Chek Jawa Intertidal Walk on 22 Dec 2007

Just a quick account of some of the things we saw today :)



We had a lot of luck with mudskippers today. Not sure what species the one above is actually, but we saw a few giant mudskippers right under the boardwalk today, though I didn't really managed to get a good shot of them. Most of the time giant mudskippers will splash their way away from the boardwalk when people walk pass, but not sure why this time round they seemed to be less shy :P



Not sure if this is a dead coastal horseshoe or its moult. It was lying on the sand just next to the boardwalk.



On the sandy shore, the resident carpet anemone was still there. Can only hope that the rainfall situation will not get worse and it will still be here the next time I came by.



Some how today was the day for sea cucumbers! We saw many of them coming out of the sand, including several ball sea cucumbers...



...and a number of this sea cucumber with black spots. Have seen this several times at Chek Jawa, but still wasn't too sure of the species. Didn't see the smooth and slimy one with brown spots that I saw during my previous trip though. Wonder if they could be the same species but different colour variation. The latter was much more slimy though.



We saw several brittlestars with broken arms and even broken central disc. This was one of the few which looks complete.



As it got darker, the sand stars started appearing too!



It rained earlier, and as we looked ahead, someone shouted that there's a pretty rainbow. This was the first time I saw a rainbow at Chek Jawa!

If you look to the right side of the photo above, you may also notice two birds on the sandflat, and another bird flying above.



Apparently, a brahminy kite or a white-bellied sea eagle (looked more like the latter, but can't say for sure since it's too far) was trying to snatch the fish caught by a great-billed heron! I think it wasn't successful though.



Some of my participants shouted to me and I walked back to them. They have spotted a mantis shrimp! Mantis shrimps have 2 front appendages which look like those of a praying mantis.



And they were also very excited to spot a few gong-gongs on the sandy shore.



As we were walking back to the floating pontoon, we also found this moon snail sliding across the sand.

On the whole, despite the rain, we saw many interesting things today. Hopefully tomorrow will be even better! :)