Earth Day Outing

It seemed appropriate that Earth Day be spent on terra firma instead of the usual slushy half-water places.

At the kind invitation of the Vertebrate Survey Group, I joined them on a relaxing outing yesterday to survey the verts at the fringes of our forest. Being basically a Worm Girl, I'm not very good at spotting or shooting things with backbones (except perhaps fishies). Mostly, I got my usual favourite spineless stuff...

A baby Atlas moth chomping on an unknown plant. It wasn't very big so we think it's one of the smaller Atlas moth species. It has lovely blue spot along the sides of its body.

A long beige grasshopper that flattened out to blend in with the flowering grass stalk that it was on. A big spider having dinner, oblivious to the tiny red spiders that lurk in its web. These tiny red spiders are parasites, in the sense that they squat in other spider webs and steal their food.

There was an aroid in bloom, which attracted tiny little...I didn't know what they were until I got home and enlarged the photo (as usual). Wow...itsy bitsy flies!

The only things with backbones I shot were these romantic Spotted House Geckos (Gekko monarchus) busy making new Spotted House Geckos high up in a tree. I took this feeble shot, while Kwok Wai had the Real Manly Equipment with Length to take the proper picture.

Considered uncommon, these are not your usual small 'chik-chaks' that live in our homes. They are quite large (about 20cm) and are found outside homes in rural areas.

The only other vertebrates I took were the 'Verters' as they call themselves, busy at work..'Verting'?

Nick Baker also has Real Manly Equipment of Great Length with Extra Stuff that is quite impressive. And Nick will do whatever it takes, including clambering into drains, to get those verts! The Real Verters got all kinds of lovely shots: strange frogs, skinks, walking catfish and other spined stuff.

Kwok Wai posts his photos on his Wildlife Singapore website http://www.wildsingapore.per.sg

Nick posts his photos on his EcologyAsia website
http://www.ecologyasia.com/

We also spotted a colugo with a baby. Our forests are certainly alive with verts!

We ended the lovely walk with a fabulous supper at Andrew's home: curry rice, beer, lime juice on a verandah overlooking the pool. Plus the great company, what a wonderful way to celebrate Earth Day!