Jurong Eco Garden- a green treasure

For a relatively newly opened place, Jurong Eco Garden, located in the heart of of CleanTech Park at NTU, has an amazing variety of wildlife and nature and is home to so many birds, dragonflies, butterflies and insects. We went through the nature trail, wildlife corridor and freshwater swamp forest in the garden. The park was very silent and we literally had the whole garden to ourselves to explore.

This is quite an unknown place, so to get there you need to go to CleanTech Park then follow the Jurong Eco-garden signs that will take you to Lor Tawas, which is the road with the entrance to the park. There is also a pottery place called Thow Kwang Pottery in the entrance as well.

We saw this grasshopper feeding on something, I think it was an ant:

There was a Ficus Lookout point where we could see the whole view of the park. The fig tree in which it was built around was the Malayan Banyan tree.

Malayan Banyan Tree Ficus microcarpa

On the way to the park we saw this Small Banded Swift on a leaf:

Small Banded Swift

There were so many new flower species I saw in the park. Many of them attract butterflies and insects and there was even a Butterfly Garden which had so many beautiful flowers.

This is a wild ginger species, known as crepe ginger. It is a common ornamental plant but also attracts many insects.

A Great-banded hornet with a stunning yellow abdomen was feeding on one of the flowers.

Great-banded Hornet

I learnt about this stunning flower, the Chinese Violet- whose leaves and shoots can be used to cook.

Chinese Violet

There weren’t many butterflies out and about but we saw the stunning Common Birdwing.  I saw at least two of them in the park and I was so happy that it finally stopped so I could photograph it!

Common Birdwing

The red flowers of the Leea rubra attracted a common yet beautiful Day-flying moth:

Day flying moth

The next place we went to was the Freshwater swamp forest. The swamp was made using the cleansing biotope method (just like in Admiralty Park) where particular plants are grown that cleanse rainwater naturally.

We spotted a female Blue Skimmer with its wings wide open on a tree as well as a Common Scarlet which I got down to eye level to photograph.

Female Blue Skimmer

Common Scarlet

You will be amazed by this nature trail that we embarked on. The entrance was so inviting, and the dark brown leaves of the path complimented the different green hues of the forest. The nature trail is absolutely serene and if you are lucky you will spot a lot. We had to hurry a little through the trail as it was getting dark, but even then we saw so much!

There was first an immature male Common Parasol:

Common Parasol

We also spotted this Crow-billed Drongo which I could not get a clear picture of but here it is. It seemed like the king bird of the forest with its flattering black wings.

Crow-billed Drongo

A cute little Red Leafhopper:

Red Leafhopper

There were many insects with very long antennae. I haven’t been able to identify this one, it seems to be a nymph of some species, let me know if you know the species!

My first time seeing a pitcher plant in the forests of Singapore!

A Scarlet Grenadier perching in the forest:

Scarlet Grenadier

By the end of the trail I was really excited and told my father that we had to come back here again early in the morning so we could go leisurely and spot more. As we exited we saw a sign which read:

I was really sad that it would only be available till 2019.. The nature trail in this eco garden is one of a kind and it’s really unique. It’s horrible to know that such a beautiful place will be cut down in the future and maybe be used for development. Do visit this amazing trail before it goes away!

I convinced my father that we could continue exploring a little more before leaving the gardens. Little did I know it was in this short time that we would spot a lot of birds!

There was a little ‘bicycle shelter’ which I thought looked like a boardwalk as we could see the view of the swamp forest from there. We spotted a Crimson Dropwing nearby:

Crimson Dropwing

A female Pink-necked green pigeon was perched high up on a tree and looked curiously at us:

Pink-necked green pigeon

I also saw a Zebra dove preening itself in the stream near the rocks.

Zebra Dove

As I was photographing the dove, my father was a little further off taking pictures with his phone of something.  I ran up to him to see the Sunda Pygmy woodpecker drumming on a tree:

Sunda Pygmy woodpecker

The Sunda Pygmy woodpecker feeds on insects from dead wood or the hollows of trees/stems and thus can be found drilling on trees.

It was an absolutely amazing experience to see the woodpecker so close.. even though it is a common bird, I haven’t ever seen it before. This is the hole we saw on the tree after the woodpecker left, probably its nest.

Just as I thought we had seen a lot of exciting things for the day, the signature call of the Red-breasted Parakeet called me and my father to sit and watch the bird as it perched high up on a protruding branch.

Red breasted Parakeet

As we returned back to the entrance to leave, we saw the silhouette of a Common Goldenback on a palm tree and we heard its loud call as it fed on the wood like the Sunda Pygmy woodpecker:

Common Goldenback

An Oriental White-eye was also on the palm tree. (See if you can spot it below!)

Oriental White-eye

With that, we ended our visit to Jurong Eco Gardens. If you want to visit this awesome place visit this website for the directions and enjoy your visit!