sgbeachbum

Saturday, November 5, 2011

grey-headed lapwing @ sg buloh - Nov2011

5th Nov saw a buzz amongst birders when sharp eyes spotted a rare avian visitor the Grey-Headed Lapwing (Vanellus cinereus), to Singapore at the Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve. Word soon got around and quite a number of birding enthusiasts soon made their way down to Hide 1C. Apparently, it had been some years before this species of lapwing had been seen in Singapore.

Identifying the bird was difficult for a novice with little clue what to look for as all the birds looked...brown. The others birders already there quickly pointed out what to look for and where to look for it.

The bird was resting in an area surrounded by many other shorebirds, plovers, etc. although it was a little edgy occasionally looking up at the sky, probably to keep an eye out for raptors. It made its way towards a log a little way from the shore before taking a bath and then getting back on another nearby log to dry off.

Friday, November 4, 2011

the pulai tree @ chek jawa - Oct2011

This is reputed to be the tallest tree on Ubin and it is a Heritage Tree.

It was about 35m tall and had a girth of 6.4m in 2010.

(pictures taken in Oct 2011 from a vantage point at Pulau Sekudu)

(click on images for bigger picture)

The calls of the white-bellied sea eagles can often be heard coming from high up this tree. There is probably a nest somewhere on the tree but the tree is so tall that the nest, if any, is difficult to spot through all the foliage from the base of the tree.

This is what the NParks Guide to the Pulau Ubin Tree Trail has to say about this tree :

Common Pulai (Alstonia angustiloba)

The Common Pulai is a very tall tree (up to 40m tall)

found in this region. It is easily recognisable from

its pagoda-shaped branching pattern and simple

leaves that are arranged in whorls. This tree belongs

to the family of Apocynaceae, which are identified

by the presence of white latex in the stems.

This Heritage Tree (35m height, 6.4m girth) is hard

to miss as you walk along the trail. It stands out

among the canopy and can be seen from

a distance

There is a mention of this tree at this WildSingapore page on Pulau Ubin:

http://www.wildsingapore.com/ubin/places/north.htm

And also at Joe Lai's eart-h website :

http://www.eart-h.com/text/alstan1.htm

Read more about this tree and also about Ubin's other majestic trees here :

http://wildshores.blogspot.com/2010/04/trees-of-pulau-ubin-talk-by-ali-ibrahim.html

Thursday, November 3, 2011

haddon's carpet anemone @ sekudu - Oct2011

This Haddon's carpet anemone seems to react to the UV black light in that the tentacles became more active when under the black light. Or perhaps it was reacting to some other stimulus? The colour difference of the tentacles when lit with white light contrasted to when they are lit with black light is amazing.

Read more about the Haddon's Carpet Anemone here :
http://www.wildsingapore.com/wildfacts/cnidaria/actiniaria/haddoni.htm

zoanthids @ sekudu - Oct2011

Yet another in the series on fluorescing animals ...

At first glance, the casual shore walker does not really notice tiny zoanthids which are rather prevalent on most of Singapore's shores. They are oftentimes too small to pay attention to although if one did stop to have a closer look at them, a whole new world of designs and colours beckons. The luminousity of black light highlights (pun intended) zoanthids in another dimension. The central mouth area of these zoanthids look ... almost radioactive. Indeed, some zoanthids contain palytoxin which is the most toxic marine toxin on the planet.

Read about :
zoanthids - http://www.wildsingapore.com/wildfacts/cnidaria/others/zoanthid/zoanthid.htm

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

beachflea amphipods @ sekudu - Oct2011

There was a superbloom of amphipods on the sea lettuce algae which was itself blooming all over the island's shore. Looks like the season for amphipods. They were a little fluorescent when illuminated with blacklight. Perhaps their partially transclucent exoskeletons was able to diffract or reflect some part of the blacklight.

Read about :
amphipods - http://www.wildsingapore.com/wildfacts/crustacea/othercrust/amphipoda/amphipoda.htm
ribbon sea lettuce - http://www.wildsingapore.com/wildfacts/plants/seaweed/chlorophyta/reticulata.htm

Read about fluorescence here : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluorescence
and also about bioluminescence here : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bioluminescence

Read also about Sekudu's other treasures :
http://wildshores.blogspot.com/2011/10/sekudu-with-harlequin-and-other.html
http://sgn090608.blogspot.com/2011/11/111030-sekudu.html
http://wondercreation.blogspot.com/2011/10/slugs-galore-at-pulau-sekudu.html

orange fan worm @ sekudu - Oct2011

Here is a clip of an orange fan worm. The orange fanworm does not exhibit fluorescence like the white spiral fan worm in the preceding post.

The clip goes mostly dark when the black light is switched on showing that the orange fan worm's arms do not exhibit fluorescence.