Near the end of January we visited the Jurong Bird Park for it's 50th anniversary.
Our zoo membership has expired, but there was a promotion on where tickets were just $2.50 each in honour of the original opening day price. It was a great deal, although we didn't realize we would have to also pay $2.50 per person at each enclosed aviary we wanted to enter. Usually the aviaries are included in admission. We did pay to visit a few of the aviaries. They aviaries aren't necessary; there are lots of birds to see just walking up and down the paths without going inside the enclosures. We also saw 2 large wild iguanas: one on a rock near where we were eating a snack and one high in a tree. I only noticed the one in the tree when it pooped! I'm sure anyone under that tree would have assumed it was a bird pooping on them.
We immediately paid for the Penguin Exhibit which is right near the entrance. MsI's goal of the day was to show her toy "Peng" the other penguin. She lost her stuffie part way through the day, and despite retracing our steps thoroughly, we had to tell MsI that "Peng had gone to live with the other penguins". We bought her a new penguin at the gift shop that she named Junior, but she was still crying about Peng at bedtime.
We also got to watch the penguins being fed. The girls studied the Penguin Wall to see which type of penguin they were as tall as. MsC was as tall as an Emperor Penguin. MsE was taller than a King Penguin.
Getting inside the Aviaries means getting up close to the birds. No fences in here. We all took turns taking photos with the phone cameras and then pulled out our sketch books. The aviaries were best for sketching, because they were cool and shaded, and both the birds and our children couldn't get far. Bird feeders were a sure bet for birds who would stay a while. There were clear signs with large colour pictures so we could identify the birds we found in here.
Most of the aviaries are ground level, but I enjoyed the one with the swinging canopy walkways best. It had a few levels to walk up and down. This aviary was where you could hand feed the birds before Covid. There's no feeding by the public due here to Covid, and so the birds won't land on you now. MsC was most disappointed. The bird feeders are placed just out of reach of the walkways, so you still get a close up view of the birds.
Even with one adult to one child, we still almost lost MsI. I was trailing behind everyone. I think I had just cleaned up our snack as everyone headed off. I couldn't see any of them when I turned a corner in the path to hear "Mommy, Look at the big bird!" behind me. She didn't know she was lost. MsI had dawdled behind everyone else and then climbed some stairs to an overlook of a pond. Everyone had assumed she was back with me and I had assumed she was still ahead with them.
When we got home we did some review worksheets I printed off the zoo's website which included: A record of the day; bird's feet and their adaptations; and names of birds we saw.
