Moving to Wordpress

Blogspot's new layout is making it quite hard for me to compose and edit my posts so moving to wordpress at

https://singaporenature.wordpress.com/

Wordpress is also facing the same facebook/flickr/blogsite problem regarding thumbnails, so the problem probably lies with facebook.

111226 Tanah Merah

Oil (from the Changi oil spill last year) is still very visible on the waters at this stretch of Tanah Merah.

Terumbu Semakau

Tides were higher than predicted in the tide tables. It was also sargassum season. Not much dry ground around so all photos taken with the waterproof D10.
Sargassum everywhere.

111222 Lower Peirce

Hersilid in a curious position.

Happy Holidays 2011

111220 Venus Drive

Ivan spotted some backswimmers.

111217 Nangka Trail to Durian Loop

Pasilobus bird dung spider.

111216 Ubin night

Out with vertebrates people, hoping to see some of Ubin's less commonly seen animals. Ubin is far too large to explore on foot in only a few hours but they still managed to spot 2 mousedeers and 3 civets. Such vertebrates in natural surroundings like Ubin's forests are very hard to spot out in the open and we did not manage to get good shots, something that is to be thankful for! It is far better to have forests for these animals to hide in and feel comfortable than to selfishly wish for "better photographic angles".


Civet peeking at us through thick vegetation, yet Ron still managed to spot it.

The Species Problem (an opinion)

The definition of species and for the matter, taxonomy in general should be tied to a purpose other than the classification of organisms. We do not classify organisms simply because we want to classify organisms, we classify them because we want to use that classification for some purpose. For example taxonomy generally involves areas of interest (can they mate, can they live in a certain ecological environment, can they produce certain biological products, can they fulfill certain biological roles etc.) tied to recognizable markers (if an organism has these markers, it will then possess the traits/abilities of interest). Each taxonomic rank basically uses a set of markers to further divide groups of organisms, with every rank down using more markers.

Perhaps the species level should be more fluid, accommodating a variety of markers, each specific to its area of interest, and "species" replaced by a variety of terms with each term representing a different set of markers.

111212 Tanah Merah

This shore was quite badly hit by the oil spill in May last year and is slowly recovering. There were still some traces of the spill, with a very light but still visible oily sheen on the water and occasionally, tiny oil globules ejecting from under the sand (possibly due to our footsteps).


Dendrodoris denisoni. We saw two of these "bleached" nudibranchs which Kok Sheng suspected were sick.

111210 Lunar Eclipse

The timings of the phases according to NASA:

Penumbral Eclipse Begins: 11:33:32 UT (Singapore is UT+08:00)
Partial Eclipse Begins: 12:45:42 UT
Total Eclipse Begins: 14:06:16 UT
Greatest Eclipse: 14:31:49 UT
Total Eclipse Ends: 14:57:24 UT
Partial Eclipse Ends: 16:17:58 UT
Penumbral Eclipse Ends: 17:30:00 UT


We were still at Semakau when it began.

111210 Semakau

It's a deer in the sky!

111203 Pulau Ubin

Thanks to Victor from clubsnap who organized this trip and specially arranged for a returning boat after hours. Nice seafood makan and friendly company from clubsnap included. Sadly the rain basically cancelled the after dinner shoot and we had to make do with whatever could be found around the jetty area.

Victor has very kindly provided me with his trademark diffuser and all the shots taken today were using the Victor Setup; fast assembly, instant results.



Amyciaea female, kerengga ant-mimic thomisid, guarding her egg sac.