Emerald Dove by DeSwitch

"Pardon my blur photo.. 1st time using my new lens then and this dove was so elusive. lierally chasing him around the forest..."

the photo is pretty sharp i feel heh check out this bird it seems to be uncommon in sg
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Black Tipped Reef Shark @ P. Semakau by Kevin

edit: added this google maps thingy. p.s. click on the satellite pic to see it in full glory!
p.s. coords are inexact now...

WOW! i was like shark??!?!???
haha boy was I lucky to have eagled eyed companions for today's teamseagrass survey. Sharp eyed Robin also identified the black tip which I can only verify later from my shots.
albeit blur and small.. (darn I need an canon IS telephoto zoom!!!)
you can roughly see the shark in mid day!

detailed account:
we were going for a tour of P.Semakau after a tiring seagrass survey and fighting the mozzies on the trail back. Just when we thought that's all the island had to offer us for the day. Someone shouted 'Shark!'. The nice bus driver slowed down the bus and then eventually stopped. Everyone was in disbelief and denial and there were quite a few 'where got??' (add to the fact that we were kinda late for the boat) so nobody really wanted to leave the bus until Robin gave an inspiring shout of " Get off the bus to see clearly lah!"
hahah so that's how i got the shot.. ;p

Dolphins @ St. John's

from wildsingapore:
Dolphins sighted in Singapore! with video clips!
on the habitatnews blog
http://habitatnews.nus.edu.sg/index.php?entry=/marine/20070407-dolphin_video-st_johns.txt

Paradise tree snake eating a gecko @ changi boardwalk by francis

Wow
I haven't seen the snake in the wild before but this lucky guy got it eating a gecko!

thanks to Francis for graciously providing the images for use here. all copyrights remain his :)
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knobbly seastar Protoreaster nodosus @ Cyrene

IMG_1384_raw seastar transect tape peg, originally uploaded by koiyau.

spotted this knobbly seastar (Protoreaster nodosus) at Cyrene reefs while helping out with teamseagrass surveys. Guess it wanted to join in the survey? haha sorry you are not big enough yet!

p.s. No seastars were moved in this posed shot. gears were surrepitiously moved around it instead lolz

Insects @ Lower Pierce by stevewhy

Thanks to stevewhy for graciously volunteering his images! Will label them when I get more time.

Spider marcos from Henry Park by tchuanye

Stunning macros once again from tchuanye!
there's a green crab spider with a nest and more!
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Paradise Tree Snake by Daniel Koh

Rather humourous shot of the snake peeking from behind a rock! Must see
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Thanks for Daniel for graciously allowing his pics to be used here.

Crow-billed Drongo @ P. Ubin by mphil

"P.Ubin's CBD - Crow-billed Drongo

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Not the business district, but a very shy and elusive bird. Managed to take some pics of this bird that has a beak like a crow and tail feathers of a drongo. There is at least a family of 4 CBDs living on the island. Spotted them several times before but never been able to get a clear shot of them yet."
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Sunda (brown-capped) Woodpecker Dendrocopus moluccensis by Daniel Koh

Excellent Close up of Sunda Woodpecker by Daniel Koh!
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Thanks to Daniel for allowing me to reproduce his images here!

Atlas moth @ Sungei Buloh by lovells19

I haven't seen its wings folded up before its antenna is also clearly shown in the pic! Someone posted the larva stage as well. Hmm seem to recall that their appearance is seasonal. Has it been a year already? Time flies
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Butterfly Common Rose @ Istana Woodneuk by espion

There's a Papilio polytes romulus (Common Mormon) and a Common Rose in the CS thread
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Baby Clouded Monitor by Hiker (Daniel Koh)

Wow never saw one this small before :)
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Wild Boar @ Ubin by mphil

Gosh its been a while since i saw one on Ubin and I was thinking they were all caught and eaten already!


Thanks to mphil for graciously providing the images for me to be reproduced here. Picture copyrights remain his!
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Seahare Bursatella leachii @ Chek Jawa by kevin

Seahare Bursatella leachii @ Chek Jawa by kevin, originally uploaded by koiyau.

The photo looks abit strange in the center cos that's the part of the

seahare poking out of water as it's gliding across a seagrass meadow

:) if you see more clearly you can see other sea hares that I can't

crop out cos they were all clustered together!

Hornbill snacking on a mantis by Allan Teo

Interesting shot!

" The Hornbill not only likes to eat a lot of fruit. It also takes
Lizards, Snakes and Insects..
In this case the Mantis which is still alive , looks shocked that it
has been caught off guard.. This particular mantis is quite
large if you compare it to the size of the Hornbill's beak"
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LIzards and Monkeys

trying out posting videos as well.. so dun be shy give me ur low res videos as well.. if its a sighting its a sighting..
this particular one i chanced upon from google video :)
the author has this to describe ..
" The first shot is a lizard on the first floor of Jen's mom's condo. Next is a shot of the condo complex over the resevoir and then...nothin' but monkeys!"



I might be digressing too much but seeing postings of commonly seen animals often gets me thinking..

was reading an article in the papers today about expats living in sg. This guy said something about how kids of yonder years could name any tree/ creature but kids now are so divorced from nature they hardly can tell the difference between two. I can substantiate his story with friends (with a Bsc in Biology) who thought that penguins are mammals, whales are fish and other related guffaws..

Perhaps this is the root cause of environmental destruction. When you lack a name for something you kinda of are more detached to it.
case in point?
this report starts with
" Since 1500, more than 150 bird species have disappeared from the world,...."
hmmm 500 years and only 150 extinct? that doesn't sound too bad..

but the full sentence reads
" Since 1500, more than 150 bird species have disappeared from the world, including the much lamented dodo. "

Ah the dodo, I could tell you stories about why it is lamented that the dodo died and if only ppl cared more ....
I wonder if there are 149 more stories like the dodo.. or were there none simply cos too few got to know the animals beyond a scientific name or a given name to care..

Shark, Cuttlefish, Longfin Batfish, SeaHorse @ P.Hantu by Chay Hoon

Wow all these were shot on the same dive!! Amazing huh? I just hope that posting a list of the marine creatures found at Hantu I dun in advertently create a shopping list for unethical marine aquarists. If you poachers just note the details and inform the coast guards!
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Nudibranches, Octupus @P. Hantu by Ivan

Gosh his pics are gorgeous! I would love to see the bigger res ones tho!
25th Feb sightings

edit: Thanks to Ivan for graciously providing his images for use here. :)
click the link to view more (I have only taken a few to show for lack of space)
Visit his site for deals on dive reference books!
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Monitor Lizard mistaken for croc @ East Coast by Stomper Gerald

The curious title "Baby croc" spotted at East Coast? made me click on the link. Reading the article confirmed my suspicion that its just a monitor lizard. It isn't the first time that people mistaken it for a croc (which is rather curious when you consider most have not seen a croc in the wild before). Although there are real wild crocs here in sg.

see my previous post for more info on the monitor lizard
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