From Kranji to Buloh

Heh heh. Seems like I'm the last to blog again.

The Semakau gang went to Kranji Nature Trail and Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve last Saturday. It was quite a pleasant day, and Robert was supposed to guide us around since that was his territory.

Anyway, we were all set to go onto the trail to take lots of photos, when I realised that I forgot to bring my spare SD card... AGAIN!!! AHHHHH!!!!

Sigh... I think I must be getting old... Recently, I kept forgetting to bring my spare memory card, or even the camera altogether. End up I had to delete some of my older photos. Couldn't delete my newer ones as I can't remember if I had a proper backup.

Sigh... And I also forgot to bring the Sentosa Entrance ticket for Robert. 6 Jun 2006 was a special day for Robert - that was the first time he stepped onto Sentosa, after being in Singapore for so many years! He finally went to Sentosa last Wednesday to help with the Naked Hermit Crabs walk.

I was the one who kept all the entrance tieckets for those in the same car. He had wanted to get a ticket as some kind of souvenir - mind you, his first trip to Sentosa, you know? It's like some kind of milestone! :P

I'm supposed to pass it to him last Saturday, and I forgot!

Anyway, enough about my forgetfulness, and back to Kranji Nature Trail.

Since I was like left withonly 50 odd photos in my SD card, had to be really careful about what photos I took.

One of the first insects I saw was this leafhopper below. I've always wanted to get a shot of this insect.



During my kampong days, we used to called it 红先生, which means Mr Red. Leafhoppers feed on plant sap, and thus they are actually considered to be pests by gardeners.

We also saw a number of spiders.



The one above is probably somoe species of crab spider. Not sure about the one below though, which I only managed to get a butt shot.



We also saw several shield bugs.



Not sure about he species though :P

And just nearby was an uprooted simpoh ayer, or simpoh air, whatever. Anyway, the pronunciation is supposed to be the same :P



Anyway, that wasn't the only uprooted tree we saw. There were quite a few of them along the trail actually.

The bubble thing you see below is not some soap bubbles.



It's actually produced by the nymphs of froghoppers, otherwise also known as spittlebugs. And mind you, the nymphs were still hiding within the bubbles.

We also saw a slug on a tree trunk.



Not sure if it's an onchidium, but it sure looked a bit like one to me, though it's much flatter.

I also found an pretty ixora plant just next to the trail.



Understand the wild ixora with orange flowers at Sentosa were native plants, but not sure about these though.

We also saw a few cute little ladybirds.



Ladybirds have always been one of my favouriate insects. Remember reading a children story when I was young about a brave young ladybird which helped to fight other bully insects as it can release toxins. Very cool right?

Did a check on wiki recently, and found that indeed, adult ladybirds are able to release an oily yellow toxin with a strong repellent smell to deter predators. The ladybirds themselves are also poisonous to smaller predators, such as small birds. A human probably need to eat several hundred ladybirds before feeling any effects.

Anyway, enough of ladybirds, we also saw lots of dragonflies!



There were many of them along Kranji nature Trail and also at Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserves.



There was also a little pond at the reserve which many blooming water hyacinth.



Can still remember those days when my grandma were rearing pigs. Every day, she had to chop the water hyacinth into smaller pieces, stir fry them in a huge wok, then feed them to the pigs.

Walking to the main hide, we had a pleasant surprise! There were actually a few storks on the mudflats!



Ok, have to admit I wasn't really all that surprise to see them since I had seen them on my previous trips to Sungei Buloh :P

They were supposedly the free-ranging birds from the zoo or bird park actually.

Near a little stream on the mudflats, there were many little egrets feeding too.



And if you look carefully at the above photo, you will notice lots of conical shells on the mudflats. They are the telescope creeper shells.

Dark clouds soon started gathering, and we thought we better get out of the area before we kenna trapped in the rain. As we were leaving the mangrove area, there was this sea hibiscus tree with a newly open flower (the yellow-coloured one), and an old flower from the day before.



The old flower seemed to be still quite firmly attached though. It just swayed along with the strong wind, as my gang left Sungei Buloh...

Do check out the following entries for more photos of the trip:

• Kranji Nature Trail 9 June 07 at Manta Blog
• Discovery at Kranji Nature Trail on 9 June 2007 at Where Discovery Begins
• Kranji Trail and SBWR (9th June 2007) at Mountain and Sea

Ubin's Sensory Trail

It's been quite a while since I last guided at Ubin's Sensory Trail, so when I realised that we would be having a sensory trail walk last Saturday, I decided to sign up with Adelle.

The trail was called the Sensory Trail because plants along this trail can either be touched, smelled, tasted or, of course, seen. There were simply too many things along this trail, and I could only highlight some of them here.

Near the entrance to the trail was this little shed used for storing the dynamite for blasting the granite at Ubin last time, with a beautiful fig tree (but somewhat eerie) growing over it. It was believed that before it was used to store dynamite, this shed was a breadmaking oven owned by a French family that lived and sold bread on Ubin like 100 years ago.



And soon, a lovely fragrance greeted us as we entered the pandan valley...



There were also "fishy" plants in the garden. To find out why they are called fishy plants, just smell the leaves...



Little "Moses" were peeping out of their "cradle" for this moses-in-the-cradle plant, reminding me of the purplish herbal tea I used to drink when I was a kid.



And mulberry trees... I used to have a huge one right in front of my kampong house last time, and we used to find all kinds of cute little birds feeding on the berries on the tree..



Looking at the leaves of this henna tree, I had a pleasant surprise waiting for me - a hairy little caterpillar! The leaves of this tree gives the red dye used for henna art.



If you forgot to bring insect repellent, you will be happy to find this patch of citronella - a natural insect repellent!



There were lots of aloe vera in the garden too.



And also, cat's whiskers, which was a very popular medicinal plant in the region, and was used to treat all kind of diseases from kidney problem, gout, bladder probelm to diabetes and rheumatism.



And as we enter the secret garden, just on the left side near the entrance was a patch of toothache plant. Want to know why is it called the toothache plant? Join one of our Sensory trail walks!



There were blue peas growing on the fence too. This is the flower which gives the blue colouring for some nonya kuehs.



The belimbing tree was fruiting like nobody's business - yet another tree that reminded me of my childhood kampong days... We used to pluck and eat the fruits, though they were usually really sour...



We used to have coffee plantations on Ubin, you know?



They used to plant jasmine commercially on Ubin too! And the flowers smelled really nice...



The honeysuckle flowers, which were also called the "gold and silver" flowers. Can you guess why?



We proceed on to the mangrove area, and found lots of red weaver ants on a sea hibiscus tree. Maybe someone can enlighten me on the bug-like animals on the branches?



There were lots of mangrove trees along the trail too.



There were also several bird nest fern sitting by the side of the trail.



And dragon scale ferns creeping up the coconut trees.



And near the Volunteer's Hub, there was this tall cacao tree. This is the tree which gives us cocoa beans to make chocolates! I've always wondered why the tree was called cacao, but the beans called cocoa though... hmm... anybody knows why?



And right next to the cacao tree were several papaya trees, and among them were a few male papaya trees with lots of flowers.



And as I walked towards the jetty, I couldn't help but notice this lovely hibiscus flower, which blooms in the morning as a white flower, but slowly changes to pink in the afternoon.



And here are my visitors on the bumboat going back to mainland Singapore.



It was always nice to see visitors who enjoyed our nature walks. Despite the hot sun, all of them were happily chatting and smiling.

After I sent the visitors off, I went back to the trail to take more photos, and bump into 2 elderly angmos from England. They were on a working trip in Singapore, and would be here for a few months. Knowing that they were nature lovers, I offered to give them a free guided walk. And so, off I went again around the sensory trail...

Glad that the angmo couple enjoyed the trail as well, and even asked me to point out where it was located on the map, so that they could visit it again in future!

Walking to Kekek

Finally found time to put up my entry today! Been terribly busy for the past few days, some more kenna food poisoning after the Ubin trip. Suspect it's due to what I ate on Friday night, since I've been feeling funny since Saturday morning.

Anyway, it was a really nice and sunny morning when we reached Ubin last Saturday, and we were really taking our own sweet time looking at the beautiful flowers and insects along the way while walking to Kekek Quarry. Here's a lovely flower which I don't know the name.



We were going at such a slow pace that I jokingly told Luan Keng that soon we might see Chay Hoon catching up behind us. Chay Hoon just woke up just 15 min before we board the bumboat. And indeed, she showed up after a while :)

There were lots of kampong plants along the way, including many banana plants on both sides of the road. The one below was flowering.



A banana plant is actually not a tree, but a massive herb. It doesn't have the woody trunk that trees have.

We also saw this sea canon ball tree (Xylocarpus granatum).



When we reached one of the little kampong house that sells drinks, and the friendly uncle enthusiastically told us that he wanted to show us a "Guang Yim". Was he referring to the Goddess of Mercy, Guan Yin, or was it a mispronunciation of "quarry"?

Just as I was discussing with Luan Keng, he brought us to the nearby quarry.

Oh, so is was a mispronunciation of "quarry" after all.

But... surprise, surprise!

On the other side of the quarry, there was this huge rock that looked just like a statue of the Buddhist's Goddess of Mercy!



According to the friendly uncle, he had been staying there for many years, and the statue only appear like 2 weeks ago!

Anyway, we soon left the friendly uncle and moved on.

And here's a cute little green lizard we saw.




And apart from green lizards, we saw a green caterpillar too! Here's an atlas moth caterpillar munching off a leaf. Just compare it with Chay Hoon's finger! It's HUGE! The caterpillar, I mean, not Chay Hoon's finger :)



I also found this reddish ladybird..



And this reddish nutmeg...



And finally, we reached Kekek Quarry!



Robert couldn't resist the cool water in the quarry lake, and immediately took off his shoes to soak them inside.



There were many fishes in the lake, and we started discussing whether these fishes can perform the fish therapy that can be found at Sentosa!



Ed commented that he used to feed the fish at Sungei Buloh with simpoh air flowers, and so I tried to lure them with a flower between my toes.




But alas! It didn't work. In fact, the fishes simply refused to go near our feet. Even the terrapins in the lake refused to go near our feet. One of them was swimming towards us, and then suddenly, it turned and swam away in the opposite direction in double quick time!

Sigh... did our feet really stink that badly?

Anyway, it was a wonderful trip, with all the Semakau kakis. Thanks Luan Keng for organising the trip :)

Do check out the following blogs for more about this trip:
- Manta Blog
- Colourful Clouds
- Where Discovery Begins