A Nature Fighter Plane

Today is China 60th Birthday, and China has shown the world its new weapons during the celebration, including some of the most advance fighter planes.

I also want to take this opportunity to wish China a Happy 60th Birthday, and hereby present my most amazing Fighter Plane in Nature 'Hawk Moth' to participate in this celebration ;-)

Hawk Moth is the nicest Moth I have seen so far, and I spotted it in one of my Nature Walk recently.

OK, my fighter plane is going to take off and should be able to reach China in a few seconds. Ready to take off now, and here it goes.............

Wraglers' pit viper (Tropidolaemus wagleri)

Being a Green Volunteer, I have trained to be more observant and always on a lookout for living creatures around me. During a few of my nature walk, I have managed to spot this Wraglers' pit viper (Tropidolaemus wagleri) and I couldn't imagine that I have come so close to this poisonous snake.

This snake can be easily found at Bukit Timah Nature Reserve, usually lying quietly on a branch/leaf quite close to the jogging track. I have ever alerted the Npark staff there on this snake, and think it's a hidden danger for the joggers and hope that no one will disturb it.

 

There are quite a number of this viper at this reserve and varies in sizes. Wonder how big can this snake grows and hope that it won't attack the people there.

A Close Encounter with White-crested Laughingthrush

I was jogging at Bukit Batok Nature Reserve yesterday morning and while resting at the carpark near the Memorials, I saw 5 birds singing on a tree. This bird is known as White-crested Laughingthrush.

One of the bird didn't seem to afraid of me, probably I looked harmless and friendly ;-) It flew right in front of me and stayed calmly there for me to take photo.

I am so lucky to capture this bird at such a close distance, as I always find it hard to take a nice bird photo using my Point & Shoot camera. Hope that I will have more of this opportunity to take bird's photo at a close distance.

 

My First Visit to Dairy Farm Nature Park

After a tiring Semakau Transect Survey on last Sunday evening, I still managed to wake up early the following Monday (21 Sept 2009) to spend my morning at Dairy Farm Nature Park. Heard about the launch of this enhanced Nature Park over the News, but was disappointed by the size of the carpark - One word 'SMALL'.

As this place is getting popular, hope that necessary actions will be taken soon to address this parking issue, or perhaps the illegal parking problem.

 

The Trail Manners notice board is quite eye-catching and quite comprehensive as compared to those at other Nature Parks/Reserves.


Maybe too many people were at the park, and therefore couldn't see many new and interesting insects. Beside the unknown hopper that I still don't know its name, the other 2 are quite commonly seen in nature parks.


Nevertheless, the park is still quite refreshing as it has quite a number of nice flowers, just like the two of them below:

Semakau : Transect Survey (20 September 2009)

Always looking forward to Semakau trip, but this Transect Survey on 20 Sept was my toughest and most tiring one as I have to complete 2 Transect Zones at the Coral Reef all by myself.

Actually, I was filled with excitement before the transect as I saw 2 Knobby Seastars while walking towards the Coral Reef. My colleague was so happy as she has never seen any Knobby before.


We reached the Coral Reef and also located the Markers quite fast. While I was helping my colleagues to lay the tape at Transect 1, I spotted a Blue-spotted Fantail Ray (Taeniura lymma) and also a hugh Red Swimming Crab. I therefore told my colleagues that if we could finish the transect before the sky turned dark, we would have some time to hunt for animals and take more photos.


The most common animals that I always found in Coral Reef transect were Hairy Crab (Pilumnus vespertilio) and Black Margined Nudibranch (Glossodoris atromarginata). They did not disappoint me this time as they showed themselves to wait for me at the Coral Reef.


When I completed the Transect 2, my 2 colleagues were still working on Transect 1 and they only covered about 40%. I therefore took over the Transect 3 and completed it also so that we can complete our Coral Reef transect assignment on time.

The toughest part for me was to do the following alone:
1. Moved the tape from Transect 2 to Transect 3
2. Rolled back the tape when I completed Transect 3

Luckily, my friend Martina who completed her Coral Rubble Transect came over to help me to roll up the remaining 30% of the tape.

By the time I completed Transect 2 and 3, it was almost 7.20pm and the sky was getting dark. Therefore I didn't have much chance to see a lot of animals in this trip.

Luckily, I still managed to find the Dragonfish Sea Cucumber (Stichopus horrens) and the Stonefish Sea Cucumber (Actinopyga lecanora) using my torch while I was walking back to the shore.


Besides the Sea Cucumber, I also spotted the beautiful Peacock Anemone and the Sunflower mushroom hard coral (Heliofungia actiniformis).


Hope that there will be more volunteers involved in the future for hunting seeking and transect survey as working alone is pretty tough and challenging.

A Scary & Eerie Creature

After involving in Green Volunteer activities over the past 2 years, I find that Spider can be quite Scary, especially those big and hairy ones. Whenever I tried to take a macro shot of them using my Point & Shoot camera, I actually quite afraid that they will hop onto me.

I will probably get a better camera so that I can zoom in to photo-shoot them at a distance.

The following are my spider photo collection:








It seems like I always bump into insect mating. During one of my nature walk, I witnessed two big spiders mating on a tree trunk. Luckily they did not feel shy when I flashed my camera at them. I think they will probably find a dark hidden corner next time so that I won't be able to see them again.

A Morning Walk at BBNR

Went for a morning walk at Bukit Batok Nature Reserve (BBNR) on Monday after jogged there from my house.

While walking towards the pond, I spotted a Green Bug on a leaf. Though I went for the forest trails quite a number of times during my climate change activities, I have never seen this Bug before. Hope that I will find out what's this bug soon.

I always find it hard to take a nice butterfly photo as it keeps flying around and seldom settles down. This time I managed to capture this butterfly resting on the a leaf.

Actually I spotted a very thin brown snake on that day, but it moved very fast and disappeared itself in the bushes within moments. Therefore, I was not able to take a photo of the snake. Sigh!


Luckily, there was a Skink that not afraid of me, and stayed calmly for me to take photo. Though there was nothing much to see at BBNR on that day, but it was still a good workout for me.