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Sekudu with Harlequin and other southern surprises

2011-10-30T05:38:00Z

A wriggly juvenile Harlequin sweetlips! This delightful cartoon-like fish has been sighted on our Southern reefs, but I didn't expect to see one at Pulau Sekudu!

I also saw some other marine life more commonly seen in our Southern shores, as well as lots of other delightful northern creatures.

The Harlequin sweetlips (Plectorhinchus chaetodonoides) swims in a drunken wriggle apparently to mimic poisonous flatworms. As it grows older, it looks and behaves more sedately. Debby of the Hantu Bloggers has an awesome video clip of this wriggly fish seen on Pulau Hantu. Yesterday Marcus saw one at Pulau Semakau, and earlier in the month I had a glimpse of one at Sisters Island.

Another surprising Southern find was a rather large patch of healthy looking Serrated ribbon seagrass (Cymodocea serrulata)! I haven't seen this seagrass in the north before. Not even at Tanah Merah. As far as I know, this seagrass is only common on Cyrene Reef and Pulau Semakau.

At first I thought it was Sickle seagrass (Thalassia hemprichii) but that has a smooth tip. While these seagrasses definitely have a tip with tiny serrations.

Another delightful find was a very large Long spined black sea urchin (Diadema sp.) stuck to a boulder! These are more commonly seen on our Southern shores. There were also the usual Northern sea urchins. Stuck above Diadema was a White sea urchin (Salmacis sp.). In the seagrass meadows there were lots of tiny to small Black sea urchins (Temnopleurus sp.) with shorter spines, more White sea urchins. I also saw one pink Thorny sea urchin (Prionocidaris sp.).

Pulau Sekudu is a great place to spot nudibranchs and slugs. And I was lucky to see a pair of Dendrodoris denisoni that appear to be matings. Nudibranchs are hermaphrodites and each animal has both male and female parts. To mate, they exchange sperm by aligning next to one another, side by side and facing in opposite directions.

The only other slugs I saw were Ornate leaf slugs (Elysia ornata) which were everywhere, and one Bushy slug (Polybranchia orientalis). But the rest of the team saw lots and lots of slugs!

Kok Sheng found this pretty Estuarine seahorse (Hippocampus kuda)!

I also came across this fish which I think is a Shrimp-goby (Cryptocentrus sp.).

The only special snail I came across was a solitary Miliaris cowrie (Cypraea miliaris).

I also saw lots of these little snails all over the seagrasses and seaweeds. I think they are Dotted dove snails (Euplica scripta).

Lots of Posy anemones next to green ones that look different. Both remain unidentified for now!

The rest of the team came across several of these sea anemones which at first glance appeared to be swimming anemones. But while swimming anemones have banded tentacles, these have stripped ones. We have no idea what they are.

Meilin found this anemone which I call the Transparent spoke anemone (please help suggest better common names!). Also still unidentified.

Everywhere on the shore, there were lots of Swimming anemones (Boloceroides mcmurrichi) and large Haddon's carpet anemones (Stichodactyla haddoni) and Tiny carpet anemones (Stichodactyla tapetum).

The Stone crabs (Myomenippe hardwicki) with eyes which are red ringed with green is quite common on this shore. I also saw several Maroon stone crabs (Menippe rumphii) with all red eyes which look very similar to the Stone crab. I also saw one Sally-lightfoot crab (Grapsus albolineatus) on the rocks.

The seagrasses are teeming with all kinds of creatures! From shrimps to fishes, to sea stars! Seagrasses are an important nursery for young animals. When these grow up they may move to other ecosystems like the reefs or open sea. Our favourite seafood are among them! So seagrasses are important if we want to continue to enjoy seafood!

I saw some patches of bleached Spoon seagrasses (Halophila ovalis) and some Fern seagrass (Halophila spinulosa) with blackened and burnt blades. But most of the seagrass meadows looked healthy. Kok Sheng also spotted some Tape seagrass (Enhalus acoroides). There was also a bloom of Sea lettuce seaweed (Ulva sp.) and lots of other seaweeds too. The shores were green and lush!

There were many flowery sea pens (Family Veretillidae) of all shapes colours and patterns on the soft silty seagrassy meadows. These emerged as night fell.

There were also some of these Common sea pens (Pteroides sp.), including this one that was 'uprooted'. Sea pens are colonial animals with one kind of polyp forming the leaf-like structures, and another kind of polyp forming the central stalk including an orange 'foot' that is usually buried in the ground.

Besides stars in the sky, sea stars also emerge at night. I saw many small Biscuit star (Goniodiscaster scaber) including a four-armed one, several Painted sand stars (Astropecten sp.) and Plain sand star (Astropecten sp.). The rest found a Scaly sea star (Nepanthia sp.) and I also saw a Crown sea star (Asterina coronata). For the first time on Sekudu, I saw one Common sea star (Archaster typicus). Jin Kiat and Yi Feng found a large gnarly Knobbly sea star (Protoreaster nodusus too! Good to know these are still on Sekudu.

There were lots and lots of these tiny white fan worms with spirally tentacles. Also the Blue fan worm which I usually only see in the north, as well as many Banded fan worms which are common on most of our shores.

After sunset, lots of creatures emerged especially tiny slugs! The more supple spined team members were working hard to photograph them!

Pulau Sekudu means 'Frog Island' and indeed, there is a large rock on the island in the shape of a crouching frog! We visit this island once or twice a year, to check up on it! Compared to last year, some parts of Pulau Sekudu seems to have gotten sandier.

Pulau Sekudu has quite a large intertidal area, and it lies just off Chek Jawa. The tide didn't go as low as predicted so we couldn't really explore the outer reefier edges of this little island.

We seldom visit this pretty island nowadays as it is off limits since 2007 and requires special permission from NParks. We were visiting with NParks permission to do a quick survey and to clean up the island. We kept a look out for abandoned driftnets and fish traps on the island. We're very glad to find none!

Thanks to Alan at NParks for permission to visit and to Chay Hoon for organising the trip!

Posts by others on this trip

James with lots of close ups of tiny tiny creatures.
Kok Sheng with stars and more.
Andy with video clip of white spiral fan worms.
Rene on facebook with more slugs!
Jerome on facebook with great landscape shots and more.
Mei Lin with slugs, anemones and more!

Shear spots

2011-10-30T15:40:00Z

There is, it is said, a burly man who haunts the neighbourhood, wearing a bare back and brandishing a large pair of scissors. He's no whippersnapper, it seems, and there is considerable doubt as to the purpose of his tool, which appears to be an open invitation to play an old game, with the proviso that any attempt to rock his move or paper his losses be done at a safe distance.

The man is said to hang out at a nearby bus stop with a roof that resembles the segmented carapace of a giant isopod. But as luck would have it, his path has yet to cross mine and a fondness for short cuts through void decks may account for this happy series of near-misses. What catches the eye in the corridors and sheltered walkways, rather, are the bees, butterflies and beetles who fly around the sharp corners of the estate and break its stiff lines with raw colours and rounded contours. Joining them in this roar of wings are moths with waspish stripes and a weak, floating flight. For all their prowess in biochemistry, the arctiids display a careless disregard for those who have forgotten how to recognise signs of danger, planting themselves on perches that cut too close to neighbours with no love for nature and a loathing for all things that bug.

Ghost catching

2011-10-30T17:07:06Z

The Lost Coast consists of a broad cove protected by a long seawall to the south and two straight miles of strand marred by a fat arm of sand near its northern end. Above the foreshore is a scrubland of casuarinas, acacias and lalang, which probably support enough rodents, reptiles and seed-eating birds to sustain the appetites of visiting harriers, kites and falcons. Boggier portions attract oriental pratincoles and red-wattled lapwings, while plovers, both resident and recurrent, have discovered a larder of small bodies in the flats that have formed beyond this artificial coastline.

With few human visitors save birders (who keep their feet dry) and boaters (who have little reason to set foot on the flats), a number of resident ghost crabs were confident enough to emerge long before dusk. A few sat on the sand and budged only with reluctance, as if the approach of beach apes in black booties and even a lens in their personal space triggered no alarm in these phantom menaces, which scour tropical shores for carcasses, other crabs and even the hatchlings of sea turtles. Hawksbills have been known to nest in the vicinity and this deserted cove could well harbour the nests of visiting chelonians before it undergoes a second reclamation for more thrilling spectacles. Sand dollars, button snails and other benthic detritivores, however, probably form the bread and butter of these nocturnal predators, which share their hunting grounds with carnivorous gastropods, quick stars and flattened fishes.

As the sky faded to deeper shades of blue and threatened to dispel the magic of a rare landing, more ghost crabs appeared at the water's edge, their box-like carapaces sidling just a little faster than the war helmets of bonnet snails. Now furtive, the crabs no longer braved the risks of close proximity, backing off when cornered with eight-legged trots, which then switched to a six-footed sprint into the surf where they shifted gears once more and buried themselves in the loose sand. Other observers have observed a full gallop on four limbs and clocked the crabs at up to 4 metres a second. Lanky proportions, power-packed muscles and a thrusting gait help drive the animals to pole position in systema brachyura. But speed alone is not enough when the crabs encounter predators with greater persistence and sharpness. For life in a zone of dangerous creatures is a perpetual race to catch the new strandings of every tide and run out of reach of smarter threats.

shoreboars @ chek jawa - Oct 2011

2011-10-30T17:53:00Z

A short clip showing that the wildboars at Ubin do enjoy the Chek Jawa shore just as much as its resident and visiting shorebirds. The first part shows a lone large male boar merrily digging deep for food at the northern shore and the second part shows some females with juveniles foraging at the central shore to the right of the House #1 pier.

Lornie Trail On 23 Oct

2011-10-30T14:00:00Z

Though the weather was rather good on 23 Oct which was a lovely Sunday morning, I could only afford a short outing. I dropped by Lornie Trail and headed straight to my favorite spot for shooting.At least half a dozen Bush Hoppers (Ampittia dioscorides camertes) were zipping around and resting on the overgrown ferns. Bush Hopper does not seem to have the habit of opening its wings when perching on

White-crested Laughingthrush Soliciting for Food

2011-10-30T09:06:05Z

“The White-crested Laughingthrush (Garrulax leucolophus) is an omnivorous bird. It will eat both plant and animal food; and even scraps that are discarded or given by humans. This species must have grown accustomed to people feeding them; at least in the parks in Singapore. This may have resulted in these birds becoming so bold and tame that they approach humans soliciting for food.

“One hot sunny morning, after a long walk in a park, I decided to seek refuge in a shelter. Having brought breakfast, I was munching away when out came a White-crested Laughingthrush. It flew out from the dense undergrowth to perch prominently on a log-like balustrade that was located just outside the shelter. It was merely 3 to 4 metres away from where I was sitting. This bold laughingthrush was completely unafraid of my presence as it stood to face and look at me. What luck! I was looking around for subjects and this laughingthrush just presented itself right in front of me. I was delighted with its sudden appearance though it disrupted my break abruptly. For close to 2 minutes, it stayed on the balustrade, unperturbed and calm. It showed no fear even after the arrival of a few more photographers; all busily clicking. After a brief period of inactivity, it became lively and gave a short performance; prancing around on the artificial log and singing out its unique song.

“By then, it dawned on me that it was interested in my breakfast. I threw a small piece of bread on the ground, which it gleefully picked up before darting into the bushes; preferring to consume it in private. After the photographers left, it returned for second and third helpings. This time, it was even bolder as it came straight into the shelter. At times, it came so close that my camera was unable to focus as it was at less than 1.5 metres, which is the minimum focus distance of the lens. Its partner was also present but was not as bold; staying either on the balustrade or in the undergrowth. It did not solicit food from me or its mate. Later, the pair indulged in some intimate moments; allopreening each other from deep inside the undergrowth.

“Please note that a short segment showing a juvenile’s begging behaviour has been included in the video. The juvenile was not with this pair. It was with another flock, which was foraging by the sides of a road. Some of the birds in this flock seemed to be soliciting food from passing park visitors. The birds were following close to the visitors and looking at them; perhaps expecting some food scraps. They only returned to foraging after getting stares instead of food from the surprised and unsuspecting visitors.”

Kwong Wai Chong
Singapore
22nd October 2011

Bird Race through the eyes of a novice

2011-10-30T12:43:00Z

Through the persistence of WQ and L, I was roped in to join in the yearly Bird Race organised by the Nature Society. This year, the race will be conducted through the Rail Corridor and its adjoining forests and parks.

I had set my alarm to PM instead of AM, and as a result, I had to waste $20 of cab fare to fly down to Dairy Farm Nature Park to meet my friends and was late for registration. =.=’’

And off we go! Our team, the nOObs, was (obviously) registered as a novice team and we first headed down the Dairy Farm trail to the Singapore Quarry.

Along the way, we heard a lot of noisy chatter in the forest so we went in to find a bunch of Asian Glossy Starlings, which were pretty much found everywhere here.

However, we were rewarded with beautiful rays of sun flecks penetrating through the forest canopy~ so nice…

This was my first time in Dairy Farm Nature Park, and I get to admire this platform facing the Quarry, where we noted quite a few birds, some with the help of the expert teams and their awesome scopes.

Along the way, we found many large nests on Albizia trees and this reminds me of Dr Ho Hua Chew’s talk of the importance of these trees for the nesting of large raptors.

Seems like bees also have a liking for this tree. WQ found this bee hive high up on another Albizia.

We headed towards the Rail Corridor and were rewarded by a small flock of Scaly-breasted Munias flying among the tall grasses.

I find this stretch of the corridor a pleasant place to walk by, as there was a small stream flowing beside the trail, and a lot of dragonflies as a result.

The highlight of the day for me was not a bird, but rather a Common Bluebottle butterfly puddling around us. Another check in my butterfly list!

Some other fellow birders on a bridge at a distance.

We heard some loud crashes at one point of the trail and saw a changeable hawk eagle (kindly ID-ed by HC) fighting with some long-tailed macaques.

SD had previously witnessed, photographed, and subsequently published his encounter of this eagle catching a banded leaf monkey in Panti (Link), so perhaps this eagle was indeed attempting to subdue a macaque. We watched for awhile but the commotion subsided without us knowing whether the eagle was really successful.

It was noon when we reached Bukit Batok Nature Park, and the place seemed practically devoid of any bird calls. Fortunately, we were still able see to this Asian Paradise Fly Catcher,

and the loveable White Crested Laughing Thrush.

Our last stop was at Kent Ridge Park where we recorded a few more species, ending up with 28 species in all~

While I am not a bird fanatic, I did enjoyed myself thoroughly today, especially because of the good company. Also learnt quite a number of new birds! :)

Latest Green Jobs in Singapore [24 - 30 Oct 2011]

2011-10-30T16:51:04Z

If your company would like to post a green job opening on our site (free), send us the job description and details through our contact form.

Photos: three bizarre bats discovered in Southeast Asia

2011-10-30T15:25:00Z

In the forests of Cambodia and Vietnam, researchers have discovered three new species of tube-nosed bats, known for extraordinary nostrils that look like blooming flowers. The new bats, described in the Journal of Mammalogy, are likely imperiled by deforestation. "They all possess specially shaped nostrils (hence the name for the group) the exact role of which not known yet," Gabor Csorba, lead author of the paper with the Hungarian Natural History Museum, told mongabay.com.

Papa fishes mouth brooding babies at Semakau

2011-10-29T06:20:00Z

Cardinalfishes are mouth brooders. Usually it is papa fish who keeps eggs in his mouth until they hatch. This fish has a mouth bulging with eggs that seem about to hatch, see the little eyes!

We were back at Magnificent heaven on Pulau Semakau and also saw all kinds of other reef animals!

These little fishes are Chequered cardinalfishes (Apogon margaritophorus) which are commonly seen on our shores. There were other carnidalfishes with little orange eggs in their mouths.

I'm not sure if this is a papa that has just released his little babies? Although there were also lots of tiny transparent shrimps in the water, these little things look very much like fishes to me. How exciting! There's so much to discover if we take a closer look at our marine life!

Once again, we dodged the rain clouds that dumped rain on the mainland and enjoyed a brilliant blue sky over Pulau Semakau. On this trip, we headed for the reefs that have grown outside the area of replanted mangroves. On the seawall surrounding the replanted area, all kinds of mangrove seedlings are taking root!

This shore has the largest number of Magnificent anemones (Heteractis magnifica) that I've seen!

I came across this lovely expanded Fire anemone (Actinodendron sp.) AND a pretty swimming crab that I don't recall seeing recently. Rob says its a Charybdis!

Some parts of the shore have corals, soft corals and hard corals. Most of the corals looked healthy, and there seems to be a good representation of the usual kinds.

This large colony of Ridged plate coral (Merulina sp.) was overturned. I was glad I turned it back to the correct position as most of the colony seemed to still be alive.

There were many colourful Favid corals (Family Faviidae), the species most commonly encountered on our reefs. The next most abundant species I saw on this trip was Anemone coral (Goniopora sp.). There were also many Pore corals (Porites sp.) and some Galaxy corals (Galaxea sp.) and Cauliflower corals (Pocillopora sp.). As well as some branching Montipora corals (Montipora sp.) on the higher shore.

There were also some special corals including Pebble coral (Astreopora sp.), Brain corals (Family Mussidae), Lettuce corals (Pavona sp.) and Carnation coral (Pectinia sp.).

The number of hard corals on this shore seem rather low. Perhaps not all the corals survived the coral bleaching last year? Here's a view of the many white and bleaching corals on this shore from Terumbu Semakau in June 2010 at the height of coral bleaching. At first I thought this was just another strangely coloured coral. A closer look and I realise it is covered thickly with lots of tiny brown Acoel worms.

Here's a closer look at the worms. They're so thickly clustered over the coral polyps! Do they affect the coral? I don't know.

I also came across a nice large Persian carpet flatworm (Pseudobiceros bedfordi) swimming in the water! I don't often see this beautiful animal.

I'm fascinated by the Xenia soft corals (Xenia sp.) found here. I haven't come across these animals on our other reefs yet, aside from those I saw at Terumbu Bayan which has since been reclaimed. I noticed on this trip, that the Xenia colonies actually have a body column, as shown by these droopy ones left hanging at low tide. A very close look at the colony and I realise there are tiny flower-like things at the base of the polyps. Are they a different kind of polyp? Or retracted polyps? Wah, so much more to find out!

There were many Asparagus flowery soft corals (Family Nephtheidae). Most of them seemed healthy although some were rather yellowish. In one of them, I noticed little orange brittlestars! The last time I saw these was when Chay Hoon found some on Cyrene Reef in 2008.

Marcus found lots of Crown sea stars (Asterina coronata)!

As usual for this shore, I saw many Durian sea cucumbers (Stichopus horrens). I also saw one large fat White-rumped sea cucumber (Actinopyga lecanora).

I have no idea what this is. It seems to have tentacles on the end. And it burrowed away rapidly when I tried to have a closer look at it. Some kind of sea anemone? Or sea cucumbers? Yet another mystery to ponder.

In pools of water left behind by the tide, there were all kinds of small colourful fishes. Many gobies, baby damselfishes.

Other interesting fishes included some damselfishes, cardinalfishes and a tiny little Razorfish (Family Centriscidae). In deeper waters in the dark, there was constant splashing. Large fishes hunting?

A Bartail flathead (Platycephalus indicus) with the typical colourful tail! I don't see this fish too often.

Although it's hard to explore the reefs safely during a bloom of Sargassum seaweeds, these seaweeds provide shelter and food for all kinds of animals. Here's a Variable fang-blenny (Petroscrites variabilis) and an Ornate leaf slug (Elysia ornata)!

The only nudibranchs I saw was one Glossodoris atromarginata and a very large Discodoris boholiensis. Marcus saw a Discodoris lilacina, my first time having this for Semakau.

After sunset, the octopuses came out to hunt! I also saw one squid (Family Loliginidae) and many many little Pygmy squids (Idiosepius sp.).

Another predator that is more active at night is the Dog-faced water snake (Cerberus rynchops). These snakes are common in mangroves and have bulbous eyes that stick out of the head. Thus allowing them to peek out above the surface of the water while keeping the rest of the body submerged. Alas, we didn't encounter a snake feeding frenzy as we did when we last visited this shore at night in 2009. But Marcus saw a pair of Banded file snakes (Acrocordus granulatus) mating!

As the tide turned, I noticed that the cerianthids (Order Ceriantharia) started to emerge in pools on the higher shore.

This shore lies just across from the refineries on Pulau Bukom. It has just been reported that the refineries will "return to full capacity in December" following the shutdown due to the recent fire there.

We don't visit this special part of Semakau often enough. Hopefully, it will remain well.

Posts by others on this trip

Marcus with squids
Jerome on facebook
Rene on facebook

Seafood vs. Mangroves

2011-10-29T19:50:35Z

An interesting article from The Independent (UK) on 24th October 2011 highlights the lost of mangroves in tropical island of Muisne, off Ecuador’s northern coast to due to shrimp farming. Singapore had its fair share of such losses of mangroves due to their establishments. Kindly read Ria Tan’s fact sheet on shrimp ponds in Singapore.

Highlights of the article:

“Feeding the developed world’s seemingly insatiable demand for cheap seafood, shrimp farms have ravaged Muisne’s delicate mangrove ecosystem…”

“In the 1970s, before shrimp farms arrived, the island had 20,000 hectares of mangroves. Now there are just over 5,000 hectares”

“From Indonesia to Brazil, the story is the same. Yet nowhere has the growth of farms for shrimp, prawns, salmon and other species been as explosive as in Latin America and the Caribbean. According to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation, production in the region grew annually at 21.1 per cent between 1970 and 2008. Over the same period, annual global consumption of farm-reared seafood has risen from 700g to 7.8kg per capita. “

The articles also reiterates the bad impacts of shrimp farms not only to mangroves but to other ecosystems

“The shrimp farms typically have a complex series of environmental impacts. Initially, sections of the mangrove are cleared to make way for the farms. Once operational, the farms may use large quantities of antibiotics and pesticides that often contaminate the surrounding forests. Farms can also obstruct the flow of rivers and streams, preventing them from mixing with seawater to provide the brackish water that mangroves need to thrive. In doing so, they provide a double whammy by stopping the farms’ pollutants from being washed away, increasing the ecological devastation while the shrimp and prawns are reared in a cocktail of chemicals, stale water and bacteria.”

To read more, kindly visit the webpage below:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/how-the-hunt-for-seafood-is-ravaging-a-tropical-island-2375084.html

Butterfly Lodge V 2.0

2011-10-29T11:01:00Z

Butterfly Lodge @ Oh' Farms V 2.0
Bigger, Better, More Butterflies!

Time really flies! It was in Aug 2008 when the Butterfly Lodge at Oh' Farms in Sembawang was first opened for "business". Then intended to be an experimental project to create an educational and butterfly appreciation facility for students and nature lovers, the small butterfly aviary was born.

The flight cage took a simple L-shaped design, with a barrel-vaulted roof. The material for the netting was selected to allow an adequate amount of light to enter the enclosure, but with a mesh that is fine enough to keep the butterflies in, but predators and other vermin out.

The project was successful beyond our imagination, as many classes of primary school kids were educated and entertained with fun knowledge about butterflies. The kids saw for themselves how butterflies survived in the environment, as well as their early stages.

It is hoped that seeds from the lessons on butterfly conservation would have been planted in these young minds so that they too can share their knowledge in future.

The caterpillar breeding efforts by the staff of Oh' Farms also bore fruit, as it became a relatively well-known source for caterpillars and students from various local schools who wanted to study the metamorphosis of butterflies as a science project, often sourced for the caterpillars from Oh' Farms.

Caterpillar kits were sold to the school children with the appropriate host plants. These kits contained primarily the final instar caterpillars so that the kids can enjoy the wonders of seeing the caterpillar turn into a pupa, and then emerge as a beautiful butterfly. The parents of the kids were also briefed to return the eclosed adult butterflies to the wild, or bring them back to the Butterfly Lodge for release.

The educational and conservation efforts continued, with Oh' Farms collaborating with ButterflyCircle, and NParks to try to encourage schools to cultivate the Common Birdwing's host plants in their gardens. This was the "Save the Common Birdwing" project.

After 3 years of operations, and thousands of school children visiting the Butterfly Lodge, the cramped butterfly aviary posed challenges for large classes of children visiting the facility. Very often, the class had to be split into two groups with a short outdoor class 'lecture' whilst the other half of the class would be in the aviary.

The owner of Oh Farms, Yeok Keong, decided to expand the facility to accommodate a larger group of students as well as feature more plants and species of butterflies. The work started some time in Aug 2011, and the new and expanded Butterfly Lodge was completed in Oct.

With a footprint of slight more than double the original size of the Butterfly Lodge, the expanded butterfly aviary was also taller. The concrete paths within the aviary was also made wider to allow for better circulation.

More plants were collected and organised within the butterfly aviary. Amongst some of the new plants were the host plants for the Malayan Eggfly, as well as more variety of nectaring plants.

The all-time favourite, Bidens sp. with its pretty white-and-yellow flowers spread extensively across many of the main planters, supplemented with other types of nectaring plants like the Common Snakeweed, Lantana and so on.

A new addition is a small arch with pretty Honolulu Creeper (Antigonon leptopus) creepers adorning it. I also saw a pot of Pink Snakeweed (Stachytarpeta mutabilis var. mutabilis) and some small shrubs of Golden Dewdrop (Duranta erecta) with its pretty violet flowers as part of the nectaring buffet for the butterflies.

I visited the new Butterfly Lodge V 2.0 with Federick on a weekend in early October to check it out. We were both pleasantly surprised at the number of butterflies fluttering around in the aviary. It was amazing, considering that out in the wild, it was off-season for butterflies and not many were seen around.

But within the aviary, it was butterfly haven. Flying around were quite a number of species that were recent additions, like the Malayan Eggfly, Pea Blue, Lemon Emigrant and the return of the Blue Pansy which had disappeared for quite some time.

The loftier ceiling height of the new aviary appears to give a better sense of spatiousness and the butterflies also look happier too! It was also slightly easier to photograph the butterflies as there was ample space to compose the subjects with better backgrounds than in the previous cramped aviary.

The Pea Blue - a new addition to Butterfly Lodge

All in all, the expanded Butterfly Lodge is definitely worth another visit. Just standing in there, and watching the gentle and beautiful flying jewels is very therapeutic.

There are many observations of butterfly behaviour that one can get from watching them fly, frolick with each other, feed, engage in courtship and mating rituals, ovipositing and so on. A wonder of Mother Nature that cannot be expressed in words alone.

Kudos to Yeok Keong and the staff of Oh' Farms for creating the Butterfly Lodge V 2.0 and the hard work of maintaining and sustaining this excellent nature conservation and education facility in Singapore.

Note : Visitors will be charged a nominal entrance fee of S$4 to enjoy the Butterfly Lodge. There is no time limit for your stay there.

Text by Khew SK ; Photos by Chng CK, Khew SK & Bobby Mun

Websites : Oh' Farms & Butterfly Lodge

Quicksand star

2011-10-29T05:25:18Z

Sand-sifting sea stars in the genus Astropecten, a group distinguished by flat, paxillaeted bodies bearing prominent marginal arm plates and lateral spines, are not rare on the northern and eastern shores of Singapore. The animals appear to favour sandy flats with loose, unconsolidated sediments, unlike another 'common' sea star which thrives in somewhat siltier substrates. Prey availability may be another factor for their occurence, as Astropecten is a benthic predator that lacks the ability of more advanced asteroids to evert its stomach and 'graze' on organic matter or sessile growth. Instead, the astropectinids chase discrete prey, which they swallow whole before expelling the indigestible portions.

The sea stars are catholic eaters, having been recorded to consume fish, crustaceans, worms, ascidians and other echinoderms. Ciliary feeding, in which edible matter is trapped in mucus and transported to the mouth, is also performed, but this is likely an option for lean times. Where the hunting is good, the stars' streamlined form confers a pace that probably surprises motile prey and their slender central disc belies a buccal cavity with the disturbing ability to expand and engulf larger or a greater number of food items. Small molluscs, however, are their preferred quarry and the presence of date mussels and button snails may account for the stars' abundance or absence in otherwise suitable habitat.

Tiny but still visible paxillae, parasol-like structures that help maintain a flow of water over the respiratory papullae, on the dorsal surface and long spines that work like the teeth of a spading fork arm the stars for a dig through sand. Aided by dextrous tube feet, the animals glide over the seabed with disconcerting speed and sink out of sight with near-equal ease to pursue buried prey or avoid trouble. Two possible species, one plain and the other patterned, are often seen at shores such as Changi and Chek Jawa, but a quite different Astropecten was spotted yesterday at a coast beyond the reach of casual beachcombers.

With an orange underside and nearly twice as wide as its commoner kin, this individual was a rich reddish-brown, turning paler on the fringes, with marginal plates in a pretty shade of blue. Darker pigments surrounded the base of short spines on the upper surface of the plates, tracing a prominent rim of dashes just behind a perimeter of long primary spines. Almost as fleet-footed as its smaller cousins, the star employed a curious means of burying itself: the primary spines on each arm would be folded like the leaflets of a sensitive mimosa, firstly at the base, followed by those at the tip in a domino fall of slow motion. The extremities then dug in, causing the surrounding grains to cave in as if the seabed were sucking the star into its heart of darkness and consuming its children before the tide comes in and time runs out for this coast of reclaimed fortunes.

111028 Lost Coast

2011-10-29T05:01:00Z

This beach is relatively untouched by humans and is home to some special organisms.

The team made many new and interesting finds:

Strange looking hermit crab.

Hidden peacock sole. The outline gave it away.

It is quite a gentle fish.

A leech on the peacock sole.

Crinoid. It had only 10 arms, perhaps a juvenile?

Batik slug.

More strange slugs I have not seen before. Hoping Chay Hoon can ID them for us.

Healthy population of bonnet snails on this beach.

Spines on the head are very sharp. It is easy to cut oneself on a buried snail while digging in the sand.

Buried snail attacking a sand dollar, from underneath.

A live button snail. These snails have many appendages and a rather interesting mouth. They can swim by wriggling in the water to escape danger.

There were some olive snails.

Fig snail as it is found. These snails are not often seen on our shores.

Full body shots of a couple of fig snails.

Sinum moon snail. These snails secrete a lot of slime.

Never saw this snail alive before.

Interesting looking Astropecten. Marcus has a video of it burrowing into the sand quite differently from the smaller and more commonly seen Astropecten sea stars.

There were a couple of stranded brittlestars, possibly victims of birds.

A small stretch has quite a few of these Laganum sand dollars which seem to be emerging from the sand. They were also all facing the same direction (towards the sea) coming out.

Lovenia heart urchin.

Smooth sea cucumber.

No idea what this is, looks like a sea cucumber with sea anemone tentacles.

Marvellous finds from Lost Coast!

2011-10-29T16:28:00Z

We are back at the Lost Coast after close to two years! This is one trip that I have been really waiting for because our previous trip here during a not-so-low tide reveals that this is a special sandy shore. Special thanks to Travis, Ria, Alex and Jumari for making this trip possible.

We saw many rare creatures during the trip but none can compare to this large Astropecten sand star (Astropecten sp.) which I have never seen before! It is a beauty!

A way of identifying Astropecten sea stars would be to look at the arrangement of spines. Interestingly, there are five pairs of two spines (nearest to the centre of sea star) pointing upwards instead of sidewards. The blue margin and orangey red surface makes this sea star really gorgeous!

That's not all, this star has a orange underside unlike the other two kinds of Astropecten sea stars we see in Singapore.

Here is a closer look at the orangey tube feet.

Frequent shore explorers will know that the Painted sand stars (Astropecten sp.) found on the left of this photo can grow to quite a large size. This new star is even larger!

Here is a photo of the two Astropecten sea stars that we used to frequent find in our northern shores. They are the Plain sand stars (Astropecten indicus) on the left and the Painted sand stars (Astropecten sp.) on the right.

Another sea star that can also be found on this shore will be the Common sea stars (Archaster typicus).

Surprisingly, there were quite a number of echinoderm finds on this sandy shore! This is a pretty brittle star found by James with a pink underside.

And who would imagine finding a feather star on a sandy shore?! Haha

Apart from the zillions of Cake sand dollars (Arachnoides placenta), the team also found two rarer Laganum sand dollars (Laganum depressum)!

Travis walked quite a far bit south and spotted two pinkish heart urchins (Lovenia elongata).

Also a representative from the Phylum Echinodermata, this recently dead Keyhole sand dollar (Echinodiscus truncatus) was carried by a leaf porter crab. Ivan spotted it! It made me quite excited because it has been some years since I've seen one.

Interestingly, very few sea cucumbers were sighted by the team. We came across this tiny creature that looks like one.

So much about echinoderms (which are my favourites), snails were also extremely abundant on the Lost Coast. I have never seen so many Grey bonnet snails (Phalium glaucum) on one trip in my life before. Can you see the other two snails at the background. They are everywhere!

The bonnet snails have shells that can be slightly greyish or orangey in colour. The white siphon sticks out from in front.

As seen from Cyrene in the past, bonnet snails feed on cake sand dollars. It was amusing capturing this moment where the snail and a ghost crab was at the same time fighting over a sand dollar!

More rare snail finds include this Naked moon snails (Sinum sp.) which are rather flat. It has a flat shell and the large body is unable to retract into the shell completely when disturbed.

As there are many Button snails (Umbonium vestiarum) on this shore, it is natural to find their predators such as the various types of moon snails. Clockwise from top left: Oval moon snails (Polinices mammilla), Tiger moon snail (Natica tigrina), Ball moon snails (Polinices didyma) and Lined moon snail (Natica lineata).

Rarely do we find living turrid snails (Family Turridae). So it was great to be able to see this elegant snail on the shore.

This is one pretty snail which I have not seen for a long time! The Fig snail (Ficus variegata) is one which has nice pinkish body and a pear shaped shell. They have been previously sighted at East Coast shore.

Only previously seen once at Tanah Merah, there were quite a number of these special sea slugs on the lost coast! This is a Philine sp. as identified by Dr Bill when I checked with him in 2009.

This prettier slug in black and white patterns is the Batik tailed slug (Philinopsis sp.).

This large Peacock sole (Pardachirus pavonina) was rather well camouflaged on the sandy shores.

I'll end off this blog post with a hermit crab that I don't think I've seen before. I found it near the water's edge.

It's amazing how we can still find new creatures after visiting our shores for so many times already. This is indeed a special (and remote) shore and I look forward to coming back again. :-)

Deevapali @ SBWR (261011)

2011-10-28T09:40:50Z

My main highlight of the day was actually a King Cobra (!). Honestly I’m pleasantly surprised by how much attention the cobra is getting {: However, there’s more behind the curtains.

After all, Nature is not a zoo, and no camera is made of magic. Not every trip promises encounters; not every encounter is spectacular; and for every shot that a photographer/hobbyist publishes, there are probably ten more which aren’t as great.

Okay, here’s ‘the rest’.

My first encounter of the day: an otter scratching himself. Otters always make such ‘derpy’ expressions…

Gasp… what is this???

There seems to be some kind of maintenance work going on along Sungei Buloh Besar, I don’t know what. Hopefully it’s to ‘repair’ the eroded mangrove shores.

A Laced Woodpecker.

A Redshank in winter plumage. It’s the season for seeing migratory birds at Buloh.

Crow-billed Drongo, a lifer for me! Now if only I had had a longer lens d:

For the highlights of my 26 October trip, check out the King Cobra and Bugs at Buloh.

Lost Coast: bountiful bonnets and awesome sand creatures

2011-10-28T15:29:00Z

Usually a rare sight on our other shores, we saw lots and lots of bonnet snails at the remote and inaccessible 'Lost Coast'.

Probably the last large expanse of clean sandy shore on mainland Singapore, it is home to amazing snails, sea stars, slugs and other intriguing creatures!

I started seeing the Grey bonnet snails (Phalium glaucum) even as I waded to the shore. I notice they leave a thin string of slime behind them as they crawl over the sand. Many were buried in the sand, with only their white siphons sticking out. These snails are listed as Endangered in the Singapore Red Data Book, so it's great to see so many of them!

I came across many Bonnet snails eating Cake sand dollars (Arachnoides placenta) which are abundant on this shore. I notice the snail wraps its foot around the sand dollar. I wonder if the sharp spines at the front of the snail's shell helps it get a grip on the flat prey? So much more to learn about our marine life!

The Laganum sand dollars (Laganum depressum) are quite special. Listed as Vulnerable, we rarely see these on our shores! We saw a few at the Lost Coast, and they were rather small.

There were many different kinds of echinoderms on this shore! We found several Sand stars (Astropecten sp.) including a very large one with an orange underside! I also saw one small feather star, and there were also Common sea stars (Archaster typicus) on the shore. The rest of the team also saw a smooth sea cucumber and Travis found heart urchins.

There were lots and lots of Button snails (Umbonium vestiarum) everywhere on the clean sandy shore. As usual, these snails float up when disturbed in the sand in some water. They tend to 'raft' together before the snails start to sink down one by one. I suspect this is how they quickly escape burrowing predators when they are submerged. Of course, at low tide, out of water, this trick doesn't work. But Button snails can also quickly 'leap' many times their body length.

There are lots of hungry predators burrowing in the sand! Here's the trail of one through a patch of Button snails in sand out of water. You can see the tiny trails of the small Button snails leaping out of the path of the bulldozing predator.

The bulk of the burrowing predators were Moon snails of all kinds! Ball moon snails (Polinices didyma) were particularly abundant, as well as Oval moon snails (Polinices mammilla). I also saw one Tiger moon snail (Natica tigrina). I saw one Oval moon snail eating, at first I thought it was a snail, but it turned out to be a hermit crab in a snail shell! I didn't want to disturb it too much, so I didn't get a photo of the hermit crab. There were also many small Olive snails (Family Olividae).

There were also many Naked moon snails (Sinum sp.) which have very small flat shells with a fine texture of lines on the surface. These snails don't retract their bodies into the shell when disturbed. In fact, the shell is often well embedded in the thick rubbery body, so the animal appears to be a naked moon snail. We found out that these snails produced a LOT of slime! And that they can burrow very quickly into the sand.

There were many of these strange slugs. I'm not sure what they eat. Kok Sheng has seen this slug before at East Coast Park. Indeed, the sandy stretch at East Coast is quite similar to the Lost Coast. Of course, Chay Hoon found more slugs too!

We also saw one Fig snail! Mei Lin, who wrote a paper about this, confirms that it's Ficus variegata. She mentioned that these snails come out at night. So perhaps there were more but we didn't stay late enough to see them. This snail was also seen at East Coast Park!

Here's a snail I've never seen before. I think it's some kind of whelk (Family Nassaridae)

A closer look at the photo (at home) and I realise the snail has lots of tiny things on its shell that look like some kind of cnidarian! The little polyps are neatly arranged on the shell at regular intervals. Wow, what's going on? I have no idea!

Here's a look at the underside of the snail. The animal has a white body with brown speckles. Wow!

Another strange animal I don't remember seeing before. A large 'hairy' clam with wings on one side.

There were also many small flatfishes in the water, very fast and hard to photograph. I think this one is a Tongue sole (Family Cynoglossidae). The rest also saw a large Peacock sole (Pardachirus pavonina). And there was a dead stingray washed up on the shore.

In the water, I saw one tiny sea pen which didn't look like the usual kinds I see. I also saw a large Plain sea anemone and several swimming anemones (Boloceroides mcmurrichi) stranded on the sand. James also found what looked like a Peachia anemone (Peachia sp.).

We stayed mainly on the low shore so the shorebirds could still feed on the sand flats. There were lots of them! Subaraj and Con Foley survey the shorebirds here regularly and a few days ago, they kindly invited me to join them.

There were small clumps of seaweeds stuck on the few hard surfaces found on the sandy shore. And Travis found a patch of Spoon seagrass (Halophila ovalis)!

Our day began in glorious sunshine as we left the wet weather behind on the mainland!

Travis had introduced us to this shore a while back, but to get here, we had to trek kilometers - a Death March! This time, we took the easy way and Jumari got us to the shore!

The shore is very wide and shallow, so it was a long wet wade before we got there. It was particularly splashy on the way back! The incoming tide rose up to our waist as we walked a long way back to the dinghy. My waterproof bag sprung a leak and all the camera gear got a little soaked. But fortunately, everything seems to have survived unharmed. Nikon wins! I'm constantly amazed by how my gear keeps working despite the awful way I mistreat them.

We had spread out all over the wide shore so everyone saw all kinds of different things. I'm sure we'll read more about their finds as they post about them.

We only managed to cover a small portion of this shore and hope to be back to check out the rest soon!

Posts by others on this trip

Marcus with more about sand stars and more
Kok Sheng focusing on echinoderms
James with strange hermit crab, unknown animal and more.
Geraldine on facebook
Rene on facebook
Mei Lin with more snails!

Catching up with old friends

2011-10-28T07:02:00Z

It's been sometime since I've dropped in at the Singapore Botanic Garden (SBG) but my personal project forced me to sit down and sort through my 4-year wildlife photo collection. It was only then did I realize that I had to re-take a number of subjects as a number of earlier photographs were terrible.

I chose SBG as I knew a number of my subjects could be found there. Stork-billed Kingfishers are the largest kingfishers found in Singapore. Even though they (like other kingfishers) are brightly colored, many would not even know they are there.

Stork-billed Kingfishers will quietly sit under shade gazing intently at the water surface hoping catch a fish off guard. This individual is no different. It will pick a location that is quiet and settle in to hunt. My last encounter with this species of kingfisher at SBG was in 2008 and it is good to know they are still thriving there.

The other subject was the Olive-backed Sunbird, which the opposite of the Stork-billed. It is very small and very active. This little bird proved harder to nail.

I spent three mornings among the heliconia waiting for an Olive-backed Sunbird to come into sight and on a perch that I liked. Finally, got what a keeper after over a hundred shots.

BTW, sunbirds aren't humming birds. You may see them hover and yes they feed on nectar but that is where the similarity ends. Sunbirds are a different species. They are distributed throughout Africa, South Asia and into northern Australia while humming birds are only found in the Americas.

111028 Venus Drive

2011-10-28T03:36:00Z

Wet weather means mushrooms.

Bioluminescent mushrooms.

Lychas scutilus.

Unicorn opilionid (Hoplodino sp.).

Tiny 1 mm long springtail.

No idea what beetle this is.

Bat shit weevil.

Large fungus weevil about 15 mm long.

Mating scarabs. Can see part of the genitalia.

Suspected endomychid larva.

No idea what this is. Possibly some beetle larva? The abdominal tip looks similar to this.

Moldy cockroach.

1-1.5 mm long red mite.

No idea what this is. Beetle larva?

This crab spider seems to be pretty commonly found on freshly fallen trees.

Sparassid in the leaf litter.

Pandercetes on the hand rail.

Semakau guided walk with SJI

2011-10-28T04:46:00Z

I spent my Deepavali holiday guiding a group of students from St Joseph's Institution at our fabulous shore of Pulau Semakau!

Though they are currently working on marine-related school projects, it is their first time exploring our natural shores looking at seagrasses and corals. It was great to be able to share with them our marine biodiversity without having to swim or dive!

There are lots of blooming Tape seagrass (Enhalus acoroides) and among the seagrass meadow is a nursery for marine creatures such as this Swimming anemone (Boloceroides mcmurrichi).

Also spotted among the seagrass meadow will be this tiny and cute cuttlefish.

On the higher shores with seagrasses, I came across these yellow fluffy looking things which I do not know what they are. Eggs?

The giant Knobbly sea stars (Protoreaster nodosus) always provide a great opportunity for group photo taking.

Moving closer to the coral reef at the edge, we saw many different species and types of corals such as this uncommon Acropora coral (Acropora sp.).

If you look closer among the branches, there are other living creatures found embedded inside such as tiny clams! If you are fortunate, shrimps and gobies can also be spotted.

This is another species of the Acropora coral that has fatter branches.

It seems that the Persian carpet flatworms (Pseudobiceros bedfordi) are coming back to Semakau as I have not seen them for some time. This particular individual seems to be slightly injured.

Later on, I stumbled across yet another one which is not injured as the previous. Their patterns are intricate and they do look like persian carpets. Haha!

A special find that the hunter seekers found will be this well camouflaged spider crab (Micippa philyra) that I've not seen or took notice of it before.

This crab will close up its legs and claws when it is overturned on its underside. Sometimes it does look like a ball!

Though it looks very boring from above, this crab has pretty green chela or claws as seen from its underside!

All too soon, it's time to head back! Here is a photo showing the broken jetty among the mangroves at the higher shores. We are so blessed to have escaped the rain and bad weather!

More photos of the trip here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/koksheng/archives/date-taken/2011/10/26/