Ginger Rocks e Shores, e Sand & e Seas

My How-to Guide to Guiding

Monday, June 9, 2008

Sentosa Family Trail I - 5th Jun

This marked the first instalment of the Sentosa trails this year and i was glad to be a part of this. The family i guided :)

The fruit of the tape seagrass

A green algae

carpet eel blenny and a sea cucumber

mating horseshoe crabs washed ashore and returned safely by the 'naked ones'

red egg crab. Do not eat this.

mosaic crab. check out the beautiful patterns on its shell.

check out the width of this soft coral

a coral partly bleached.

wing of an insect and some tadpoles in the pitcher plant

posted by Wild Ginger @ 1:19 AM 0 comments

Sentosa Family Trail II on 9 June

We were greeted by the wild residents taking a dip at a pool when we made our way back from the trail.

The peacock also came to greet us at the beach.

Before that, Ley Kun gave some facts about the pitcher plant.

Gayatri & Jerald spotted the following: 1)swimming crab 2)egg crab 3)worm

Some shells found on the rocks

Onch and barnacles

I'm glad we had a good find today :)

posted by Wild Ginger @ 12:00 AM 0 comments

Saturday, June 7, 2008

Chek Jawa on May 1st

I had the privilege of going round with Ivan while he was guiding some visitors at Chek Jawa on Labour Day :)

Mud lobster mounds - like condo dwellings not just for the landlord, Mr Mud Lobster but also for crabs, frogs, etc.

Fruit of the Nipah Palm. Contains seeds - remember attap chee in your ice kachang?

The flowers of the Nipah Palm.

The Sea Hibiscus

The stem of the leaf produce a sweet sap that attracts ants.

Poo of the civet cat. The best coffee beans are those of the famous Kopi Luak.

Hermit crab in a shell

The prop roots of the Rhizophora

Pulau Sekudu aka Frog Island

After the walk, i moved on exploring ubin with my friend. Amongst the things we saw include:

a spider near one of the kampong houses

fish-tail palm

quarry which is restricted

one of the Malay kampong houses

posted by Wild Ginger @ 12:45 AM 0 comments

Friday, June 6, 2008

Semakau Trip 7 June 08

Met up with "The Mangroves" team this morning at about 5.30am. Was trying to catch the morning sunrise however, we were out of luck. But it was relatively cool and that was a bonus.

Pre-dawn shot of "The Mangroves"

I didn't spend much time snapping away the things we've spotted along the intertidal walk. Only managed to remind myself to do that much later...

Ocellated sea cucumber. Like most sea cucumbers, they extract the organic matter by ingesting large amounts of sediment. This serves as a food source.

Sunflower Mushroom Coral - A single living organism. The coral derives its colour from the zooxanthallae.

Puffer fish - This is a delicacy favoured by the Japanese. However, great lengths must be taken to ensure how this fish is prepared. This is a first sighting for me.

Bunch of sea grapes

"The Mangroves" with the Raffles Lighthouse in the horizon. Standing at the southern most point of Singapore which the public has access to.

Overall, it's an interesting day with a seahorse, two phylid nudibranchs, hairy crabs etc. Thanks to "The Mangroves" for being very spot-on during the walk.

posted by Wild Ginger @ 11:46 PM 0 comments

Monday, June 2, 2008

Recce trip @ St John's Island on May 8, 2008

CBD at dawn

Breathtaking sunrise

Part of the coastal forest and rocky shores. We even saw the heron perched on top of the hill.

It was my virgin trip to St. John's Island and i must say i'm extremely lucky. Guess it has been a while since i did any exploratory trip/guiding, so everything's out to greet me :P. Among the many finds, we spotted the following:

Soft corals