Monitor feeding

Heres some pictures of the Malayan water monitor feeding on a fish it caught. Taken during today's guiding trip @ Sungei Buloh. Turned out to be a nice trip today, cos we were more prepared compared to our BT nightmare field trip =) Enjoy! Go pack my stuff for army lao~~

Beautiful Sungei Buloh

This is the recee for our 2nd field trip to another nature reserve, Sungei Buloh wetlands. This time we were told that we had to plan our route beforehand, which makes it even more impt for this trip. Why is our group so stringent? =.= (grumbles~)

Anyway it turns out to be a rather nice trip (with Shun De as our guide this time), with lotsa photo taking opportunities. We started off at the main bridge while waiting for the rest to arrive. Shun De was lucky to spot some smooth otters at there. He told us it was quite a rare sight to see them. Sux, I think I just missed them like a minute back.

Archerfish

There were many archer fishes right at the bottom of the bridge. They are well known for their ability to spit out a strong jet of water (2-3m) to hit their prey down the water. This is done by forcefully snapping shut their gills and with their tongue and mouth forming a tube. However, aside this ability, they actually preferred to leap up out of the water to catch their prey. They can jump quite high, up to 30cm!

Half-Beak

There are 2 closely resembling fishes here, the halfbeaks and the needlefish. Shun De told us how to differentiate them, this species of halfbeaks has a yellow snout tip and swim together in schools while the needlefish is much larger and usually solitary. The reason for their name "halfbeak" is due to their upper jaw is much shorter then the lower jaw. There is no difference in their jaw size of the needlefish. Shun deng shared with me that they are actually kinda related, with the needlefish juvenile having a halfbeak stage.

Little Heron

Herons and egrets have long necks and bills that are used to deliver a powerful thrust at unsuspecting prey. Yes, even for the little heron has an amazing long neck for its size, just that it is coiled up at rest. Btw nice picture hor? Haha, one of my first few shots at a bird just a long zoom of my new camera.

Just above us, were many swifts gliding effortlessly in the sky, catching and eating on flying insects. An unrelated but having similar feeding method is the swallow, and they can be differentiated with the swifts having fan shaped tails and swallows of a V-shaped forked tail.

The sea hibiscus is actually closely related to our land hibiscus, both of the same genus. They secrete sugary fluid through their leaves and this normally attract weaver ants to nestle there and protect the plant. The beautiful cotton stainer bugs also like to come to this plant to feed on its seeds.

Possibly a tree climbing or vingear crab. Why vinegar? Becos it was said that people like to add black sauce and vinegar to the crab and take it with porridge.

Sea holly infloresence. The sea holly is used by the traditional malays to ward off Pontianak, a female vampire that preys on pregnant woman and their fetus.

Possibly a malayan tree frog as suggested by Robert. It has suction toes to help it attach to leaves. Robert said that he had never seen this frog before here, which is rather interesting. Perhaps it was here all along just that no one has spotted it before?

The largest mudskipper in the world! The Giant mudskipper is something Singaporeans can be proud of, not some weird UFO or durian building at city hall ><

A bug on the Singapore Rhododendron. The young shoots are used in traditional Chinese medicine to cure diarrhea, the famous bao ji wan.

Blue grassy tiger, one of the easiest butterflies to photograph as the butterfly enthusiast July told me. I guess its becos it kept opening its wings? (FYI, butterflies close their wings at rest)


Sorry, actually got more stuff was intending but was too tired and sian by now. Sorry ar for my fanz, will cover the rest when I come to this nice place again. hehe.... Lastly, Thanx Shun deng, ur an excellent guide!

Will be going back army this thurs and straight after that to Tioman for my field trip! No updates for 2 weeks till I'm back, cya!

Nest @ NUS

Tucked in a lonely corner of NUS, a cup shaped nest made of mud with the insides lined with soft bedding like feathers.

3 little heads looked down at me when I was curiously looking at it. Baby Pacific swallows! Update >> Just learnt from Dingli told me they were not barn swallows (which I thought was initially) cos they were immigrants (so wun nest here) from the North.

Are they hungry?


Parent on the watchout for intruders

The parents dun take kindly to passerbys. It attacked Juanhui (missing by inches), directly at lionel and me (had to duck away) when we walked pass below the nest on separate occasions. Still, I do hope those chicks survived and fly free in the sky soon.