A Female Scarlet Skimmer

I've seen the bright red male of this species in my school once or twice... But I had never seen the female dragonfly, which is a yellow colour. However, I never expected to find one that quickly since the Scarlet Skimmer was pretty uncommon in my school. I happened to spot a female one day on a fern plant near the pond.

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I love it's bright colours. Generally most dragonflies are brightly-coloured but this is still one of my favourite. Especially the male, which is such an attractive bright, cherry red.

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Here's a close-up shot of the head. After taking couple of shots, I decided to try moving a bit clsoer to it but it noticed me and flew off after hitting my camera.

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Few Shots from Keppell Golf Club

Went to the Keppell Golf Course at noon from school. We were taken there from school for a field trip. There were some very beautiful spots there. This is the view of the sea from the small restaurant.

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Beside were a plentiful of mangrove trees planted by the club. This enhances the greenery of the place and also attracts wildlife.

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The green grass of the golf course.

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And finally a silhouette of a dead tree.

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Back to the Dawn Dropwings...

We were about to head to Keppel Golf Club within a few hours and as usual I was stuck in school. So I decided to go to the CTW and see if I can spot any good dragonflies there. Like before, the female Dawn Dropwings were back.

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Had fun taking shots of these dragonflies after a long time. At least I can enjoy photographing them easily.

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Little Critters from Sungei Buloh

Found several little critters during the day in Sungei Buloh. A common cicada, pretty hard to find though you hear them too much.

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A brown locust.

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Small Yellow Butterfly

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A small, shiny and round beetle.

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A Slender Skimmer dragonfly at the small pond beside the lockers.

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And from that little pond itself, I spotted another Common Greenback resting on the floating plants.

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Sunbathing Lizards

Found several lizards basking under the hot sun in Sunei Buloh. This sun skink was happily tanning when I spotted it. Apparently I was actually wondering at the very moment where all the skinks had gone to this time.

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Then it was an adult male Changeable Lizard who was basking on a log at the water's edge.

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Spider Eggs or Spiderlings?

What do you think these creatures are? These small little dots are not spider eggs but they are hatchling spiders, called spiderlings. I nearly missed this bunch of tiny crreatures while walkign through the path with some of the students.

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The number of spiders in one group itself was simply uncountable. They were exptremely tiny that almost all the students looking at them were convinced that they were spider eggs and not spider lings. I had to take these shots and zoom in to the max to prove them wrong.

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There were many individual groups one a single plant. This was the smallest group I could find.

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Common Gliding Lizard

With my friend beside me, I decided to leave the group and follow a path took us to a shelter. There was no one on that path, hence it was very quiet and peaceful. Just as I walked half-way through the path I spotted a Gliding Lizard on a tree beside me. I whispered to my friend and slowly started taking some shots.

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It was a Common Gliding Lizard, also known as the Sumatran Flying Dragon. These lizards are able to glide from tree to tree by stretching their skin flabs under their bellies, forming it into somethig like a parachute. At first, my flash was too intense. I quickly had to reduce the flash intensity but by then, the lizard was already hot on the heels to run off.

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Just as I managed another shot, it jumped off to the tree trunk and started to climb higher up the tree. Missed another opportunity.

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Spot The Snake

As I was photographing a small sun skink hiding in a tree hole when some of the students said snake. I was pretty sure that they were calling the skink a snake since they coudn't really see any legs. I tried to explain to them that it wasn't a snake, but then they pointed to the water and said snake again. I looked down. Gosh. They were right. It was a snake.

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It was a Dog-Faced Water Snake, a common species though it was the first time I'm seeing one. I quickly tried to get some shots but the snake was swimming away fast. I managed a few shots but they still didn't look clear.

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The snake slithered away and I was dissapointed. Anyway, we had to leave it and so continued walking through the path. Just as we finished another turn in the path, my friend called out 'snake!'. I looked beside the path and there was another Dog-Faced Water Snake. However, this one was even more quick and left me in shame witha single shot, even that one was blur.

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When The Tide Goes Up

When the tide goes up... so do the Tree-Climbing Crabs of Sungei Buloh. When we were there the tide seemed to be a little high. Because of this, almost all these arboreal crabs have been forced to move up higher up the trees.

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Notice that these exposed roots of the mangroves are full of crabs. Here's a couple taking shelter ina hole. If they don't move up in time, they'll probably drown if the tide goes any higher.

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Sungei Buloh Sceneries

Went to Sungei Buloh again another day to guide the pupils from Jurong Primary through the Mangrove Broadwalk. As usual I was armed with my camera and I just followed a group. This time I decided to take some shots of the reserve, which meant nice sceneries and wild plants. Here are some shots of the mangroves in the Mangrove Broadwalk.

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Some more shots of further mangroves in the water, also taken from the mangrove broadwalk.

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After going one round I walked across the bridge to hunt there and take some shots. I the very next shot, notice that the bank of the water is full of birds.

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Taking a Rest

We were about to leave Sungei Buloh soon so I went to the lockers to get some of my valuables back. Just as I was about to leave, I spotted this blue dragonfly resting on a water plan in the tiny pond beside the toilets.

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I wasn't too good at shooting this dragon since there was no sunlight and it was pretty far. I've identified it as Aethriamanta gracilis, a common species. Since I knew it was common here i decided to leave and go back home with these shots. These shots here are heavily cropped.

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