For the acts of nature section, I invited my friend to take a walk in Labrador Nature Reserve since he had not been there before. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture together of us in the park.

We started walking along the Berlayer creek boardwalk which is just next to Labrador MRT station. Immediately, we could hear the sounds of the crickets and birds chirping.

Walking through the boardwalk adjacent to the mangrove habitat, we managed to spot some interesting birds there including the Malaysian Pied Fantail and Oriental Pied Hornbill.

Malaysian Pied Fantail

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UERHFKtq38K8ueTigoARKJ3-DS0CXBAs/view?usp=sharing

Oriental Pied Hornbill

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UJ9EHDLoRPheBuX7jRjzzAf47khBon6t/view?usp=sharing

We saw some other animals too, like the plantain squirrel and a water monitor lizard swimming in the swamps.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UKT0kGm7TmXB1Q3QbZUE2dMgYkUH3HJm/view?usp=sharing

After walking through Berlayer creek, we headed toward the jetty to enjoy the sea breeze and hope to be able to see some fishes in the sea. However, the tide was high and the water was murky that day, so we didn’t manage to see any fishes.

On the other hand, we managed to see some Brahimy Kites and White-bellied sea eagles flying around the area. One of them even swooped down to catch a fish.

Since we went in the evening, we managed to catch the sunset, which beautifully wraps up our trip to Labrador nature reserve.

9 July 2022

This is yet another park which I have never heard of and been to before. Initially, I thought that this nature park is more like a farm with cows, goats, and other farm animals, similar to Hay Diaries (goat farm in Lim Chu Kang), however, it turned out that it used to be a farm, but now it is converted to a nature park.

As soon as I reached the nature park, and met the facilitators and the other BFF participants, I saw that the facilitators were equipped with large cameras, so I was expecting to see some interesting birds and insects.

Indeed we did manage to see many interesting fauna and flora that day, so I shall showcase what we saw.

The first interesting plant we saw is this yam plant (Colocasia esculenta (L.) Schott), which is also known as the taro plant, which is used to make the taro milk tea drink that many people like.

Next, we saw this pagoda flower (Clerodendrum paniculatum) which has really pretty red flowers.

I also saw this really big snail, though I have no idea what species this snail belongs to.

Within the same area as the snail, there was a baby bird hidden among the trees, calling out to its mother for food.

Since one of our facilitators specialises in butterflies, we got to see many different butterflies as well.

We also saw other interesting insects as well.

Other than insects, some of the birds we managed to spot there include the Greater racket-tailed drongo, Scarlet-chested sunbird, Emerald pigeon, and Blue-winged leafbird.

OKay! Finally, the highlight of the day would be the family of monkeys there, which we keep seeing throughout the day.

Here is some wholesome video of the monkeys having family time.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1TymqYig8AwXTT8h86mGS402xlPcmCctT/view?usp=sharing

Overall, I felt that this trip was the most interesting as I got to see many different animals, and learnt a lot about insects, which I am not so familiar with.

Also, thanks to the facilitators for the nice high quality pictures.

20 May 2022

This would be my first time going to the park at night, and I was slightly scared but mainly excited to see some nocturnal animals. The facilitator was very knowledgeable about the wildlife in Singapore; even before entering the nature park, he briefly introduced the flora in the area.

I asked him if there was a chance of seeing a pangolin in Bukit Batok nature park, and he shared that even though there was low a probability of seeing a pangolin, he had seen them sleeping next to a barrier just outside of the nature park before.

Upon entering the park, there is a long row of trees with straight trunks, and the facilitator told us to keep a look out for colugos since they tend to like clinging onto straight tree trunks. Hence, we shined our torchlights on the trees. We walked until the end of the stretch and we still didn’t see any colugos, so we thought that today wasn’t our lucky day and we wouldn’t be able to see any colugos, however, just at the end of the row of trees, we finally saw a colugo behind one of the tree. We also managed to see the colugo climbing up the tree, which was the first time I have seen a colugo moving since I have only seen them in the day.

After that, we headed into the trail within the forest. While looking for spiders among the trees, we spotted this still toad within the leaf litter.

It was quite unfortunate that we didn’t manage to spot much wildlife during the walk, but it was still an interesting experience to explore the park at night.

5 May 2022

I was excited for my first field trip immediately after the end of the examinations. As I looked through the list of field trips I could sign up for, Chestnut nature park caught my attention, as I have yet to go to this nature park.

Chestnut nature park skirts the Central Catchment Nature Reserve, serving as a buffer for the reserve. As part of a habitat enhancement programme, native tree species are planted in the Nature Park, these trees increases ecological connectivity between adjacent green spaces, allowing the animals to thrive.

Upon entering the park, we were immediately greeted with the grand Banyan tree (Ficus benghalensis). This big tree can grow up to 30m tall, and produces aerial roots, which turn into woody trunks once they reach the ground. It produces fig fruits, which is pollinated by fig wasps. The fig wasps would lay their eggs in the fig fruits. When the eggs hatch inside the fruit, the young wasps would crawl out of the fig, distributing the pollen as they travel around.

As we continued walking through the park, we managed to spot two Colugos (Galeopterus variegatus) at different locations, both sleeping on a tree trunk. Colugos have a gliding membrane that connects from their limbs, and necks which extend to their fingertips. The membrane allows them to glide from tree to tree. Being nocturnal animals, the Colugos are not active during the day. Even though their eyes are opened, they are actually asleep.

Even though there isn’t any photo evidence for the sighting, we also managed to see a lesser mouse deer (Tragulus kanchil), which is the most interesting sighting for this trip for me, since it is very difficult to spot this animal. It was also the second time I have seen the species in the wild. It was really fast and immediately ran away into the brushes as soon as we saw it, so we didn’t have an opportunity to take a nice picture of it.

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In conclusion, I am grateful to have had this opportunity to explore a new park in Singapore and learn more about the wildlife within the park from the BFF guide that followed us!