Birds at Pulau Sekudu

We pay a visit to Pulau Sekudu during the Christmas Day. While the rest are still busy looking at the inter-tidal creatures, I do a quick scan on the birds that are around this tiny island that only surface during spring low tide.

This island is covered by sea water and only surface during spring low tide.

There are people that already on the island before we arrive. Since special permit is required for visit to this island, I assume this part-time fisherman got special permit??

Greater Crested Terns are the most common birds on the island.

Collared Kingfisher &

Common Kingfisher can be found on the island too.

Saw a Brahminy Kite too. Other birds spotted includes Little Egrets, Whimbrel & Grey Heron.

It Will Be Nice If...

After a very fruitful trip this morning with HY at Mc Ritchie while on my way home, I drop by a tiny beach next to Seletar Dam that is one of the favourite fishing spot. Fishing rod can be seen day & night week day or week end!!

As I was looking for sign of any water birds, I spotted some tiny birds were running around this very tiny beach.

This Malaysian Plover (Charadrius peronii) was the tiny bird that running around the beach. I was trying to get a clean & clear shot of this bird but I gave up after a while!






No matter how I try, there are always some unwanted FOB (foreign object deposits) in my photo!!! :(
Saw this Common sand piper (Actitis hypoleucos) on the higher shore near the rock wall & the condition is as bad!
This tiny beach is a more quieter beach compare to all other beaches and is one of the very few beach on the main land that watching of shore birds is still possible. It will be nice if the beach is cleaner!! Perhaps visit to this part of Singapore is not that convenient without own transport. Out of sight out of mind?

Monkey Business 4 - Happy Family

Saw this family enjoying the warm morning sun after the overnight rain at the Central Catchment Nature Reserve last week end.

This is their home and this is the place that they belongs to. There are plenty of food in the reserve and enough to feed every of their family member. However, things changed when people start to feed them. Out of convenience, out of curiosity and perhaps the fancy packing of humans food, some started to rely on human food instead of finding their own food in the reserve.

When they start to depend on humans food, they will become aggressive and start to snatch food whenever they see people eating or carry bag that look like carrying food. When the monkey 'walk out' from the forest, they can get themselves killed by the passing traffic.

Help them and also help ourselves...don't feed the monkey. Feeding the monkey is an offence and can be fined!

Monkey Business 3

No doubt that monkey are the very intelligent creature. I have seen long-tailed macaque on several occasions, doing things just like us - human being!

This time round, I saw long-tailed macaque trying to put on a shirt!

This macaque grab a shirt from a chair that someone place it there for drying.

It caught the attention of other monkey and all 3 of them trying to take control of the shirt.

This monkey managed to 'own' it and he grab the shirt running away from the rest.

It must have seen how human put on their shirt and this monkey trying to follow the same. It almost put it on!

To prevent other from getting the shirt, this macaque just run with the shirt to another corner and try to put on again. They are the smart one, now you agree?

If you miss my previous sightings on this smart creatures... read this:

Monkey Business 1 - having some real hot actions!!

Monkey Business 2 - trying to have easy food!

Semakau Exploration with Bedok View Sec

I was at Semakau again 3 days after the last trip. I was the guide for students from Bedok View Sec, a group of young, enthusiastic and fun people. We are glad the weather was good and the hunter seeker did a very good job. We saw a lot of very interesting animals that can only be seen by divers! However, due to the spring low tide, we manage to see them during the short period of time when the tide are low.

Group photo on the shore of Semakau!

Seize that moment! Capture this special moment with camera, the sun will drop below the horizon in no time!

More group photo!

One of the many interesting animal that we saw - Head Shield bug (Chelidonura pallida)

Thanks to Ms Goh & her students, I have a great trip too! :)

Semakau Inter-tidal Walk 26 Oct 11

Is have been almost a year since I last exploring Semakau during the evening low tide. When we arrived at Semakau, the storm is brewing & looks like a heavy downpour coming very soon. Luckily, the wind is strong and blow all the rain clouds away. We have a real good weather exploring the Semakau rich inter-tidal area!

One of the many beautiful creatures that we saw include this beautiful nudibranch!

This is my group, from Singapore Poly taking group photo at the area usually submerge underwater! This area will only expose during low tide.

We also managed to reach the most southern part of Singapore! Cool weather, colourful creatures, what a good way to celebrate!

Raptormania at SBG

I was at Singapore Botanic Garden (SBG) this morning for my usual birding trip. Since is now the peak of the raptors migratory season, I saw 3 raptors within 5 minutes!!
I first saw this Grey Headed Fish eagle Follow by a juvenile Brahminy kite
and follow by Chinese Sparrowhawk! Really a raptormania morning. More & more winter visitors are arriving such as this Asian Brown flycatcher

and also the Drongo cuckoo.
A very beautiful native bird - Oriental Magpie Robin that join the list & sing out loud just to make sure she will not be forgotten..

SBG is one of the few good birding spot in Singapore that always have something to discover... :)

Can't Decide What Camera to Buy?

Ever got confused with all the different types of digital camera on the shelf and every manufacturer claim that theirs the best?

Got this illustration from ST Digital Life on today's paper. Hopefully it give you some idea on which type of camera you think is best suit you.

Other than the 4 major types of sensors available, there is actually another type - Full Frame camera. The sensor size is based on 35mm film roll. This type of sensor are used on Pro/Semi-Pro camera. The camera I'm using for most of the shots on this blog belong to this category.

If you just want a not so heavy, yet powerful enough to let you manually set some or all setting while shooting, my opinion is go for Micro four third camera. This type of camera have wide range of lenses that you can use & smaller than APS-C or DX cameras.

Happy shooting!

Birds Watching at SBWR

With more & more arrival of the migratory birds, is time to head to Sungei Buloh (SBWR) to watch this once a year affair!

While I was washing my hand in the toilet, I heard someone knocking on the roof right on top of me. I was more than happy to see a pair of Oriental Pied Hornbill! Perhaps, they are knocking on their own image from the glass reflection.

There are quite a number of egret perch on top of tree just opposite the Main Bridge.

I saw this spider before entering the Main Hide. There are lots of birds feeding in front of the main hide.

This egret trying to scare the prey from their hiding so that she can hunt them.

Whimbrel is one of the bigger shore bird among those feeding on the mud flat.

Marsh sandpiper

This Lesser Sand Plover been to Singapore before! The ring (green & white) means it was tagged/ringed in Singapore before.

One of the best thing to do is just sit there watching the arrival/taking off of these birds.

Other than birds, the mud skipper can be found near the water edge. Good weather, good sighting & hope tomorrow the weather is as good! :)