It was a brilliant day with clear blue skies, as clear as crystal, with a sun that was typically hot in Buloh. I made my way to “Hide IC” to check if anything unusual was happening at “A3 Pond” before calling it a day. As I entered the hide, the cool shade provided a retreat from the blazing heat. Sitting in the cool hide, looking out on the glittering water and vivid green mangroves covered with an ever moving multitude of birds, is always a new experience for me. There was so much going on that it was difficult to decide what to focus on. Even in the hide itself my attention was constantly distracted by the mosquitoes buzzing near my ears. As I peered into my pair of binoculars, what seemed like hundreds of waders came to life! There were sandpipers, greenshanks and redshanks, pattering along the mudflats like schoolgirls in their first high heels. Plovers were bickering among themselves, many of them foraging for food. As I looked for flagged birds among the hive of activities, a pair of long red legs immediately caught my attention, I rubbed my eyes to have a second look at the “lady in red” bird, making sure it was not a mutated redshank with legs on red stilts.

The bird looked normal enough with lovely legs like that of super models one would see on television, whose long legs seems to start immediately from under the chin! Jeremy our Conservation Officer confirmed it was special indeed. It was later confirmed to be a Black-winged stilt by Su Hooi our Outreach Officer. She claimed to have seen a similar bird six years ago at the same pond. This would unlikely be the the same bird as this latest finding was a “juvenile”. The inexperienced little one must have strayed from its flock as it migrated from southern and eastern Europe, the Mediterreanean region, the Middle East, central and southern Asia, central and eastern Africa. All these regions that these birds frequent had both tidal and freshwater marshes, lagoons, mangroves, saltpans and irrigation reservoirs.

With Jeremy’s camera clicking away, we sat quietly watching it move elegantly on tomato-red legs in a black and white suit, obviously designed by the most expensive Paris fashion-house! With its delicate nose being occasionally dipped in water, it moved gracefully from side to side to scoop up small fish, aquatic insects, mollusc and worms. For some strange reason, all over the world, man seemed to think that wetlands are inimical to him. As soon as he comes across a wonderful swamp or wetland teeming with wildlife he becomes unhappy. That is, until he has covered it with pesticides, shot out all the edible animals, drained it, ploughed it, planted a series of useless crops on it and finally, through his non eco-friendly activities, create a sterile piece of eroded earth which was once a rich, balanced tapestry of life. Fortunately, Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve (SBWR) was saved from going through this same fate, and I would say she has become one of the five-star haven for many migratory birds. SBWR is nothing like Hollywood or Bollywood for that matter, but I’m sure the Black-winged stilt which became a super star the very day it arrived in Singapore did not mind stopping over at “Bulohwood” ( SBWR), and well, the mozzies were not that bad after all!