Ubin Volunteers

Sightings today~

2008-05-28T00:12:00.010+08:00

It was raining and thunder was heard in the distance as we started our guided tour this morning. Today we were fortunate to have guides Faridah, Alan, Bari and Mark to help out.
Jacky, KC Auyeong and myself waited for a group that failed to turn up until 9.45am, 105 minutes late! The tide rose as we waited for them.

The management had agreed earlier on that in future, we would not wait for any groups that is late for more than 30 minutes. And their payment would not be returned to them.

The sun start to shine over Chek Jawa as the groups walked down and Faridah's group was lucky to spot a beautiful rainbow over the forest of CJ.

Today we had some great finds!
Jacky found a Keyhole Sand Dollar at the northern sandbar! I've worked here for 4 years and this is the first time I'm seeing it. Cool right?

Anyway, I'm guessing you've heard enough of my story of the day. =)
So let us now enjoy the photos taken by volunteer KC Auyeong.

Other than the Sand dollars, they found a tiger moonsnail too. Cool right? Hope someone took photos to share.

Till then~.....

Otter Sightings

2008-04-07T09:50:00.003+08:00

4th April - Rangers Mark & Bari saw otters at Sensory Trail area! Here's their recount of the sighting.

"This morning, at around 8.30am, Mark Lim spotted some otters( est. 5 ) at the pond along Jln Ubin(opp House 363B). Mark Lim called me (Paul Parusuraman) to witness the sighting. We could not take shots of the otters as they were moving around pretty fast. The second sighting was witnessed at the mangroves adjacent the sluice gate area.(Sensory trail - boat berthing point ). We heard calls from within the mangroves before two large otters(est. 1 metre) swam past the sluice gate about 10 metres away before diving down. All this activity lasted about an hour. The below pic was the best we could take due to the otters' rapid movements."

Actually for the last few weeks, a few of us, Mark, Paul, Lioe, volunteers, visitors and security guards have spotted the Otters at Chek Jawa, Jelutong and now even Jln Ubin. The security guards at CJ reported seeing the otters swim near to the floating pontoon on quiet days during high tides.

Personally I think the sightings are normally

1) highest tide of the day (like in this case of 4th April)

2) early morning; low tide before or after rain.

Next time, do log your sightings at the Information Kiosks sightings book if you do see them yeh~

13th March Thurs

2008-03-14T17:05:00.002+08:00

On the 13th March, we had our first very early CJ public walk at 8am. Having to pull ourselves out of bed so early in the morning had it rewards too.
A few of us felt more refreshed having to come out before dawn breaks. The others were just surprised at what Chek Jawa had in store for us...

Today, Terry, Leykun were asked to guide a group each while Jane, Jacky, Xiuli hunter seek.
Alyce, Wenpin and I were waiting to guide 3 groups who were late. While Wenpin helped to hunter seek, I slowly head to the floating pontoon to stand guard there.

Along the footpath to the boardwalk, the Calophyllum soulattri was flowering. Beautiful white and yellow flowers donned the tree.

As I walked along the boardwalk, a male jungle fowl appeared at the rocky shores with his 2 female counterparts. Can you spot the female in this photo? They were undisturbed by me and just walked slowly along the rocks.

The tide was still receding when I reached the beginning of the floating pontoon. There were about 10 other visitors there by then. As I looked around for things for them to see, there were about 8 other female / juvenile jungle fowls walking on the rocks behind the boardwalk shelter! This is the 4th time this year I've seen junglefowls in a group at CJ during a guided tour day. What a good year! How true when we often jokes that the jungle fowls only come out to party when we are not surveying them.

8.45am.
As some of the visitors marvelled at the wonderful sight of the fowls. Another surprise beholded us - Out on the seagrass about 80 metres away, there were 5 figures running inland. These figures looked unmistakening familiar and I yelled to the hunter seeker.... "OTTERS!"......These smooth coated otters which appeared larger than the small clawed otters were running inland. Those who ran faster stopped a while appearing to wait for the slower ones. They were heading to RDC area and even hanged around the entrance to RDC before disappearing into the forest.

That's a good 45 minutes that the hunter seekers went down before we spotted them. The otters could had been hanging around the seagrass lagoon during that period. Or came in from the sea from the northern sandbar. A visitor took a video clip while Jacky and Jane took photos. Although the photos were taken too far away, one could see the shape of the otters on the video and photo.

Come think of it. Next time we should follow their trail and take some photos of their footprints also.

What a day! Now everyone is looking forward to morning walks. And dont forget to credit the great work of the hunter seekers...they found a 20cm long sole fish, seahares, horseshoe crab and other common finds. Great work!

24th Jan

2008-01-24T17:25:00.000+08:00

Quiet weekday in Ubin when we had to wait for at least 30minutes to get a boat. Everything was peaceful till lunch time at Ah Lian's restaurant.

Marc Creamades (hornbill project) and Mark Lim was shouting at me. "Adelle! Come quickly!"

Abandoning my food and running over, I was just in time to spot 3 otters swimming in the waters!
The tide was high and they were swimming and surfacing and disappearing into the waters quickly. They were swimming away, around the corner of Jelutong campsite.

This is the second time I spotted otters. The first time was around Christmas 07 at Chek Jawa when my guided group and I saw 2 otters running across the northern sandbar towards the sea through Margie Hall's binoculous.

Encounters like these often happens when I do not have a camera good enough to zoom that far. Although we did'nt managed to take any photos, it is always heart warming to know that this small island is home to many wonderful animals that were once so abundance in numbers.

22nd January

2008-01-22T22:33:00.000+08:00

Today's the first session of our forest patrol to patrol the forest and watch out for potential hazard and wildlife traps. Despite being a weekday activity, we managed to get 8 volunteers and 6 staff to help out.

After a briefing by Choon Beng, we were divided into 2 groups and ferried by the pickup and landrover to our destination.

9.30am
Some of us armed ourselves with makeshift hiking sticks to complete our patrolling look.

Other than patrolling the deep forest, we took time to enjoy the nature.

There were countless cotton stainers seeking shade under the Sea hibiscus leaves. These cotton stainers are adults but it seems that the mating season's not here yet as we did'nt spot any that's in action.

Knema globularia (Seashore nutmeg tree) is fruiting in the forest too. The shape of the leaves resembles that of a durian but does'nt have a copper underside like the latter.
These fruits are eaten by the hornbills that helps to disperse the seeds.

Snake found along the roadside....No idea what's the name but will find out. He's alive and motionless until we touched it. Opps..

With Angie in the group, how can we forgo of a chance to ask her more about plants? She's always happy to share her knowledge with us.

Walked pass a hole filled with fresh water reflecting the greens from the foliage of the nearby trees. Someone tasted it and confirmed that its indeed fresh water. =)

The other team that patrol the other area did'nt have time to enjoy nature as they found 3 traps - 1 wild boar trap and 2 smaller traps.

Brenda and James was the ones who found the wildboar trap. Along with How, Joyce and Robert Heigermoser, the five of them successfully dismantled the trap. Heros of the man man!

After a morning of work, nothing beats lunch and coffee at the local restaurant...

During lunch, we tried the fruits of the cocoa tree. There is a unforgetable fragrance emitted from the pulp that no other perfumes could match. We were advised not to have too many as it is known to cause a floating sensation.

3.30pm - CJ walk
The sun continued to shine bright and fearlessly. Despite being told that there were only 2 guided groups from Ngee Ann Poly expected, Robert Heigermoser, KS Wong, Teck Chye, KC Hah, KC Auyong, Angie, Alyce, decided to stay on braving the weather hoping to find pleasant surprises in CJ. Alan joined us and lead one of the group later on.

Last January we lost our carpet anemones, sea cucumber, common seastars to the flood that caused a drop in sanility.
One year later, most of the animals are recovering.

Carpet Anemone are recovering in the seagrass lagoon and coral rubble area. Although they are not as abundance as before, we are still glad to see them recovering.

Sandfish Sea Cucumber

Blue spotted Nudibranch found at the coral rubbles. Hope there's enough sponges growing for this guy to feed on.

Adult horseshoe crab found in the sandbar area

And Common Sea stars~ Am so glad to find one which looks healthy. Think Ron found another 2 near the area the first one was spotted.

We thought our day could'nt be any better when we were heading home.
Alyce spotted a pair of hornbills near the Ubin main jetty. Then to our surprise, a few more pairs flew down. We were counting and realised that for the first time, 15 hornbills were partying at the same area!
Pardon me for the lousy photo but somehow if you look, you would see that there are 8 hornbills here. There were a few more pairs around that area and flew down occaionally.
The rest of the volunteers could testify that there were 15 hornbills. Cool man!

First Weekend Walk of the Year at Chek Jawa

2008-01-20T23:35:00.000+08:00

Have not blogged on this blog for quite a while, so when Adelle asked me to help out, I gladly took it up :)

I've already put up an entry on my other blog actually, so will just highlight some of the special finds and also those that I did not talk about in my other blog.

One of the first few plants that caught my attention was the fruiting rattan above. Came a few weeks ago and it was flowering like nobody's business. So, this is how the fruits look like!

Yet another plant that caught my eye was this sea almond tree. Seems like it's getting ready to shed its leaves, as all of them had turned orange or red. Well, you don't need to go to the temperature countries to see colourful leaves, you know?

There were plenty of sand dollars on the sand bar, and the visitors were delighted to make personal contacts with nature.

The hairy sea hares were in season too! We saw lots of them as well almost exactly about one year ago. Could this mean that they follow a yearly reproduction cycle?

And yes! We do have seahorses in Singapore! They are usually very well-camouflaged though, and it takes really sharp eyes sometimes to spot them.

And here's a juvenile cake sea star...

...and its underside. The mouth is in the middle, and it has lots of little tube feet in the five grooves radiating out from the centre.

We also found a flower crab covered with algae and several goose barnacles. The two back legs of the flower crab are paddle-shaped, which allow it to swim around.

Lunar New Year is coming, and coincidentally we also saw one of the "New Year fish" - the rabbitfish. Called 'peh toh' in Hokkien, the rabbitfish breeds around this time, and the Chinese simply love its roe.

There were a few brittle stars too. This one tried to burrow into the sand, but fortunately, we managed to take a good look of it before it disappeared totally.

After the intertidal walk, we went to the rescue tank at House No. 1 to take a look at some of the fishes they rescued recently from one of the restaurants. The 3 in the middle are kite butterflyfish, and if you look carefully, you will find a copperbanded butterflyfish at the top-right corner.

They even have 2 blue ring angelfish!

Soon, it's time to go, but even at the entrance to Chek Jawa Wetlands, we had the privilege to spot a flying dragon! Also called the gilding lizard, it can spread out folds of skin attached its ribs and uses them like "wings" to glide from one tree to another.

All in all, it's been a good trip. Hopefully all the visitors enjoyed the trip as much as the guides do! :)

19th Jan - Orientation

2008-01-19T23:00:00.000+08:00

Conducted a orientation for new volunteers today to know more about the island and discuss volunteering opportunities. Was supposed to have 13 pax coming but some could'nt make it last minute.

When I was on the bumboat, I just couldnt resist the beautiful fluffy clouds that form a horizon over Ubin. Was imagining how it would felt if I could touch the clouds. Haha...

As we found out that everyone was not in a rush to end at 3pm today, we decided to end our orientation at 5pm instead.

Here's the great company for the day....

and here's some souvenir from CJ.....Bites from vicious mosquitoes along the mangrove boardwalk...

We then had lunch at Sisters' Restaurant before heading to Ketam Bike Park, visit the large Ficus casiramea (collared fig).

It started drizzling at 4pm and we went to visit Uncle Leong Kiat at his "Why you so like that" stall.
He made us some tea with Singapore Holly leaves mixed with another weed he gathered.
Here we are, eager to learn about the great uses of the herbs that he sells.

The day ended and some of us hitched a ride from Wenpin who forgot to place parking coupons and got summoned $30. Poor thing! Next time just park at Civil Service Club lah...

Looking forward to tmw's Chek Jawa walk. This week is the mark of the 1 year anniversary since the massive death at CJ on 18th January. Hope there would be pleasant surprises.
=)

10th, 11th Oct

2007-10-11T19:17:00.000+08:00

10th Oct
We had our jungle fowl survey in the morning. Weather was fine and as usual, my group only heard the crowing of the males and did'nt sight any jungle fowl.

We spotted some interesting stuff while moving from point to point.

Looks like a cockaroach but if you look closer, you'll spot the cute eyes. Got to find out the name of this beetle

At first I thought that its just a fly but after our colleague shot it (with camera of course) it turns out to be a cute beetle. Got to find out the name too.

Here's a baby cobra. It has white bands on its sides. We almost stepped on it while moving through the forest.

Skeleton of a reptile along the sensory trail

11th Oct

I have'nt recovered from my flu and fever today and was planning to leave the island at 3pm when there was a sighting of a python in ST by villagers. Rumour was going around that it was a big one and had just ate a wild boar. Could'nt resist when I saw the rest of my colleague heading to ST with their cameras & so I went...

This is what we spotted in one of the fresh water pond.

It appears to have eaten something big and cant move much although there were so many curious villagers and staff looking at it. Talk about being in the limelight...

If you enlarge this photo, you can see its head on the right. It must have taken a while to ingest the last victim with such a small head. The part where it was blarging appears to be afloat. Perhaps it was really a wild boar inside. Yesterday when we were doing the survey metres from this spot, we heard load abrupt scream from a wild boar but no sound of any moving thru the bushes like we normally do. Or perhaps it ate the jungle fowl that we could'nt spot yesterday...

Robert estimate it to be about 5m. That means almost half of it is submerged in water.

ST guides, do keep a look out for this python during your next guided tour.

Cheers,
Adelle

The Unknown

2007-10-04T22:43:00.000+08:00

I'm always giving answers and explaination. Let's see what happens when I asks questions...

Why did an insect want to be close to lightning by resting on a lightning warning signboard??

Why are there paw prints on a glass which is 8 feet above ground at House No 1?

Is this a commonly seen toad? Why is there a toad stationed at CJ IK and plays dead when we harrass it?

Why are there so many big brittle stars on the northern sandbar in CJ? (there were at least 20 of them in one spot) Why did'nt they hide in the rocky shores and coral rubble area? Are they taking over the space of the common sea star?

Why are there so much seaweed in the seagrass lagoon??

What kind of flower crabs are these??

Have a great day ahead people~
Cheers

CJ Get-together

2007-08-27T11:52:00.000+08:00

In celebration of the successful launch of CJ, what could be more appropriate than a bbq at House 1 itself~
So last Saturday, 25th Aug we came togother and had a good time. Consultants, contractors, partners, volunteers and staff who contributed to the new chapter of Chek Jawa were invited to this cosy & private get-together....

Here's some photos taken by our dear November....the rest of the photos can be viewed at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/micamonkey/tags/ubinbbq/
Thanks November~ For capturing CJ's beauty in the photos. Love the photos you took.

Our GOH - Dr Leong giving address as the sun begin to set. Heartfelt appreciation to our COO - for his precious time to grace this event even thou he had to attend WOMAD at Fort Canning later that evening.

The group photo

Our BBQ men - Adelle's hubby (Matthew) & helper
The fire was quite strong and some food got burnt. Hope no one had tummy upset from eating the food.

Romantic dinner with (frm Left) Ria, Vilma, Dr Hsu, Celine & Angie

My house dog- Yuki & 'someone'. Brought her along but I was running around to get things done. Felt so guilty as she end up being baby-sitted by many kind guests. Hope she did'nt inconvenience anyone.
Can anyone can ID who these legs belong too?

Annoucement of free boat rides for the 7th Month Wayang Show... Today & Tmw evening (27th;28th Aug).
Anyone coming to watch the traditional wayang?

Ulu Gombak Trip!

2007-08-22T23:08:00.000+08:00

Hooray! Am finally able to blog after months of my drowned camera and hours of trying to log in to blog.

Went to Ulu Gombak last weekend with a group of volunteers, colleagues and friends. Its my first time to Malaysia on a trip like this and I've truely enjoyed myself. Programme, food, accomodation and company was great and here's some moments captured.

DAY 1 (FRIM)

Our first stop after crossing the second causeway....Luan Keng strongly recommended the food here and it turns out great!

4 hours away from our first stop and everyone is making themselves comfortable in the bus.

As you can see....someone is covering his head to feel comfortable. William, I think it won't work as well as my comfi pillow. =)

Finally reach FRIM and and after a quick beehoon break, we were ushered into the briefing room by a staff about the research centre's work.

Next up....hike to the Canopy Walk~!

Beauties discovered along the way....

Finally reached the canopy walk after the hike up. I thought my legs were going to fall apart by the time I reached there. Wake up call to start doing more exercises. Phew~

First time walking on a canopy walk (other than ttw) and was surprised at the material used! Metal ladders, ropes, nets.

At the end of the walk...we took a break by a stream.

Visit to the insect collection and arboretum

That's Yixiong our colleague from BC. He's great in identifying insects and birds. Thank God for him..

Here's Gary (in grey) our Malaysia coordinator for this trip explaining about the dipteropcarp arboretum

Along the way. Puisan pointed out a car. Said the red design looks like my hair in the wind. Wonder if I should be happy to hear it from an artist. Nice car anyway. The rest were checking out the car after that.

We had tea in Malay Teahouse which was supposed to be launched nexted month. Nice cosy place. The products were by-products of trees in FRIM and I bought some fragrance soap. The tea were too expensive to buy at RM$40 onwards per tin of 30 sachets. They served us Cat's Whiskers tea which tasted like Chinese Tea. Nice.

DAY 2 (Batu Caves, Orang Asli Museum, Orang Asli village, Orang Asli Talk, BBQ)

I slept very well on day 1 although there were complains of tamil band in the temple jamming till 5am and fireworks being let out in the middle of the forest where our accomodation was. The thick mattress, cool night weather and tired legs helped keep me asleep thru the night.

We had a little walk soon after breakfast. It was a nice walk, discovering old research houses, water streams, flowering ginger and leeches! No one was attacked by the leeches as KS Wong was fast to spot them on the ladies' pants before they could get down to feeding.

Batu caves next....we had to climb up 272 steps to get there.
Gary's child joined us in the walk.

Briefing at the caves.

Helmets next....

No photos are allowed in the caves but we learned a little about the rock formations and got our shoes soles thickened by guano....

Sigium spotted a viper in the bushes along the stairs. It was'nt moving much thou.

Lunch served on banana leaves.

Visit to the Orang Asli museum

Wong pointing to a tribe with his surname.
'Che Wong' tribe had 3 new members - Mr Wong Tuan Wah, Mr Wong Kum Sang and Wong Ley Kun~ hee

Some of the exhibits. I was amazed at the fish cages. Have only seen metal ones made by Ubin villagers and did'nt know about those made by plant products.

Visit to a orang asli group 5 minutes walk from our accomodation. The village headman was not around as he did not expect us but we still managed to give out the items we brought for the kids. The kampong is quite similar to Ubin ones and there are villagers driving Proton Saga cars.

Shopping time~ There was a stall set up setting items made by orang asli. All proceeds goes to the artist and the middle lady is helping them to sell. We were all swarming to the stall to pick up souveniers and books which were very reasonably prized for the excellent craftsmanship. Most comes a note saying where it comes from, who made it, what is used to made it etc. Really useful and informative. We dun just buy but learn more about the orang asli.

Talk about orang asli - an eye opener for a city dweller like me.

BBQ!

Lovely Rosalind helping to BBQ for the hungry group.

We made some new friends too. Like this puppy who was supposed to station at the security guard post.

And a nose flute expert who's an orang asli himself.

And here's Lioe trying to master the art... BTW, Lioe's one of the big spender at the stall.

DAY 3 (Klang Gates)

Final day. We are climbing up Klang gates which consist of quartz. I enjoyed this hike the most as the scenery was simply breath taking...

After descending from klang gates, a strange looking grasshopper was attracted to William (volunteer from CNR) and we took the chance to take photos.

Others....

Our accomodation area. Great for birdwatching and getting inspiration for drawing.

Our room for the 2 nights...

Here's a reason why you should bring your spouse for the next trip.

1) Free massage when you are tired.

2) As a leg rest when you are reading a book.

Hope to see more people signing up for future trips! Till then~

In loving memory of 2 Ubin Villagers

2007-04-23T11:01:00.000+08:00

Hi,
many who've been to the Sensory Trail would by-pass a kampong house with neat carpet grass and a bountiful vegetable garden in its backyard. It is one of my favorite house in Ubin and the owner Uncle Chew stays alone in this house after his wife passed away years back.

Once a week, his children would return to spend time with their father and help him with the house chores. Uncle Chew often walk around the village slowly, with a straigthen pose that even some teenagers lack. His smiles greets me in a distance as I walk pass the coffee shop where he sits and enjoys his morning coffee. Without fail, he always smile and sincerely call to me "Lai! Jia KoPi!"; asking me to join him for coffee.

On Friday when I return to Ubin, there was a different atmosphere when I walked pass the coffee shop where Uncle Chew usually sits. I did'nt suspected anything till I got to the office where colleague Mark Lim breaks the news - Uncle Chew passed away on Wednesday, 18th April.

He complained of pain in his adominal area and was admitted to hospital where an operation was performed. It's said that his intestines had 'entangled' and there was some complexity. He fell into a coma and woke up before passing away. At the funeral wake, we heard from his daughter how much Uncle Chew loves his house in Ubin. When he woke up from his coma, he was telling all the nurses about his nice house, delicious home-grown tapioca and his garden. He even invited the nurses to visit the island- when you love a place or someone, you won't stop talking to others about it.

Here's a photo of Uncle Chew I took last August. His smiles will forever be remembered by many who've been blessed by him in different ways. He should be 80 this year.

=============================================================

This morning, we noticed many bicycle shops were closed. Mr Yeo's (the family selling the Chek Jawa book) front door was fenced up with a rope. We later found out from 'Ah Lian' that senior Uncle Yeo passed away on Sunday 22nd April. Many would remember the sight of this uncle with his wife sitting outside their house, chatting and facing their lush 'landscape' by the sea.
To me, they were a icon of long-lasting marriage; a couple who've braved a few decades together and spend quality time together even at old age.

Here's a photo of Senior Uncle Yeo. We'll remember this uncle who have stayed in Chek Jawa with his family for most of his life.

For those who would like to pay last respect to senior Uncle Yeo or make contributions at his wake, do drop me an sms. I am checking the details and will reply to you as soon as possible.

Regular Visitor to the Volunteer Hub

2007-03-01T20:09:00.000+08:00

Many asked us how's our new office when they visit. Love it since its nearer to the jetty and 'town' where food is. My new seat has a good fengshui as well, allowing me to look out of the window occasionally and spot who's at the door of the office.

We have a regular visitor often spotted and here's him in action.

Mr Hornbill (oriental pied hornbill).....standing on the Jelutong tree outside our office.

More photos of him.....he was standing on the tree for at least 10 minutes, moving his head looking at the surroundings, cleaning his beak on the branches, making gentle noise like communicating to someone / something.....

Finally when I moved away after taking at least 20 photos of him, he did something funny (Lioe spotted him from another angle).

Flew and knock on the hornbill photo on the wall mural outside the hub.

Now you know why the photo of the hornbill at the IK exhibition hall is scatched and this tile chipped......

Last weekend, a ranger reported that a hornbill was standing on the display panels INSIDE the Volunteers' Hub after he came back from the toilet. The hornbill panicked upon seeing him and flew towards and knock the glass panal of the office before flying off.... Ouch!

Perhaps he really liked our office too. Or perhaps he saw his reflection on the glass / the photo of the hornbill on the new exhibits of Biodiversity in Singapore.

Do look out for this regular visitor if you are around the Volunteer Hub.

Cheers!

CJ

2007-03-01T19:45:00.000+08:00

So sorry for not updateing the blog! Moving house and my new SD card can't be read on the card reader so can't upload photos. No photos how can?

Here are some of the things still spotted on CJ after the fateful 18th January walk...

No carpet anemones that's as colourful as before but we are still thrilled by the little surprises..

Peacock anemones....as radiant as before

Caught a puffer fish while hunter seeking on the sand bar. He was trapped beside a pool of water beside the sand bar. First time seeing one on CJ thou.

Catfish.....did'nt spotted this species before. There were at least 10 of them in pools at the coral rubble

Snapping shrimp...

Horseshoe crab.... and shell of a noble volute. Think we lost all the noble volutes. I still can remember the stench when I overturned a few of them checking for survivors.

Ron and Kaifen....what did they found that made them so happy??

Rock star!!! Finally got a star. Ron was hunter seeking looking for a knobbly and I told him if he can find us a rock star we would be more than happy. And with his magic hands, he got one within 5 minutes. So glad we did'nt lost all the stars.... Hooray!

Seems like CJ is not as bad as it seems but it really needs time to recover. Wait for my good news yeh...
=)

18th January

2007-01-18T22:45:00.000+08:00

Dear all close to our hearts, we had a public walk today. We thought its going to be the usual walk just that its been raining for the past few weeks.

From a distance.... CJ looks a little grey.

When walking on the muddy areas, this is what we saw. Thousands of the ball sea cucumbers lying on the flats. The smell that choked my sensitive nose still lingers around. What actually happened??!

Hunter seekers never have to put a tag at the carpet anemone. Today they painstakingly found one on the normal route to tag.

My heart almost died when I saw the look on the rest of my old 'aunties' and 'uncles' of CJ.

Patrick was losing his filter feets. He looks very sad and is in pain. I wanted to offer him comfort but I can't bear to hurt him further.

Why is this happening? We are not sure. Definitely not the boardwalk because major works on ground is completed.
But we do know that increase in rainfall brings abundance fresh water into the sea and changes the salt content in water. Last walk, the carpets were already looking a little unwell. We really didnt expect to see this today. However not all the residents were looking unwell. The hermit, fiddler crabs, drills, periwrinkles, mudskippers, fishes, sand dollars, sea slaters were still very much active.

I understood from a villager who stayed in CJ area that this had happened before when it rained non-stop for many weeks. However, after the rain stopped, everything starts to get back to normal eventually.

There's nothing we can do now. I can't stop the rain. Neither can u. The change in climate worldwide is affecting the lives of many. Just that perhaps as Singaporeans we are protected from the harsh changes that this sight in our beloved CJ is simply unbearable. Are we getting a little light on effects of global warming? Today's walk pained 50 Singaporeans' hearts; I hope I can sleep tonight.

Guess we can only pray that the rain would stop here and also in our neighbours' land. Cross our fingers that everything would return to normal very very soon. We will see if we can find a 'doctor' to diagnose CJ's illness.

Hang in there CJ !!
Nurse back your health and warm our hearts once again!

Newbies @ CJ

2007-01-04T23:13:00.000+08:00

It was raining at CJ today. After we drop of our group and were waiting at hut for the rest of the groups, 2 newbies were still reading the CJ guide book despite fighting their sleepiness ...

Yes, they are the 'newbies'! 2 puppies found at House No 1 area. The weather is making them fall asleep. Babies do sleep so often. Looks like they are slighty more than 1 month old.

Don't they look adorable?

Look at the "Please hug me" look. Anyone interested to adopt them?

We've dropped 1 of the puppy at SPCA with hopes that someone would adopt her and provide a loving home. Living in Ubin is too rough a life for these little ones. We believed there are more puppies around and we hope to find them homes before they get put to sleep.

Singapore Garden Festival (SGF)

2006-12-17T12:32:00.000+08:00

SGF is finally here after 2 years of organizing, involving more than 500 volunteers, over 125,000 plants were brought in to create the dazzling garden and floral masterpieces by participants ranging from more than 20 countries.

How, Jacky, Robert, Ali, Tan, Haron, Ahamad, Bari and myself are helping out on some days during this festival and hope to see you there as well!

Here are some of the photos I took on 2 occasions.

On the 13th Dec, during familiarisation. Here's some of the completed pieces.

On the 16th Dec, I saw Annie, Alyce, Ron, Sigium, Angie and Khiew at the festival.

Here's Alyce and Ann at the Community in Bloom booth. Get some hands-on guessing of plant in the box. Cool. Perhaps we can do something like this for CJ?

My photos does'nt do justice to the beauty of the masterpieces over there so it's best for you to visit. More details on the festival and programmes can be found here.

http://www.singaporegardenfestival.com/

A little extra info : It would take one more than 2 hours to complete exploring level 4 and 6 so try to be there early. After the festival you can even go shopping! Many of the shops at Suntec and Citylink open till midnight on weekends before Christmas and many offer discounts between 8pm - 12pm. That explains why I reached home near midnight yesterday. Hee.

Anyway, Adelle still have some tickets for the 21st Dec so if you are interested to visit, just let her know yeh~

Out on the Boardwalk

2006-12-02T15:19:00.000+08:00

On 30 Nov 06 Choon Beng and friends from NParks gave the Chek Jawa Committee and Chek Jawa volunteers and friends a briefing and tour of the Chek Jawa Boardwalk.

Choon Beng gives an overview of the route. The boardwalk hugs the coast, with a bit sticking out at the Southern sand bar and a loop into the mangroves. It looks very exciting.

There was also a presentation about the educational panels and features that would be installed in House No. 1 (which is to be the Chek Jawa Visitor Centre). After some discussion of that, we went to have a look for ourselves...

Wow, House No. 1 sure looks wonderful! It's just like the way I remember it, chimney and all, but everything a lot cleaner. Joseph Lai points out some features to Yuet Tin.

Inside, it's amazing. Here is the lovely fireplace with the equally lovely Vilma. House No. 1 is considered a Heritage Building and thus restoration was a serious business with everything done carefully to preserve it.

Upstairs, it's just as nice: Joe and Vilma say.

We shortly realise (pun intended) that while the ceiling height might be OK for standard Singaporeans (like Siva on the right)--others might have to watch their heads.

The jetty has been totally repaired and is now safe for walking around. We are assured the railings and concrete will soon weather and the jetty will look less like a police jetty after some time :-)

These are the old signs that refer to the old jetty and the old state of House No. 1.

But it was still tricky to get on and off the boat for the ride to the boardwalk at high tide.

What a glorious view! The boardwalks will allow visitors to enjoy Chek Jawa even at high tide.

And see some things we don't see at low tide. A silvery swarm of fishes! A jellyfish was also spotted. If we stay on long enough, who knows, we might spot the dugong!

There is the boardwalk, hugging the coast.

Siva and Toddycats went on the first boat trip and are already exploring the boardwalk.

Here's the part of the boardwalk that follows our usual low tide route for the intertidal walk. Chek Jawa sure looks different at high tide!

We venture out to the part of the boardwalk that sticks out onto the sand flat, now well covered by the high tide. This part floats so it goes up and down with the tide (and the waves too!). This will allow a closer view of the marine life on the bottom as the tide falls.

While some are seriously discussing the panels which will allow viewing of underwater life even at high tide; Subaraj (top right corner) is checking out the birds. "Why are you looking at a hole when there's a gorgeous view?" he later asks the group. A pair of White-bellied fish eagles swooped above our heads throughout the trip.

After the exhilirating tour, we all pile back into the boat for the trip back to House No. 1.

What a glorious view from the boardwalk! The beacon at high tide with Tekong in the background. And serious weather heading in our direction!

Thanks Choon Beng and gang for a great introduction to the boardwalk. We can't wait for it to be ready.

18th Nov

2006-11-24T00:26:00.000+08:00

Hooray! the bus is here. Ubin volunteers let's hop on~

Happy volunteers on the bus in aircon...

Hike to the rangers station from dropoff point.

Briefing by Ali...See how everyone giggle when he show off a plant root with his name attached. The Tongkat Ali! I just noticed Terry looks a little confused. Perhaps someone should enlighten him if he is still wondering what it is used for. =)

Some of the interesting inflorescence and flowers we spotted along the trail.

Ali explaining and Helen listening attentively. Helen's husband, Mr Kwek who works in Underwater World could'nt join us as he is overseas. We took good care of your wife. Guess volunteers all do get taken care of by either the staff or co-volunteers as well as we can.

Angie with her Bino.....Argh....forgot to bring a bino myself

On the TTW.

And we spotted a Flying Lemur after the TTW. Anyone got a shot of it to share with the rest? Mine is'nt ideal to show off...

End of walk.
What's next??

Makan again!

We went to Casuarina Prata for dinner...Jack, Ali and Terry with the delicious curry fishhead.

Then to Yishun Safra. For....

Bowling! Terry, Chayhoon, Alyce, Ali, Jack and myself went for 2 games after dinner. The lady who asked everyone out for bowling scored the lowest and the drain was very clean at the end of day. (Aka won't ask u all out for bowling again next time. We play pool or billard next time okie?)

Merry Christmas!
Wow, can't believe how long our day was. Really enjoyed myself although I suffered from body ache for the next 2 days. That's why so late then blog. Excuse right? hee...

18th Nov

2006-11-24T00:10:00.000+08:00

Other photos...

Jeremy having a little problem fitting into the harness...

A rare guest to keep us company while we wait for the bus and watch some climb trees...does'nt it reminds us of someone we know?? someone gentle and cuddly, who hunter seeks well... someone like CH?? =)

May holding it in the correct way. Do not pull its ears ok? Be gentle to animals...

Loved this shot. Leykun in blue, from left, Alyce, May, KahChine, ChayHoon and the thorn among the roses Ron. And Rosalind! She's hanging from the tree in the background! Wow...

18th Nov

2006-11-23T23:21:00.000+08:00

It's Volunteer Recognition Day again! This time a little different as it's a combined one with SBWR & CNR.

Here's some of my favourite shots of the day! Do share yours if you have taken some great photos, especially the group photos =)

The 5 volunteers who've volunteered in 3 diff places faithfully for the past years. At the centre, 4th from the left is our Nparks CEO Mr Ng Lang and our Conservation Division Director Mr Wong Tuan Wah on the extreme right.

What's a celebration without food? Here's November & Chayhoon. Look, we are using washable plates instead of disposables. Save the environment & won't fly away with strong wind yeh!

Next.....

Tree climbing activity incorporated by colleagues including Ben & Clayton. Here's brave Ros trying to conquer the rain tree... Must fill up indemnity form one hor. Don't play play although the equipments should be able to take a few of Adelle on one end. Safty first!

Up she goes.....That man on the left, is not a taking off signal man. He's Lioe, our 'new' colleague in Ubin (transfered from Biodiversity Centre). Maybe we can have this activity in Ubin one day?

4th Nov ST

2006-11-06T22:34:00.000+08:00

Look at the crowd! Today is Roots & Shoots Day with Dr Jane Goodall hosted by SAS. They are waiting for her arrival.

While waiting, let's see what it says on the shirt.

Here she is!

At the mapboard being briefed by 2 SAS students.

30 minutes later.... Guided tour on the Sensory Trail with visually handicapped friends

Dr Jane Goodall on the Sensory Trail blindfolded and guided thru the ST.

Look at all the cameras at her!...wow...

anyone remembered the name of the toy monkey?? Touched by millions of prople around the world, Dr Jane Goodall brings him around with her and allows everyone to touch him. He is blindfolded too. Sweet.

Fragrance of the Pandan.

Familar faces. =)

Launch (2)

2006-11-06T21:42:00.000+08:00

That's why we have cold water in the fridge... Kaifen and Jason did the magic.

The rest of everyone. Resource room was'nt big enough for a group photo.

Dr Chua and Uncle Tay taking photos and video.

The mural of hornbill and the activities in Ubin on the wall. Even the village children are here for our 'house warming'.

Almost all the guest are gone except these two energetic ones...

You get what I mean when I say they are energetic?

Launch of Volunteers' Hub (1)

2006-11-06T21:14:00.000+08:00

The launch day finally. Now everyone's smiling...

From L, we have Segar, Jacky, Mohana, Melisa and GanKhing part of the team helping out.

Arrival of GOH, Miss Grace Fu along with our NParks CEO and HSBC CEO.

Hiding in the resource room after the GOH left the site, we toast to each other

Evelyn and Jacky are all ready to drink

From L, Jane, Terry and Wong. Thanks for your help Jane and Terry! Did an excellent job at Changi Point Ferry Terminal. They ushered the guests to the boats and even chat with our colleagues and bosses. Really glad to have you both around on such a important event!

26th 27th Oct

2006-10-29T11:21:00.000+08:00

Preparation work for Saturday's launch of Ubin-HSBC volunteers' hub

Helen Kwek is working with some coconut leaves...

To make some grasshoppers and put with some colourful foliage and petals. Nice! This pot is going to the meeting room table to brighten up the place.

In the hub, we have Vasugi, a new volunteer helping to arrange the books.

And also all the staff are working hard even in the drizzle...

In the old office, work is going on too. Thank you Mohana, Evelyn and Vasugi for helping with the volunteers' notice board yeh~. Mohana and Vasugi for running errands for me over 3 days, Evelyn for her valuable creative inputs.

Terry and Jane, also new volunteers, helping out after the Sensory Trail walk.

The workers cooked up a feast for Deepavali celebration, inviting the staff, the contractors for the hub.

At 9pm on 27th Oct, look who is still working....

Really appreciate all the volunteers for their help these few days. Also thank you KS Wong for helping out in the hub, touching up the things that we might miss out. Kudos to all the volunteers!

25th Oct

2006-10-29T10:39:00.000+08:00

One day after Hari Raya....And back at work, kind Pacik Ali invited us to makan at his shop..

Lots of biscults as u can see. Now u know why we are putting on weight.
Enjoy before getting back to work.
Cheers~

Orientation~

2006-09-30T22:04:00.000+08:00

Hazy Day.....

It's orientation again!
New faces, new faces, new jokes, new stories. What a great way to spend a weekend!
Here's what we were up to for today's orientation.

On the way to Chek Jawa we stopped by to have a look at the "Pulai" tree.

Here's Terry looking up at the canopy.

Now. You should know Adelle is bad at taking photos of birds. Can't show you any photos but really wanna share what we saw above the tree.
2 white bellied sea eagle!! Perching on the tree a free times within minutes, soaring in the sky just above the tree. Ron saw it too. Simply love the sight of them spreading their wings, soaring above our head. So close, so big so magnificant~

After "soaring" with the eagles for a few minutes, we were back to earth again. And how we looked like by then.

On the almost completed jetty ahead of House No 1.

Stop by at Mamam Beach. Here's Ron in white and Segar, Mohana's friend who joined us as a volunteer after today's orientation. Here they are getting a shot at the male wild boar who's enjoying his treat of butter crackers.

The sky got overcasted, rain started pouring and we did'nt managed to visit the western part of Ubin as plan. However it was great fun today!

Looking forward to see the photos the others took today.
Post it yeh~

=)

My first close encounter with...

2006-08-14T19:08:00.000+08:00

A baby 'wild' boar!....

So cute!! Is it a puppy? - Someone asked when I show her the shot on my handphone.
Indeed it does look like one especially on a phone screen, so I decided to put it in the blog in case someone spot one next time and mistaken it for a puppy or mousedeer. =P
........here it looks like it's saying 'Hi' to me with it's tongue. haha....

Side-View....

Can actually call it Piglet as it is quite skinny like the pink piglet from Winnie the Pooh..

Argh.....

how it enjoys licking my hands and finger and nibbling on my wedding band (after a rambutan treat)! Bad Piglet! Sit! Sit!
Opps. Forgot that it's a pig not a puppy.

Anyway, you must be dying for more details by now.
Well, from what I know
1) The villager rescued it from the dogs - after the mummy boar scambled into the forest with the rest of the piglets without it.
2) It is well fed and have put on a fair bit of weight since it had been rescued. (heard that in the wild, animal parents may abandon or kill the weaker ones so that they can take care of the rest. Wonder if it was abandon since it was so tiny)
3) When you open the cage, let it roam freely it does'nt run away. It will come near to you and make some cute gentle sound.
4) The villager will let it back into the wild when it is bigger and stronger before it reaches adulthood. We kinda advise them to 'teach' it how to open coconuts on its own so that it can survive in the wild next time.

Don't think it can survive in the wild on its own for now at this size so that's the best the villager can do now.

Hope you'll grow up fast and strong piglet!

12th August

2006-08-14T00:41:00.000+08:00

It was a lovely saturday morning perfect for a walk in the Sensory Trail. This is the first time Angie was helping to train the Sensory Trail guide. The trail is'nt new to us especially when 4 of us in the group have already been guiding. Regardless of that, our dear trainer Angie made the 3 hours training so enjoyable and we learned many new things that equipped us even better for future guided tours. Thank you Angie!

Angie and first time trainee, ChianHuey(who was always near the trainee, and making excited gesture whenever she was amazed...she's the ideal kind of participant we would like in trainings and tours - someone as excited and childlike as her lighten the atmosphere and let the trainer feels appreciated.)

Kamsang our new Sensory Trail worker with parang & coconut.
Are we so thirsty that we have to cut a dried and spouting coconut??

It's makan time! Everyone was so fast that I did'nt get a shot of what we were feasting on. You see, when coconuts are about to spout, there would be this round embryo in the inside where the new plant start to spout. We de-husked the coconut, cut it into half and there the embryo is! It tastes like a sponge with coconut juice and some of us just could'nt get enough and started doing this...

eating the coconut flesh which taste like shredded coconut. Yummy!

And, here's Azhar our ranger with Wee Foong.
Remember the man on the right as he mentioned that he is growing some of the wild passion fruits at home. The next time you see him, just ask if the plants are fruiting...hee...

=)

Butterfly Hill, Ubin

2006-07-30T12:48:00.000+08:00

Hi friends - I paid a visit to the Butterfly Hill @Ubin a couple of weeks ago. Not into butterflies but thought it worthwhile to take a look anyway. I found a gem!

It's just a short walk to the back of the NParks Office. What did I find - a hill, a sheltered rest point, camp-site, yes... butterflies, lots of Tigers, butterfly- and caterpillar-friendly plants, a good view of the straits, Changi and a quarry pond, and a cheery familiar face, Bari.

- LK

Volunteers Orientation.....Tagging along

2006-07-23T16:39:00.000+08:00

Went to Pulau Ubin on Saturday morning for some photo shootings. It happened that Adelle and Bari were conducting a Volunteers Orientation so decided to tag along.

This morning, we have 3 new volunteers and they are (L-R) Richard, James and Jiang Hui.

Checking the shelter under the Banyan Fig Tree on the way to Sensory Trail.

What's going on with all the volunteers putting their hands to their mouth?

Hee....actually they were getting a taste of the Ubin's durians which are in season now.

Grapes on the tree? Actually, it’s Belimbing that the volunteers get to taste too. And it not sweet at all. It is so sour that it is good to have one if you feel sleepy cos it will definitely help to keep you awake.

Besides these, Volunteers also checked out Chek Jawa and some quarry sites. It's nice to see new faces and I hope to see them soon again in the near future.

29th June

2006-06-29T23:30:00.000+08:00

First attempt in picking fruits for the volunteers and we had Mohana, Alyce and Annie with my colleagues, Jacky & Sergeant Tan.

Did'nt managed to get any pic of the 'process' today but here's everyones' fruits of success.

Jacky teaching us how to smell if the durian is good.... bitter or sweet.....

Feel the spikes, the sound....to check if it's ripe....

Open it, and taste...

Smile at the camera when you're done with eating. (I finally got to crop my hair after my big day...heee...hihi)

We did'nt collect enough to sell and raise funds for the conservation donation box today. However, these couple of days is great training for us to be ready for the real harvest from next week onwards.
Durians Here We Come! Anyone wanna join us? Drop me an email yeh~... Thanks!

CJ 15th June

2006-06-15T22:19:00.000+08:00

It was raining in the morning almost everywhere. Thank God for Ria, Rosalind, Annie and Alyce who came and guide and also for the participants who came to enjoy the beauty of CJ.

Walk proceeded and the hunter seekers had a real hard time finding the creatures that were hiding from the morning rain.

We had all the normal stuff and since we had to give the rocky shores a miss(due to the tide), I decided to show my group some of the mangrove plants.

As I was making my way thru the shrubs, towards the Nipah Palms, we hear the little K2 girl Megan shouting at something she spotted (and perhaps almost stepped on). As I backtrack, her dad was asking me excitingly if it's a lobster.
A lobster here! Ah Ha! Is it the owner of the moulds I was intending to show them as well?

Yes!! It's Miss Mud Lobster. I had missed her when I walked past. Thank you Megan for spotting her and Mr Tan for sending me the photo. This is my second time seeing one and it's the larger one at about 20cm long.
Alyce's group joined us and ended the walk with the 'highlight' of the day.

=)

Red Ruby & Yellow Ribbon

2006-06-14T16:13:00.000+08:00

It was a dark and stormy night.

Snoopy will probably use this to describe our pre-dawn walk last Sunday if he were to write a story about it.

Indeed, it had been raining for the previous few nights before the walk. But some how, the sea star^# in me caused me to forget to look out of the window before I left home.

Oh yeah, I had my poncho in my bag. But I forgot to bring along my rain jacket. And it's not about looking cool, you know? The weather's cooling enough. But rather, it's much easier to move around in a jacket. I always feel like some cheapo gift loosely wrapped up with some ugly green wrapping paper whenever I have the poncho on.

But anyway, back to the pre-dawn walk proper. That was the first time I got to visit CJ at night. It was just drizzling a little initially, so we decided to carry on with the walk.

And skipping to the more interesting part... since Ria should have included most of the other interesting stuff in her entry...

As I was happily walking towards the beacon, I suddenly saw some red thing among the seaweeds.

Reaction 1 - Hey! Anybody bought red ruby from the coffeeshop just now? You spilled some of them onto the seaweeds!

But hey... Salah, salah. Don't think red rubies come in this size...

Reaction 2 - Is it an ascidian?

Ahem... seems like it's moving too much to be an ascidian..

Reaction 3 - Alamak! It's a red nudibrach! Is it eating yellow noodles??? Looks like mee pok to me..

Mr Brown will probably comment that it looks like ba cho mee pok without the ba cho. But hey, let me tell you, those are eggs!!!

Yes!!! if you don't believe me, check with any of the marine biologists. Nudibranchs don't eat mee pok, with or without the ba cho.

And there it was, going round and round, laying the yellow egg ribbons. Maybe it's waiting for her husband, who probably kena jailed for possession of toxin, or have poisoned some fellow marine creatures... Not that many trees around to tie the yellow ribbons out at sea. Will have to make do with seaweeds.

Jokes aside, nudibranchs are simultaneous hermaphrodites. They have both male and female sexual organs. So it's kind of strange to use the term husband or wife on them. According to the Sea Slug Forum, this is a Dendrodoris fumata. According to what I found on the web, Dendrodoris nudibranchs tend to lay yellow egg ribbons on rocks or sea weeds, usually near sponges so that the young can feed on them when they emerge. And yes, right next to the sea weeds where I found the nudibranch was a little patch of blue sponge!

So the little ones won't go hungry, I'm sure. So if you happen to visit CJ in the near future, don't be surprise if you find some little red rubies munching away at the sponges!

# Sea star - a useful term to describe yourself or others who did something brainless. Sea stars don't have brains, but operate with just a nerve ring. Examples of usage: 1. I feel like a sea star today. 2. My dear friend, you talk like a protoreaster nodosus just now. 3. If you ask me to do this, I'll have to change my name to Archaster.

Sexy CJ

2006-06-11T09:07:00.000+08:00

Early this morning, a sleepy bunch of Chek Jawa (CJ) guides were out on the shores for a special OJT session kindly arranged by Adelle.

The weather wasn't very obliging, but we pushed ahead regardless. As usual, Chek Jawa seldom disappoints, even in a drizzle.

The busy butterflyfish is always a delight to encounter. While the delicate flowery sea pen is usually only seen at night.

We always get excited by nudibranchs. We DID see a rather large one (about 15cm long), but it wasn't very pretty. I still haven't found out its name although we often see it on the Northern shores. Of course the neat biscuit star is another favourite, and more commonly seen at night.
The crabs were a little challenging. I first saw the purple climbing crab on the pillar, but only later noticed the yellow swimming crab right under it! And the wonderfully camouflaged velcro crab was only spotted when it started moving. This one had a very long piece of red seaweed on its head! And blue and pink sponges all over it. Can you see its legs?

There are sea fans on Chek Jawa! The water was clear, but it was drizzling and the wind was blowing up the water. These delicate and colourful things are not plants and are actually colonies of tiny animals. I've also seen them on Changi.

A closer look and you can see the tiny white polyps that emerge from the common skeleton.

Another wonderful surprise: feather stars! This is the first time I've seen them on Chek Jawa. Usually, we only see them on Beting Bronok.

There were two of them. One blackish and the other a lovely shade of light blue. These animals are in the same group as sea stars but have a lot more arms which are feathery and very flexible.

The sponges, as usual, were crowded with synaptid sea cucumbers, shrimps and who knows what else. The tiny shrimp in this photo is transparent, and you only first see its tiny eyeballs.

I stumbled on this very handsome orange-and-black Mama noble volute. She was laying a very VERY large egg capsule (the white crystal-like column to the left under her foot). She looks like she's been at it for some time.
Ron also saw a ruby-red nudibranch laying a ribbon of eggs. Hopefully he can upload the photo soon. I wasn't there to catch it.

The whole shore was teeming with swimming sea anemones. These rather boring looking sea anemones are like a ball of tentacles and actually swim about. Other sea anemones generally remain stuck to one place, with their foot buried in the sand or a hole in some coral rubble.

There was just too many of these swimming sea anemones...

They were also very close to one another. What's going on? Perhaps it's that time of the month when these sea anemones make baby anemones? There's so much more we have yet to learn about our shores.

A very impressive lightning show started to display over us, and the drizzle became heavier. Adelle wisely called off the tour. Just as I was dragging my feet back to the shore, I came across a very hairy sea hare. These sea hares are seasonal and usually only seen once a year for a week or so. I quickly snapped a shot.
But what's happening here? The sea hare was joining another bunch of sea hares! Haha! Finally, perhaps this is the mating chain of sea hares that I've been trying to observe all this while?!
Sea hares are hermaphrodites. Each sea hare has BOTH 'her' and a 'him' parts in one body. In some, the 'her' part is at the backside on the upperside of the body, while the 'him' part is near the head on the underside of the body. Thus to mate, one sea hare will go behind another, place its head on the other's backside and insert the 'him' part into the 'her' part. While it is doing this, another sea hare might be doing the same to its backside, and so on in a chain.

Amazing!

Alas, we couldn't stay to watch the action as it started to seriously thunder and light up and rain. We reluctantly called it a day even though the sun hadn't risen yet.

I'm sure the others saw exciting stuff too and will share on the blog.

Chek Jawa is very sexy and very much alive!

Volunteers Orientation

2006-06-08T10:38:00.000+08:00

3rd June, we conducted a volunteers orientation and here are some of the photos Angie Ng took.
As normal, the 8 of us started with introduction of ourselves......

then a 30 minutes Sensory Trail Experience.......

then head to Chek Jawa before the tide comes in.......

then to Mamam Beach (at villagers' stall with the wild boar as pet) for our tea-break and introduction to the volunteer's programme, volunteers' job scopes, benefits, etc and Q & A session. (I must say the wild boar did'nt smell that great that day..But luckily we managed to eat our curry puffs)......

Soon it was noon and 2 of the new volunteers had to leave.
So sorry that you had to miss these....

Visit to the West of Ubin....

At Thai Temple.....
Sharing a joke under the Bodhi tree while waiting for Mohana and Jennifer to finish their offering of incense.

It's a tight squeeze! We were trying to take a closer look at some of the interesting weeds on the other side of the fence. Angie convinced me that I could get thru and taught me how to go about doing it. It did'nt work for Senior Ranger aka. Sergeant Tan so we left him to be the 'bouncer'.

On the highest point in Ubin overlooking the quarry under the hot sun.
Introducing (from left) Katherine, Jennifer, Adelene, Adelle (me) Mohana, Angie Ng, Azlin.

Most of you should know Angie Ng, who's really into plants, and is a plant teacher to many of us. She was sitting with Tan who was driving and got him to stop when she spots interesting plants. (Maybe she was the one stepping on the brakes)

Knema globularia once believed to be extinct in Singapore.

More details - Commonly known as Seashore Nutmeg, the Knema globularia grows up to 30metres tall along rocky or sandy coasts from Myanmar to Borneo. Its dark-green leaf is pale beneath with a sparse layer of brown hairs. The fleshy, round fruit bears a single seed covered by a red aril. The seed produces oil used for the treatment of epidermal affections, especially scabies, and in medical soap.

Edible or not?? We tried a tiny piece of the delicious looking and soft aril which tasted slighty sweet and slimy.
Far from fantastic tasting.

================================================================

Extract from email by Angie.

The orientation for new volunteers took place on a blazing hot Saturday morning. But the breath-taking views and scenery presented by Chek Jawa, Mt. Pakua, the quarries made us all oblivious to the heat, thirst and hunger.
Thanks, Adele for organising that very refreshing journey. Thanks also to Mark and Ah Hock for patiently showing us our natural heritage in Ubin.

Cheers
Angie

=================================================================

Extract from email by Mohana

I have informed about the trip to Pulau Ubin and my friends are interested to know more about it. Do you have selected dates for new comers to know about the areas in Pulau Ubin for them to become a inspired volunteer.

I am impressed of the OJT trip on last Saturday 3 June 06. I have learned more places and the hidden treasures found in Pulau Ubin.

.........................................................

Thank you and Mr Tan for the wonderful trip of discovery.

Regards,
Mohana

===================================================================

SMS text extract from Azlin

Gosh it was a hot day.......
Thanks for the great time.
u let me knw if there's more stuff dat i can do. take care

===================================================================

2nd June CJ walk - Guides

2006-06-02T22:01:00.000+08:00

I think I'm taking too many snap-shot photos of people in action. Just hope our sweet and lovely guides don't get too irritated by me.
=)

I know it's silly but.....

Could'nt stopped smiling since I opened to look at this photo 30 minutes ago.
Introducing familiar faces Alyce (leftest), Tom (rightest) and new guide Kaifen (with book)~!

Guiding in process....

Next....

Sinwei! Another new guide. Don't you just love new faces joining our regular CJ guides family??

Sinwei is a businessman and offered to come in the morning to help in guiding as soon as his morning appointment with client was cancelled.
I overheard his guiding and found that he could capture the participants' attention with his knowledge tagged with good explaination and interesting examples.
Kudos ~!

House No 1 & Location Where a 'Mermaid' was spotted.

2006-06-02T21:34:00.000+08:00

Introducing House No 1..... (both photos taken by my colleagues)

It's undergoing restoration works now. As you can see here, the tiles look cleaner after being carefully washed and the workers are busy working on the other details now.

History..... It's known as House No 1 as it's address is 1 Pulau Ubin. According to what I understand, this double storey house with a one of a kind chimney was build for a western family. After that there were histories of rubber plantations 'Towkays' who stayed here. It is a building with rich history value. Where can you find a house with a chimney in Singapore anyway. =)

Anyone have any further details to add in?
Wonder if anyone would volunteer to source out more history of this house.

View of House No 1 from the sea.....

Last month on a hot afternoon 4pm, similar tide, a contractor for the project was standing on the jetty (where Mr Ali is standing at).
He got a shock and almost ran away when SOMETHING from the water surfaced and lean near to the planks (where that inserted hand is pointing).
Is it a crocodile? A mermaid? A shark?
He stopped to have a closer look before he attempt to make any move and something familiar greeted him.
A DUGONG!!
He had seen Dugongs before and immediately recognised that it was indeed a Dugong. Well...is'nt it fantastic to know that we still have them in Singapore?

More info on Dugongs in wildsingapore...
http://www.wildsingapore.com/chekjawa/text/g290.htm

Turtles rescued from drains

2006-05-24T17:34:00.000+08:00

Just received an email from our colleague Ben from CNR. Here are some shots taken during the operation and I thought I would share it with you all. =)

For a full story, go to
http://habitatnews.nus.edu.sg/index.php

Guides benefits...

2006-05-15T16:10:00.001+08:00

As a volunteer in Ubin, there are plenty of benefits. Two came to my mind when I was looking at photographs taken last walk. =)

1)

Self satisfaction / achievement / positive influence on visitors that money can't possibly buy.

2)

Latest limited edition of Ubin Volunteers' dri-fit T-shirt designed by in-house designer Mr How C.B.
(as you can see Alyce wearing)
Comes in sizes from S-XL, short sleeves.
1 / guide, hand delivered by Adelle when you come for guiding.

Unidentified object....

2006-05-15T15:46:00.000+08:00

Hi,
wonder if anyone can identify this nudibranch looking creature found on CJ early this month. Thanks!

Flemingia

2006-05-15T15:34:00.000+08:00

Hi here's the medicinal purposes of this commonly seen shrub along the way to Chek Jawa.
If you have'nt noticed this plant, you can check the modified leaf bracts for the carefully hidden flowers and fruits.

Flemingia strobilifera - In Burma, the root is used to treat epilepsy. In Malay Peninsula, a decoction of it is administered as a post partum protective medicine. It is a lotion to treat rheumatism. In the Philippines a decoction / infusion of the leaves and flowers is prescribed by "curanderos" against tuberculosis.

Blooms in Sensory Trail

2006-04-27T16:54:00.000+08:00

Took a walk thru the Sensory Trail and these are what I found. =)

Etlingera elatior
Torch Ginger is cultivated for its young flowering shoots.
Used in Chinese and Indian “rojak” Rhizome yields a yellow dye

Cotton plant Gossypium genus and cotton stainer (zoom in on insect)
Members of the insect genus Dysdercus (Pyrrhocoridae; Heteroptera) are known collectively as cotton stainers because many of the species have feeding habits that include transfer of fiber-staining microorganisms to the cotton bolls they feed on.

Jasminum sambac

Telosma cordata
'Ye Lai Xiang'
According to book-Possess diuretic properties, used to treat diseases of the kidneys and bladder
Ali mentioned that the flowers can be cooked with egss to make omelette.

Lonicera japonica
Gold and Silver flower, Japanese Honey suckle

Nam Nam is fruiting!..Yum Yum. Promised some of the ST guides to let them try the fruits. The rest of u have to drool....Tastes like crunchy pears.... =)

Photos

2006-04-26T11:02:00.000+08:00

Promised some of you to send you some shots I've taken last week. Since many of you are looking at this blog now, I've uploaded them here.... =)

Tom in his cowboy hat and his 'spiderman' hand gesture.

Little Ebenezer from May's group signing his name

from left: Alyce our Ubin 'regular' and Yueat Tin

Lunch at AhLian's place with HSBC volunteers.

Find this bicycle familiar? This is the crab king himself.

Young visitor to Ubin. His eyes seems to be speaking to Yueat Tin who was getting him to smile at her camera

New Guides

2006-04-25T06:10:00.000+08:00

Theresa briefing the participants on the bus.
Personally I loved her cheerful smile. Looks great. =)

Charles(in white) with PohLian(in red) who's assisting him.

Closeup of Charles. Great first attempt. He's always ready to find out from other guides what he don't understand.

=)

Man's best friend

2006-04-17T12:58:00.000+08:00

In loving memory of Georginia - the female dog that grew up beside our office.

George was found dead by workers on Good Friday and buried near to where her childhood companion laid.

She was neither a pedigree, nor a pretty mongrel. Neither cubbly nor can she roll on her back as instructed. However, she was a great companion and she behaves herself well.
Thank you to all who've brought her food to fill her stomach, medicine to remove ticks and fleas and saved her life when she was attacked by maggots.

George at Jelutong campsite's highest hut 3th Apr 06. She never fails to escort us to the public toilet and Jelutong campsite rain or shine. Now I got to get used to going to the washroom without seeing her shadows pace up and down outside the toilet door.

Outside our office after our first Discovery Trail
guided tour on 16th Jul 2005. She's being pat by a
visitor.

Reforestation 8th April

2006-04-12T12:56:00.000+08:00

On Saturday 8th April, we had 40 Sec 2 girls from PLMGS doing planting of a combination of back-mangroves, forest and coastal plants in the Sensory Trail.

Above : Adelle with group, Wong KS with Jacky, Choon Beng briefing the students, group photo of the students.

Photos taken on 3rd, 4th, 8th April

2006-04-12T11:59:00.000+08:00

Hi!
Last week we had some activities on Ubin and here are some of the highlights of the day....

3rd April - After the CJ walk on Monday, Alyce, Tom, Wong KS, Jacky and myself went to visit the Sensory Trail and Jelutong campsite. To have an idea of whether the sugar canes are sweet.......Well....we had to taste it right? I've never tasted any canes that's sweeter. Nice!

4th April - Yueat Ting guiding a group at CJ. These two days we had lots of pre-school children. She seems to have her way with them and the children loved her.

Octopus! Tom found this fellow which is approximately 20cm long and we had difficulties keeping it in the container. This smart one moved himself out of pot (when we are not watching) and have us look for him many times.

Friday (very sunny, March holidays crowd on island)

2006-03-19T13:04:00.000+08:00

Friday afternoon we had bookings for the Discovery Trail and the Sensory Trail. This time round some of our guides look a little different with their new 'hats'.......

(From the left) WeeFoong, Patrick, Alyce, KS Wong.....

For safety of the Discovery Trail guides, we have got 4 riders' helmet in store. It was kinda heavy and I guess we would have to take a while to get used to it.... I hope the next time I'm guiding on the bicycle, I won't lose my balance due to the extra weight on my head. =)

But at the end of the day, we knew who got used to the helmet. Mr Wong was bidding Helen Kwek (ST guide) and myself goodbye and started walking towards the jetty with the helmet on...... When he realised it, he quickly exclaimed that the helmet can double up as his moto helmet when he gets back to mainland.... =)

Have a great day people!

The Curse Had Been Lifted?

2006-02-25T00:55:00.000+08:00

We had a training session for Chek Jawa guides and guides-to-be at Chek Jawa today. When we reached there, what greeted us was this;

A beautiful BLUE sky with WHITE fluffy clouds!

Not that we don't get this kind of weather when we had our previous training sessions. But this is rarer because Alan, our veteran CJ guide,(in the middle of the photo)was there!

Because we had this theory of Alan equals to RAIN. Last year, whenever Alan turned up for guiding, 99.99% we have to take out poncho. So we all blamed poor Alan for bringing the wet weathers. The situation was so bad that he said that some guides called him up to check if he is coming today.

Well....Alan, the weather today has proved the theory wrong. Seen like the New Year resolution that we asked you to make is coming true.

The curse had been lifted...or has it? Only time will tell. :)

Scarecrows get new clothes

2006-02-18T20:14:00.000+08:00

80 people came to Ubin for a beach cleanup and scarecrow decoration project this morning.

Initiated by the Rotary Club of Bugis Junction (RCBJ), the project included participation from the Interact Club of Yusof Ishak Secondary School, NParks and several volunteers from UVP. The Rotarians also took advantage of the fact that Ubin is one of the few remaining places in modern Singapore where we can still find scarecrows and so they decided to include a Dress-A-Scarecrow segment at the Sensory Trail. They invited 12 kids from the Chen Su Lan Methodist Children's Home (CSLMCH) to enjoy the day out. Joining them were also many friends of the Rotarians, among them a group from Lexmark International. In fact one of the American families in the Lexmark group had just settled in Singapore 6 weeks ago and already they got themselves involved in cleaning a Singapore beach! Admirable effort.

Whew! That's a lot of people involved in a worthwhile project!

Beach cleanup is often mistaken as just getting a group of people to clean a beach. If we delve a little deeper, it is more than that. Cleaning a beach teaches us to recognise the impact of our lifestyle on the environment around us. It brings us closer to the natural inhabitants of the beaches, mud flats, rocky shores and see for ourselves how trash from human beings degrade nature. Through this experience we hope it may teach us to use less, buy less, recycle more.

Enough said, let's look at some pictures from today....

Yusoffians cleaning the beach behind the wayang stage. This part of the beach yields the biggest bags of beach trash.

Woman strength.... Dirt? No sweat! At beach area next to Pak Ali's shop.

Yes, it's trash alright! Lots of plastic bottles, beer bottles, aluminium cans, plastic bags, straws, metal parts, cigarette butts, forks, glass, tyres....

Families and friends of Rotarians join in the fun. Their scarecrow looks well-stuffed and should be able to withstand wind, rain and sun and do its job to scare away the wild boars.

This is the group from CSLMCH. The kids insisted on dressing the scarecrow themselves, and even planted it.

The young ladies and gentlemen from Yusof Ishak came prepared. They spent Friday afternoon making paper mache heads, special hands and feet. Certainly the most creative designs in today's little competition.

This Yusof Ishak group wanted their scarecrow to look scary - 'blood' on clothes, claws for fingers, an 'axe' for a necklace.

So, we have 4 very well-dressed scarecrows on Ubin!

A Banana For ???

2006-02-04T23:55:00.000+08:00

Adelle was holding a bunch of banana and it looks like she and Alyce were happily feeding something. Are they feeding a monkey?

No….it was not a monkey but a Common Palm Civet (paradoxurus hermaphroditus) it is also known as the Toddy Cat which comes from the name for wine that comes from the sap of the palm tree that the palm civet feeds on : toddy. It is a solitary, nocturnal, and arboreal animal. It spends the day asleep in a tree hollow and is territorial. It is a omnivorous who eats fruits and insects.

This Toddy Cat was caught in a cage that Nparks set up meant for trapping other animals. It will be released back to the wild eventually.

Here’s a close-up of its paw/feet.

For more information, visit Wildlife Singapore

New Chek Jawa Guide Uniform

2005-12-01T22:11:00.000+08:00

Here is Sgt very kindly modelling our brand new uniform! Upon advice of Ms Faridah, our fashion consultant, we were told it will come with matching hat and booties. If there are sufficient funds, we will also get matching pots. Isn't that cool!

Perhaps if we are very very good guides, they might make us matching ponchos as well...wow!!

You will note the festive and cheerful underwater theme that goes so well with Chek Jawa. I just love the bright blue and pink, and all the creatures are anatomically correct too!

AND if we are unlucky and can't find any colourful creatures, we can always use our uniforms to thrill and impress our visitors with examples of wondrous marine life.

No longer will we be drab and colourless--as Tom and Mr Wong are (lurking behind Sgt in the photo). We will be most eye-catching indeed!

So please do send your sizes to Adelle asap. So she can put in the order for our new look without delay!!

Sensory Trail and Paradise Tree Snake

2005-10-23T08:39:00.000+08:00

Hi friends,

I was at the Sensory Trail yesterday morning. Great day for a walk - sun was out and smiles on everyone I saw. And that wonderful feeling of being far far away from the city.

The American School teenagers were there too with their visually-handicapped friends. First time witnessing this. Humbling to see the care and concern expressed by these teenagers who probably have tons of other fun things to do but chose to share a precious Saturday morning doing a kind act.

Anyway I had a great group too, comprising Singaporeans and an American couple. Very interested party and we all swapped stories, recipes and sightings. The American couple said that they had an Oriental Pied Hornbill visit their balcony garden. Believe it or not?! They live in a condo in River Valley. I asked them to post pictures on the web to join the other hornbill sightings in Singapore. They said the hornbill was there for about 20 min (!)

Anyway, thanks to Anne, we spied a Paradise Tree Snake along the path just after the mangroves. It wasn't aggressive. It spread out its body a little and looked ready to 'fly' but after a few seconds, it shrank back to its cydindrical shape and slided away. Probably too many eyes on it and it decided it was no fun after all.

I was particularly struck by the beauty of the pattern on its head.

See you all at CJ during the Deepa-Raya week!

Bash~

2005-09-18T17:13:00.000+08:00

Start of the BBQ! I did'nt managed to take any photos prior to the BBQ as my camera was not with me before that. Here we have the guys who started the fire and cooking the food.....From left, Robin, Alan, , Zaki's back, Jacky doing a pole dance at the lamp post. (Ha...got ur attention. He's tying the balloons lah~)... Robert and Matthew The rest of the group.....See....told u u can see the sea from the bungalow....It's at the far end, with Ubin and the sky.
While some are starting the BBQ and eating, we have others using this opportunity to catch up with each other.... =)

bash it out

2005-09-18T14:01:00.000+08:00

somebody growing older,but wiser..

arrive near 2pm
wow such a big chalet
not much people i know
hanging of balloons
slowly ple coming in
all outside for some appreciation
its a big stone for us
veri well done,though quite heavy
high tea time
ice-cream,chocolate starts filling us
go for a broadwalk
pick up a silver covered ball
good explanation by Ali
have some cool drinks aftr e walk
prepare fire to bbq
2 of us hanging lanterns
even cover the spotlight with black plastic bag
celebrate 2 guys bday
Boon Sim(in yellow,in front silver ball) came
have a nice chat with her
How suggests old Changi hospital visit
most left home
no need to act laugh @How's games
as usual more preparation needed,lots food left
chidren happily playing with firewrks
others nearby also follow to hang lanterns
there's 1 gp aftr another walkg past & playg lanterns
stack up chairs,tie a bit
i went home near 10pm
-->not e token,but importantly meeting an old fren which makes mi more worthwhile of e day (b4 i go for my not lookg forward ICT on Mon & e pressure of exams tat follow)..

happy family

Sensory Trail 28th August

2005-08-28T13:52:00.000+08:00

On the 28th August we had the usual 4th Saturday foc Sensory Trail guided walk. There were enough guides (although Alyce was sick and did'nt make it to guide) so I ended up taking photos of our other wonderful ST guides. Let me introduce them to you. =)
Introducing Helen Kwek. She's an experienced guide for ST and active volunteer in SBG as well. Here she is seen showing her group an empty box of Neem toothpaste that she used. She was telling the group how good the toothpaste tasted (i hope she did'nt eat it).....and that she always bring it out during guided walk to show the group how useful some plants are. Thumbs up for guides who go the extra to illustrate their guiding and relate things to their daily life. =)
This is Melisa Wee, a less than one year old volunteer. She had been trained in both CJ and ST and has been faithfully guiding in Sensory Trail. As we had many groups for ST that day, she and LeyKun ended up taking the opposite route, which ended at the Pandan Valley. Keep up the good work Melisa!

Here we have our dear Annie (in white long sleeves). She and Helen Kwek are the Sensory Trail regulars long before I joined NParks. Other than the Sensory Trail, she guides in Chek Jawa and in other Nature Reserves too. Anyone interested to join her for guided walks in Pierce Reservior?

Presenting Mr Wong KS. Familiar face in many places including Chek Jawa, Sungei Buloh, Pet Villa and perhaps many other places that we did'nt heard him mention. Mr Wong is a humble and great guide who is always eager to learn new things. Thanks to him, I had the chance to learn more things in order to answer the questions he enquire. Erm....still owe him some answers. Got to work harder.

Here is ChayHoon another of our volunteer who is always ready to get involved and devote her time. Often mistaken as my sister by the Ubin villagers, Chayhoon is a very new guide in Sensory Trail, actively guiding in Chek Jawa and volunteering with the wildfilms. When I hang around her group yesterday and heard her guide, I realised that she speaks fluent Mandarain too. There's always so much things to find out about and learn from each other.

On the extreme right in orange is LeyKun. Leykun is a newly trained guide in Sensory Trail and a old 'bird' in Chek Jawa. While her husband and boys are playing golf in Changi on Saturday mornings, she'll be under the sun in Ubin guiding groups to discover more of Ubin. Really need to learn from this great woman who can juggle her family, work and volunteer work so well. Really great efforts in planning.

Wayang Day at Ubin

2005-08-28T10:26:00.000+08:00

Alamak! Got picture of me in blogger.

Here's the subject of my photo-taking - Ah Boy Ryan will grow up and become a heart-breaker. Hopefully not a heartless one!

Anyway, no CJ walks recently, I still found plenty of reasons to hang out at Ubin - Seventh Month wayang and Sensory Trail walks. See you people soon!

2005-08-20T23:31:00.000+08:00

19th, 20th August (Part 2)

2005-08-20T23:14:00.000+08:00

We had some other friends back in Ubin town with us these two days. =)

Some of u might have remembered Raymond who covered the duties for Boon Sim early last year till May when I join NParks (Extreme right). He looks a little different now...well, guess it's what the army training does to u. Anyway, he's with the Millitary Police now. Wonder why Kendrick's eyes are so big...

The villagers gathering at the coffee shop for a coffee talk after the prayers.

The familiar 'cover girl' in Ubin.

19th, 20th August

2005-08-20T15:47:00.000+08:00

Hi~ Thought I'll just share some of the photos I took during the 7th Month performance. For those of you who missed it.....too bad....come again next year. =)

The performers would pray to the Gods at the start of the performance at about noon time. The villagers would then ask them to pick some lucky numbers. Remember the number combi on the 1st day was something like 6280 (heard it's a annouced to all number combi so it would'nt hurt to let those interested know)......Anyone buying??

Villagers old and young, resident and migrated come back, take time to offer incense to the 'good brothers' and Gods

A young performer of the troop. Heard from most that this is their first time performing in Ubin

One of the items on 'auction' at 8pm later...The villagers invited me to join in the fun that's why I'm still in the office now. Unlike 7th month celebration outside, in Ubin they don't gather for dinner. They only go for the auction and all the food for offering through the two days are distributed to all the villagers when they pass by the temple.

At backstage, a wayang performer resting on a hammock

release of balloons?

2005-07-31T19:19:00.000+08:00

just saw some television coverage of a move of a prominent institution to their new premises. good that they moved - but bad part is; they released what looked like countless balloons into the air.

when balloons go high up, and finally burst, they are effectively litter - covering a massive area! worse still are the poor turtles which may come across balloon scraps, thinking it's colourful jellyfish.

booo for the organizers that did this event!...

Moral Dilemma

2005-07-30T17:09:00.000+08:00

over enforcement rights of volunteers.

What am I talking about? Let me give a few examples.

1.) On a walk, a number of traps were found on Chek Jawa. Crab traps. These were systematically destroyed by the volunteers that happened to be there, and the location of the traps was given to NParks to deal with. I suppose problem solved.

While the crab pots that were destroyed were probably cheap, the nets that we find from time to time represent a substantial investment on the part of the fisherman. It would have cost him money to purchase the material, and then time to fashion his nets. Do we have the right to take food away from his family's table?

2.) One night, an NParks officer was given a call in the middle of the night and rushed down to Pulau Ubin to stop a number of people from removing seahorses from the island. These people were let off with a verbal warning.

3.) A number of visitors, after just ONE visit to Chek Jawa, and maybe having read the guidebook, think that they are experts, and begin bringing in their own groups of people, without registering with the system, or with NParks.

When the boardwalk on Chek Jawa is completed, I predict that people would love to use it for fishing as well. Are we going to stop them from doing that? Do we have the right?

I do not know what solutions will come up to solve the above problems, but the fact remains that Chek Jawa has not been gazetted as a Nature Park or Reserve Area. NParks' responsibility to the area is purely due to the efforts of a number of individuals who protested the reclamation of the place in 2001. In 2011, this responsibility could very well come to an end. I'm not being pessimistic, just realistic. There is a difference.

4.) During a walk, at Labrador park, a trap was seen being laid, and a member of the public was seen on the jetty, walking away from the string that was attached to said trap. Volunteers who happened to be on the shore immediately cut down the offending trap, destroyed and disposed of it.

For this, I'm not sure if the volunteers did the right thing. I'm almost convinced they did not. I would have been happier if NParks rangers had been called in to watch the trap, if only to see who collected it and haul him away to the lockup. Also, the NParks website is not very clear on where on the Labrador jetty the fishing area starts. All we know is that there is a limit from the start of the jetty from which no traps can be placed, and no fishing allowed.

What is the definition of a POACHER? I am tired of labelling everybody we meet on Chek Jawa and any other shore with a fishing pole and a net a poacher. Some of these people are legitimate fishermen. Some of these people are hobbyists who want to catch fish, and maybe bring them home to eat. Does that make them poachers?

The definition of a poacher, from www.dictionary.com:
One who hunts or fishes illegally on the property of another.

On encountering something obviously illegal, such as the Labrador crab trap, what is the volunteer to do? If the answer is to cut down the trap, what about getting the person who laid that trap? If we get that person? What's to stop a group of vindictive volunteers from hanging him by his own rope from the jetty?

What happened in Labrador makes me very uncomfortable, as it smacks of vigilante justice. Which is WRONG. We have enforcement agencies for a reason. In the event of a robbery or a muder, Police are called in. In the event of a foreign invasion, the Army is responsible. In the event of poaching, I'd like to think that NParks is worth being given a call.

What is the responsibility of a volunteer when a poacher is seen on our watch? I believe that it is our responsibility to educate said poacher, and try to convince him to release the creatures back into the wild. Having failed that, I believe it is our responsibility to call the relevant agency and try to detain the poacher until NParks Officers or Rangers arrive.

I have seen a family of poachers try to defend their catch before in a styrofoam box. Their reaction to being confronted by volunteers on a training walk was not pleasant. After all, we're not in any sort of uniform, nor do we carry any form of badge or pass. No, a cap does NOT count. A Ranger or an Officer, in uniform, even the casual set, would have probably scared the poachers into putting the animals back.

So. What is the responsibility of a volunteer? To escalate conflict with people trying to practise their own hobby? I feel that the shores do not belong solely to us guides.

I know that there are individuals in the volunteer corp at the moment who hold the opinion that nothing on the shore is to be taken away. I know that some of these individuals will think that escalation of conflict is acceptable.

Let me know again when some of these poachers pulls a knife on you as he tries to get away.

Kowloon group

2005-07-25T21:09:00.000+08:00

I was guiding part of the Kowloon club group, starting with 9, but only 4 continued on, as the rest dropped off because they came unprepared and were not too keen to trudge through the black and slippery mud between the coastal forest and seagrass lagoon. Pity, although I suppose they enjoyed the cloudy sky and sea breeze on the rocky shore, sharing news of Hongkong's real estate prices and joking about the antics of the fiddler crabs enticing females into their holes. (overheard one of them saying... like picking up girls from the bar!)

One interested lady was surprised by such a wide variety of creatures found within such a small area like Chek Jawa; she has yet to see as much organisms in the mudflats of Hongkong.

I had a great time and was very glad to see an 'old' CJ3 friend today.. Yuet Ting. Am wondering whatever happen to the rest of the group. Hey, you people... respond leh.
Ann

CJ public walk 25th July

2005-07-25T11:16:00.000+08:00

Great weather monday with a good mixture of 69 participants from Hong Kong Kowloon, Indonesia, URA and a few family groups.

There were enough guides so I stayed in the office to check my email that I did'nt managed to check for the whole of last week while on course.

Anyway, Jacky took a shot of an alive sea urchin approximately the size of a tennis ball. Wonder where our hunter seeker Ali found it....would check with him later..... Poor Ali and Sergeant Tan are still tracking out of CJ on foot as the vans were pack and all NParks ubin vehicles are out of the island...
=)

Mid-Nite Trip, 21/07/05

2005-07-21T09:02:00.000+08:00

Hi all,

We were at Chek Jawa this morning, and among the stuff seen were lots of kite butterfly fish, scorpion fish, fan shells, crabs, prawns, snapping shrimps, and....

As I and Chay Hoon were walking along, we saw...

It turned out to be a...

STONEFISH!!

First time I've ever seen it here, and have thought that it was found elsewhere in Singapore, more specifically, on the Sisters Islands and Hantu.

This guy was a baby, and didn't look like it had all its arsenal of spines grown yet. We checked with a chopstick. However, we suggest you do not touch it anyway, even with gloves, as one of our dear guides found out the hard way when an adult injected him with venom on Hantu, through his booties.

Where was he found? Will tell you next time I see you. Where was he left? Couldn't remember where we found him exactly, so we left him near the public trail.

*evil grin*

Hello...

2005-07-20T09:55:00.000+08:00

Hello...thanks for inviting me to join. I am lousy with computers and never done any blogging. Will just give this a try.Anyway, am I posting this right? hi hi hi : )

23rd July Cycling

2005-07-19T10:12:00.000+08:00

On the 23rd July Saturday, Mr Wong, Haron and myself guided a group of 11 staff from Robobank covering Discovery Trail on bicycles. It was kinda a 'trail-run guiding' as we had not decided when to start this area of guiding and I can't think of a name for this trail. (Suggestions are welcome=) )
Third Saturdays morning seems to be fine for free guided walk but due to the lack of trained guides, we might only be able to accomodate 3 groups of 10 each time.

Anyway, here are some of the photographs one of the participant took. Despite the rain, we had a great time that morning, enjoying the beauty of nature, the mud, talking to the villagers, picking fallen durians, mangosteen, enjoying rambutans and each others' company.

Contact me if you're keen to be a guide on wheels or if you're keen to be the lead volunteer in this area=)
Thanks~!

Briefing at the basketball court

Aunty Aishah choosing fishes offered by her neighbour

Another friendly Malay villager preparing her main ingredient for curry. YumYum

The group posing with the small but delicious durians.

It was really pleasant surprise to find a mother sunbird reusing the nest that has been outside villager Ahamad's front door for almost a year. There was one chick in there and despite the rain, the mother bird was determined to feed her hungry chick.

Hi there!

2005-07-17T19:56:00.000+08:00

Hi people!

Cool idea, this Blog. I'm not much of a Blogger... but I've put a link of this from my website.

CJ a favourite spot

2005-07-17T11:11:00.000+08:00

CJ lovely family

From the pioneer batch to the present batch,we are sure that we have been bringing fun to the visitors of Chek Jawa.Quite missed some guides like Meisi,Xiuzhu etc.This place has also slowly become famous as more and more people,both Singaporeans and tourists get to know about the speciality of it.

People not only crazy about the fiddle crabs,but also get to know about sand dollar,carpet anemones and many others.It is not a trip of informations,rather the beauty of this nature.The feeling to be out of the busy city for a few hours ,enjoying the beautiful views and the cool breeze is always great.

Staffs,rangers and volunteer guides like us,out of passion and interest,will try our best to drop by wherever we are free.Some even go all out to take leave just to come which I admire very much.It has grown from a guide book,website,film to a blog today.It is a very good recommendation when the name needs to be mention.

Newbie, just like you!

2005-07-15T13:16:00.000+08:00

Thanks Adelle for the invitation to blog.... but I, unfortunately, is a first-timer, and therefore am no help to you! Ann