Mass Marine Mortality at Pasir Ris

For the past few years around this time of the year there have been occurrences of mass fish deaths on our northern shores. This year is no exception. Ria was here earlier as well, and has done a comprehensive blogpost about the situation. I’m just posting photos of cool dead things. I know I don’t sound sad but I am, kay 😦

So CNY is over, and the food guilt finally set in so I decided to try and run to work some of the sin off. As soon as I hit the path however, my nose was immediately assaulted by a foul stench. I had seen some of my friends posting about fish deaths on facebook, so I decided to go see for myself what the situation was like (totally not an excuse).

The first stop was a breakwater, and LO AND BEHOLD, I was greeted with a friggin mass grave.

This is NOT what we asked for when we shouted “年年有鱼 (year year got fish)” during all those lou heis.

Because of how the water flows, a large number of fish carcasses were gathered at the breakwater, and it was quite a sight (and quite a smell too). Elsewhere on the shore, individual bodies were strewn along the strandline along the entire length of the beach, as far as I could tell.

So like, screw running right? THIS is important. Walked along the shore instead and took some photos, so here they are. As sad as it was to see all this, I can’t say it wasn’t interesting seeing a new fish every few metres.

There were many other fishes like rabbitfish and whatnot that aren’t shown here, but show up in significant numbers.

So what’s with all the dying? Clearly something fishy is going on?

For now we know that dissolved oxygen levels are high, so it can’t be due to low oxygen. Seems the deaths are a result of Harmful Algal Bloom (HAB).

Again, for better clarification of the situation, I’d like to direct you to Ria’s blog (Wild Shores of Singapore), where she does a great job of explaining what’s going on.

Given how this happens every year, hopefully something will be done soon to address this

UPDATE!
Sankar and I went down this morning to check out the site again. The mass grave was cleared, and there were cleaners on site to clear up the carcasses, but there were also new bodies. Notably, there were numerous HUGE pufferfish on the western side of Pasir Ris beach. Seriously, check it out.

UPDATE 2

Went down again with Sankar and Ingsind (and Nam and Sara) at night to take a look, and the high tide brought in a fresh batch of bodies. At least 7 puffers along the 100m stretch we walked. They also found a large reef stonefish, which I have not seen in the flesh before. Yikes.

Check out the whole album here:

https://www.facebook.com/balloonspider/media_set?set=a.10152890221393551&type=1

Pasir Ris Mangrove is ALIVE!

Joined the Naked Hermit Crabs for their guided walk at Pasir Ris Mangroves today!

The group size was apparently smaller compared the the march hols period, which was to be expected. But the participants were really friendly and genuinely curious and interested, asking many good questions! A joy to guide 🙂

Ley Kun, with Peiyan and her student guides.

The moment we entered the mangroves, we were greeted by the loud-as-ever calls of numerous cicadas! Cicadas are insects I usually hear but not see, but today we sighted many of them. Peiyan spotted the first one, and everyone started finding their own cicadas! Ria shared that sometimes, especially for incredibly audible animals like cicadas, relying more on your ears rather than your eyes may better help you in location.

(My) Cicada

Of course, many other insects were present today 😀

The nymphs of some mantises and phasmids mimic ants, perhaps to decrease the likelihood of becoming prey.

Viewed from the front, it’s true mantis nature becomes more obvious

Cotton Stainer bug swarms are not uncommon sights.

Ria informed us that these bugs are known as cotton stainers as they belong in the same family as bugs which are notorious for staining cotton in production, rendering them unfit for sale. This particular species of course, has nothing to do with that bad rep.

Many Orthopterans hanging out today.

Here’s another (this one’s a grasshopper nymph)

And another (katydid nymph)

A dead butterfly, which I’m sure will soon be disposed of by ants and other scavengers. Such is the cycle of life. Ria voiced her jealousy of the life of a butterfly. Eat without a care in the world when you’re young, grow up to be beautiful when it’s time to mate, and die with no worries after. Hmm.

Was amused by this ant, which seemed quite lost.

It was walking and stopping, and turning on the spot. So cute.

There was also this fluffy plant hopper thing, but it was so white and the photo so overexposed that it’s bodily details can hardly be made out ):

The boardwalk itself has become part of the mangrove with many bugs using them as walkways, and in the case of this spider, accomodation.

Tiny inchworm moving along in a ridiculously adorable, loopy fashion.

Strange moth whose front end reminds me of a rhino beetle. Thought it was a fallen petal at first!

Close up of the head.

Of course, the shore life were out and about too, and the participants were quick to spot them.

Who will be the first to spot the Giant Mudskippers?

The relatively large mangrove crabs never fail to excite.

And of course, Giant Mudskippers! These two seemed to be having a territorial dispute.

“Scram! Get outta here!”

*okay*

As we were walking along, we came across some birdwatchers who were stalking a Von Schrenck’s Bittern (which I could not see ><), and one of them noticed the T-shirt I was wearing!

This.

He got excited, and told us that we could see the real thing further up along the boardwalk! Ivan‘s friend, Yong Tze, happened to be watching the owl at the time and notified Ivan, so the entire group got to see a Buffy Fish Owl in the flesh!

Playing hard to get

Can’t see you, can’t see me!

Ah screw it, here I am

The group then headed over to the lookout point over the river, where the participants were requested to draw their impressions of the place! Since I was tagging along more than guiding, I drew one too, but got accused of spoiling market D:

The owl is judging me too.

The youngest participant, focused on her task.

Hiding in one of the trees next to the look out point, was this young malayan water monitor.

How it fits inside I will never know.

As the sun was already setting, we started making our way out of the mangroves. As I was struggling to stow away my camera, I suddenly spotted this guy!

The rest stayed to wait for me to get a shot of this little bugger even though the sun was setting fast, and Ria even provided a light and Ivan used a leaf to help with focus. Thanks guys!

I was so excited, cos even though it was just a nymph, seeing a live leaf insect in the wild is on my bucket list. I actually raised a couple in captivity back in Pri 3 (they inspired my hotmail account) but have never seen live ones other than those. Also, I kinda like leaf insects for superficial reasons cos my surname is Yap, which is Ye (leaf) in chinese. Hur hur.

Yes, so seeing this nymph made me a very happy boy :D.

So evidently, the Pasir Ris mangroves are VERY much alive! Walk slowly, speak softly and respect the environment. Suddenly, you begin to see life everywhere (:

I thank the Naked Hermit Crabs once again for organizing this (I am one of them now)! If you have not heard of us, do check out the blog (here) and join us on our next walk!

 

See also: Ria’s account of today’s events on her Wildshores blog here!

A Forest Worth Fighting For (II)

This post is a follow up to

A Forest Worth Fighting For (I).

It comes a week late >< as I was busy with army stuff last weekend, and more feedback was being gathered.

Ok so first, my thoughts.

Honestly when this whole thing first started out I wasn’t too optimistic. After all, when it comes to preserving green patches, fights have to be chosen carefully. If one place is preserved, another will have to go – it is not practical or pragmatic to save every patch. Thus the “value” (be it accessibility, diversity, history etc.) of green spaces have to be weighed out before a decision is made to save one, or any at all.

Considering many such cases before the Pasir Ris Greenbelt, spaces that had very good reasons for saving going for them still lost (apart from biodiversity, Bukit Brown had rich cultural and historical value going for it) in spite of them, so what makes Pasir Ris different (or any more worth saving?). This also matters when the relevant agencies need to validate their reasons if they choose to leave the greenbelt alone (questions such as “how come the government can afford to preserve Pasir Ris but not Bukit Brown?” may arise), though granted many other factors (such as the eventual land use and locations) aside from the value the green spaces offer have to be taken into account.

As such when fighting this battle, aside from the biodiversity, I felt the “community” perspective and social aspects were important to emphasize, how it brings Pasir Ris West together, what the forest does for the residents here.  There were comments on how “This isn’t a nature reserve” and how nature reserves are where biodiversity are preserved, but I feel that the fact that it ISN’T a nature reserve does not make it less valuable. In most cases, nature reserves such as Bukit Timah Nature Reserve are places people who seek reprieve from city life, who yearn for some nature go to, with the objective of visiting nature in mind. They take the time to intentionally go there to enjoy nature. The greenbelt, in this sense, is different. Residents use the path in the greenbelt as a shortcut from the HDBs to the park/housing estate and vice versa, and because of constant exposure to the greenery over time, grow to appreciate the unregulated wilderness (in contrast to the manicured parks). While it may not be as rich in biodiversity as a nature reserve, the greenbelt has value in its location and accessibility.

Ming Kai, who is awesome with orthopterans (grasshoppers and friends), has this to say (taken from his facebook status, with permission):

An endangered species or endemic species will not stop the authorities from developing a land ‘for’ the people. The majority of the people will not accept that a so called ‘lower’ animal deserves the land more than human. But let’s not give up. Let’s not stop there and moan over it. Let’s document all we can – new species, endangered species, rare species, and common species. Let’s publish all we document, and by doing so, we immortalise the land that is lost and species that are exterminated. Then one day, our children or grandchildren will realise what we could have saved but that which we had lost because of OUR short-sighted folly. And maybe, just maybe, they will learn to regret the past and treasure their future. We did it like how we saved Lower Pierce and Chek Jewa. The future generations will have their moments.

Abel, a close and childhood friend of mine who also grew up in Pasir Ris and helped with the greenbelt efforts, hopes for the best but isn’t too optimistic either, and offers some not-so-nice sounding but good and valid afterthoughts. Taken from an online conversation, with permission:

“Okay well, any sort of urban development at all requires us to clear green areas, it’s a simple fact.

Due to this, we can’t possibly save every single piece of forest or woodland. After all, if we refused to develop over natural areas entirely, cities would quite simply not exist.

Now I wouldn’t want to go into whether urbanisation is inherently evil or something, but I think only a misguided extremist would absolutely condemn urbanisation in all its myriad forms and degrees.

Ergo, I believe it is reasonable, necessary, and brings about a net good to clear some green areas for development. The issue then becomes one of, which ones do we develop, and which ones do we keep?

Unfortunately, it is my belief that the Pasir Ris woodlands, as of yet, are unable to fulfill any crucial criterion for it to be kept.

• Firstly, Singapore is land scarce. this might seem like a cop-out sometimes, but it is simply an unfortunate truth of our island nation. You may dislike it, but whatever the case, people like you and I who live in this nation NEED to use land

• Secondly, the Pasir Ris woodlands is relatively small. Whilst some would argue that it being such a “small piece of forest” is precisely why it should be trivial to save it, due to its minimal utilisation of land, the issue here is not so much the space it occupies, but that the value of the space it occupies is therefore more valuable for development as opposed to its value as a green area. For the most part, the area has already been sold off, and there is little we can do about it. the remaining patch of forest simply does not possess the same kind of capacity to sustain biodiversity as a large contiguous area. It has after all, been demonstrated fairly often how fragmented areas of forest simply do not provide a conducive environment for macro-organisms to thrive.

• Lastly, the pasir ris woodlands is unfortunately, mundane. I say this in the sense that it is simply one piece woodland amongst many other similar areas like itself. Unless it can proven that the woodlands possesses any unique forms of wildlife that are otherwise rare or nonexistent (and i don’t mean to say that any presence of an endangered species qualifies mind you, but that it must prove to be an environment uniquely capable of sustaining said species in a non-trivial manner) or that the woodlands otherwise represent a unique nature area (and not in the sense that it is among the last pieces of woodland within pasir ris, but in the sense that they represent a unique, rare, or otherwise unrepresented natural environment)

Also, at 30 years the forest isn’t really that old, and that frankly, it is not unreasonable for the government to say “we’ll make another green area elsewhere”. It’s unfortunate and in a less land scarce nation, or an otherwise ideal society, perhaps but not here, not now, and not for this piece of woodland.”

Lastly, my father sent me an e-mail with his thoughts on the issue, how he’s happy that we now have a more discerning citizenry, how we chose the right approach when bringing the issue up the the government – in an objective, non-confrontational way, trying to work together on the issue rather than taking a “us against them” stand.

The whole episode of the Green Belt has generated much thoughts. The hearing with MND on the issue provided fresh and much needed perspectives. Notwithstanding the fact that it is a local or site issue that may not represent a national or holistic concern, nor warrants significant priority amidst the range of more pressing national agendas, the issue does represent an emerging concern amongst the educationally mature and discerning citizenry. Understanding that there were similar appeals from different geographical representations and communities in Singapore coupled with the recent activism about conservation, preservation and environmental sustainability, the evidence is apparent of the growing awareness and advocacy.

However, what may be different is the way and approach that the residents of Pasir Ris have taken. The appeal is a civil one, removed from the positional contest, digging of ideological trenches and polarization of the issues. It is discussed within the context of a larger social argument beyond the ecological merits and benefits. The green belt helps to define the unique character of our town and how we embrace Pasir Ris as our HOME. The special way this little patch of green has endeared all its population, nature and man collectively, in fostering a harmonious quality of life further strengthen the conviction and commitment to its preservation. The engagement with the authorities and policy actors takes the form of a mature and sensible dialogue and exchange of points of views. It is a collaborative and consultative approach with the intent to work together in the interest of the issue. More meshing than clashing. More importantly it should not be a zero-sum game but a win-win for all. The genuine discourse attracts and invites a free flow of ideas, perspectives and authentic conversations that would otherwise be reduced or dismissed by personal or institutional egos and mental models. 

As the Green Voice grew louder and engender greater attention, it is imperative that we do not just echo prevailing trend and practices. It has to be one that is well informed, balanced and contextual. We need to have insights and foresight of the holistic policy landscape. We need deeper discussion and understanding of the central and attending issues. While we remain optimistic, we need at the same time to accept a comprise or conceding to hard pragmatism.

In conclusion, one of the positive takeaways of this event is that our government takes effort to address and listen to the concerns of the people. They went beyond giving a token response – a dialogue was organised, DPM came by door to door to listen to the ground, and the appeal was surfaced to URA and MND for their consideration. These are all positive signs that our government is actually listening and making serious attempts to address problems. It has given us more confidence in our voices being heard. Who would have known individual efforts on our part would garner such a response? DPM had taken more ownership for Pasir Ris West than I expected, his humility and genuine efforts to engage me, a personal e-mail reply and a house visit, have encouraged me and done away with some of my initial cynicism.

Also, while we may not be able to save every green plot, there are lessons and takeaways from every event. If anything I hope people now realise that as the country develops and quality of life becomes more important, the population is becoming more environmentally aware and appreciative of nature, and sometimes, manicured parks just cannot replace the feel of an untouched patch left to grow wild on its own. Every effort is worth it, even if the results are not as we desire, as each effort is another appeal to listen to the green voice and realise that it is no longer a small issue, and should be regarded as an important part of the national conversation.

As said in the previous post, if you have any comments or views of your own, please leave a comment, so I can garner more perspectives and insights to widen the horizons of myself and anyone else reading this and are interested in the issue.

A new toy and a ladybird

Got a conversion lens today that can be attached to the lens i already have, for either wide angle or macro functionality! Quite useful since i’m on the lookout for bugs most of the time

Testing the lens

Can actually make out the words on that tiny line on the $2 note!

Close up!

Quite handy indeed, lots of bugs whose photos i had to crop to make things out clearly can now be taken straight from the camera! cropping produces even finer detail, but heh don’t really have to spend time cropping anymore.

Seems to be a rather worthy investment so far, though it’s quite a hassle to mount. This will last me till i’m out of NS, when i’ll probably invest in a DSLR and proper macro gear!

Tested it out in Pasir Ris Park’s kitchen garden earlier this evening, but the sun was setting so the images are kinda noisy due to high ISO. Looks like a flash would be really handy..

Tried it on the resident keranga ants, none were in focus though ): need to work on that

Sadly, the photo with the best focus.

One of the many resident metallic green flies. I used to have to crop to see these guys properly!

A nice surprise! I went out really late and wasn’t really expecting to see much, but this guy suddenly popped out from behind a wooden signboard! It’s been a looooong time since i’ve seen a red ladybug, the ones i usually see are either yellow or black with red dots. Too bad i couldn’t get any good shots before it flew away..

Had to crop for this one, i really love how nature is so symmetrical in its design (:

Yay, can’t wait to try the lens out again!

 

Mad March!

March has been a crazy month, and now that the CTs are over, i finally have time to post again o.o Spent most of my time at Pasir Ris Park (and mangroves) and Macritchie, also spending some time at e shore. I’ll be posting the march stuff in parts, and by location, so this post will be looking at the stuffs in Pasir Ris!

gah see lah, so long alr i forgot the dates D:. but the photos here are in chronological order!

so on this particular morning, i was mucking about in the garden in the garden with my dad and we encountered this guy

one of em common mantises, minding his own business. not as creepy as the yellow one i came across the last time which had red eyes o.o

Theeeeen, on one of the walls we came across this lady.

a female blue pansy (Junonia orithya)!

when i first showed this to my parents and friends they’re reactions were all the same:

“wait, that thing ain’t blue!”

true, but for (presumably) sensible reasons, scientists tend to give descriptive common names to make species distinct from each other, so obviously in animals that show sexual dimorphism (i.e. where males and females look different from each other) they name the species after the more distinctive gender. for example, in the case of the striped blue crow, the common name is derived from the female which, obviously, has stripes on it. the male still has a blue colour at its wingtips, but however lack these stripes, as seen in this photo also taken in pasir ris but some time ago

Striped Blue Crow (Eulopia mulciber) – lack of stripes clearly evident

so what you see in the photo of the blue pansy is actually a female, which are supposedly rarer. while they lack the distinct blue coloration of the males on their hindwings, female blue pansies have larger orange eyespots (on the hindwings anw)

[Fast forward!]

kay so on this morning (i think it was the 5th) some friends and i went for a guided tour at pasir ris mangroves! unfortunately, i was being a prime example of one of the most annoying visitors, hanging at the back and spending more time trying to take photos of stuff instead of listening (but i DID listen! multitask!)

anyway we were walking along when i spotted a strange bump in the outline of one of the otherwise straight and angled wooden posts along the side.

so i waited for the group to move on first, and i hung back and said to it:

“i know what you are, you may have fooled them but you can’t fool me!”

to which there was no response.

after brief moments of doubting my sanity, i decided to take some shots of it and zoom in later to see if the strange stump bump was anything more than a strange stump bump.

Strange stump bump.

yup, so turns out it was a spider (which i’m having trouble id-ing)! but if i’m not wrong, its one of the spiders that stay completely still and try to mimic the end of a broken twig – and it fooled everyone else so. success! to a certain extent.

so, continue walking and we found a spider being all floaty, suspended in its web.

floaty spider

again, having trouble identifying it.

continuing, we found this cryptically colored grasshopper near the newly planted mangroves

see? its so cryptic! even its eyes blend into the substrate!

again, identification is a pain.

and then, there was this guy!

Its the BFG! (Big Friendly Giant, for all you sad people out there who have never read Roald Dahl)

a Nephila sp. (maculata i think?) commonly known as golden orb weaver spiders.

huge, and harmless. to humans anyway.

this “guy” is actually the female spider. the male spider looks very different, being red and approximately up to a hundred times smaller than the female (no shit)

they hang around in smaller webs connected to or made within the female’s web, waiting for the opportune moment (i.e. when the great female is distracted by a meal or sth) o make his move and deliver his goods. sometimes, multiple males may take refuge in the female’s web, so if you see one of them huge females, don’t forget to look out for the males too! (i forgot this time, D:)

so these things are mostly harmless.. unless you happen to be unfortunate prey or, a male Nephila. often after copulating, of the female is hungry she’ll eat the male. yikes.

after the walk, as we were walking along in the park, this lil guy landed on my friend’s face

cute, aint he? (also cannot identify D:)

Jumping spiders, reputed for being rather intelligent as far as invertebrates with teeny brains go, enjoy staring at you when you look at them to make you feel uneasy. then they jump onto your camera.

with a little coaxing though, we managed to let it off on a bougainvillea nearby. which made for a shot with a nice pink bg!

yay green on pink, go colour wheel!

oh gosh im not even halfway thru D:

[fast forward!]

was in the kitchen garden again on this day, and found this sneaky lil bugger hiding in one of em flowers.

ninja.

and again, i have no idea what this guy is called

after shooting this guy, a few park-goers walked by and like most other park-users, did not notice the smaller forms of life around them. i.e. the trail of keranga ants they trampled through.

ants mourning their dead sister

the aftermath was quite interesting to watch. the surviving ants actually picked up the bodies of their fallen bretheren, bringing them back to the nest. im not quite sure what for (perhaps they actually reuse the ant bodies – ZOMBIE ANTS)

[fast forward]

so on this morning, i found something really terrible.

EWWW. grosss.

it seems that at multiple points along the shore at pasir ris, there’s either reclamation/breakwater work going on.

either way, i don’t like it.

moving on.

25th March!

returned to the kitchen garden, this time with abel in tow. and saw a number of things.

the dreaded housefly, not in your house.

dont hate them, without them and their maggots to feed on rotting flesh of carcasses, we would be swimming in dead bodies. every animal no matter how annoying or hateable they may seem to us, is just a matter of opinion, they all have a role to play in the ecosystem. which brings me to a point

i dont feel there should be “pests”. animals we label as such are just so labelled because we happen to either infringe on land originally theirs, or we create the right conditions for them to thrive. to look at it in a larger scale, following our system of labelling pests, the world’s biggest pests would probably be humans.

kay moving on again.

as we were walking around, we realised that changeable lizards were scuttling about everywhere!

i think its mating season, alot of the males’ crests have turned red, and they keep doing pushups.

an emo lizard

changeable lizards are actually invasive species. this means that they were not native to singapore, instead they were introduced (probably a long time ago) and have almost completely displaced our local native lizard of its ecological niche, the green crested lizard which is now quite rare (and is also more beautiful IMO, seen it only twice, both times at the same tree at macritchie nature reserve)

other key example of invasive alien species would be the red eared slider/terrapin, the ones commonly sold at pet shops. people buy them when they’re small and cute, but when they get huge, people just dump them in longkangs or our local reservoirs, where they compete with the local species the malayan box terrapin for food and resources, also almost driving them out completely (ive never actually seen a malayan box terrapin in the wild before).

so, if you cant handle the responsibility, dont get em! and if you do, know that it is not good to release them indiscriminately.

kay moving on AGAIN (i think i’m gonna be a very naggy parent)

kay forget that I DISTRACT YOU WITH PRETTY BUTTERFLY

THERE! look! isn’t it preeety!

hokay this is a glassy tiger, i’m just not sure whether is the blue glassy tiger or the dark glassy tiger.

kay i just checked, im preeeetty sure this is a blue.

the blue tinge doesnt seem to be very obvious though. D:

in fact its almost non-existent. ah well.

anw, some info from butterfly circle!

“The Blue Glassy Tiger shares the same habitats with the Dark Glassy Tiger (Parantica agleoides). When the two species fly together it is not easy to separate them. However, when the butterflies stop to feed or to rest, the presence of a transverse black bar in the forewing cell distinguishes the Blue Glassy Tiger from the Dark Glassy Tiger.

This species is common in Singapore, particularly in the coastal mangrove areas. The butterflies are also attracted to the partially dried plants of Heliotropium indicum, usually turning up within an hour or two after the plants are hung up in the forest reserves.

The Blue Glassy Tiger feeds on a lactiferous species of Asclepiadaceae, particularly Gymnema spp. and is thus distasteful to birds.”

if i’m not wrong, i think the dark glassy tiger is actually a mimic of the blue glassy tiger, and does not actually taste bad. so yeah i guess we could eat those.

feeding! you can kinda see the proboscis (sucking mouthpart, for nectar) which functions as a drinking straw

another thing about butterflies is that they are notoriously hard to photograph.

damn teasers.

they stop long enough for you to get into focus… and just before you fire away, they fly off. D:<

most of the time, you get one second to compose, focus and shoot.

in this case, i was lucky as the tiger was too engrossed in feeding 😀

wasps, that seem to have made their homes in a wooden plank thing. seriously they just tunnel head first into tiny round holes in the wood.

like so.

some sinister garden spider, with a skull shaped pattern on its abdomen o.o

i think the debris it hangs in its web are to distract predators, so that they’ll hopefully go for the wrong “body” of the spider. either way, the spider and its web deco all look like bird poop, which betters the disguise (i guess birds arent smart enough to find floating poop out of the ordinary).

attempted artistic shots of kerangas heh.

rose chafer! this guy was really cute 😀

i got photos of him preening and scratching his armpit but for some reason wordpress doesnt allow me to upload in my video format, and fb sucks for vids, always hang. sigh.

oh for a guy whos into bugs, im ashamed that this is my first time realising beetles walk on their “elbows” too ><.

a caterpillar, doing just as the pic says.

im not sure why they fall from trees, but they’re lucky to have swanky spiderman silk swinging powers. woah alliteration!

and the cannonball, or more commonly known as pong pong trees are in season! their flowers are  so strange.

closeup

Side view!

detonated pong pong fruit heh.

also in season are the “singapore sakuras”

brilliantly pink, they stand out against the other green trees.

also managed to catch the pollinating buttefly in action!

not sure what it is, looks like a king crow, and yet it doesn’t. it IS pretty big though.

we then cycled to the tampines bike trail, which to our dismay, has been cordoned off and is BEING PAVED D:

no idea what’s going on there, but i don’t like it D:

the rolling green hills actually used to make us feel like we were in another country.

but in a nearby puddle, we found a blue dragonfly that i’ve been to lazy to try and identify 😛

in flight.

26th March!

another attempted artistic shot heh. lots of people come to pasir ris park to fly kites. some even fly these humongous octopus kites which look like stratosphere monsters from ubin 😀

and then while taking a quick walk through the mangroves, i saw something’s ass disappear over one of the wooden posts lining the sides and out of view, and i was like “that’s no ant”.

turns out it was a jumping spider, and was one of the smartest and most annoying ones ive come across too

everytime i tried to approach it, it would scuttle to the opposite side of the post and out of view. so i went back and forth about 7 times, and the thing probably thought it was being funny playing bollywood with me. and i was like “what, is your face too ugly for my camera?”

finally it came to a rest and just glared at me as menacingly as it could.

turns out my camera wasn’t good enough for its pretty little face.

the best shot i could get.. really should invest in a flash, crazy 2000 ISO is killing me. D:

though i guess the good thing about small cameras is that they’re more maneuverable and can fit into and go more places.

anyway, thats all ive got for pasir ris now

hopefully i’ll have time over the next few days to post on macritchie and SJI!