Sunday, September 28, 2008

Walk at BTNR

I was at Bukit Timah Nature Reserve (BTNR) this morning and here are some of the photos I took this morning.
Saw this Jack fruit tree with 3 fruits still developing. Jack fruit is considered largest tree borne fruit. The ripe fruit have a very strong smell that not everyone finds it pleasant.
When shoot in close-up (macro), this ants looks beautiful!



More macro photos of insects.

I didn't know that there are carterpillar that feed on ferns!A cicada moult. oh! fresh water crab.
Different stages of frogs/toads life cycle.Pond skaters of different colours and size.This worm stretches it's body in order to reach out to another leaves. Is so amazing!

Sunday, September 14, 2008

Walk through Southern Ridges in sun set

The Southern Ridges stretches 9km from West Coast Park through Kent Ridge Park, Telok Blangah Hill Park, Mount Faber Park and end at Horbour Front Bus Terminal Car Park. You may enter from any of the park above. A bunch of us decided to start from Kent Ridge Park.
We starts our walk from Car Park A at Kent Ridge Park around 4pm.
Oh! We can even see Semakau and Pulau Jong from the park. One of the exibit at Kent Rdge Park
Although we don't have four seasons here in Sngapore, a falling flowers and yellow leaves do remind me that Autumn is coming. I still remember when I was young, this is the signal reminds me that the best time for kite flying has arrived!
Walking through this stretch of trail is like walking through a park in the temperate countries.This trail will lead to the Canopy Walk
This Canopy Walk elevated 16 metres from ground take us through secondary forest
After this 'long and winding road', we will be entering Asia's first one-stop centre for gardening-related recreational, educational, research and retail activities.
Rows, rows and flower of all kinds are planted at Floral Walk
The Hort Park is able to host large events.
One of the favourates in Hort Park iuclude this showcasing designs and ideas for home gardening. After the Hort Park, we continue our walk through Alexandra Arch.
After the Alendra Arch, we enter the Forest Walk which is a steps-free elevated walkway ranging from 3 to 18 metres high.
36 metres above Henderson Road, this Henderson Waves is the highest pedestrian bridge in Singapore and it connect Telok Blangah Hill to Mount Faber.
Spectacular view of Singapore from Faber Walk.
It was about 6.30pm when we arrived at the Mount Faber. We continue our walk through Marang Trail to Harbour Front just in time for our dinner.

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

昙花一现

经过了十六个月漫长的等待, 我家的昙花(Epiphyllum oxypetalum)总于开了!
原产自墨西哥的昙花,又称琼花、属仙人掌科只在夜深人静时才展现美姿秀色。当开花时,清香四溢,光彩夺目真是太美了。在天亮已前,花冠闭合花朵很快就凋谢了。

真是名符其实的“昙花一现”!

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Semakau Inter-Tidal Walk

I am back at Semakau today for another exciting inter-tidal walk. The weather was good throughout the walk and it started to pour down heavily only when we finish the walk and back at the Semakau Visitor Centre.
After a short walk and through the forest, we are at Semakau shore exploring the area usually covered under the sea water.
The first sea cucumber that we came across is this thorny sea cucumber (Stichopus horrens)
While passing through the sea grass lagoon, this Synaptid (Polyplectana kefersteinii) sea cucumber is busy having his breakfast by extend his feeding tentacles.This interesting sea cucumber that with lots of big white eye is called Ocellated (Stichopus ocellatus) sea cucumber.This Sandfish sea cucumber is one of the edible sea cucumber that you can buy from the market. Most sea cucumber are mild toxic and must be processed before consume.

Another sea cucumber that we saw today is this Stonefish sea cucumber.
This Noble volute was busy laying egg when we spotted her.
This beautiful moon snail in fact is a very fierce predator. They drill a hole through their prey's shell and consume them.Is been a while we didin't spot any spider conch, and the shy conch extend his stalk eyes and peep to check for any sign of danger.Oer and the sandy area, we saw hundreds of common sea star and we need to watch our step so that we don't step on them. Some of them rest on top of another one to get ready for 'business'.We saw 2 huge Knobbly sea star and the participants can't help but to take a photo with this beautiful and rare (only can be found over off-shore island) sea star.We also saw another animals that is very good in camouflaging - Octopus. We saw quite a few of them.Oncidium craw out from their hiding for feeding during low tide.We saw lots of slugs like the one on top - Polka dot nudibranchWe saw at least 8 Chromodoris lineolata nudibranch in the same tidal pool.
Gymmodoris nudibranch
Flat worms
Ribbon wormsJust as we finish our walk, dark clouds start to form and we are lucky that it rains only when we are back to the Visitor Centre. Thanks to all participants from RGS making this trip an enjoyable one.