rural by Singapore's current standards. Originally covered with mangroves, this plot of land was cleared and used for prawn and fish farming until 1989.

It was found that the area was a stop-over during the mirgratory season for a variety of birds that used the East Asian-Australasian Flyway, which stretches from the Arctic Ocean to China, Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand. An estimated four million birds make the annual roundtrip on the Flyway. After the prawn and fish farms were resettled, the area was converted into the park, which opened in 1993. The park was named after Sungei Buloh Besar ("Big Bamboo River" - "Sungei" means river) and Sungei Buloh Kechil ("Small Bamboo River") that flow alongside the park.

I picked up a map and saw that the park was divided into three walking routes. I decided to try them all since they overlapped, starting with the short walk from the Visitor Centre to the reserve, over a bridge spanning Sungei Buloh Besar. Looking into the murky waters of the river, I could see schools of fish swimming against the out-going current. Information signboards, set at regular intervals on the bridge, explained what species they were. Closer to the end of the bridge, I caught my first glimpse of the mangroves. It was low tide and I could see the roots, both spectacular and peculiar, firmly wedged in the mud.

At the end of bridge was the Main Hide, indicated as "1A" on the map, a sort of wooden hut raised above the mudflats, which provided shelter in case of rain, and a good, panoramic view of the mudflats. Hides like these were sprinkled at various points throughout the park to allow visitors to view the birds without disturbing them too much. I would strongly recommend bringing a pair of binoculars with you, if you're planning to visit, because it can be difficult to locate the birds, much less determine which species they are! I certainly had that unfortunate handicap and had to be content with squinting at the sandpipers darting about in the mudflats a distance away.

Moving on, I made my way on the gravel path, which served as the footpath for most of the way through the park, stopping occasionally to take photographs or to read the information signboards. Depending on which part of the park you were at, the pathways were lined by trees, mangroves, one of the rivers and/or the mudflats.

I was glad to be there in the morning, for while the sun shone brightly, it was still cool and breezy. I could hear the constant stream of bird calls, which was very pleasing. Unfortunately, at certain points, I could also hear the traffic from a road that must have been near the park's entrance! Even more unfortunate was the fact that the family groups of visitors tended to be rather chatty and noisy and I couldn't really avoid them for the peace and quiet that I craved for, simply because the pathways ran in a circular pattern around the park and you couldn't help bumping into them at some point or other. I couldn't really blame them for getting excited at seeing the birds, but I wished they would observe the "keep silence" signs a bit more conscientiously!

I soon realised that bird-watching is an art, one that requires patience and a very keen eye. I could hear the birds, but I only caught fleeting glances of the brilliant yellow Baya Weaver and Kingfishers streaking across the rivers. I had about four hours for my visit, so I did not have the luxury of sitting at many of the hides and waiting, but I'm sure I would have seen many more birds had I done that, such as the white egrets that I saw as I took shelter from the drizzling rain at one of the hides.

But birds aren't the only creatures that you would see. In fact, for most of the time, I saw other fauna, like big insects flying past kamikaze-style, a furry squirrel, pair of giant mudskippers and a pair of mating horseshoe crabs. I also saw a mudflat full of clams that seemed to be squirting out water after the earlier downpour, making little geysers as they did so. But the show-stealer was a huge Malayan Water Monitor, the largest lizard found in Singapore. I saw it by chance as I was on my way to the Tower Hide "2C". The first thing that hit me was the foul smell emitting from the roadside. Seeing the flies buzzing in the area, I thought that something must have died there and I wasn't wrong: a dead monitor with a whole leg chewed off lay there! It was then that I saw the big one, moving stealthily away, towards the water. Had it been eating the dead lizard? I hoped not but had a sneaking suspicion. For awhile, it stayed at the water's edge and I wondered if it would turn around and charge at me. But it seemed more wary of me than vice versa and I decided to leave it alone and move along - after taking a picture, that is! I would see another four lizards during my visit, but none as big as this one.

The tower hide was located on the second walking route, surrounded by secondary forest. With a pair of binoculars and some patience, the bird-watcher would probably have been able to locate a few species hidden in the tree tops. Beyond the tower hide was a loop around two small mangrove "islands" - beware of the mosquitoes at this segment of the park! It was time to call for more insect repellent. A section of this loop faced the open sea, where I saw kelongs (wooden houses on stilts built offshore as stop-overs for fishermen and for prawn and fish rearing), and fishermen wading about and casting nets for prawns closer to the shore. One friendly old fisherman showed us the size of the prawns that he'd caught - about five inches long. Not bad for a day's catch!

Walking back from the tower hide, I met a friend who pointed out that I had missed the most spectular "enclosure" in the park - the Heronry. I had walked right past it without noticing the herons sitting like statues in the tree tops! The 50 or so grey and purple herons are park residents: they had made their homes here and remained all year round. When I saw them, many had begun to fly from their nests in search of food. Although they were big and graceful, I must say it was difficult to capture them on film!

My next stop was to have been the third walking route and the boardwalk through the Mangrove Arboretum but they were closed for works. So I backtracked to Hide "2B" and took the boardwalk leading to the Outdoor Classroom (an open structure that was used for educational tours for students). It was both a strange and pleasant walk. The trees had a gnarled appearance and in many areas they created a canopy over the boardwalk so that you could hardly see the sky. It was dark and damp, bringing to mind the forest scenes in the movie "The Blair Witch Project"! The boardwalks can be slippery, especially after rain, so watch out for those patches.

Before I knew it, I was back where I started. Looking at my watch, I was surprised to find that I had been walking for almost five hours! It was getting pretty crowded by this time, with many more families coming in. I decided the time was right to leave. On the way out, I purchased a lovely souvenir booklet for only S$2.00. It was comprehensive and gorgeously illustrated - my money was never more well-spent!

All in all, it was a satisfying first experience of the Sungei Buloh Nature Park. I'll definitely go back and make it a day-trip, and it will definitely be on a working weekday. I'll get my "peace and quiet" next time!

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Published on 4/29/02