A Hidden Beast High Up the Tree

It's been nearly 2 months since I last posted anything. This was because I had to wait for a friend of mine, Thomas, to send me his photos of... the snake! Well, I'm going to rush through my next few posts as I seriously have a lot more to post. We finally got a glimse of what the snake was. We looked high up the tree and found out that it was a Reticulated Python, about 2 metres in length.

My Camera with an optical zoom of 3X was no use in trying to take shots of this snake that was about 15 metres high up the tree. I had to call Thomas, mt friend to bring his camera, a Canon EOS 450D to shoot it. However, he only had a 18-55mm lens and so it we still could not get clear shots of the python.

Here's a badly cropped shot of the snake.

The snake, unfortunately was not left alone. The West Coast Park Managers had called the Pest Control Services to get rid of the snake. Isn't this stupid?! The python which is only about 2 metres can merely do any harm to adult humans, and it also helps to keep real pests like rats in control. But it looks like the 'Pest Controllers' are actually getting rid of the Real Pest Controller. I took a poor video with my digital camera of the snake being pushed into the pond from high up the tree. Poor Snake.

Herons for the Timepast

Really sorry for not posting anything for a long time. I was stuck with my exams and now, its finally over and I'm free. Hence I think I'll have to rush through my posts as I've got much more to show. Let me now continue with my story...

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As I had said, I was awaiting dismissal and upon recieving it, I was taken to the Carpark 1 area where the snake had been found. The staff there took us on a clubcar and drove us there. Once we reached the place where they rreported the snake, we frantically started searching the entire area for the snake. There was a big pond in front of us. Caught in my eye was a tall bird. A Heron. A Grey Heron, perhaps? I didn't get any clear pictures of it though. Here's a shot of it sitting down on the tree.

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A few more herons were spotted. All of the same kind, colour and size. I got a shot of one flying over the water surface, but no shots of any standnng on the ground. They were too far.

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We continued looking for the snake then. My hopes began falling as I thought that the snake would have already slithered away into some other place.

Pied Imperial Pigeons

Unfortunate me! I had a chance to see so many nice birds but I couldn't get a single good shot of them... In the meantime while waiting for independence I noticed a few white birds sitting high on a branch. I did not want to lose anymore chances so I immediately too some shots. They were all Pied Imperial Pigeons. But my shots were really, really bad...

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Can you spot a single difference in these three shots? No? Well I'm sorry if you can't.

Yellow-Crested Cockatoo

As I had said, once having done with the grasshoppers, I heard a very noisy bird flying around the trees near the carpark. I was standing close to where it was flying, and upon looking up, I realized that it was a white bird with a yellow crest. A Yellow-Crested Cockatoo, or Sulfur-Crested Cockatoo. It was extremely noisy while flying around; maybe it was angry about something? The bird landed on a tree and I started taking some shots of it.

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What a beautiful bird it is, especially when that gorgeous crest is showed up?

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The crest was slowly lowered within a few minutes. It seemed to have calmed down and was hopping around the branches. I really regretted not having told my friend to bring his Canon DSLR Camera as if he did, he would have been able to take clear shots of the bird. My camera was at full-zoom, and so the quality of these shots are very bad.

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For the first three shots, I had used flash. For this final shot (above) I decided not to use flash. This gave the sky a normal blue colour instead of white when flash is on. Anyway, what a great find, I've never spotted a wild cockatoo in my life before, till now.

Grasshopper Collection

Still frustrated by the fact that there was a snake for me to see, I walked around the shelter ignoring my seniors speech of painting or whatever. Since I did not know what snake it was, I could not know if it would have slithered away far or stayed at the spot to hide. I walked around the plants around the shelter to find myself in front of a whole lot of grasshoppers feeding on the leaves. I switched on my camera because there were tiny green ones...

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Tiny green ones in pairs...

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Small brown ones...

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Medium-sized Green ones...

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...And Huge ones too! These big ones looked exactly like those that used to be commonly found around my house at a point of time during the year.

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So much for some grasshoppers. And once I finished photographing them, I heard it! Yes, a noisy white bird was flying over me....

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.

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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.

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

Brahminy Kites in the Air

The briefing had nearly finished when we heard calls from some birds in the sky. I stood up to find myself looking at a few Brahminy Kites flying low. Although I had seen these kites a number of times, I never got the opportunity to photograph any of these. This time, I decided to give it a try though. I stood under the hot sun, my camera turned on and in ready position to shoot any kites that fly nearby. Just a few seconds after I turned on my camera, one of the kites flew above me. Just in the nick of time, I took a shot. Well, for a starter, this should not be bad.

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The picture was shaky and blur. If I had been less shaky the result would have been much better. Soon I managed to take a few more shots of the kites. But most of the time I did get the chance, I either missed them, or the picture would have turned out really bad. Within that few tries, this was the best shot I got.

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After a few more minutes of waiting, I chanced upon an individual nearing a tree. I immediately focused my camera on it and took a shot. Although slighlty blur and shaky, I did manage to capture the whole bird in the photograph, which I thought that I didn't.

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I decided to take a break for a few minutes, due to exhaustion. After my break, instead of standing up and looking at the sky with my hands in the air, I lied down on the grass with my camera resting on my chest. Just as I waited, a large Kite swooped very low above me. And just in time, I got an awesome shot of it, with the full body visible. The shot was rather clear and not shaky either! After zooming into the picture I took, I realized that I could actually see its open mouth and its legs too.

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I was really pleased with the shot that I got that I showed it to almost all my groupmates taht very moment. I knew that I could take even better shots from now on, and just as I lied down once again, another big kite flew lowly above me. I was still very excited and hence when I took the shot, the photo was shaky and s did not go better than the previous shot.

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It was about time for us to leave already. Two hours flew away with the Brahminy Kites that easily. At lest I was happy with that particular shot that I took.

Mole Cricket Nymph

I was once again back at West Coast Park for the rejuvenation of the Marshland there. Unfortunately for the previous day, other than the Sun Skinks, I did not spot anything else. For today, I was not expecting to find anything interesting but I did come across a few creatures. We were being briefed on what to do for today when a hyperactive guy in one of the Secondary-1 class started jumping around, trying to avoid something. I went to see what the matter was and then found it. There was a small cricket under the grass. After taking a few shots, the cricket seems to look like the Nymph of a Mole Cricket.

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The hyperactive guy could not stand anywhere near it that I had to relocate it nearer to the Marshland. After releasing it I took another similar shot and headed back for the briefing.

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Left with a Tarantula

We were just about to leave to school when I curiously lifted up a rock close to the vegetation. Something brown moved a little, and at first look itself I knew what it was. A Singapore Tarantula, the only species of tarantula that can be found in Singapore. It took me quite a while to get a full shot of it. First I managed to get a shot of it with its head hiding under its nest.

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These are hairy, robust spiders with heavy jaws projecting forward horizontally from the cephalothorax. The fangs point backwards, instead of facing each other like a pair of pincers as in most spiders. On the underside of the abdomen are two pairs of book-lungs, whose positions are marked by four pale patches.

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Soon it moved out of the nest cautiously and I was just there to get a shot of it with its entire body out. This is one of the pictures that I took:

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This is a common species found in and around leaf litter and under rocks and pieces of wood. Gardens and wasteland are its favoured habitat, thus making it common in urban areas.

Frog Faces

I wasn't really expecting to find any frogs at West Coast Park that day, although I could hear the calls of Field Frogs from the Paddy closer to the Marsh. But as we got out of the path, I noticed a large dead frog. I moved closer and figured it out as an American Bullfrog.

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This is a native of the U.S. and southern Canada, that has been released into ponds and reservoirs in Singapore as a means of religious merit-making. This is potentially dangerous to the other native species of frogs as American Bullfrogs eat almost anyhting, including their own kind. This leaves less food and space for our native species of frogs, causing their population to decrease. Luckily, this specimen did not manage to survive here and has hence died. If they were to survive, they could populate in such a high number that almost all other living animals here could vanish.

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Well, apart from the American Bullfrog, we spotted another Bullfrog, this one also an introduced species, the Banded Bullfrog. This frog is considered as a highly succesful introduced species, because it is the second most common frog in Singapore. Unlike the American Bullfrog, it has not done much damage to our eco-system as this frog feed mainly on ants and termites. Here are a few pictures we took.

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It was originally resting on the underside of a small piece of wood. I have seen this frog many times, but I never cared to photograph it as it was such a common species. And most of the time I had an encounter with this frog, I did not have my camera with me. This time I did, so I decided to take two shots of it.

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Mistaken for an Ant, Once Again

Ever seen a Mantis that resembles an Ant? Well, just two posts back I posted about Ant-Mimic Spiders, and now, here I am, posting about an Ant-Mimic Mantis. Well, I was roaming around the Nature Trail in the West Coast Park Marshland when I heard one of the Sec 1's say 'Praying Mantis'. I rushed to the spot and asked them if they had seen any, and all they did was point their fingers at a tiny black insect on the plant. At first look, it seemed like an ant to me, but not too long did it take me to realize that it was actually a Mantis! I started taking my photographs quickly: I didn't want to miss this opportunity.

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This tiny mantis is indeed a Ant-Mimic Mantis. It may not appear in such a way so as to catch and feed on ants, but it could be so because ants are very fierce insects that have a very nasty bite. This mantis, which I suppose is a juvenile, may not have very good defence when it is attacked by predators, but by acting and having a similar appearance of an ant, the predators may leave it alone, hoping not to be bitten. This is one fascinating way of defence for these tiny creatures.

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Almost all my photographs here are cropped up images as my camera did not have such a good macro lens. Anyway, by cropping, I can choose how big the picture size should be.

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As the mantis walked aroung slowly, I managed to get a few shots of it grooming itself. These are two of my best:

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This was one incredible insect. Well, it soon started to get rather nervous hid on the underside of the leaf. We left it alone, hoping it would not scare himself to death. What a great find.

Hard-Working Bees

I was finally at West Coast Park once again for the year. It was a CCA Trip there, and this time, I was once again the photographer, armed with my 12.1 MP Digital Camera. On the way to the Marshland, we nearly walked through this swarm of bees. They seemed to be gathering around to get into their holes under the wooden path. I started my work as a photographer by taking a few photographs of the bees flying around the path. After cropping my image, I got this:

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Not too bad though, for a starter. Well, soon after all the bees had gone in, we headed to the marshland to start on our work. Lucky me, I was slacking all the way taking some photographs!

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