Beach Cleanup @ Pasir Ris Park

10th Jul 2022 ~ Charis Wong ~ Leave a comment

I had wanted to try participating in a beach cleanup for quite some, especially since the first beach cleanup I had signed up for was cancelled due to wet weather (although my friend and I had already travelled all the way from the west to the east for it ). But on World Environment Day, I finally got the chance to take part in a beach cleanup organised by Youth Corps Singapore (YCS).

The event was called #SeasTheDay Goes International. Beach cleanups were held concurrently at 5 locations across Singapore, including Pasir Ris Park, Coney Island and East Coast Park. To celebrate World Environment Day (5 June) and World Ocean Day (8 June), beach cleanups were also held by international partners in Indonesia, Japan and Europe on the same day (but different timings due to time differences). My sister and I signed up for the beach cleanup at Pasir Ris Park because as an avid birder (bird photographer), I wanted to photograph the resident birds there (Pasir Ris Park is known to have resident Spotted Wood Owls and Crested Goshawks).

So on a nice Sunday morning, we found ourselves waking up at 7am just to travel from Choa Chu Kang all the way to Pasir Ris for a beach cleanup. While walking towards the meeting point that was shown in the map YCS had provided us in their email, we saw several people clad in blue and green shirts (like us) looking just as lost as we were. Everyone seemed to have no idea where exactly we were supposed to meet. I think we may have been earlier than the YCS Volunteer Leaders (VLs). Anyways, after a while, my sister and I saw a group of people gathering near the supposed meeting point, so we walked over and sure enough, found that we were in the right place. After a very awkward wait for the rest of the volunteers to join us, we had a short round of self-introduction followed by a briefing. Then we were off to our allocated part of the beach to pick up litter!

A pair of Pacific Swallows that we saw right before the start of our cleanup! (Sadly, didn’t have my gear with me then.)

Using borrowed tongs and a recycled rice bag from Willing Hearts, we went about the beach picking up the little bits of trash that we saw. These included plastic straws, cups and cigarette buds. To our surprise, the part of the beach we were at had less trash than we had expected. However, we still did our best to pick up the small pieces of litter that we could spot. We placed sharp objects that we found, such as glass shards, into a separate pail so that they wouldn’t pierce through the bag.

A plastic cup that we found on the beach! (Sorry for the blurry image! I couldn’t see what I was taking with the sun shining brighter than my future!!)

Dog pawprints we spotted during the cleanup! Must have been a happy doggie!

After about half an hour under the blazing sun, we were all tired and sweating profusely. We took a short water break, and our VL checked in to make sure everyone was feeling alright. Although we all wanted to stay under the shade longer, we knew that our job cleaning up the beach was not done. So we all took up our gear and spread out to continue picking up the litter.

After an hour and a half, we gathered back together to conclude the cleanup session. We weighed our bags of trash and found that we collected a total of 10kg of trash!! This was really surprising to me considering the bits of trash that we picked up mostly consisted of light items like straws and plastic bags. We then had a debrief and shared some of our interesting finds. One of the participants said that she found a broken hanger as well as straws that had grown into the mangroves. These were extremely hard to pull out and for some, there was just no way to get them out. This made me realise that our trash is “becoming part of nature”, which is sad because that’s not natural and can actually harm the environment in the long run. It made me feel even more motivated to continue playing my part for the environment and encouraging others to do the same too. This can be done through simple actions like using reusable bags and straws (or no straws at all), and participating in more environment-related volunteer opportunities.

All in all, despite the scorching sun, I think this beach cleanup was a new and eye-opening experience for me! I really had a lot of fun and would do it again!!

My sister (left) and I trying to keep our eyes open under the hot sun!

A Morning At Pasir Ris Park

25th Jun 202225th Jun 2022 ~ Charis Wong ~ Leave a comment

The Pasir Ris Guided Walk was my last field trip but certainly not the least. From my (little) birding experience, I knew that there were a lot of birds there, so I was rather excited for the trip.

We met up at the mrt station, then headed towards Pasir Ris Town Park, where we saw a gigantic bird nest built on top (or rather around) a big lamp post. What looked at first to be an eagle nest turned out to be a parakeet apartment. There was more than one parakeet living in that nest, but the sheer size of the nest was magnificent. I was really amazed at the parakeets’ skills because they were so much smaller than the nest that they had built. Our guide, Nasry, also explained that the authorities had tried to remove the nest before as the parakeets were pooping into the swimming complex right below them. However, every time their nest was removed, the parakeets would simply build it again. In the end, the authorities left the nest there. Man-0, Nature-1 . 😀

We then continued to Pasir Ris Park, which I didn’t know was different from Pasir Ris Town Park. We saw a Grey Heron waiting for some prey, as well as different species of parakeets like the Rose-ringed Parakeet and Red-breasted Parakeet. We also saw a pair of juvenile Yellow-vented Bulbuls, which I had also recently seen right outside my house. They were really cute, and you could see that their beaks had a little yellow base. One interesting fact our guide explained to us was that the beaks of juvenile birds are normally bigger so that their parents can stick their beaks in to feed them.

Moving on, we entered the mangrove area. I had hoped to see some snakes because I had heard that several snakes could be spotted there. Unfortunately, we didn’t spot any snakes, but well, nature is unpredictable after all.

As we walked along the mangrove boardwalk, our guide told us many interesting fun facts about the flora and fauna there. He explained about the different kinds of roots mangrove trees have, namely pencil root, cone root and knee root. He also showed us the propagules on a mangrove tree that had fallen down. It was really interesting to learn that the propagules are what help the mangrove trees propagate, and that they weren’t really considered fruits.

Throughout the walk, we spotted many interesting flora and fauna, and I learnt a great deal from our guide, Nasry. Overall, it was a really fun and enriching walk, and I’ll definitely be visiting Pasir Ris Park again for their resident birds!!

Other Interesting Finds!

An Adventure At Chestnut Nature Park

25th Jun 202225th Jun 2022 ~ Charis Wong ~ Leave a comment

The first walk I signed up for was the Guided Walk at Chestnut Nature Park. I had only ever been there once before and it was a very long time ago, so I was really excited about the walk.

On the day of the walk, we gathered at Chestnut Point. We had a short round of self-introduction, and the guides explained that since it had just rained, we were unlikely to see many reptiles on our walk (much to my relief).

When we first started on the trail, I realised that it was all dirt track, which made me a little uneasy because I was afraid that there would be a lot of mosquitoes. However, at our first “stop”, we were all getting bitten not by mosquitoes, but by ants. We were either standing on an ant trail or ant nest haha.

Throughout the trail, I was too busy looking at the ground and watching my step to really take in the nature around me. However, our guides had really keen eyes and spotted so many interesting finds!

For me, there were two main highlights of the walk: a mouse deer and a colugo! I had never seen either of them in the wild before, so needless to say, I was absolutely delighted to see them in real life on our walk. They were both so adorable and none of us could stop admiring them! Both of them blended in with their surroundings so well!

The colugo was the same colour as the tree bark!

Close-up of the cute little fellow! (Photo creds our guides)

The mouse deer was also brown, blending in with the leaf litter!

One interesting thing I learnt from the guides was that there is only one species of wasp that pollinates each species of fig. This means that when that species of wasp goes extinct, the fig species will also disappear. Another thing I learnt was that female wasps would squeeze into tiny holes at the bottom of the fig, and in so doing, would lose their wings because of how small the holes are. Then, the female wasps would lay their eggs in the fig. When the eggs hatch, the male and female wasps would mate. But the male wasps are born blind and without wings, so their only purpose is to mate. Talk about sacrifice!

The extremely tiny hole on the fig that the female wasp would squeeze into.

Overall, the walk was really fun and eye-opening! I learnt a great deal of things, including how to appreciate nature!

Other Pictures!

Night Walk at BBNP

25th Jun 202225th Jun 2022 ~ Charis Wong ~ Leave a comment

When I first arrived for the night walk, I didn’t quite know what to expect. I was hoping to see some animals like colugos, palm civet cats and maybe some snakes. At the same time, I was afraid to see any snakes – contradictory, I know.

We started our walk with some tips from Uncle Tony on how to utilise the flashlight properly. He jogged our memory on secondary school physics, talking about the angle of incidence of the light beam being equal to the angle of reflection. Thus, in order to see the reflection off the eyes of animals, we had to hold the flashlight at our eye level. I found this tip rather interesting as it showcased a real-life use of physics.

Throughout the walk, Uncle Tony introduced us to many species of plants and tips on identifying them. For instance, he showed us a cinnamon plant and explained that one feature to identify it was that there were 3 veins on the leaves. Another telling feature was that the shoots of the leaves came out from the same spot (instead of alternately). Really interesting!

Blurry photo of a cinnamon plant with 3 veins on its leaves.

Another thing Uncle Tony mentioned that stuck with me was that although people are often interested in the “new” and “rare” flora and fauna, we shouldn’t overlook the importance of the so-called “common” ones. This is because it is actually the “common” plants that allow there to be “new” and “rare” ones. These “common” plants are the ones that grow more easily and are more hardy, growing throughout the year. Uncle Tony described them like porridge for the animals. Throughout the year, these animals eat this “porridge”, and only on certain occasions – when the time is right – can they then eat the “better”, “nicer” food – the “rare” plants/fruits/flowers.

For me, the highlight of the walk was getting to see colugos gliding!! It was so cool!! We were shining our flashlights up at the trees when we spotted something moving. Sure enough, it was a colugo! It was moving up the tree so adorably, kind of in a hopping motion. Uncle Tony explained that they use their hind legs to push themselves up and their front legs to grab onto the tree trunk. The colugo kept going up the tree trunk, then glided down to the next tree trunk! Moreover, it didn’t just glide once! We stood there watching the colugo for a while before moving on. It was such a sight to see!!

The neatly-planted row of trees on which we saw the colugos.

Overall, I really enjoyed the night walk as it was a new and exciting experience! I also learnt a lot about our native plants and got to see a colugo in action!!

Author: Charis Wong

Beach Cleanup @ Pasir Ris Park

A Morning At Pasir Ris Park

Other Interesting Finds!

An Adventure At Chestnut Nature Park

Other Pictures!

Night Walk at BBNP

Other Finds!