Biodiversity Singapore

Bitten by a Bittern

The Yellow Bittern Ixobrychus sinensis is both a resident and a short migrant in Singapore. When is the best time to spot bitterns? Like other birds, they feed during early morning and evening or when the weather is cool. This bird was spotted at the freshwater pond near the visitor center of Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve feeding.

Yellow Bittern feeds mainly on insects, fish and amphibians. They nest in reed beds and usually lays around 4-6 eggs.

P. Ubin Bird ID workshop 19/12/2009 Part-2

Chek Jawa exploratory walk, my first time walking on the shores of CJ. Usually i'll be on the boardwalk!

Hm... What's that? I called Marcus, he said that it's a flatworm! Wow first flatworm that i have seen on CJ bedford's flatworm Pseudobiceros bedfordi

Sea Star! A biscuit sea star

Hermit crab! Striped hermit Crab! Such a beautiful one. Like other hermit crabs, they need a home. SO where do they find their home or shell? They depend on empty shells that are leave beside by dead animals that ones live in.

My Lifer! A Thorny sea cucumber! I wonder if this is the smallest cucumber on our shores? I would say that it's quite common on CJ, a short 2hours walk i can spot about 5 of them.

Garlic bread sea cucumber. Looks like a Garlic bread! haha!

Peacock anemones, not sure of the IDs but their order is Ceriantharia. Look at the colorful anemones! Also quite common, like i said a 2 hours walk i can see more then 15 of them.

The First fish! Kite butterflyfish Parachaetodon ocellatus

After the intertidal walk, we went for a night walk. Saw the Common palm civets! Did not have a clear photo to show you guys as i do not want to FLASH the civets too much. :)

P. Ubin Bird ID workshop 19/12/2009 Part-1

My earliest trip to Ubin! It's always nice to see the sun rise! The first ''event'' was Ron hitting a volunteer with his new toy- The Koker!

Hahaa! After putting our stuff in the volunteer hub we set out for a birding trip with our field omithologist!

The Oriental pied-hornbills (Anthracoceros albirostris) is commonly seen in P. Ubin and chanji village. Do look out for the artificial nest around ubin! There might be a pair of hornbills inside.

A Grey Heron! There are also some of them with Red Legs, this means that they are breeding. Ubin is the few sites in Singapore that has breeding colony.

Someone spotted the common kingfisher, a common migrant that can be found near water. Also commonly seen at Chinese / Jap garden.

After birding, it's real work time! A 1hr class on birds!

Bukit Batok Nature Park

A stressful trip! But lots of fun and excitement. When I first step in, the calls of the Straw-headed bulbul Pycnonotus zeylanicus fills the air. Then I manage to have a look at it but did not manage to get a good photographs! It’s ok, at least the first hour I got my lifer.