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.