Beautiful mangroves of Seletar

Yesterday morning, I had a good look (from far) at the mangroves off Seletar in the north of Singapore.


The bridge linking Seletar to Pulau Punggol Barat allows me be at a higher position to have a good bird's eye view. I could see many large shore birds wading among the mudflat hunting for fishes and other snacks!

Cycling to Pasir Ris

It's Chinese New Year Day 2 and to combat against all the new year goodies and good food, my brother and I decided to challenge ourselves by cycling from home to Pasir Ris Park.


It involves cycling along several park connectors and above is the route we took.


After some distance of cycling we reached Siglap Park Connector where there was a part we had to cross an overhead bridge over PIE expressway.


Something underneath the overhead bridge caught my attention because there was a huge carpenter bee (Xylocopa sp.) flying around the flowers of this vine.


This flower actually belongs to Thunbergia grandifolia, common name, Trumpet Vine which originated from India.

According to the Garden Voices website, the carpenter bee (Xylocopa spp.) has established a monophilic relationship with this flowering vine. Monophilic means that pollination of this Trumpet Vine is almost exclusively carried out by carpenter bees. Unfortunately, I didn't manage to take a photograph of the bee.


Soon, I pushed my bicycle over the overhead bridge and crossed over the expressway towards the other side where the Bedok Town Park is. It was a hilly route though along the way before we reached Bedok Reservoir area.


Most of us know about Bedok Reservoir but I guess less of us realize there is yet another large waterbody across the road. It looks wild with many birds calls. Seems like a nice place and I wonder why it was left wild or unused since our country needs land or water body for reservoir quite badly.


There are some nice looking flowering plants around like this yellow flowers that look like candles in the air.

Update: Indeed they are called Candle Bush (Senna alata). Ria's Sungei Buloh page listed as Cassia alata but the current accepted name is Senna alata as Cassia is the old name for this plant. Thanks to Alex Yee for sharing all these!

Next we turned from Tampines Ave 10 to Tampines Ave 9.


And we hit the Tampines Mountain Biking Trail! I've not been here before and I cannot resist not going in to take a look.


And the inside seems to have good trails for mountain bikers to have a good time.


With some parts of the trail modified for more stunts to be carried out with your bike, not for me though.


I would prefer to bike myself in trails that look more natural.

We got out of the trail as soon as we entered because there was a longer way to go, yes, to Pasir Ris.


Following along the sides of Sungei Tampines, we were on our way to Pasir Ris Beach. There were many birds along the way like the egrets and kingfishers.


We were thrilled to make it to Pasir Ris Park and enjoy the sights of the mangroves there.


The mangroves leads to the sea off the shore of Pasir Ris where many marine life still thrives.

Soon, we headed back and stopped midway for breakfast at Ikea. We were recharged and sped back home for the later CNY visitation.

What a great CNY morning to cycle instead of stuffing ourselves with more food. Haha. Will try this route again.

If you are interested in cycling around Singapore with the park connectors, check out this Cycling Around Singapore page.

Birds of Kallang River

I'm back with my bike to cycle to new places that I've not tried. This time I wanted to try cycling up to Bishan Park along the Kallang Park Connector. In fact this is not my first time on this Connector. The first time was a couple of Sundays ago during a morning when I cycled with my brother. However, the portion between Kallang MRT and after the PIE across towards Potong Pasir is highly discontinuous with PLENTY of roads to cross, detours and overhead bridges to carry your bike across. By the time we crossed PIE, my brother gave up and we didnt make it to Bishan.

This afternoon, I was solo (yes my brother refused to join me already :P) cycling another way up to the point we stopped the other time and started from there.


Today's ride was a very smooth one and it was tranquil cycling beside Singapore's longest river, Kallang River. Yes, Kallang River stretches all the way from Marina Bay to Lower Pierce Reservoir at Thomson Road.


In the river that has concrete walls, there are plenty of fishes of small sizes. You need to look out for black patches in the river.


And also larger fishes viewed from top. Unfortunately due to the murkiness of rivers, fishes are almost impossible to photograph.


It was interesting to be able to cycle underneath the Central Expressway (CTE).


The path towards Bishan Park only has one overhead bridge to cross at Braddell Road. But it is so friendly to have the sides paved for us to push our bikes up and down. So it was no (or little) sweat!

Along the way, I was surprised to encounter several different kinds of birds!


The most common bird sighted today must be this Little Egret (Egretta garzetta).

Unfortunately, without the 10x zoom of my precious TZ1 Lumix camera, bird photographing became a huge challenge. Please forgive me for the noisy and unclear photographs of the birds.


The Little Egret is considered to be the smallest and most common egret in Singapore.
Our lovely country receives a good concentration of these migrants during the winter period and therefore they can be seen at almost many islandwide locations.

I just simply adore their bright yellow feet. :-)


These egrets can also stand on one leg. Haha.


Another bird encountered will be this White-breasted Waterhen (Amaurornis phoenicurus). They are considered as the most common of the Rail family in Singapore, often heard before they are seen. Their loud quarrelsome calls sound like their Malay name, Ruak Ruak.


It was quite a treat to also spot the White-throated Kingfisher (Halcyon smyrnensis) which is my first time actually. This bird is amazing in terms of its broad diet including crabs, frogs, skinks, lizards, grasshoppers, beetles, termites, scorpions, centipedes, rats, mice, voles, nestling birds and even snakes up to 65cm long!


Another kingfisher spotted will be this Collared Kingfisher (Halcyon chloris). According to the Sungei Buloh fact sheet, this interesting kingfisher has a variable laughing calls from a soft quiet chuckle to harsh loud maniacal kek-kek, kek-kek. At rest, has a gentle chup-kree.


Next bird to be sighted along the canals of Kallang River will be this Common Sandpiper (Actitis hypoleucos). I didn't really expect this bird to be found in canals until I went to the fact sheets and it said that Common Sandpipers run along the water's edge, visually locating prey on the surface and not by probing in the mud. Thus they avoid soft mud and prefer to forage on rocky coastlines and breakwaters. They may even forage in concrete drainage ditches, and inland grasslands.


According to the book "Private Lives: An Exposé of Singapore’s Mangroves", this Striated heron (Butorides striatus) is usually encountered even in canals like Kallang River, in addition to mangrove forests, ponds, mudflats, estuaries, inland reservoirs, streams and coasts.

Do not belittle this bird because it is intelligent enough to intentionally float pieces of leaf or twig or other food such as bread to lure fishes.



Soon, I drew nearer to Bishan estate as I pass by beneath the MRT Track.


In no time, I arrived to Bishan Park. It was nice to see some freshwater ponds which are definitely great places to look out for dragonflies and butterflies. Next time I might try spending more time there.


As the weather look not too clear with black clouds, I quickly headed back. While waiting for the traffic light next to Bishan Park, it was cool to see this special traffic light only for bicycles. The pedestrian traffic light is just a stone's throw away.

I love cycling in Singapore, it is not only an exercise and an environmental friendly mode of transport, I can also enjoy the nature around even urban areas. How I wish our government can make cycling more user friendly as a mode of transport than trying to eradicate the problem of too many cars in our roads by placing more ERPs which eventually makes many Singaporeans grumpy.

Marina Barrage opened, Marina East sealed up?

Today is 1st November where Marina Barrage is opened with the Clean and Green Carnival. Marina Barrage consists of a dam that also doubles as a pedestrian bridge that links from Marina South to Marina East. So where is Marina East and what can we find there? Read more about my previous blog post to discover what's there.

More than a month ago, I decided to do another cycling trip there via Tanjong Rhu. I was greeted with the Benjamin Sheares Bridge and the new Singapore flyer.

Upon reaching the usual entrance of Marina East, I realized the whole place has been sealed up! It is to develop the Gardens by the Bay to create Singapore's waterfront garden.

I decided to explore the periphery of the sealed up Marina East.

And you will be surprised to find life at the opening of a drain. There were many types of fishes including the archer fish and some colourful ones. Sorry I couldn't take their photo because they were extremely shy!

Nevertheless, there were some plants that look interesting.

I'm not a very terrestrial biology person so would appreciate if any friends reading this can help id the plants/animals following this post.

It's quite fun to explore the wild garden that colonized this reclaimed area rather than wait for them to build a man-made garden.

Down by the breakwater was a type of coastal creeper that I've seen before at Sungei Punggol.

I decided to explore bit deeper between the NTUC golf course and ECP expressway.

Here is another drain that is filled with freshwater life!

On top of the tree branches are the not so common pink necked green pigeons.

Fungus are decomposers that help to ensure nutrient cycling within the ecosystem.

While looking at the shrubs, I saw some butterfly fluttering about at the yellow flowers.

I like this pinkish flowered plant!

A closer look.

Like Siyang's blog once mentioned, nature is all around us. Open your eyes and you will be amazed!

Can I ask those who have visited Marina Barrage if we can access Marina East from the pedestrian bridge on top of the dam? I would be interested to check the inside of this interesting reclaimed land again. :-)

Goodbye Marina City Park

Marina City Park has a place in my heart because I have done a project during Sec 2 in 1998 on freshwater life in different areas and conditions of Singapore. That I think is my first attempt doing something regarding biodiversity. I only remembered I had a wonderful time doing this whole project as I enjoyed catching fishes too. In the end, my science teacher gave us a 10/10 excellent work grading. We were even asked to set up a booth in our school library event. In our booth, we had a number of fish tanks, with fishes caught from the ponds or lakes. Of course at that moment we were young and didn't know a permit will be needed. It was just pure innocence and joy.


I still have the project book with me and its my pride, my debut work on biodiversity.


We went to different areas of Singapore. For the southern part, we came to Marina City park.


And we started to document what can be found it that place.


What was most significant of that place is we caught a lot of juvenile snakeheads. Yes, these fishes are very strong and fighting fit. They ate up all the other smaller fishes in the tank...


A simple result of our project. Don't ask why got seahorse cartoon in a freshwater project..haha.

Ok, now back to proper.. went to Marina City Park recently before it closes on 1st June for the Gardens by the Bay’s site preparatory works.

The Marina barrage in progress between Marina East and Marina South

A last glimpse of this park...

Ants can communicate, why can't some of us?

A baby mudskipper below a bridge.

The lake was quite contaminated, but to my delight there were quite some water hyacinth found. According to A guide to pond life by Dr. R.S. Bhathal and T.S. Foo, this water hyacinth is a large floating plant with swollen leaf stalks. The leaf stalks contain air and thus help the plant to float on the water. The leaves are smooth and nearly round.

Cattail usually grow about one and a half metres above water. Thousands of tiny seeds are packed together in brown spikes that look at fat cigars.

Apple snails lay eggs above the water line. They can leave the water for a few hours as long as they are kept moist. The eggs are usually pretty colors like yellow or pink.

And the tranquility and ambience of a city park is sort of destroyed by a wheel.

This charismatic kingfisher dives for small fishes and insects. It sometimes beats a fish against a branch to kill it.

Does this look like Marina City park to you? Yes it is, if you explore enough.

I don't know what is this, perhaps a damselfly? It's pretty cute I must say.

And at the end of it all, I finally found this! Water banana! Why water banana? If you look closer, their roots look like bananas. It has another type of root though that anchors the plant to the bottom of the pond. Wonderful, I thought they were all gone cos they were aplenty in 1998. I only get to find this at some secluded corner. Ok, task complete, time to go home.

Goodbye Marina City Park, thanks for the childhood memories.