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!

Despite living a stone’s throw away from Dairy Farm Nature Park, I have to admit that I have only ever walked the Wallace Trail once since it was extended two years ago. So I was pretty excited to see what this park had to offer, especially with Nasry, Zachary and Eugene, who were somewhat well-acquainted with it. It was a truly enriching walk, as I saw and learnt about so many interesting things!

Birds

Thanks to our guides and their cameras, we were able to spot and identify quite a number of birds that I have never seen before, such as the scarlet-backed flowerpecker, olive-winged bulbul, emerald dove and blue-winged leaf bird. The ones that stuck in my memory, however, were actually the more ‘common’ birds that Nasry shared some interesting stories about. For instance, the pink-necked green pigeon has a muscular gizzard and in some individuals, this gizzard contains grit, used to grind and digest seeds. So rather than dispersing these seeds, they actually destroy them! 

Other than that, I learnt that greater racket-tailed drongos practise something known as ‘kleptoparasitism’. They are able to imitate the calls of other birds, and sometimes use this to their advantage by stealing prey from other foraging birds. When these birds capture a prey, the drongo makes an alarm call mimicking one of their predators to frighten them away, allowing it to swoop down and steal the food. How smart!

Apart from bird facts, I also learnt more about bird-watching practices from our guides. It may seem obvious, but one thing I learnt was that birds will tend to visit flowering or fruiting trees, which is why bird-watchers can often be seen lying in wait in front of these trees, ready to get a perfect shot. I really admire their patience – I do not think that I could ever do that!

Mammals

As for the mammals we saw, there was an abundance of long-tailed macaques, but the most interesting find for me was a slender squirrel! The only species of squirrel that I have ever recognised locally is the very common plantain squirrel, so I was quite excited when our guides pointed this slender squirrel out. Slender squirrels are smaller and have less bushy tails than plantain squirrels, and lack a black and white stripe on the side of their bodies. While their habitat is limited to primary and secondary forests, they are apparently quite common in Bukit Timah Nature Reserve, Central Catchment Nature Reserve, Singapore Botanic Gardens and Bukit Batok Nature Park. I think it is quite likely that I have encountered one before, but did not recognise it!

Insects

I think one of my biggest takeaways from the walk was that beyond the more ‘obvious’ wildlife sightings like birds or mammals, there is so much more that we can see and observe if we stop to take a closer look. Our guides pointed out so many small but fascinating insects and even told us more about their behaviour, which was super interesting. The assassin bug, for example, gets its name from the fact that it uses its proboscis to stab and kill its prey. And the tiger beetle (which is super pretty) can run so fast that its eyes cannot keep up and it has to stop to recalibrate before zooming off again. While I definitely would not call myself an insect lover any time soon, it did amaze me how beautiful many of the ones we saw today were, especially when we could see them up close as they were photographed by our guides.

(Photos by Eugene)

We also saw plenty of butterflies on our walk, and two of the most memorable for me were the common mormon and the banded demon, because of their interesting names! Apparently the common mormon is named as such because (human) mormons used to practise polygamy, and (butterfly) mormon females have different appearances in different regions. That was interesting.

(Photos by Eugene)

Plants

There was also a lot to learn about the plants and trees that we saw at Dairy Farm. Our guides explained to us the difference between mature and disturbed forests, where mature forests would have greater species diversity. This is (I think?) because in disturbed forests, there is lower canopy cover and more sunlight can penetrate through, allowing fast-growing understory species to overtake the area before other species can grow. We also learnt about various different plant and tree species, such as: 

• The fan palm, whose leaves are used to make ketupat.
• The sea almond, a pagoda-shaped coastal tree that has almond-shaped fruits. Its leaves are often used in aquariums as they release tannin, which can promote fish health Apparently it is also called the traffic light tree because its large leaves turn yellow, orange, then red, before dropping. My question was: why was a coastal species like the sea almond found here? To that, Nasry replied that in a small island like Singapore, it is easy for seeds to be dispersed from the coast inland. Interesting!
• The pagoda plant, a butterfly-attracting plant with beautiful flowers.
• The dumb cane or mother-in-law plant, which is named as such because of its toxic sap that can cause speech loss if ingested.
• The leaf litter or kiasu plant, an understory species that grows its leaves in a spiral so that it can trap and extract nutrients from fallen leaves.
• The macaranga tree, which has large, three-lobed leaves and which has a symbiotic relationship with ants. While its hollow young twigs provide homes for ants, the ants protect the tree from being eaten by other insects.
• The banyan tree, which is a parasitic plant as it grows on an existing tree, smothering and taking nutrients from it. Despite this, it is actually a keystone species as it is an important food source for many animals. It also has an obligate relationship with wasps, which are their pollinators – each fig species is pollinated by a specific wasp species.

Writing all this has made me realise how much I learnt during the walk! All in all, it was a fruitful and fascinating morning walk, as we not only spotted lots of interesting flora and fauna, but also got to learn interesting facts about them thanks to our knowledgeable guides. I will definitely be back here in the future!