Great Day Out At Our Nature Places.....

I was out the whole day on Saturday visiting our nature spots.

In the morning, met up with AA heading to the North to have a walk at Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve. As there's no bus alighting at the Reserve on Saturday, we trekked through Kranji Nature Trail to get to the Reserve.

Along the trail, we came across these;







Then we came to the boardwalk along the trail. I was looking at the seaward side when suddenly I heard a sound of something diving/dropping into the water behind. I turned and checked, but did not see anything until I noticed some bubbles coming up to the water surface.

So I waited.....then there was this little head popping up underneath the water!


It's an OTTER! Finally I get to see one! :o) So CUTEEEEE!

Here's it showing its teeth when it noticed us on the boardwalk.


After which, it just ignored us and continue diving in and out of the water. We spent quite sometimes observing it. It caught a fish and after sometimes, disappearing into the deeper part of the mangroves.

Haha.....and by the time we reached the Reserve, I had little time to walk around as I had to rush off. So I just make my way to the main bridge and just before the bridge, came across this beautiful Oriental Whip Snake.



And after Sungei Buloh, I was on to another exploration of the day. This time to one of our Southern islands, Pulau Hantu, for an intertidal trip.

The tide, however, was not going down much as predicted. Thus, we spent most of our times at the high shore.


On the Solitary Fan Green Seaweeds (Avrainvillea sp.), several such Sea Slug can be found on them. These could be Costasiella slug (Costasiella sp.).


We also came across a few of these Anemones. Some of them were very sensitive to my light and retreated into the sand very fast when my torch shine on them. We were wondering if this could be the Anemone that was named after this island, Pulau Hantu?


Came across this Gymnodoris nudibranch. Looks like Gymnodoris citrina.


And the mission of the trip was accomplished when the Giant clam was spotted for our Giant clam researcher, ML.


And the highlight of the trip is this Basket Star found by James! Wow.....and this is my 3rd time seeing one after Big Sisters and Keppel Bay.

It was a great day with great sightings!