hornbill in Gillman heights

I couldnt believe my eyes when i saw a huge thing hopping around in the lawn in a brisk morning around 10.30 am.

I was going through the Strategic Environmental Assessment readings. Suddenly felt like taking a walk and doing some birdwatching. I heard the mowers, so definitely birds would come down to eat the insects (and those damn cockraoches :-). i ran into my flat again to confirm my suspicion that it would be hornbill.

I remember waiting and walking for hours together inside a tropical rainforest looking for a single sighting of hornbill and here i am sighting it in the middle of a fast mechanical city that too in the lawn of a condominium ???? Shame man !!!

I confirmed with my mono (bino)culars that it IS a hornbill Looked exactly like Great Pied but with a fleshy yellow throat (sac) and absence of wing bars.

I ran all the fourteen levels (lifts are actually slower than me) with cam to sneak in some shots for proof; I knew it was not correct and i would catch the first flight to India if i come to know that Singapore legally permits HORNBILLS as pets !

I went close to the pool and starting shooting.

The bird was only HOPPING and NEVER FLEW in the twenty minutes i was watching.

It was very clean, beautiful and huge too... It was frustratingly trying to pull out a peg in the backyard of that house. I suspect there is a string tied to the bird's legs to the peg. A boy (around 15 yrs) came out and proudly smiled, the bird gave him a call. I too gave back a friendly smile and started photographing even the orioles which were picking the insects just to show him that i am only a fool watching birds and never realised that that huge thing was an endangered species listed in Appendix. The bird kept hopping and perched on a small (very) small tree (plant actually) nearby. It was actually th garden of the house. There were other cages housing shama and so on.

The lady was cleaning the house and probably shifted all the pets outside ?

She eyed me suspiciously and there was a man calling me from the steps ? Where are you from ? I just lengthened the dialogue by grinning "I am from India"..(pretty obvious right :-D)

He really got irritated i think (hope he doesn sue me for tresspassing :-)

He replied, "I thought you are from lawn cleaning department, i saw you photographing mowers..." (how dumb, oh...yes i was photographing mowers ... (not even birds :-)

I then slowly walked and then ran back to my home to get hold of Benjamin's number. I really dint know whom to call and only his name flashed in my mind.

Just have to get hold of the number to report this. I called him (damn with the mailbox greetings, i just cut it) and decided to go to the websites and get the number from AVA. Somehow, I called him and asked first whether it is legal or illegal, he asked me whether it is caged or left free (it cannot be claimed as pet if it is just flying around it seems)

he fortunately referred me to another person in AVA and i called him ("mailbox is full man"). So I immediately changed my dress and rushed to Clementi to give my rolls for washing and then now in school. I got the number at last and he replied, he would check the place and act accordingly.

That was a great relief. It is not like my country, where they will not respond, i am sometimes very sick of indian authorities in my country. Here it is different, they are wellpaid and they do their job.

But I am curious to know what happened to the bird after i let this happen, I am curious.

Hope it is saved from limping all alone in the lawn of a condo.

Bye, There seems to be lecture in DBS on bird communities assessment in Angolan forests in Africa... should be interesting, i am going to attend...Bye bye to strategic environmental bla bla bla...