Mistletoes 3: A naturalist’s account
I have been tending mistletoes growing on my sui mei (Wrightia religiosa) and chillie (Capsicum annuum) plants for a couple of years now and seen the different stages of its growth and death! There were three species of mistletoes growing … Continued
What happened when a nestling fell out of its nest?
Margaret Heng, a member of the Singapore Gardening Society, read my article on the Pink-necked Green Pigeons (Treron vernans) in the society’s newsletter the Grapevine (see also) and sent me the following e-mail on her encounter with a displaced Spotted … Continued
Cat kill – kingfisher
Cats are notorious for their ability to catch and dismantle birds. Many of us would have seen dead birds with their feathers torn and their bodies ripped apart. But how many of us have actually witnessed a cat kill? On … Continued
Mistletoes 2: Seeds and germination
Mistletoes are commonly seen growing on our wayside trees. Their fruits are small, oval, one-seeded and berry-like. The seeds are enclosed by a viscid layer of mucilage that pass out intact after being swallowed by sunbirds and flowerpeckers. Usually these … Continued
House Crows’ nests
There have been a number of postings on nesting crows recently – by Angie, Tang and Eu Heng. And we have published images of their large nests. Below is a detailed account of the nests and readers can always give … Continued
The World Is My Saucer!- an allegorical tale
The black birds wasted no time swooping down from nowhere and claiming ownership of their spoil. First there were four; then there were three. Soon the jostling settled down to two; each lording their own half of the saucer with … Continued
Mistletoes 1: The plants
Mistletoes are parasitic or semi-parasitic plants that grow on the branches of trees. They are unlike the bird’s-nest (Asplenium nidus) and staghorn (Platycerium coronarium) ferns that depend on the trees mainly for support. These epiphytes do not demand anything else … Continued
Tang’s nesting crows 3: The destruction of the nest and the end of the saga
January 7th 2006 was 15 days since I first saw the three eggs in the nest. When I went out to buy groceries at around noon, I went up to my usual place to take a look at the crows’ … Continued
Angie’s crows 4: Is this the end of the crow-koel saga?
I have given an earlier account of the series of attacks on the House Crows’ nest (Corvus splendens) by Asian Koels (Eudynamys scolopacea). Well, on Wednesday 28th Dec 2005, the tenth day after they began building their nest, the crows … Continued
Tang’s nesting crows 2: Yes, whose eggs were those?
The three eggs in the crows’ nest as seen in Tang’s earlier image, also shown here, show similarity in colour and pattern. However, one of the eggs is of slightly different shape than the other two and smaller. And according … Continued
