Great day out at Chek Jawa boardwalk

It's our monthly Naked Hermit Crabs guided walk again and this time in December we had lots of people joining us to explore Chek Jawa boardwalk!

Such a joy to see so many people on a fantastic Saturday morning with great weather. We had 80+ participants that day! Joining us are also 4 of my student councillors from Dunman High School!

Before we even started our walk, the wild boars made an appearance! Apparently, the mummy boar and the baby boar wanted to cross the path but it was surrounded by lots of curious individuals.

Of course our mama crab, Ley Kun knew what was going on and told everyone to give way. Without any hesitation, the wild boars crossed the path as soon as the passageway was cleared!

While taking photos of the cute wild boars, I manage to capture this shot of the baby wild boar looking at me! How cute! And I didn't know they have blue eyes.

Soon, we proceeded with our walk. I was guiding a group of families related to each other and they were of great fun to be with throughout the morning at the boardwalk. When I introduced myself as KS, I realized that there are 3 KS's in this group! hahaha.

As they had earlier went up the Jejawi Tower, we didn't go up together and thus also had forgotten to take a group photo of them. :P

While exploring the mangroves during high tide, we came across several nerites clinging onto the roots.

We also encountered this sighting of many more snails found just above the water surface!

The dead mangrove tree in the middle of the water is almost one of the icons of Chek Jawa.

On the way back to House no. 1, my visitors pointed out to me the scarily large number of Cotton stainer bugs (Dysdercus decussatus) underneath the leaves of sea hibiscus. 

Why are they called cotton stainers? They got their name because many Dysdercus species transfer microorganisms that stain the cotton bolls that they prefer to feed on. Feeding on the cotton bolls will in the process stain them.

Here is another view of the massive number of bugs under the leaves.

We had a peek at the hornbill breeding nest and Ria (who was near my group) gave a short description of how breeding of hornbills were encouraged through this project.

It's drawing and colouring time! This is one of the KS, Kai Sheng, who posed with his crab drawing.

And here is a look at my lovely student councillors who also had a great time out with everyone at Chek Jawa. Read more about their reflections on the EXCEL Exposure blog.

While waiting for the van to pick us up, we saw this Flying Dragon (Draco sumatranus) high up on the rubber tree.

All too soon, it was time for our sumptuous seafood lunch! Upon request, I took a photo of our all time favourite pepper crab with nice garnishess sprinkled on top of the dish.


The Naked Hermit Crabs will be taking a break in Jan 2012 and will be back in Feb 2012! :-)

More photos of the trip here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/koksheng/archives/date-taken/2011/12/10/