Changi East Trip

HHHHEEEELLLLLLLLOOOOOO!

I am extremely tired and worn out from where Dad and I went to today. Yup, since you've seen this title, I went to the extreme east of Singapore. The coast of Changi East is uninhabited ant the beaches are pristine, althought eh water may be slightly murky. In any case, it is by far the BEST PLACE TO SHELL in Singapore but there's a catch, you would need to find your way in first. So, as people wo have never entered this region before, we decided to follow google maps to enter the forest. I would have to repeat that we did not expect the trail in to contain swamps, huge lallangs, prickly creepers, and anything that you will never expect. In summary, the entrance to the coast was to BASH THROUGH THE FOREST. (We did eventually find an easier way to exit but by then it was too late.) So in any case, here is the whole recap of what happened today...

 So here it is. We begin by parking the car at the SAF Yacht Club. According to google maps, we were supposed to follow along the army training camp for a short distance and then later turn right. This is the scene when we first enter the forest. There is a huge expanse of tall grass. This does not look like singapore but it is. It was about 9,30a.m. when the photo was taken.

 This is the forest. Doesn't this remind you of like a scene in some WuXia movie or like one on vampires or something. Further down, we would hit a Casurina forest, indicative if the coast.

 We detoured around and somehow or rather ended up in a large expanse of lallang. At this point I would like to say that it is rare to find any grass in Singapore that is taller than your ankle but these guys were TALLER THAN ME! (Btw, I am 170cm tall :P )

 Initially, we saw this patch of sea  lettuce and thought that the coas was not far away... We were hell wrong. It was actually a swamp land in which while trying to navigate across, I fell in and lost my glasses... Luckily Ah Pa found it after 15 minutes.. :)

 And all of a sudden, this huge Attacus Atlas Moth just flew from the Lallang beside me. The Atlas Moth is the moth with the world's largest wingspan and its silk can be woven into clothes. In Singapore, it is rare due to habitat loss. This is the second time i've seen such a creature...

 The canal. Apparently, this place is restricted but we could see tons of fishes in the water, mostly Mizambique tilapia i guess.

 Nice red flowers.

 And eventually, after bashing through all the way, we finally reach the coast. See? It is empty... I guess there is no place in Singapore by which you can be left aone except in your room or somewhere which requires 2 hours of hiking before reaching it.

 And since now is the start of Summer (well, technically) we have the flowers blooming along the coast. Beautiful. The morning glory was still in bloom when we reached the place.

 A scallop shell. There were tons of them littering the shore....

 Ah Ha! A frog shell and flat clam!

 And here you have 2 variegate fig shells! We eventually found like 20 of them...

The sand wall, I guess its colonised by birds. :)

Precious finds of the day: 2 Orange Ornate Olives, Oliva iridans :) One from me and one from Ah Pa. :)

Purple Diphos Shell, Diphos sanguin, 西施舌紫云蛤科 in Chinese. these guy look different from those I got from Kuching 2 years ago.

Here is the whole day's haul. It is one pail full but most of it are the Figs and Dog Conches (Gong Gong)...

A Marbled Scallop, Laevichlamys squamosa I think...

Moon Snails! I found like half a bucket of them lying on the shore. The species here are the Lined Moon, Powisianus Moon and Calf Moon

A Japanese Bonnet Shell, Phalium bisulcatum. I found this species in Kuching too.

Donax Sp. I call them butterfly shells but they are actually surf clams. There were millions o them and a few live ones too! I would have collected more if those pesky sandflies did not bother me so much...

And finally, a Sunburst Carrier Shell! I have never had any of these in my collection and this will be my first! :)

Singapore Shells

hello Again!
After a long period of dormancy on my blog due to the Mid-Year Common tests, I have once again come up with another blog post. This time it is on the different types of seashells found on the different coast of Singapore. Yup, Singapore is a small nation but the different types of seashells can differ from location. Here is a map of Singapore.

As you can see, the north coast is bordered by the straits of Johor and the south the straits of Singapore. Well, the bad news is, the Johor straits is blocked by our causeway, thus, the water cannot flow through...
the eastern coast is reclaimed land that is untouched and, many seashells not found in other parts of Singapore can be found here! bad news is, you have to walk through a forest or along the coast of east Coast park to reach there. The southeastern region will be attacked by high energy waes and turbulent waters due to the high number of ships... but this is another good place for different types of seashells! the south and offshore islands in the Singapore Straits are filled (ok, maybe not) with coral reefs so certain shells NEVER FOUND ON MAINLAND can be found here. Bad news, most of them are not easily reached like Semakau, Jong, Lazarus Island etc. and those easily reached? Sentosa...

SO, here is the first of the shells...
The Northern Coast,
Most of the shells live in regions with low energy wave action. The beaches are facing the north (yup, :) ) and aren't that far away from malaysia so the fetch isn't that great. The usual beaches would include Changi Beach, Punggol Beach, Pasir Ris beach... Oh, do take note that they are usually near mangroves so certain mangrove species can be found there. Most of the beaches are reclaimed so the shells there are not very rare. Mostly bivalves and common gastropods.

 Southeastern Coast,
Also reclaimed just that they are subject to the high energy waves of the Singapore Straits. Mostly bivalves with certain gastropods like the nerites living on the rocks along the coast, on breakwaters etc. The Surf clams are the most common species there. The button shells too but only in certain areas where the coast is less disturbed. These places include East Coast Park, Changi Coast Walk etc.

 Coral Reef/Southern Coast,
rarely encountered shells are found here. The sundial, although common in Asia, is kinda rare due to sea sedimentation. Most of them are uncommon and are rare. The Tiger cowrie, Arabian Cowrie etc. Certain species of Murexes and Cones are also found here. Usually along our southern islands, southern shores where majority of our coral reefs are but are quite inaccessible but the easier one would be at Sentosa but it is not recommended to go there. a small patch reef also exist along the Tuas region and offshore reefs are common along the Labrador region BUT PLEASE DO NOT GO TO LABRADOR AS IT IS A PROTECTED PLACE! :)

 Mangroves,
Only about 5% of the original mangrove cover is left but i am proud to say that nearly 50% of all the world's mangrove species can be found IN SINGAPORE! Probably due to the fact that we are located in the centre of Asia and seeds from the Indian and Pacific Oceans do arrive here. The common places include Sungei Api Api, Sungei Buloh (Sungei means River) which provides the brackish conditions for mangroves to flourish. Also, mangroves are grown on Pulau Semakau, an island. These mangroves are supplied to different regions in SE Asia as typhoon and cyclone barriers!

 Eastern Coast,
This is the most inaccessible coast to go to. You would need to walk throught a patch of forest before entering the region but it is worth it. I have never been there but am planning to visit that place. it is an undisturbed coast but is also reclaimed.

 Inland,
These snails typically have thinner shells than that of their marine counterparts. There are many common snails but they are invasive such as teh Golden and Giant Apple Snail, commonly found in the new Bishan Park (do refer to my previous post on teh BISHAN PARK). The others are uncommon but can be found at the Bedok reservoir including the Japanese trapdoor snail. the other snails are land snails and surprisingly, i found them along the banks of a stream at Punggol park, near the mouth.

Hee Hee :) Enjoy!

Punggol Point Trip 2

Hello!

    Woke up at 7.30a.m. to go to school for project work and in the end only spent 7 minutes there... kinda like a waste of time. Anyway, I called my parents and asked if they could pick me up and realised that they were going to Punggol Point to run. COOL!!! and the best part is, it was in the morning and no one was at teh beach so i probably had the whole coastline to myself and  although i was not really equipted with my seashell bucket and stuff, still managed to get a pretty good haul... :D

reached there at about 10.15a.m. and the tide was receeding. My apologies for the lack of photos as I did not have a camera and my dad's handphone camera died somehow... but 祸兮福之所倚. i guess if i had brought that camera along i would not have enough hans to keep these shells. :)

Spent about an hour there but managed to get some pretty good shells. And the pater was clean today so i could see the bottom.

So here they are :) :

 The few usual never fail to appear... Green mussels, blood cockles but surprisingly, managed to find cowrie shells among the rocks today... and of course, many others. 3 lineated nerites and alot of monodonts I think. There are also 2 land snail shells and a mangrove seed. :D haha, picked that up for fun...

 Another photo just in case the previous one was not clear enough. :D

 Haul of the day: Fig shell, Black-lipped conch/little bear conch and a marginella shell. Not to sure if the fig shell here is a common one and for the marginella, i could not find any species that looks exactly like it... did it arrive via the new reclaimed sand?

 The mouth of  each shell...

 The fig Shell (ficus sp.), i am still unsure of the species... any help? :D

 black lipped conch...

 marginella...

Well, there are also many jingle shells and barnacles. Really impressed at what Punggol point has as looking from the situation at the beach, hmm... total opposite from places like cherating, cebu, sanibel etc. :)