Snakey and Galloping National Day at Semakau

This morning's trip brings us to a corner of Semakau intertidal area less explored. Some of the team members are excited about this trip because of some special animals that was sighted on this shore. One of them is the Galloping seastar (Stellaster equestris).

I have never seen a galloping seastar before and I was not expecting myself to be the one to find the galloping seastar at Semakau this morning, but I did!

Galloping seastar, overview

Shouting "Galloping!" out loud on the shore, many of the team members came from all directions and distances to see this amazing seastar. Kok Sheng was the fastest walker amongst them all as this was what he was looking forward to on this trip.

New surprises at Cyrene Reef with Large seastar and Cone snail

Cyrene Reef never fails to surprise us. Seated in a major shipping lane surrounded by the container terminal on the mainland and petrochemical plants on two island, there is always something interesting to see during each intertidal trip despite its location.

What a large Astropecten sp. seastar I found trying to burrow itself into the sand. It is as big has my hand!

Size of Astropecten seastar

Shield bugs, and Monkey and Wild Boar business at Chek Jawa

After a busy series of biodiversity event happening around Singapore in June and July, I am back guiding with the Naked Hermit Crabs at Chek Jawa for the month of August.

As usual, the wild boar troop graciously welcome visitors to Chek Jawa.

Wild boar piglets have grown so big.

Wow! The wild boar piglets have grown so big. I still fondly remember them small and cute with watermelon stripes on their body.

My first Chek Jawa intertidal survey trip

'If music be the food of love, play on.' - Twelfth Night, William Shakespeare

It is not the sound of love when many mosquitos were buzzing close to my ears throughout the intertidal survey trip at Chek Jawa. This trip has got to be the earliest intertidal survey trip I had ever embarked on. The mosquitos were not the only organisms expressing their "love" to me. My nose was also expressing its "love" to me as I sniff, sniff, sniff and even more sniffing throughout the whole time I was on the shore.

My nose and the mosquitos may be hindering my attention span on the shore, but my vision did not fail me. On my very first intertidal survey trip on Chek Jawa, there are many interesting critters to be seen.

Reaching the shore at about 2am, the tide was still quite high for the coral rubble area to be exposed. We began our survey by checking the pillars that supports the boardwalk along the coast. It was full of life.

There were plenty of these tube structures weaved on the pillar surfaces, which I think are worm tubes.

Worm tubes?

Festival of Biodiversity 2013

The Festival of Biodiversity is back this year!

This year the festival is going to Vivocity to reach out to more members of the public.

There is a line of activities planned for both days, ranging from Art & Craft Workshops to Storytelling Sessions. Click on the links of each activity to find out more. All activities are free, on a first-come-first serve basis.

A launch of the festival will take place on the 13 July, Saturday, at 11:30am.

Running on 13 and 14 July, exhibitions will showcase 'Our Natural Heritage' and 'Year of Snakes in Singapore 2013'.

For more information about the festival, check out http://www.nparks.gov.sg/festivalofbiodiversity/index.php.