Exploring Marina East

Today, a group of us Semakau guides decided to go Marina East to explore the marshland. Today was also the first time for the past 2 years I wasn't using my trusty Pentax W10 camera, and that's because - I LOST IT LAST WEEK!!!

If anybody picked up a Pentax W10 camera last Saturday, 22 Mar, around Pasir Ris or on bus 58, please leave me a comment on my blog. In the SD card of the camera, you should be able to find some nice shots of dragonflies, including one trapped in a web and a mating pair.

Sigh...

Borrowed my brother's Panasonic Lumix camera for today 's trip. Must say after using several compact cameras, I've realised that my Pentax probably still produces the best macro shots.

However, for wide shots, Lumix seems to be better though.



Here's the track we took to get to the marshland, which has many casuarina trees growing by the sides.



We eventually reached this pretty marshland with lots of freshwater plants and dragonflies. The number of species of dragonflies was really amazingly, and unfortunately I only managed to take photos of some of them because they were really alert, and I had problem getting close enough to take good shots.



This is probably a female Diplacodes nebulosa. A rather common species.



A male Acisoma panorpoides. Quite common in Singapore, and I've seen them even in urban areas like Ang Mo Kio and Bishan.



I think this could be the mostly commonly seen species in Singapore - Neurothemis fluctuans.



And here's the more plain-looking female Neurothemis fluctuans.



Not exactly sure which species is this, though I think it could be a female Crocothemis servilia.



Here the male Crocothemis servilia.



A very pretty Rhyothemis triangularis.



And from the same genus, Rhyothemis phyllis.



I was really excited to find the smallest dragonfly in Singapore, Nannophya pygmaea. The above is a female.



And here's a male Nannophya pygmaea.



We also saw several pairs of dragonflies working hard for the next generation, such as the pair of Diplacodes nebulosa above.



We also saw many damselflies, but most of the are resting in the middle of the marshland, and since we didn't bring our booties today, I couldn't go into the water to take photos. This one looks like it's laying eggs into the water. I always have problem identifying damselflies because I find many of them to look really alike. Could this be a Ischnura senegalensis?



With so many dragonflies, we found several of their predators too, such as the blue-tailed bee-eater (Merops philippinus) above.



On the same tree, we spotted several pacific swallow (Hirundo tahitica) too.



And among the tall grasses, I also found this pretty St. Andrew's Cross spider. Can't remember the scientific name, but according to LK, this is supposed to be a rarer species compared to the other 2 species of St. Andrew's Cross spider we usually saw.



Though this bag worm looks really cute hanging off the trunk of a young casuarina tree.



We eventually hit the sandy beach area, and saw some of the usual shore plants, such as the sea lettuce (Scaevola sericea).



Growing on the sea lettuce plants were these interesting creepers, which I have no idea of the ID.

Indeed, we had yet another great trip today - lots of dragonflies, birds and other interesting wildlife, and of course, the blue sky just made everything look even nicer!

Will definitely come back again soon, with my booties, of course :)