Cycling trip to Punggol

A recent meeting made me thoughtful about people’s perception of nature. It seems that there is general consensus that truly wild nature is not preferred. The reason being that the residents will not like it compared to manicured greenery. However, I do not believe that is a valid statement during my cycling trip to Punggol.

I believe that its a matter of how a wild patch of forest is “presented”. While cycling along the Park Connector Network in Punggol today, I can see that efforts are being done to keep parts of the original habitat. These natural habitats add to the rustic feel of the trail. I think that as long as there is some buffer zone between the trail and the forest, most people will not have any problems with their existence. Attractive cultivated plants can be done like the above could be introduced as a visual distraction to the forest background too.

This portion of the PCN is truly breath-taking. I love the view of the hilly forest at the opposite bank (even though the plants are all common species) where Lorong Harlus lies. I will definitely attempt conquering this hill when I am free.

Aside my lamenting, our urban greenery have really improved so much over the years. In Punggol especially, the streetscaping is planted in a dense and heterogeneous manner. A daunting task for the streetscape managers but it is probably good for wildlife enhancement and reducing pest birds.

In a particular precinct there, I was amazed to see grasses growing out from the roof of a communal shelter. Green roofing is really sprouting everywhere in Singapore and its also a welcoming sight. Surprisingly, no studies on whether it has any benefits towards urban wildlife was done in Singapore, at least to my knowledge.

A view of the Waterway @ Punggol. It is really a remarkable engineering feat. Do you know that this waterway was entirely dug from levelled land?

Venturing pass the waterway along Punggol Road, the forest caught my eye. Eventually, almost all the forest will be cleared in time to come. While it is not really a pristine forest, I still hope that at least portions of it can be preserved. Especially this giant durian tree, which is the tallest tree in this picture (at least 30 m tall). I can imagine that it will be pretty awesome to have a giant durian tree in the middle of an estate. How iconic it will be! However, its surrounding must be condone off because of falling durians when the season comes. :)

I passed by a huge Indian rubber tree, Ficus elastica which was heavily pruned. From its massive size, it must be a really old one. Hope this is another tree that will be conserved.

Another check from the butterfly list! A Grey Pansy. :)

Punggol Promenade was next, and my only thought was to search for the critically endangered climber which RY found last time, Caesalpinia bonduc. The plant seems to be doing fine, except for the fact that it was infested by leaf miners.

There was a pretty large bodhi tree, Ficus religiosa at Punggol Jetty. Great that they decided to preserve this tree when they cleared the place to build the promenade.

Turning back to cycle home, I saw three dogs foraging in the mangroves. They were rather shy seeing me and ran off quickly. Seems contrary to what the joggers experienced at the waterway.

Finished the entire trip in a record 22 km!

My Waterway @ Punggol

It was only two weeks since the launch of the Punggol Waterway but people are already flooding to experience this park with a newly created river which connects from Punggol to Serangoon Reservoir.

I was also there on a cycling trip with my friend. We were lucky to see many people attempting to fly giant kites in the shape of sotongs, jellyfishes, nemos, and octopi. Unfortunately, none of them got higher than a few metres.

The most amazing of the kites were these stunt kites. Each one was controlled by a single person, and they coordinated the graceful movements in synchrony with each other.

There were several murals on the walls depicting the history of Punggol.

A view of the walkway.

There is also another walkway on the 2nd storey with displays of vertical greening.

We found a caterpillar feeding on the leaf of the mangrove fern, Acrostichum aureum.

The park is also a great place for kids. There is a small area for water play. There were even two water canons!

And a big sand pit. You don’t find any playgrounds like this anymore in our neighbourhoods.

A suspension bridge~

And a nice shelter. Notice the old bus stop at the background. It was preserved to add some nostalgia for the visitors.

Lastly, a nice silhouette picture of a couple when the sun was setting.

In all, a very nice park for people to relax, cycle, jog, and play. Some parts of the waterway, were yet to develop, and I understand that mangrove-themed plantings will also be done at the eastern banks.

Punggol Butterflies

Had a day off from army today (3 weeks of reservist!) so I grabbed my camera and took a bus to this narrow stretch of Ixora shrub where I saw a number of butterflies in Punggol previously and spent about half an hour photographing these beauties.

After prowling through Khew’s recent book on our Singapore butterflies, I guess that this is a Lesser Grass Blue. Quite a lot of them were darting from flower to flower and is the most common here.

Common Tit. I was quite fascinated with the fake ‘tails’ as they can move actively. A pretty butterfly though it is supposed to be very common too.

Something new for me; a Centuar Oakblue. A pity that its wings were torn but its green eyes is enough to wow me.

This is the Ciliate Blue, with its blue-purple dorsal wing colour.

And a side profile of the same butterfly.

Probably a Tailless Line Blue.

Hopefully this is a start of learning many more butterflies! Thanks to CMS for his help in confirming some butterfly species.

Cycling trip to Punggol End

Decided on a cycling trip to Punggol End for a walk where I met with L today.

Some development on-going here. Think this should be the artificial river the cuts through Punggol estate.

An exotic climber that has escaped cultivated and practically engulfed this sea almond tree, the Drunken Sailor, Quisqualis indica.

The droopling flowers is probably the reason why it is ‘Drunken’.

We bashed into the rubber forest, but only for awhile, as there were too many mosquitoes biting me. So much love for me =.=’’

Some kampung remnants in the forest.

Fruits of a common climber, Fibraurea tinctoria.

While looking at this Cacao tree, Theobroma cacao…

I spotted a flash of bright green and realised that it was a whip snake! Cool~

Lastly, we took a walk along the developing promenade at Punggol End beach and saw two Chinese collecting nerite snails. Looking at the size of the bulk, they probably got more then 50 snails…

Otters and disturbing sights at Punggol Beach

Just realised that I was not the only at Punggol Beach yesterday, after seeing RY’s disturbing post about Caesalpinia bonduc demise here.

A waterfront is in the process being constructed along Punggol Beach, and much of the route has been constructed to quite a distance. Many fishermen, joggers and leisure seekers were already attracted to this place when I was there.

I spent quite a fair amount of time loitering about the eastern side of the waterfront, where Coney Island, or Pulau Serangoon is located. Around the far end of the island, near the mouth of Sungei Serangoon, I saw 2 sea otters at the bank of Coney Island. They quickly disappeared on seeing me but it left me deep in thought. This entire water body has already been blocked by the bridge linking to Coney Island and dammed from the island to Lorong Halus, and has been almost converted to freshwater, evident from the grasses and sedges growing partially submerged in the water on the island. Will this change affect the otters or its prey? Much of the entire reservoir banks have also been converted to stone walls and it does not appear to have much areas for the otters to venture about on land.

With so many people coming to know about this new leisure spot, it is no wonder that many curious beach combers also came along during the low tide. I saw a man who caught a seahorse and tried to forcefully pushed it through the tiny opening of a mineral bottle filled with sea water. In vain, he tried again but gave up and dropped it in a plastic bag instead. This was probably the pinnacle of cruelty that I have seen a person treat a marine creature… No living thing deserves to be handled this way, and it was very disturbing seeing a mature adult do this.

It is for certain that more and more people will visit this place when the waterfront is completed. Perhaps some signboards should be placed to discourage people from unnecessary collection of live animals?

Big Durian

Call me ignorant, but I didn’t know that durian trees (Durio zibethinus) can grow so big! This one was about 25m tall!

 
Thanks to Hazel for the photo of me with the durian tree taken in Punggol.

Ixora and Butts

Honestly, I didn’t know that our cultivated Ixora attracted so many butterflies. Perhaps it is because I never really take note of butts till recently.

Here are some pictures of them taken around the same time and place in Punggol.

Peacock Pansy.

The more common Chocolate Pansy stuffing its proboscis on the opening of the coralla tube.

Ciliate Blue.

 
Common Tit.

  
A skipper, possibly a Great Swift.

Another of the same species.

 
This Lemon Emigrant was the most difficult to take, fluttering away whenever I came close. Luckily, after awhile it seemed to get used to me and I was able to get some decent shots.

Probably a Short-Banded Sailor. It even tried to drink from the flower buds.

I wonder what this fly is doing. It obviously can’t reach the nectar deep in the flower without a long proboscis like the butterflies.

Besides butterflies and flies, there were also a lot of wasp-like insects flying around. Perhaps they prey on the butts?

Thanks to Mr Peacock Royal for his help in ID. :)

Mutant Asystasia

PX found this Asystasia gangetica micrantha when we were in Punggol.

 
The flower looked abit different from the normal one which have two purple lips instead of one. Mutant?

Here are the normal flowers.