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encounters with nature: December 2010
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Sunday, December 19, 2010. Lower Pierce, 19 Dec 2010. After quite a long hiatus, finally a nice long night trip to Lower Pierce with James :) A couple of strange creatures (which I would highlight later)! A wasp on a leaf. James has a keen eye for stick insects; he spotted all of the stick insects we saw during this trip. Giant forest ants ( Camponotus gigas. These are both giant forest ants! The difference is that one is a major worker (the bigger one) and the other, a minor worker. Up close they look r...
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encounters with nature: August 2010
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Saturday, August 7, 2010. Chestnut Avenue, 17 July 2010. My very first time at Chestnut Avenue. Saw a tremendous amount of nature in the few hours that James and I were there. The very first thing I saw from this trip left a deep impression on me. It was a larva in a bubble cocoon! My first encounter with these monkey hoppers. How aptly they are called! They were almost everywhere. Alas, it happened too abruptly, I did not manage to capture that exulting moment. Seems like a kind of tube worm. My first t...
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encounters with nature: June 2011
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Saturday, June 4, 2011. Changi CP1, 4 June 2011. It has been sometime since I last visited Changi Beach (near Carpark 1). We were blessed with good weather on the morning of 4 June '11 when we seized the low tide and checked out this beautiful shore! Amongst the first creatures we sighted was the leaf porter crab. These hide themselves underneath fallen leaves and you can only detect their presence via "moving" leaves! We upturned this leaf to get a good look of this fascinating crab. The slender sea pen.
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encounters with nature: Changi CP1, 4 June 2011
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Saturday, June 4, 2011. Changi CP1, 4 June 2011. It has been sometime since I last visited Changi Beach (near Carpark 1). We were blessed with good weather on the morning of 4 June '11 when we seized the low tide and checked out this beautiful shore! Amongst the first creatures we sighted was the leaf porter crab. These hide themselves underneath fallen leaves and you can only detect their presence via "moving" leaves! We upturned this leaf to get a good look of this fascinating crab. The slender sea pen.
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encounters with nature: Cyrene Reef right here in Singapore!
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Thursday, November 24, 2011. Cyrene Reef right here in Singapore! Cyrene Reef is a jem unknown to many, even our own Singaporeans. Yes it is found right here in Singapore! The most amazing fact of Cyrene Reef is that it houses an abundant wildlife including vast seagrass meadows, and is home to a healthy population of adorable Knobby seastars ( Protoreaster nodosus. Despite being surrounded by petrochemical plants on Jurong Island and Pulau Bukom. Yi Shyuan exploring the reef. I call them Teddybear crabs!
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encounters with nature: October 2010
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Wednesday, October 6, 2010. Admiralty Park, 21 July 2010. A very short trip to Admiralty Park, but nonetheless some very pleasant finds. Our eight-legged friends were prominent as ever. I wonder what this spider was feasting on. James postulates that it was a moth. I have no idea what this fascinating creature was feeding on. Earlier one of its kind was seen feeding (on a moth? Brown huntsman spider (Heteropoda venatoria). I love the eyes of this cricket. Cricket nymph, small but beautiful. When James an...
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encounters with nature: July 2010
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Monday, July 19, 2010. Dairy Farm Road, 13 July 2010. My first trip to Dairy Farm Road! Lots of spiders, grasshoppers and crickets. The orb weaver spiders were pretty common. I'm not sure what spider this is though! Sp) which is nocturnal and usually hangs upside down, holding an expandable net of sticky silk between the two front legs. Should an insect pass by below the net, the ogre-faced spider stretches out the net, lunges downwards and flings the net over the prey. Spider be making an egg sac? A pla...
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encounters with nature: June 2010
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Monday, June 28, 2010. Venus Drive, 28 June 2010. An awesome (and also my first) trip to Venus Drive with James. We were greeted by frogs scattered along the pavement. And many of them scrambled off (literally) when we shone our torch at them unknowingly. James pointed out to me a. We sighted a couple of spiders throughout the trip, all of which I have never seen before. According to James, this is possibly a female Huntsman Spider Heteropoda venatoria, identifiable from the white bar across its face.
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encounters with nature: January 2010
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Sunday, January 24, 2010. Lost Changi Beach, 24 Jan 2010. As you will later find out why. Andy, James and I followed Travis to the shore while the rest headed landwards to check out the butterfly and dragonfly communities that could be found in this new terrain. James spotted this unusual looking spider. The 'stick-insect-looking thing' is the spider with its legs (appendages) all tucked in and the oval-shaped blob is most likely its egg case. There was another egg case nearby and it looked dried up.
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encounters with nature: December 2009
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Monday, December 28, 2009. Tanah Merah Beach, 18 Dec 2009. My first time at Tanah Merah beach, and this time, I had the company of. Lester, Bingquan and Yang yuan. We were again blessed with great weather, as it is nearing the rainy season this time of the year. My impression of Tanah Merah beach has always been that it must be "pretty dead" since it is a reclaimed shore. But NOOOO I was so wrong, it is teeming with life! At the start of the trip, James spotted a. Is James' much better shot of it. This w...
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