Sungei Buloh Volunteers 10th Anniversary
To celebrate, we were treated to a whole host of special events. I couldn't make it for the day festivities, and only snuck in for the night walk, led by Krish who shared all kinds of stories with us.
Jac and I re-lived the good ol' days when we used to explore every corner of Buloh together, and shoot the place to death. Jac was the senior guide there when I first joined and it's been yonks since we've spent time together at Buloh.
There were spiders galore!
name of the spider. We knew we'd slap our foreheads as soon as we got home and looked at the little spider book. It's Cyrtophora unicolor, Jac! *slap forehead*. This one is busy wrapping up her dinner in silk. In the upper right corner, you can see one of the little thieving spiders that squat in her nest, and also steal a little nibble of her prey. Apologies once again to the volunteers for blinding everyone when taking the photo.
There was a spider with a very pretty butt. Possibly a lynx spider?
And other little insects. Besides the not-so-favourite mossies.
The short-horned grasshopper that looks like it's been dipped
in chocolate is a delight to encounter. As well as the amusing little katydid
with that typical "whazzup?" quizzical expression.
Little moths are just amazing when you take a closer look at them.
Chrysalis are so well camouflaged!
One under a blade of grass was bright green,
while another on a twig looked just like a shrivelled leaf.
At night, you really get to see the action. This little bagworm was busy munching
up its dinner. During the day, these larvae usually hang immobile,
their little bags making them look like twigs or bits of rubbish.
On the mangrove boardwalk, we got a really good close look at
the tree climbing crabs. These crabs are only really active at night,
when they climb right to the tips of branches.
The humungous tiger orchid near the Outdoor Classroom was in full bloom.
Each blossom was as big as my hand!
For me, the biggest treat was of course the Puff-faced watersnakes (Homalopsis buccata) at the Aquatic Pond. There are tons of them there! But they only come out at night. Fortunately, there were plenty of sightings without us having to make a virgin sacrifice, as earlier contemplated. Krish had an interesting personal story about them, but you'll have to ask him about it yourself.
The adult (above) is handsomely marked,
though a little duller than the juvenile (below).
For better photos of this beautiful snake, including one of it feeding on a fish,
see Kwok Wai's wildlife singapore website page;
and for all the details of the snake, see Chee Kong's slog blog entry.
While everyone was busy looking for snakes, most overlooked
the little frog that floated quitely among the duckweeds.
Jac spotted a sleeping tailorbird. We didn't want to wake it up
so we shot it without the flash. It didn't move at all.
Volunteers do really get to have a special experience of our wild places!
For more about other delirious night outings at Sungei Buloh,
see these previous posts on the wildfilms blog
Seeking Serpents at Sungei Buloh
Snakehunts at Buloh
3 Comments:
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Ah, unicolor! Knew it had a beat to it.
The one with the triangular bum could be some type of comb-footing spidey perhaps?
And thanks to Khew, the brown chrysalis has been IDed as that of the Short Banded Sailor.
It was a great evening, wonder when we'll be able to do it again. :)
Wow! Khew is amazing! Thanks for sharing that.
Yah, it's obvious we aren't doing Buloh enough when BOTH of us can't remember unicolor!
I wish there were more hours in the day (or rather, night) to do all the fun field stuff that needs to get done. Sigh.
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