Sekudu- A frog's eye view

Today several of my friends accompanyed me to visit this Frog island, Pulau Sekudu in the early wee 0400 hour. Glad they were so on to wake up early and many did not even sleep the night before. This trip has been made possible by Ria though she couldn't be there. It was supposed to be a beachfleas trip but unfortunately Evelyn couldn't make it.


Thanks Chay Hoon for preparing the bumboat transport beforehand. And here is Mr Chua making sure Khairul gets a firm landing on Sekudu after we left Changi.


First thing that caught my eye was this ball sea cucumber (Phyllophorus sp.). They prefer to be buried in the sand.


Brittlestars like to be sheltered in sponges because distasteful and prickly sponges help them ward against predators.



What a crabby place. From left to right, top to bottom: Flower crab, Red swimming crab, thunder crab? and another red swimming crab.


This goby is pretty big and strong ("tested"and proven-just a slight touch)

Yay, found a sand star (Astropecten sp.) which tend to be buried under sand during the day.

Today I saw 2 of these geographic sea hare (Syphonota geographica) and they look juicy, opps too hungry!

A shrimp burrowing into the sand after noticing our presence.

This is a hermit crab that has its soft buttock protected in the shell. Perhaps you can next time try to cajole it out, which I think is super rare. Who wants to expose their weakest link?

These small salmacis sea urchin are pretty common.

How can we forget the carpet anemones that carpet Sekudu with colors? They usually eat fine particles that are trapped in their bodies but if larger animals get stuck in the tentacles, it can swallow it up.

Nice to be reminded of presence of Enhalus tape seagrass in Sekudu.

The sponges are coming back. Hopefully the nudibranchs too, quickly.

These smaller anemones add beauty to the shore, just like flowers in a park.

My first time to see filefish. These fishes are quite flat and this one apparently is trapped in low tide. It can change color according to its surrounding. It's skin is rough so sometimes is called leatherjacket.

Graceful cardinalfishes swimming in a pool of water.

This sea pen is really cute, its small. This is not one animal but a colony.

I think the find of the day should be this cake sea star (Anthenea aspera). This one found is around 20-25cm in size, according to the scale I've used to photograph it.

According to online guide to CJ, These large sea stars are sometimes numerous in the coral rubble area. At other times, they are less often encountered. They come in a wide variety of colours, from brown, red to even green. They were previously only seen from samples dredged from the channel between Pulau Ubin and Pulau Tekong. Little is known about them.

Though the rest might be at Semakau taking the traditional group shot of knobbly sea star (which unfortunately still is not found in CJ and Sekudu after mass death till now), we also had our proud version with the cake sea star! Cheese!

What a huge jellyfish that got stranded in the intertidal zone. It was still pretty firm, not flaccid.

While the sun is still not out, here's another group photo with a rock.

The sun rises progressively and soon I found this black sea cucumber. Tried to agitate it a bit but it didnt spit white threads. This one is more well tempered. Haha.

Help needed to id this beautiful shore bird. Thanks to Siyang, he suggested its a grey heron.

How can we forget to look at these colorful peacock anemones?

What a glorious glow, a wonderful start to a blessed day.

And definitely we can't leave Sekudu without the iconic froggie group photo. Here's a quick recap of the legend which says once a pig, elephant and frog wants to swim to Johor. They did not made it eventually and gets turned to Ketam, Ubin and Sekudu.

Sekudu has one of the nicest coastal rock formation in Singapore!

A last view as we leave with Mr Chua's bumboat.

And a view of the majestic Pulai (Alstonia angustiloba) tree of Ubin which is believed to be more than 100 years old!

Thanks Ria and Chay Hoon again for making the trip possible.

Thanks to my wonderful group of friends for being so sporting to see the beautiful creations on Sekudu. I'm sure they enjoyed. Thanks, Gun Kiat and Khairul for driving, and also Shuying, Gerald and Liyuan for coming.

Thank God for the good weather despite weather forecast of rain in morning. Indeed there was rain in morning and that is after I reached home! Wow. And it is still raining now.

Changi wonders

Changi has one of the best wonders you can find in mainland Singapore. Too bad, with the poaching going on, we have already lost quite a deal of our biodiversity. Nevertheless, we are still heartened and excited to see so much life teeming about in this shore in just less than 2 hours. Thanks to Andy for fetching me to and fro and saving me the exorbitant cab fares. Really appreciate it.


The first creature that greeting morning was this moon crab (Matuta lunaris), which I later realized they are more everywhere! Wow, they are at full force at night.

Residents of changi beach include sea pencil. These sea pencils are really plenty, which I only saw one or two in my previous trip. Another is a sea cucumber. Is it a ball sea cucumber? Prowling for button shells are the common moon snails (Polinices sp.), with a large foot leaving a huge trail. And we caught the spiral melongena laying the egg cases which in one case has more eggs.

Here we find a prawn with colourful peacock tails and a hermit crab in a Gong gong shell.

A flat sole fish found by Andy. First time seeing them alive! Another fish should be a flathead. As for what kind still unknown.

More fishy business! Including a school of catfishes, scorpionfish, green pipefish, and an unknown fish. (update from Ria, The unknown fish is a rabbitfish).

An anemone shrimp found, so beautiful.

Here are the echinoderms! Salmacis sea urchin are quite common now. More are the sand star (Astropecten sp.), sand dollar and the brittlestar (with a crab accompanying for the model shoot).

Quite a few geographic sea hare (Syphonota geographica) were also spotted. They do look like hares dont they? Cute!

This noble volute was quite fat and juicy. Glad to see them in Changi. (updated: Ria commented that this volute was probably eating something).

How can we forget the peacock anemone of such grace and beauty? (update from Ria, It's a swimming anemone)

I guess the highlight of the day must be this hermit crab carrying a peacock anemone on its shell. Really a first time seeing it and its really amazing how the living creatures interact.

We head to Changi Village for breakfast and found this baby bat that couldn't fly well. We were worried they will be eaten by the big dogs around thus we tried to send it to a safer place.

Just not far where we ate, a red tub was spotted with many puppies! Wow, look at their cute and innocent faces. I wish I could own one.

And here are Andy's nieces truly enjoying the company of these puppies. Hope these puppies will return to their owner or find a good one.

Today's predawn trip was done and finished before the sun even rises. And it rose when I reached home. Haha.

Sentosa's natural Integrated Resort

Supposed to go Chek Jawa today but didn't because I have yet to get the green light. Thus, I ended up doing this post for yesterday's Naked Hermit Crab (NHC) while the rest are now there in today's adventure trail. Nevertheless it is a good rest for today too.


Yesterday's trip started with a solo ride on the new Sentosa Express. The 1st train starts at 7am, from Vivocity to Beach station where I transitted to Blue line bus to get to the gathering point outside UWW. When I reached, many are already waiting there.. wow. There were more people as compared to the first day. Quite exciting.


My job was to be a hunter seeker this time, and we all caught a glimpse of a cruiser about to "collide"with the Tanjong Rimau cliffs.


Here is captain for hunter seeking, Ria, proudly waving the NHC flag.


Fellow hunter seeker Yuchen was good at details and worked hard to gather interesting creatures for the public to see.


And here was what he found. A nudibranch (Phyllodesmium briareum)! This nudibranch is 'solar powered' and keeps brown algae in its skin of its body which give it is brown colour. Eventually the zooxanthellae in the skin die and can only be replaced by eating the right soft coral. Until they feed again, the nudibranch can become quite pale.

Hope the ID is correct or else all the description will also be wrong...hahaha.


More hunter seeking stuffs tidal hermit crabs, bristleworms, swimming crab (hard time catching, had to ambush it), Red egg crab and a damselfish. Other stuffs I've seen but didnt get to capture on camera were the black sea cucumber and the giant reef worm.


I was in vain trying to find something more interesting and headed straight to the beacon side, and I found 2 of such nudibranch or sea slug (Glossodoris atromarginata). They are really adorable. Nudibranch means naked gills. They are naked as they are without shells and their gills can be seen from the fluffy part of their body.


Sponges are once thought to be plants but they are now classified as animals. They are the vaccum cleaners of the shore because they filter through water for nutrients. They are not softies from what you imply from the word sponge. They contain toxin and bristles on their surface, emphasized by their bright coloration. Some animals like to hide inside sponge to protect from predators, an example is the bristlestar.


Here is Ron and his adventure trail people coming over from the Rimau beacon side.


Here's a hard coral for this post. There are quite a lot in the shores of Sentosa, our heritage to keep.


This looks like a Brahminy kite flying across the shores up high. They do hunt for fishes for prey.


I wonder is this the white-bellied fish-eagle? If it is, it catches fishes by skimming over the water surface, it does not dive.


All participants were very enthusiastic in learning about the gems of our shores.


After being released, this red egg crab did not forget to be still and be photogenic for my shot. Good crab!


The channel across the shore is always busy with ships and boats. A shot before we left.


And here's Ron with his infamous Tongkat Ali! He is pretty popular with gals too.