14/2011 - Tampines Woods (18 June 2011)

The Outing was Cancelled

It was one of the busiest morning I’ve ever had! There were so many SMSes and calls came in, asking about the outing. Stewart, who lives near the new site, reported three times telling me that it was raining cats and dogs. And so . . . sadly, I had no choice but to send the cancellation messages to everyone at 6:50am  : (  

Enthusiastic CT Lim

About 45 minutes later . . . CT asked whether I would join him to have a look at the site,  because there was less rain at his place. Destine, also invited me to join Kelvin and her for a breakfast at Katong. So, I asked CT and Allan along. Since there was not much rainfall after our meal, all of us decided to visit the site.

Walking there

The Little Marsh Land

We reached the site at about 11am, the sky was still dark and a little bit of drizzle could still be seen. Our first stop was the little marsh land.  For just 1.5 hour of being there, we saw :

• aquatic flora: asiatic pipewort, blooming common Bladder Worts, an uncommon submerged water plant which looks like Najas Indica (more observation to be done for confirmation).
• Odonata: trumpet tail, black-tipped percher, common parasol, blue percher, variable wisp, ornate coraltail, but the scarlet pygmy and a few more dragonflies seemed to be hiding due to the rain (they were seen in my first visit).
  

Blue Percher (top left) by Destine & other record shots by Endy

• freshwater life : pond skaters, water boatmen, water stick insect, diving beetles, pond wolf spiders, field frogs, tadpoles (at least 2 species), lymnaea rubiginosa (snail), malayan live-bearing snails.

So, What do You Think of the Marsh Land?

Destine & Kelvin : " Wow! in just a short while, we saw so many creatures! dragonflies, damselflies, pond skaters. Then, Allan pointed to us - look! at the bottom, there are so many dragonfly's nymphs (big & small) and there... water stick insect, diving beetles, waterboatmen, and look at the tadpoles! They are floating in mid water, the body is almost transparent! We saw some frogs too. Endy said they looked like field frogs, there was a big one jumping. Brought my little underwater casing but did not want the shoes to get wet, next time we will wear boots. Let's buy some boots after lunch! " .

Exploring marsh land

Best Way to Explore this Marsh Land

CT Lim : " No doubt, the best way / the most comfortable way is to use the fishmonger's boots! You can get it for just $15! Your feet will be dry! " .
Allan : " Hm . . . just with a pair of non-slip outdoor slippers, I stepped into the water. It was easy and really cooling  ; )  Ha..Ha.. .  Never mind the mud! How often can you get so close to mother earth? No worry! there was no leech, no bite at all! " .

CT's way or Allan's way?

Quick Tour to the Rest of the Woods

Endy : " After exploring the marsh land, we had a quick tour to other parts of the Woods. It is quite a big area, greeneries... everywhere. Have a look at the photos! For taking photos, for your own safety, do not go alone and venture too far off the paths. And please do not station yourself or your equipments on the path itself, because we saw one or two mountain motorbikes passing the path once in a while. So, you should stand at the sides of the path instead and be alert " . 

   

The Woods at a glance
(Yellow pupa of ladybug was taken by Destine)

The Trip ended at 1:30pm
We had a lunch together at the food court of Tampines Avenue 9. Destine & Kelvin bought their boots on the way back home.  


At Last but not Least, 
Let me show you our best Macroshooter of that day, in action.

Pond skaters, Dragonfly, and Tadpoles by Allan Lee 

Such a nice place! We will definitely go there again!  : )

Recce team (5) - Endy (Leader), Allan Lee, Lim Cheow Tin, Destine, and Kelvin.

13/2011 - Durian Trail (11 Jun 2011)

Some snapshots taken during today's outing:

(Setting up at the carpark)

Blogging in progress!  Please come back for more updates ...

Participants (14) - Tony Png (Trip Leader), Anthony Quek, Cai Yixiong, Allan Lee, Lim Cheow Tin, Ko Kyaw Htay, Mohammad K. David Lee, Edmund, Wang Poon Liang, Ong Ngee Ming, Foong KT, Peter Low and Joe Tan.

12/2011 - East Woods (4 Jun 2011)

It has been a year since we last visited East Woods. On my way to the East, the morning sun was super bright and round. It is a pity Singapore has so many tall buildings otherwise Ming would have stopped and taken a shot of the golden sun against the baby blue sky with a tinge of pink.  Am I right, Ming?

The early birds had their breakfast at Bedok Food Court. Most of us arrived at the car park next to Bedok Food Court by 0745hrs.  We took a short 10-min walk to the "playground".  The vegetation has grown much bushier and taller.  Those who could not make it on time made their own way to meet us there.

I decided to be a bug spotter for this outing and some were surprised that I did not bring my equipment today.  Within a 100m, I spotted a Crab Spider and I called out to Destine but she was busy setting up her equipment.  Cheow Tin came along and I introduced the elusive Crab Spider to him.  I hope he managed to capture it and share with us.  Hmmmmm ....  I bet Sonia (picture above) caught a beauty through her 3rd eye!

 

It was a hot and humid morning.  Many of us were dripping with sweat.  Some of us ventured into the forest to get some shade.  As you can see, the vegetation is knee high.  There is no path or trail so when we walked through the thick jungle, we had to lift up our legs so our feet does not get entangled with the thick growth of creepy plants.  It can be a challenge as it inevitably disturbs the timid bugs.  However, some others like butterfly and caterpillars are just oblivious.





Destine finally caught up with us and shot this beautiful spider.  While we wait for its ID, let's take a peek because it's peeking at you too.  It's eyes are so small compared to its body.  If you know the identity of this spider, please assist us by indicating in Post a Comment with thanks.

by Destine Ang

East Woods is very huge in terms of area.  I would think it covers the size of a football field.  Some of us decided to explore another part of it led by Endy who had apparently combed the jungle.  It was a long walk along the bicycle track and we ended up near the ECP towards Changi Airport.  It looked wild and it offered us a few interesting subjects.  A black cobra was spotted as it slithered away towards the enormous bird's-nest fern.  It is definitely a place to revisit some day.

Nah ... these people are not queueing for Hello Kitty but waiting to shoot an Ornamental Tree Trunk spider (Female) spotted by Poon Liang.  Well, I wanted to have a record shot too.  Without my proper equipment, I just have to live with my other hand-held gadget.  The Ornamental Tree Trunk spider must have been the most popular female "model" of the day!

by Wang Poon Liang

We hasten our footsteps as dark clouds loomed above us like a heavy curtain.   The musky smell of impending rain hung in the atmosphere.  Ming and I had to take a little detour to find her Nikon camera body front mount cap and she was delirious with joy to see it on the turf near our "base camp".  The rain held everyone hostage at Bedok Food Court.   It was time for lunch anyway so we sat in small groups to have our meals and chatted away.  There was definitely great camaraderie among all who participated in this outing.

Participants (22) - Sharon S. Lim ((Trip Leader), Endy Tan, Anthony Quek, Cai Yixiong, Lim Cheow Tin, Ko Kyaw Htay, Mohammad K. Catherine Wong, Sadiran, Destine Ang, Kelvin Ong, Edmund, Danny Tan, Wang Poon Liang, Pinky Lee, Yvonne Tan, Ong Ngee Ming, Sonia Zhou, Hazel Han, Flor J. Chan Choon Phiow and Joe Tan.   Absent with apologies - Soh Pui Hoon and Foong K T.