Sunday, February 22, 2009

Urban Nature Tour at Historical Town of Malacca

Thanks to Channel 8's TV drama 小娘惹 the story of Peranakan which were shot at Malacca. Malacca is now one of the favourite week-end trip for many fans to experience themselves the food, the place & the history of Peranakan.If you have visited Malacca, you will never miss the beautiful flowers that were planted everywhere you go.
Well, the minutes I arrived at Malacca, I straight away go and check out the White Bellied Sea Eagle that I saw last year.
She has grown bigger now! That is good!
However, the nuisance by the house crow continues... Hopefully their next generation are doing well and have started another family some where.
Being a lazy photographer, I always leave my tripod at home... guess I'm not a bird photographer... ha haThe next time I visit here, I must make sure I carry my tripod to get clearer shot. ha ha



Some of the flowers that I took and there are many more that you got to explore yourself to find out. Include the rare Hoya flowers.Different kind of fruits...and not forgetting cicak (house lizard).

Malacca have more to offer other than the rich history and cultural. Is a good place to enjoy nature without going to FOREST! You can easily finds butterfly, birds, dragonfly, flowers, etc that has became less common in Singapore.

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Butterfly Park @ Alexandra Hospital

It was slightly more than a year when I last visited this little garden over at Alexandra Hospital.
First or first pair of butterfly that I saw was this mating probably Common Mormon that on a lime tree. Or could that be lime butterfly?
A beautiful Blue Glassy tiger butterfly.
A very bright yellow butterfly - Common Grass Yellow
A Chocolate Pansy
This is a Leopard butterfly. Thanks Commander for the id.
I have no idea this very hairy caterpillar will change to what butterfly or why it decided to stay at the open area? No fear of any predator?
However, this lime Caterpillar rather stay camouflage with their colour similar to the branch they stayed. When provoke, they will try to deter their predator with this very fierce looking face. Does it looks like a snake with their red tongue extended?Other than butterfly, this garden also house to many other insects and not forgetting spiders. Such as the jumping spider with the face of a 'Mask Rider'.A rather rare spider to be found in the urban area - a red Tent Spider (Cyrtophora unicolor). Red tent spider are usually found within mangrove vegetation.Again, I was puzzled by this spider with a very distinctive web.Another beautiful Horned spider probably a Gasteracantha kuhliThe palm tree is flowering and attracted lots of bees.In the nature, nothing is go to waste, even poo! The dung beetle was first to arrived...follow by fly...Several different dragonfly can also be found in this small garden.This beetle was still lazying under the sunlight.Cicadas call can be heard within the garden too. I'm not sure why this cicada decided to rest at artificial tree trunk (a lamp pole). Perhaps trying to prove that he got no fever??As with any outdoor activities, if you are prone to mosquitoes bite... remember to wear long sleeve or apply insect repellent. I'm sure you don't want the mozzie army to spoilt your activities.

Monday, February 9, 2009

Lunar Eclipse On Last Day of Lunar New Year

I miss the solar eclipse 2 weeks ago so I decided to at least have a look at the lunar eclipse on the last day of lunar new year. I started at 8.59pm and the moon looks bigger than usual.Not much changes for the first one and a half hour.Lower part of the moon looks darker when I took this shot at 10.23pm. Is this the lunar eclipse?Not much different from the earlier shot.I took this last shot at 11.04pm before I pack up and go home.I combine all the shots in one photo for comparison.

Sunday, February 8, 2009

Attack of the hairy pincer

At first I thought it was an octopus trying to burrow when I spotted a dark brown lump from a distance. As I get closer, I saw purple ink flowing out from the burrow and I knew that it was not a octopus but a sea hare. Sea hare will release purple ink when disturbed.
Knowing it is a sea hare doesn't solve the mystery! Why do the sea hare release purple ink when it is about to burrow? Why do the sea hare want to leave behind the clue about their where about?
It is actually attacked by the hairy crab (Pilumnus vespertilio). The sea hare is actually not willing to burrow but the hairy crab is the one that is trying to pull the sea hare into its burrow!I touch the burrow lightly and the crab immediately let go of the sea hare. This sea hare is probably too big for the crab or too big to squeeze into the crab burrow. Once the grip from the crab is gone, the sea hare immediately flap its wings and swim off and more purple ink is released!
The purple ink stop once the safety of the sea hare is secured! Well this sea hare just survive an attack from the hairy pincer! This beautiful sea hare have a very nice name - Extraordinary sea hare (Aplysia extraordinaria) and they are herbivorous which means they feed on plants (sea grass). They are usually found among sea grasses and this is probably my 1st time seeing it attacked by its predator. I'm not sure other than hairy crab, what else feed on this beautiful sea hare.

Saturday, February 7, 2009

Turtles Spotted at Semakau

This is the my 2nd time spotting turtles at Semakau! Not just one but at least 3 of them swim close to the shore. We first saw one and later two and at least three turtles.
We are actually on our way back to jetty after the mangrove survey earlier. Although is near the shore, it is still too far to capture a good photo from inside the bus that we are on without my zoom lens. Can't confirm the id from the distance we are at, but now we now know that there are turtles swimming around Singapore waters!