Otters and Other Animals at Sungei Buloh on 2 Sep 2011

It's been a long while since I had a good walk at Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve, and hence I decided to pay it a visit with Peiting last Saturday.


We decided to head to the main bridge first, and I was glad we made this decision as a pair of Smooth Otters (Lutrogale perspicillata) in the river! The tide was rather low, and hence the otters had no problem catching the fish that they love to eat.


After the meal, they headed back to shore.


One of them got onto the river bank and started rolling on the black sand, probably to dry itself.


The other soon it, and both otters spent about 5 min rolling before they moved up the river bank.


They rested for a while by the freshwater pond, before heading back into the river.


There were several Plantain Squirrels (Callosciurus notatus) among the trees, and this one was feeding on a Sea Almond (Terminalia catappa) fruit.


We saw a lot of jumping fish in the disused prawn ponds. Still not exactly sure why they were doing that - but I would think it's not likely to be due to predators in the water, as these fish were quite huge.


We only saw a few migratory birds - suspect they have properly flown out of the reserve to nearby mudflats since the tide was low. Managed to catch a shot of these Little Egrets (Egretta garzetta) in flight though.


Peiting was commenting that she hadn't seen the Oriental Pied-hornbill (Anthracoceros albirostris) at Sungei Buloh, and not too long later, we saw a pair of them on a figging Ficus superba!


They were feeding on the figs, but did not appear to be too successful as this male one kept dropping the figs it was handling.


At the river, we also saw this Stork-billed Kingfisher (Pelargopsis capensis) catching a fish!

Just as we were leaving the reserve, we encountered two fighting Malayan Water Monitors (Varanus salvator). The one on the right (back-facing) eventually lost and ran away. But what a fight they had! Lots of twisting, grabbing, wrestling, splashing, clawing... as a smaller female watched nearby...