What a rare treat ! While walking out to the Holland Drive market one bright and sunny morning, I ran into a Hornbill resting against a tree trunk.
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| Hornbills like to nest in tall trees |
The Hornbill is a large bird with a yellow helmet like casque on top of its massive bill. This striking combination gives it an awesome appearance.
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| Amazing bird with its massive bill topped by a casque |
It drew the attention of aunties and uncles out marketing, (including me) to pause and gawk and ask excitedly "kwa see me ? kwa see me?" "Kwa jeow kwa jeow" is my jocular reply and on hindsight, hope it didn't get misinterpreted as a vulgarity !:)
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| Aunties and uncles crane their necks to get a better view |
Shutterbugs and bird watchers gathered with their cameras, telephoto lenses, tripods, smart phones and binoculars to grab a picture or a view of this unexpected visitor.
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| Birders and Shutterbugs all agog |
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| Waiting patiently with their long telephoto lenses |
As I had with me only a low end phone camera I could only get this not so sharp picture of the bird. Still, I can see it is peering into the hole of the tree trunk which I guess must be the nest. Is the female bird with eggs inside ?
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| Is he feeding the family ..? |
...to be continued when chicks are hatched and learn to fly.....
Update 1 Christmas Eve 24 Dec 2016 10.30 am
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| Shutterbugs are still staking out at Holland Drive |
According to the market talk the male hornbill comes every few hours to feed the female (who is sitting in the hole hatching the eggs) I was not lucky enough to catch sight of it during my visit. Nevertheless, thank you Hornbill for bringing joy and wonder this Christmas 2016 to the elderly uncles and aunties in this sleepy community of Holland Drive.
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| Holland Drive Wet Market |
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| thank you Hornbill |
...to be Updated....
Update 2 Jan 17 2017 Morning....
Sad ! No sign of the bird on my market visits since I last saw it in Dec. Heng managed to catch a brief glimpse a few days ago with this rather hazy picture as it was late afternoon.
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| Bird is still around. |
.......Hopefully there will be more dramatic updates when baby birds learn to fly......
Final Update March 3rd 2017
Well I guess its chapter close and good bye Hornbill as I have no more sightings of it on my regular visits to the market and all the shutterbugs and bird watchers have disappeared too.
One final word, the bird was highlighted in ST Feb 27 as shown in picture below:
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| Straits Times Feb 27 picture |
