Urban Forest:- Today is my first trip to Tanah Merah organised by KS with a ton of other of his friends. Glad to finally put a face to the awesome pictures in his Singapore Nature blog by James.

SLOG:- "What happens to the snake when I call 999?"

Urban Forest:- I find it quite cool that I can appreciate those once boring lawn plants now. Imagine, they are basically found everywhere and I can be easily satisfied basically anywhere! LOL~    St. Augustine Grass, Stenotaphrum secundatum is an exotic plant that seldom flowers but spreads vegetatively.

teamseagrass:- What are seagrasses and why are they important? Find out on this clip http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66Y5vgswj20, produced by Seagrass-Watch HQ.

For the Future of Our Forest:- " Wah!!!.. SO BIG!!!! "

Bird Ecology Study Group:- “On February 2010, an opportunistic survey of bird markets in Bali, Indonesia was conducted. Localities visited include Denpasar, Kuta, Seminyak and Ubud. Denpasar is the capital of Bali island and is basically an old market town dotted with many temples, street shops and beautiful houses. “It also boasts a thriving bird market that has become a [...]

Urban Forest:- It was good to have a long weekend holiday, though I dread the Chinese New Year visits. Luckily it wasn’t that painful and I in fact my mood got slightly better after the visitations.

Nature Spies:- Google LatLong: Create cool KML, win cool prizes

teamseagrass:- TeamSeagrass is back on Pulau Semakau today! Though the weather forecast was for a storm with thunder and lightning, and it got ominous as we started the ferry trip, we went ahead anyway.

Bird Ecology Study Group:- For the past many months the blog has been posting one observation after another by Dato’ Dr Amar-Singh HSS, so much so that he is uncomfortable with hogging the limelight. Only when assured that his many observations need to be shared that he feels comfortable with his many postings. After all, observations not recorded and [...]

teamseagrass:- Siti gave a great presentation about our seagrasses yesterday!

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Bird Ecology Study Group:- Kennie Pan’s close-up study of the Oriental Pied Hornbill (Anthracoceros albirostris) provides an opportunity to examine the details of the hornbill’s head (above). The black head has bluish-white facial markings – bare circumorbital (meaning around the eye) skin and bare throat patch. The eyes are dark red in the male and browner in the female (not [...]

Urban Forest:- I woke up early today hoping to do a recee before my walk at SBWR. The weather looked perfect when I waited at the bus interchange, or so I thought. Evi sent me an SMS about “raining giant lizards” in the west, followed by SF about thunderbolts striking in her area and lastly from Mel in the East.

Urban Forest:- At long last! After so many trips to Sungei Buloh, I managed to tap on RY’s luck and finally get to see the Estuarine Crocodile (Crocodylus porosus)!   

Urban Forest:- Another short post for everyone since I have not been out on any field trips recently. The lab that I am in seems to be a rehabilitation centre for rearing small insects.

Habitatnews:- The Battle of Pasir Panjang Commemorative Walk

Bird Ecology Study Group:- “I was witness to a brief confrontation between two Grey Herons (Ardea cinerea) last Sunday morning. “My attention was first drawn to a Grey Heron descending in the middle of the sea after making a sharp turn. As it descended, it decelerated as if it was moving in slow motion. When it was about to reach [...]

teamseagrass:- Happy New Year from TeamSeagrass as we start our first monitoring session at Chek Jawa for 2010!

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Urban Forest:- Overcame by an impulse to learn more about about our grassland vegetation, I cycled to the nearest empty stateland at Buangkok to take a look. Here is the nicely maintained grassland. I initially thought that there will not be much variety there but there is apparently more than enough for me to learn.

Bird Ecology Study Group:- “The Crimson Sunbird (Aethopyga siparaja siparaja) is described as more common near the coast but has increasingly been seen inland. I find it quite common inland in the surrounding areas of Ipoh, especially at the Kledang-Sayong Forest Reserve (up in Kledang hill or in the trails in the forest) as well as in secondary jungle/semi-cultivated [...]

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Bird Ecology Study Group:- Crimson Sunbird (Aethopyga siparaja siparaja) was observed feeding on a hibiscus flower (Hibiscus rosa-sinensis) for its nectar. Dato’ Dr Amar-Singh HSS photographed it at the Kledang-Sayong Forest Reserve in Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia on 12th February 2010. This hibiscus is native to continental Asia, probably China. It has never been found in the wild, being cultivated for centuries [...]

Urban Forest:- Thanks to A for organising this trip to the Central Catchment Nature Reserve, together with KY, CK and L. Nice to have plant experts around in a forest at this timing where there were hardly any animals so that it is not boring and also a great way to learn about more forest plants. This is Syngonium podophyllum, an exotic climber that has established in Singapore from horticultural trade. KY has written an NIS article on it recently.

Bird Ecology Study Group:- The Oriental Pied Hornbill (Anthracoceros albirostris) normally nests in tree cavities high up where it is safe from most predators - see here: 1 and 2. Lately, nesting boxes have been used in Singapore to provide scarce tree cavities for breeding. On 20th February 2010, The Star Online carried a report of a pair of the [...]

Urban Forest:- WF showed me some Lime Butterfly (Papilio demoleus malayanus) caterpillars that he was rearing. The caterpillar looked like this below.

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SLOG:- Lai Chien-Houng opened the door and a House Wolf Snake (Lycodon capucinus) fell onto the floor. This snake is THAT common (relative to other species) in buildings, probably because their food, geckos, are also abundant in this type of habitat. However, this species is still rarely encountered by people because of their secretive nature. Fortunately to us, it is neither venomous nor dangerous. This encounter, occurred in the TMSI (Tropical Marine Science Institute) compound at St. John's Island on 24 September 2007, made our day. We took some photographs and released it soon after that. The following photographs were taken by Lim Swee Cheng.

SLOG:- During a late afternoon on 8 September 2007, Chan Kwok Wai found not one, not two, not three, but FOUR Oriental Whip Snakes (Ahaetulla prasina)!!!! One of the snakes was sighted at eye level, while the rest were encountered at the tree canopies. The green colour and long body length of this species, are perhaps adaptations for life at the canopy, since the former provides the snake with a good camouflage against aerial predators and the latter allows the snake to move from canopy to canopy.

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SLOG:- This is an interesting article on snake venoms that was written more or less in Singapore context:

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SLOG:- I realised that STOMP contained a few more postings on snakes, which were not reflected in the result of my search for 'snakes' in the site. The following sightings appeared after I did a search on 'python':

SLOG:- "We are looking at two dog-toothed cat snakes. You want to come down now?"

SLOG:- I entered "snake" in STOMP's search engine and realised that the site actually contained quite a number of snake sightings posted by the public:

SLOG:- The last time I checked Singapore Seen (STOMP) at 23:00 h on 8 June 2007, a post titled "I killed a snake - in my 8th floor HDB flat" is top in the "Most Commented" category with 91 comments and is second best in the "Most Viewed" category with 5,766 views.

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SLOG:- The Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority of Singapore (AVA, which I sometimes refer to "Animals & Vegetables Authority" Haha!) explained why it is illegal for people living in Singapore to keep exotic wildlife such as snakes:

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SLOG:- There is an recent article in The Daily Mail that reported on the increasing use of snake skin in the fashion industry.

SLOG:- This Banded Krait (Bungarus fasciatus), photographed by Loh Kok Sheng and posted in his blog, made a pleasantly surprised appearance at the launch of the Chek Jawa Wetlands on the morning of 7 July 2007.

SLOG:- A fun-filled activity, named 'Fun with Snakes', was organised by the NSS Education Group on 15 September 2007 to raise awareness on snakes, with emphasis on local species, among kids in the age group of 5-9 years old.

SLOG:- Yang Shufen found this Equatorial Spitting Cobra (Black Spitting Cobra; Naja Sumatrana) near a mangrove at the southwest of Singapore Island on 13 September 2007. The following photographs were contributed by her.