NParks annual volunteer appreciation day

Today is a special day as the National Parks Board (NParks) is having her annual Volunteers Appreciation Day this morning at Hort Park. This event was also organised in celebration of International Volunteer Day, which fell on 5 December.

Some of the volunteers from the Naked Hermit Crabs spent this special day sharing the beauty of Chek Jawa to our visitors while some others attended the appreciation event. Read about the happenings at Chek Jawa here.

I was unable to attend the event today as I was guiding at Chek Jawa.
However there are news reports from the media and National Development Minister Khaw Boon Wan posted an entry in his work blog.

I am one of the 3 volunteers to featured in Minister's blog post and I quote a portion of his entry.

"Ms Heng Pei Yan – a teacher– participated in the Comprehensive Marine Biodiversity Survey early this year.  Despite the risk of getting stung by marine organisms and having to trudge through knee-deep mud, she was undeterred and gamely participated in the survey simply because of her passion for nature."

The following are the links of the coverages of the event that I have found:

Media reports:
Channel NewsAsia [8 Dec 2012] - NParks sees healthy increase in volunteer numbers
AsiaOne News (SPH) - NParks volunteers honoured at inaugural event
Straits Times [8 Dec 2012] - More people volunteering at National Parks
The Sunday Times, pg 21 [9 Dec 2012] - Hats off to park volunteers

Blog posts:
National Development Minister Khaw Boon Wan - Giving back to nature
WildSingapore News

Social media:
NParks (Facebook) - http://www.facebook.com/nparksbuzz?fref=ts


You can find out about how you can be a volunteer with NParks through their volunteer webpage.

Wild boars, hornbill and an unusual gathering of fiddler crabs at Chek Jawa

The Naked Hermit Crabs held our last guided walk at Chek Jawa for year 2012 today!

There were a number of interesting sightings at Chek Jawa today.

Upon arrival at the entrance of Chek Jawa, 3 wild boars came out of their foraging activities to meet us.

One of them approached us real close and started sniffing around without any fear. 

Wild boar sniffing at me

This can be disturbing as it could lead to unwanted accidents to members of the public if they were to start screaming and acting aggressive towards the wild boar.

Stormy Trip to Hantu Lagoon

It was a scary day for fieldtrip. Constant checking with the NEA's weather animation since afternoon shows a huge scary cloud mass heading down south.

On the boat ride, the animation on NEA's website shows a very scary angry cloud covering the western part of Singapore. Even Pulau Hantu was covered. At the pier, we were showered with the fierce blowing rain while waiting for passengers in the boat to alight.

Fishy and Sluggy Day at St. John's Island

Oh no.... As we landed on St. John's Island via private ferry service, we could see a fierce storm covering the skies of mainland Singapore.

Look at the cloud formation on mainland.

While round a corner of the island, the sky shows some of the pretty orange sunset with the fast moving storm clouds.

Sunset and storm clouds

Magnificently Terumbu Semakau

We are blessed with good weather today at Terumbu Semakau. It was rather hot and sunny, very different from what I experienced yesterday at Labrador rocky shore.

The word "terumbu" describes a reef that is only visible at low tide. Hence "Terumbu Semakau" refers to a submerged reef next to Semakau Landfill. You can get a better visual idea from this image.