Thursday, April 24, 2008

Changi Beach On My Own

Have to clear a few days leave before I leave TP, so decided I might as well take half day's leave today to check out Changi Beach.

As usual, Changi Beach did not disappoint me, and here's a quick account of some of the things I saw.

leaf porter crab
We can always find lots of leaf porter crabs at Changi.

elbow crabs
Found a pair of elbow crabs here, either getting ready to mate or just finishing mating not too long ago.

cowrie
A cowrie with its mantle covering its shell.

Swimming anemone
Swimming anemones seemed to be in season, and I saw many of them.

ball sea cucumber
There were a number of ball sea cucumbers as well.

geographic sea hare
Changi is also another place that we often find the geographic sea hare. This one was burrowing into the sand.

mangrove horseshoe crabs
Several juvenile mangrove horseshoe crabs were burrowing just underneath the sand, probably searching for prey like clams or snails.

sea anemone
I had initially thought this was a swimming anemone until I took a closer look. Not sure of it's exact ID, but it's definitely not a swimming anemone since it has a column buried under the sand.

horseshoe worms
Found these horseshoe worms next to a peacock anemone. Understand that they belong to their own Phylum Phoronida, and these are possibly Photonis sp.

octopus
Managed to grab a shot of this little octopus before it disappeared into the murky water.

sole fish
Fortunately, despite the fact that it was rather well-camouflaged, I managed to spot this sole instead of stepping onto it unknowingly.

hairy sea hare
Apart from the geographic sea hares, I found a few hairy sea hares too.

sea cucumber
And till now, I'm still not sure of the exact ID of this sea cucumber though I've seen it so many times.

flatworm
I also took a quite look at the rocky area, and found this flatworm stranded on a rock.

peanut worm
Although I've been visiting our shores so many times, this was only the second or third time that I saw a peanut worm.

jellyfish
There were several jellyfish stranded on the shore. This one was still alive when I saw it. It was happily swimming in the water until a sudden wave threw it onto the beach. Since the tide was rising, I didn't bothered to push it back into the water.

striped eeltail catfish
As I was heading back, I saw this striped eeltail catfish in a tidal pool...

carpet anemone
and several small carpet anemones along the way.

collared kingfisher
As I was removing my booties, heard a loud cackle above me, and looking up, I saw this collared kingfisher on a tree.

monitor lizard
And below the tree, a monitor lizard was slowly making its way back towards higher ground.

At the same time, I could hear rumbling thunder in the distance.

Well, luckily the rain didn't hit me today. Hopefully I'll be just as luck tomorrow... :)

4 comments:

Unknown said...

That blue and white flat worm may be a new species to science. I would suggest sending a dead specimen to a specialist. Just a thought.

Ron Yeo said...

Thanks for the suggestion :)

Unfortunately... I don't think we have any flatworm specialist in Singapore...

Romey said...

Hi, was wonder how can i join one of your trips. Also can we dive at semakau?

Ron Yeo said...

Hi Jerome. To join my Semakau guided walk you may sign up with the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research. Unfortunately, all our walks for the rest of the year are already fully booked though...

At the moment on research dives are conducted at Semakau. You can check with the Blue Water Volunteers for details.