Nut Cracker

You might think that these photos was taken in the Bird Park isn't it? No! It was taken in one of the most frequently visited public beach. These photos was taken at Changi beach to be exact. All photos & video were taken with just my compact camera! It was not a birding trip so I did not carry my standard birding equipment.

These cute cockatoo birds are in fact introduced to Singapore through bird trade few decades ago. Some escaped and have established here in Changi. They are called Tanimbar Cockatoo (Cacatua goffini).

At times you can even see flocks of up to 30 looking for their favourite food on the ground. However, it was not these colourful flowers that they are looking for.

Their favourite food is the Sea Almond fruit/nut.
Their powerful bill can easily crack open the fruits and go for the nut inside.

The Sea Almond fruit was crack opened neatly and the birds only interested in the nut that sit right in the middle.

This clip was taken with just my compact camera and see for yourself how smart these birds are.

Oil At East Coast Beach as at 27 May 2010

As at this morning 27th May, 2 days after the collision off the east coast despite the containment, traces of oil can still be seen on the favourite East Coast Beach.
The sea water are chocolate colour near the water edge.

Beach are stained with oil marks.

These floating debris was a shore with oil stained.

Thick oil stains on the sand.
Workers are working hard in clearing the oils and debris stained with oil from the beach.

Starry Morning at Changi

It was 3+am when we arrived at Changi beach. The weather today is fantastic as it has been raining in the past few morning. There were lots of green sponges growing on the rock surface. We found lots of rock star (Asterina coronata) on the rock surface and also the shore. The rock stars seems doing well here compare to other shore that I've visited. SY found another one in pink. I saw this 6-armed sand star (Luidia penangensis) on the high shore. SY found another in pink colour. Could this be Luidia hardwicki? We saw lots of smaller sized comb (Astropecten sp.) sea stars. Strangely, we didn't see any adult comb sea star!
Biscuit (Goniodiscaster scaber) stars also quite common near the sea grass bed. We also saw another sea star that very similar to biscuit star but with more knob and spiny - Gymnanthenea laevis sharing the same sea grass bed.Not forgetting another biscuit looking star with larger body size - Cake sea star (Anthenea aspera). Wow! Is really a starry morning!
As we walk along the shore line, I saw quite a number of empty horse shoe crab shell or moult, both the mangrove (with round tail on top) and the coastal (triangle tail at the bottom of the photo on top). Ball sea cucumber is another animal that doing quite well over the shore here.
I'm not sure the id of this black sea cucumber.This strange looking 'stick' is actually a sea pen with their tentacles retracted when out of water.
This is my 1st time seeing this branching anemones (Actinostephanus haeckeli) in local water. It seem to be irritated by the fishing line.A close-up look on this weild looking anemones.See something familiar? This anemones is enjoying his breakfast...Oh! Is a hermit crab! I wonder if the anemones take in the shell as well or how the anemones seperate the hermit crab from its shell?There is another crab - elbow crab staying at the side of the anemones. Does the elbow crab immune from the anemones stings???There are lots of tube anemones with different colours.The photo on top showing fan shell with their mantle out from their shell.There are lots of flower crabs roam freely the entire tidal area searching for food.This is the close-up look of the leaf porter crab (Neodorippe callida)This eel-tailed catfish was stranded by the down going tide.This butterfly fish was hardly bigger than a 5 cent coin!!

As always, Changi - always so lifely and with full of suprises!

Changi Beach Afterdark

I head straight to Changi after leaving my office on Friday, not to catch a flight but to visit the shore that I finds it always so attractive. Not because of the F&B outlets (in fact there is none) but the animals that lives there and most of them can't be found at any other part of Singapore anymore.

While waiting for the rest, I take a walk at the newly constructed bicycle/jogging track along the Nicoll Drive. There are lots of milipede crawling on the track . Millipedes will curl up when threatened, and they thrive on vegetation.

We saw lots of sea stars the minutes we stepped onto the shore.

There are lots of sand star of all sizes! Some of them measured only about 2cm wide.

Another 2 cute little star, probably cake or biscuit (just in time for Chinese New Year?? ;-) ) sea star.

And the green sea star too. Among the sea grass, there are also lots of tiny pipe fish and spider crabs.

We also saw this horseshoe crab that measured 45cm from head to tail!!

There are several bristle worms and ball sea cucumber on the sandy area.
Not forgetting this sand bubbler crab too.Another tiny animals in the Mini Series..... a scorpion fish.Where are all the adults??...
Sea urchin
Believe this 2 molluscs have been fighting for some time. The white clam will eventually become the meal of the drills(family Muricidae) which is smaller in size. Drills can bore holes in the shells of their prey and it may take up to half a day just to drill through the shell of 2mm thick.This smooth body worm like animal is in fact a sea cucumber(family Caudinidae)

A hairy seahare (Bursatella leachi)
And the best find so far is this beautiful sea horse! The tide was coming in so we head back to the shore.

The pink sea cucumber is everywhere when we head back to the shore area. Changi is still as charming....