teamseagrass:- Today, the Team heads off to monitor Chek Jawa after the oil spill that hit this shore about three weeks ago. How are our seagrasses doing? While earlier reports by shore lovers and in the media suggest no major immediate impacts, effects of an oil spill can develop over the long term.

Nature Spies:- Check out syazkal excellent pics of the smooth otters fishing!

Bird Ecology Study Group:- “Was on my way out of this forest reserve, at the fringe, when spotted this Common Iora (Aegithina tiphia horizoptera) far away, high in a tree. It had nesting material in its beak – looked like soft cotton material possibly from a kapok tree (Ceiba pentandra). “I scanned the tree but could not find a [...]

Nature Spies:-

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

teamseagrass:-

Bird Ecology Study Group:- “It was late in the evening, at around 5.00pm when the birds would come one at a time to their favorite bathing spot, a small shallow flowing stream in the middle of the jungle. The lighting was pretty bad, but my video-cam just manage to cope with the condition. “The first to the bathing spot was [...]

teamseagrass:- It's our first morning low tide for the year, and a small team land on Cyrene Reef in the first light of dawn.

Bird Ecology Study Group:- In a post as far back as 22nd December 2008, it was mentioned that Gloria Seow had documented as many as seven different calls of the Black-naped Oriole (Oriolus chinensis). In the same post, this number was increased by one when YC made a 24-hour vigil in his garden. And there is also Wells’ (2997) [...]

Urban Forest:- Mel first told me about this trip but I wasn’t really interested at that time. It was only when PY asked me again that I decided to just try for it.

Urban Forest:- The highlight of the entire trip was on the second day, where we were to conquer Gunung Arong, a 300m hill.

Bird Ecology Study Group:- Sunda Pygmy Woodpeckers (Dendrocopus moluccensis) were seen by Steven Chong in October 2010 flying around the trees in front of his residential area at Bukit Batok, Singapore. At times there were three to five birds on the trunk of the Pometia pinnata, chipping away at the scaly bark, no doubt foraging for insects (below left, [...]

teamseagrass:- The weather wasn't cooperating, but a team of brave volunteers from Schering Plough led by the intrepid Sheryl and Helen went ahead for TeamSeagrass monitoring of the meadows just off their premises at Tuas.

Urban Forest:- I had initially thought that the day was going to be hot and sunny, perfect for another day of exploration. Unfortunately, it started drizzling when we alighted from the cab and a torrential rain came soon after in minutes… The best was that I was dressed in sleeveless and did not brought any rain gear. Luckily PY have an umbrella for me while she wore her waterproof jacket. And so, for the next miserable two hours or so, we walked in the rain (x3 worse than last week…), and unable to take out my camera to take photos. And I was also unable to bash into the swamp for fear of falling branches. Fortunately, the sky cleared while we were walking back and I was still able to capture some pictures along the trail. Again, some pictures of interesting plants (to me) which were mostly alien to me. Appreciate any help in the ID once again.

SLOG:-

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:- 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.

SLOG:- We have been calling this beautiful snake the wrong name.

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.

SLOG:-

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

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:- 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.

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

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:- 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:

SLOG:-

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:-

SLOG:-

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

For the Future of Our Forest:- Insects are a major group of arthropods and the most diverse group of animals on the Earth, with over a million described species.

Bird Ecology Study Group:- A number of birders have responded to our recent call to document vocalisation. This has been a much neglected aspect of local birdwatching and is much welcomed. We give below a collection of bird calls and songs contributed by Dato’ Dr Amar-Singh HSS. These recordings were made at the Keledang Sayong Forest Reserve in Ipoh, [...]

Nature Spies:-

teamseagrass:- The lead article of this issue features the important role of seagrasses in giving early warning of dangers to the shores. "Like the canaries that were used to detect deadly gases in the coal mines, seagrasses are our 'coastal canaries' detecting environmental degradation in coastal and reef ecosystems." The articles shares how intertidal seagrasses in the Great Barrier Reefs are monitored by Seagrass-Watch as part of the Reef Rescue Marine Monitoring Program to track trends in sediments, nutrients and other pollutants in the waters there.

For the Future of Our Forest:-

Nature Spies:- .flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; }

Bird Ecology Study Group:- 1. “I was with Elena who spotted the Oriental Magpie Robin (Copsychus saularis) with her sharp eyes in the front garden. Elena stood fascinated, looking on intently at the bird. We could not identify whether it was a centipede or a millipede in its mouth. Upon clarification, it turned out that the Oriental Magpie Robin [...]

teamseagrass:- After our Indoor Orientation session, it was time to head outdoors and try out monitoring in the field!

For the Future of Our Forest:- A long overdue entry on my OJT @ Lower Peirce Nature Trail on 7th April 2007.

For the Future of Our Forest:- Just a follow up on the previous post. Wanted to share 2 other pictures that I took of the Snow Flats (Tagiades sp.) at Lower Peirce so that "commander" will be able to help confirm its ID. :)

Bird Ecology Study Group:- “It had been a long tiring walk up hill and I was on my way down. I had one scare with some humans who were not pleasant and I thought I might get robbed (one of the perils of bird watching alone in the jungle). Suddenly the air was filled with the strident warning calls [...]

Nature Spies:-

For the Future of Our Forest:- Was at the Lower Peirce for the month May 08 Nature Walk. Uncle Johnny was there also and he guided the 1st group (big grp). As the group guided by Uncle Johnny is getting too big, we separate a family of 3 to a second group which I guided.

Nature Spies:- Ewww this is possibly disturbing for those who can't handle gory details..

For the Future of Our Forest:- The largest Snail that I've seen. I can't identify what species was it! This spider has a unique name. It is called St. Andrew Cross Spider. Its web contains 4 silken zig-zag bands, it resembles the cross of St. Andrew's. The purpose is to mark its territory.

Nature Spies:-

teamseagrass:- Have you wanted to make a difference for our shores? Curious about these wacky people who work on our seagrass meadows?

teamseagrass:- It's that time of the year to do the annual Orientation once again! And this time, TeamSeagrass is Three!