26/10 - Punggol Forest (13 Nov 2010)

A record of 28 participants joined the event, that morning. What a gathering! There were so many regulars and new faces, too! Some even went through a very long journey from Jurong to support this outing. It started around 7:50am with a site showround by the trip leader. He explained that there were 3 designated patches of forested area for the photographic activity. 

(At the meeting point)

Pretty soon, we started exploring the 2nd patch (recommended), where it has an open grassland beside it, 2 streams and some internal paths inside. 

At the grassland, some members found a beautiful lacewing, everybody was very excited about it, as this was the first encounter in IMOG outing. Some other insects were also observed, such as spiders and butterflies.

(Eugene & Ngee Chye in action)

Meanwhile at the 2nd stream, another bunch of people managed to take some photos of a praying mantis, dragonflies, and our Allan found some very interesting eggs of lacewing (which later he shared in his post at " http://npss.org.sg/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=6570 " with an interesting clip from a documentary. The way a lacewing lays its eggs is just simply amazing!).

(Taking photos at the 2nd stream)

Continuing from the stream, members ventured into the forested area. It seemed a bit dark and Allan complained " Endy, Why didn't you tell me it would be this dark? I should have brought my torchlights!" Despite the lighting condition, a lot of beautiful bracket fungus, spiders, and various hoppers were found inside.

(In the forested area)

Going back to the 1st stream,  participants found some interesting dragonflies, beautiful fungus, ground crickets, and many little young field frogs. It was so much fun looking at these froggies. They kept jumping around. Taking photos of them was a great challenge, though!

(Members were busy finding subject at shallow stream)

Then, our last stop was the tidal drain opposite the forest. There, we observed the many species of crabs, some mudskippers, a crab-eating frog, mangrove landsnails, an asian toad, and a super cooperative dragonfly which allowed all of us to get very near to do close up!

The trip ended at about 11:30am and about 9 of us, who stayed till the end, had lunch together at a food court of block 310, Punggol Road. The third patch of the forested area remains unexplored, hope that we can visit again. 

Participants (28) - Endy Tan (Trip Leader), Allan Lee, Cai Yixiong&Joyce, Sharon S. Lim, Anthony Quek, CT Lim, Steward Ong, CP Chan, Rosemary, Shereen, Freddie, Eugene Hu, Goh Teck Leong, Yeo Tang Lin, Kelvin Chiew, Ken Lim, Foong KT, Elaine Huang, Kyaw Htay, Tan Peck Kheng, John Wong, Teo Ngee Chye,  Wendy Leong, Hazel Han, Hein Moh, Tan Teck Nam, and Vincent Wee.