Last Dive before Exams!

This is possibly one of my last dive in the lab, at least before the exams. This is the first time I actually had an UW camera where I can snap all I want! O... how regretful I am for missing all those chances.

Took abit of tweaking in Photoshop, but obviously I'm still not good at it. The colors underwater are mostly green and blue, since they are the shortest wavelengths in the visible light spectrum and thus can travel further into the water column. Yes, this picture is taken in Singapore!

For those who think our waters are devoid of life, they are soo wrong. True, its rather turbid due to high sedimentation because of our country's endless pursue in increasing land area, but still life goes on underwater.

Picture perfect clownfishes. There are three on this sea anemone.

Sea Urchin. Divers beware! It can even penetrate through our wetsuits!

Copperband butterflyfish sucking on coral polyps?

A featherstar, resting on a boulder coral. They come in all sorts of beautiful colors, purple, yellow, green, red etc etc... I wonder if they represent different species or just a color variation.

This Giant Clam, Tridacna squamosa about half a metre, opened its mantle to photosynthsize.

I will even miss Lionel's resident filefish, which nibbled on my finger twice and the territorial damselfishes that pulled my hair. :)

Pictures by me and lionel

The Bird and the Spider

Was relaxing at Kent Ridge looking at birds, after diving when an Olive-Back Sunbird Cinnyris jugularis flew in front of me, just a 3 metres away. It hovered about before flying off and coming back again for three more times before I realised what was happening.

It was either attacking or kept bumping on the web of a golden orb spider, Nephila antipodiana. For a moment I thought that the bird might get entangled on the web. Dingli shared with me that Nephila spiders do prey on birds which unknowningly got trapped on their webs.

But I guess probably the former since it looks to me as if it was poking at the web. Although they feed mainly on nectar, part of their diet includes insects and the big Nephila might look like a relishing meal. Whatever the reason, it gave up what it was doing and flew off shortly.

Update~ Budak suggested that the sunbird might be collecting the spider silk to make its nest.

Also saw some new birds for me to tick off my checklist! Blue-tailed bee-eater, Asian brown flycatcher, Dollarbird.

Thanks Dingz and Budak for the input and ID

Dancing Crabs

Two crabs dancing Tango.


But one tripped, and fell on its partner....

Crab ID pending....
For those who actually believed what I said above, they are fighting not dancing ;p