Singapore Stopover

 

My week in Cambodia passed all to quickly and with all too little birding, and then it was back to the Philippines for a few weeks of much-needed time at home before my next travels. There was one more stop, however: I managed to finagle a long layover in Singapore on my return journey, long enough for a little bit of time to leave the airport and do some shopping. Lens shopping, to be specific. 

Since 2017 I've been using my trusty old Zuiko 300mm prime lens, which has served me well through multiple camera bodies. In fact, it practically never left my camera after I got it, as by then almost the entirety of my photography was of wildlife. I really can't say enough good things about the 300mm f/4 lens, as it's just about the ideal setup for a traveling birder: light, compact, extremely sharp, fast to focus, and the perfect focal length for most bird photography (albeit a bit on the short end for the Philippines). Unfortunately, after five years of extremely heavy use and somewhere near a million pictures, it was starting to show its age and I was beginning to get worried I would suddenly find myself in the middle of a birding trip with no useable gear and no easy way to repair or replace it.

It was a perfect excuse to go for a lens I'd been salivating over for a while: Olympus' recently-released 150-400mm telephoto zoom lens. Reviews from user suggested it was one of the best wildlife lenses made by anyone anywhere, and it was just what I was looking for. There were just a couple of problems. First, it was stupidly expensive- more than any piece of technology I've ever owned. Once I'd convinced myself that having a new lens to take pretty pictures with was more important than paying off my student loans or saving for retirement, there was yet another problem: it was just about impossible to actually purchase. In the United States the waiting list was anywhere from 8 months to a year, apparently because it was a highly specialized design that required assembly by hand in a monastery by Benedictine monks or something. Occasionally a copy would randomly pop up for sale, but online forums were riddled with stories of frustrated would-be buyers. 

Just as I was about to give up and buy another 300mm lens, or just throw my hands up and switch to Canon, Nikki happened to discover that there were several stores in Singapore that seemed to carry them (thanks for reluctantly supporting my illogical spending habits, Nikki). Sure enough I got in touch with one of them in October and they were due for a delivery in early November. I immediately made a down payment to secure it in hopes that I could convince work to give me a long layover.

A little bit surprisingly the long layover plan ended up working out, and by midday on November 7 I found myself going through immigration at the Singapore airport. I caught a taxi from the sparklingly nice Changi Airport and arrived at Sim Lim Square, the hub of electronics and gadgets stores in Singapore, by mid-afternoon. Along the day I got to ogle my first views of Singapore in all its austere opulence- a strange little enclave of the Global North in the middle of Southeast Asia. Actually purchasing the lens was an unexpectedly stressful experience, mostly because I had to convince my credit card company that I did, in fact, mean to drop a ludicrously large sum of money in a country I'd never been to before. After a couple hours of haggling and phone calls though, I finally had my new lens in hand, with 2 hours of daylight to test it out in Singapore. 

I elected to visit the Dairy Farm Nature Park, located a 20-minute taxi ride from Sim Lim Square. One of Singapore's many well-maintained urban parks, it seems to have a reputation of picking up some good migrants, and was also a good spot for Straw-headed Bulbul, a globally rare bird that's one of the specialties of Singapore. I arrived at 5PM, with 2 hours before sunset, and with no idea where to go or really even what birds were there as I had done precisely zero prep for Singapore birding. This wasn't really a trip for listing after all, just a bit of bonus birding. New lens in hand, I set off down one of its nice concrete walkways to see what I could see.

Unsurprisingly, the birding was fairly quiet in the midday heat, even right before sunset, and I didn't see much- including, sadly, no sign of Straw-headed Bulbul. My first bird seen was a gorgeous dark-red Banded Woodpecker, which I failed to photograph because I realized that my new lens was hopelessly fogged up, having spent its entire existence until then in air conditioning. I had no microfiber cloth with me, so there was nothing to do but wipe it off with my shirt and wait for it to unfog- hardly a good way to treat a new lens. Shortly afterwards a Greater Racket-tailed Drongo perched obligingly in front of me, but a foggy lens and my unfamiliarity with the new gear meant I wasn't able to get a great picture.

Greater Racket-tailed Drongo missing its rackets

Things improved a bit after that: a Chestnut-bellied Malkoha, a lifer and an uncommon bird in Singapore, flew in briefly, and even better a huge, gorgeous Red-crowned Barbet appeared in a dead tree next to the road and started pecking away at it, possibly excavating a nest hole. It seemed to have no cares at all about me being right below it snapping away- a welcome change from birding in the Philippines! A troupe of Long-tailed Macaques also came through and offered some more photo opportunities.

Red-crowned Barbet

Long-tailed Macaque

The central clearing of the park brought me some flyover Plume-toed Swiftlets, the ubiquitous Arctic Warblers, a flock of Pink-necked Green Pgeons, and a distant Oriental Dollarbird perched on a snag, as well as some Plantain Squirrels, the most common squirrel in Singapore. A little side trail got me a perched Square-tailed Drongo-cuckoo and Olive-winged Bulbul, both too deep into the shadows for good pictures, and an Asian Brown Flycatcher. Back at the clearing, I saw an enormous Clouded Monitor lizard clinging to the side of a tree- another nice change from the Philippines, where any monitor lizards that tame would quickly end up being turned into adobo. 

Pink-necked Green Pigeon

Plantain Squirrel

Clouded Monitor

Golden-spotted Tiger Beetle

And with that the sun was setting and it was time for me to return to the airport. I booked a Grab ride and enjoyed the smooth, trafficless ride back to the airport. I ended my time in Singapore with a surprisingly good burrito at Changi Airport, with a view of the strange artificial waterfall and light show. Then it was off to my gate for my flight from the best airport in the world to the worst, the Manila airport. I've had lots of fun with my new lens back in the Philippines, but that will have to wait for the next blog.