So Close, Yet I Missed It.

Nope, not at all. Guess what, I was just a metre away from this squirrel, yet I still could not get any perfect shots of it. I was at West Coast Park for my CCA when I found this squirrel munching on a fruit. Initially there was a Changeable Lizard sitting right next to it, but the squirrel chased it away before I could attempt to take a shot.

-

-

I was informed once that a snake had been found in the Carpark 1 area. I just could not wait for our seniors to dismiss us. In the meantime, I found a number of animals, mainly birds. But they were my weakness; my camera only had an optical zoom of 3 times, making it rather useless in taking long-distance shots. If I did have a camera with more optical zoom, I would have managed to get a clear shot of this squirrel as well.

-

-

The squirrel picks up the friut in its mouth and decided to run away.

The Dragonflies have Emerged!

As you know I had been keeping dragonfly nymphs for our school project. A few of the dragonfly nymphs that I were keeping eventually emerged out as adult dragonflies very soon. I woke up one morning to hear a buzzing sound from one of the containers. Upon checking it out, it was an adult dragonfly. I did, however, manage to shoot the dragonfly before it flew away.

-

-

I brought it to school by placing it inside a paper bag. Once I reached the CTW, I opened the bag and released it. It was too fast that I lost sight of the dragonfly as soon as it flew. Here's a shot of the moulted skin of the dragonfly nymph.

-

-

Just a few days after the first, a second dragonfly emerged. This time, it was out of the container and flying around my room. Lucky the dragonfly didn't fly out. But it would not have been too bad if it did.

-

-

A side view of the dragonfly that I took by placing the camera parallel to the wall.

-

-

And finally another shot of the new dragonfly's moulted skin.

-

-

I took this one too in a paper bag to school and released it near the School's CTW. So far a success.

Spot the Birds

I had a number of photos of birds with me lately, but I just could not post them since the picture quality is very weak, and the birds are barely visible either. I'm making use of some of these images by asking you to find the birds that are somewhere in the picture. Can you find them?

-

First picture, taken at the Marsh Pond in Jurong Central Park. Spot the bird, which is a Yellow-Vented Bulbul.

-

-

Second picture, also taken from the Marsh Pond in Jurong Central Park. I'm not exactly sure about what species of bird this is, but it does look somewhat similar to a Shrike or Sparrow. See if you can spot it or not.

-

-

Last but not least, a photograph taken long ago from Bukit Timah Nature Reserve, a species of forest pigeon that was hopping around in the undergrowth beside the path leading to the summit. This one should be very easy to spot.

-

-

So, can you spot the birds?

Damselflies too!

I was yet to see damselflies in the School's Constructed Treatment Wetland, and it was on one particular day when I spotted a tiny one flying around the plants in the CTW. Initially it looked brown but when it sat for me to photograph it, it was green. Or is it a different one? My shots are not very clear since the damselfly was very tiny.

-

-

It flew to a different location every 15 seconds and so I did have a hard time to shoot it. The second picture in here looks awful. If only I could get a better camera with extra-zoom and better macro...

-

-

-

Finally a decent shot of it with its full-body clearly visible.

-

-

So now damselflies are attracted to the CTW too. If they were to be able to breed in here, that would make the school much more rich in diversity and more attractive to other animals. Hope this would work.

Dragonflies added to Favourites

I had been chasing dragonflies in the CTW shortly after my lessons, when it was raining very heavily. As soon as the sun was back in the sky, the dragonflies were out basking too. I crept up to a few to shoot them. I tried with flash again this time, but not for long once I noticed the not-so-good effects. Check out this shot.

-

-

Some shots taken from the front. Flash was still on and hance a bit of the eye is claer, but not perfect yet.

-

-

-

-

I have a sudden liking for dragonflies nowadays. Part of it is due to my Dragonfly Project, and another part is due to my own personal interest. Now whenever I see a new dragonfly species, I'm as excited as I am when spot a snake! Well here are a few sots I took without flash. The dragonfly seemed to have given me good poses to shoot.

-

-

I've got another shot of the dragonfly, this time it was standing almost fully vertically, causing me to tilt my camera the other way to shoot it.

-

A Tiny Toad

The days went on and on with no life. I had been photographing Dragonflies whenever I see them but I'm still collecting all my best pieces. In the School's CTW, the Asian Toad Tadpoles had started developing into toads. I chanced upon something like a cricket hopping around the leaf litter next to the CTW one day. My friend said 'frog' when he saw it but I corrected him saying it was a cricket, only to find myself in the wrong side when I saw what it exactly was.

-

-

I had a hard time trying to shoot this creature as it was very tiny and always hopped away when I'm all ready to take a snap. In the end I managed to get these shots...

-

-

-

-

This shows that the toads will soon multiply and our school's pond and CTW will be repopulated with them like it was a year ago. That may mean less dragonflies and other insects, since these taods may prey on them.

Zebra Doves

It has been a rather long time since I last posted. Once again I was back at school, this time with nothing much to find. I came across this pair of Zebra Doves behind the field, pecking at and eating stuff in between the grass. I have photographed this species before, at Jurong Central Park. But I don't understand why, whenever I see this dove, they will always be in pairs.

-

-

-

Only if I could find something more interesting.

Exotic Pets- Dragonfly Nymphs

Ever kept any exotic pets like insects or other creepy crawlies? Due to our dragonfly project at school, I was given five dragonfly nymphs to take care of. They were very tiny, about 2 centimetres in length. I brought them home to take a few snaps. Here's the biggest one in the group.

-

-

It may be rather difficult to spot them as these nymphs were caught from our school pond's filter, and the filtered substance is also in the container so as the nymphs feel safe. I had a hard time photographing these tiny nymphs as they would always dig into the substrate once they were exposed. Hence most of my pictures here may not be very clear. Here's two of them together in a single shot. Notice their colour differences. The brown one is older than the yellowish-green one.

-

-

I soon moved two of the small ones into two different containers. One container held the water from our school pond, and the other contained the water from our school's Constructed Treatment Wetland. Here's the nymph from the pond water.

-

-

A few days after I first brough them, the nymph in the tank with the water from our school's CTW actually moulted and became a light green. This showed that the living conditions in the tank were suitable for the nymph to live in. Here's a shot of the newly emerged Dragonfly Nymph.

-

-

To add more life into the water, I placed some tiny water snails and some tadpoles into the water. The water snails were collected from the pond and the tadpoles from the CTW. Although I feed the dragonfly nymphs tubifex worms, I could observe and see if the nymphs attempt to catch and feed on the snails or tadpoles. Here are few shots of the snails.

-

-

-

And here's one of the tadpole.

-

-

And sometimes, these creatures may get together for a small talk. Well, by now you should have noticed that the environment in the tank is somwhat similar to that of a mangrove habitat when high tide. This allows the nymphs to climb up the twigs when it is time for them to emerge as an adult dragonfly.

-

Four-Lined Tree Frog

Finally, I was once again re-united with Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve. Its been more than a week since I've been there as we usually go there every Wednesday for our guiding. But on this particular day, it seemed that we didn't even need to guide at all, thanks to mother nature who decided to give the area a heavy downpour. Meanwhile as one class attended the SBWR Video, I led the other class to the side to show them a large Malayan Water Monitor. Without me knowing, a few pupils started taking photographs of something sitting on a big leaf- A Frog. My immediate thought was an Asian Toad but it turned out to be a Four-Lined Tree Frog.

-

-

-

It was the first time for me to encounter this frog. Although it is said to be very common in Singapore, I rarely find frogs or toads in the nature reserves as majority of them are nocturnal in habits. The frog, alarmed by the sudden waves of flashlights from each person's camera, stood up alerted.

-

-

-

-

The Four-Lined Tree Frog is the most common Tree Frog in Singapore and has adapted rather well to urbanisation. It is commensal with humans and can be found in disturbed forests, scrubland, parks and gardens. Most commonly encountered a few feet from the ground clinging to small stems, it may also be found in puddles on wet ground.

-

-

As you can see, the frog had actually turned its whole body around, positioning its face to the rest of the plant, ready to jump at any moment. I was about to take another shot but just at that very moment a sudden movement from one of my schoolmates forced the frog to leap all the way to the other end of the plant. It actually covered a distance of nearly two metres! If it could jump this far during the day when it is inactive, I wonder how far it could jump at night when it is all active! I was astonished by its powerful hind legs and immediatley took two shots of it furthur away on the other end.

-

-

We had to leave by then already. The sky showed no symptoms of the rain going to stop and hence we were helpless. We headed back to our buses before the rain got any heavier. At least I was glad I could find a nice creature even without having to go deep into the reserve.

-

Zoomed In and Cropped

I started off the very next day with a slight fever and cough. I had no idea on what to do but I knew that the front garden should hold some interesting insects. During my break I headed off towards the garden to see what I could find. Well, I spotted a whole lot of extremely tiny insects on the plants. I never expected to find so many insects with such a small size. Here they are. First insect I chanced upon was this tiny moth that sits and rests like a treehopper.

-

-

I spotted another one of the same kind on another plant too.

-

-

There were quite a number of tiny ladybugs too.

-

-

A Tiger Moth, also called the Day-Flying Moth as they are active during the day.

-

-

Tiny Spiders. This particular one was extremely small yet very colourful.

-

-

The other spider was a different species, and it was actually translucent! You could actually see the leaf through it! It was a very shy and tiny spider too.

-

-

Several green flies were flying around. They do look similar to mosquitos.

-

-

Finally a very tiny and weird-looking fly with stripes on its wings and a sucking mouthpart, similar to the common housefly.

-

-

I had to crop every single one of my images here, or else these creatures would not have been visible at all. They were that tiny.