rainy morning today preceeded our sungei buloh trip. was a bit depressing watching the dark clouds looming all over outside. and singapore quite small la, so if gloomy in east, chances are, probably gonna rain in kranji too. first time kloggin about a day’s event. i usually blog about nonsensical stuff.

anyway, the weather sort of held out and we were met with only a sight drizzle at sungei buloh. unfortunately, the bus service doesn’t go all the way to the main entrance unless it’s sunday, so we had to walk 1.5km in. thankfully floggie appeared and gave us a lift for the next few meters. i never knew you could squeeze 10 people in a car. i thought that only happened in indonesia or something. 5 people on a vespa. i think it looks more cramped from the front. peter has a better pix.

i’m more used to spotting marine creatures, but we did see some cool bugs today. i’m not including the pix of that gigantic moth that was sneering at me from the low-hanging branches of the tree.
the visitor centre has some fairly interesting taxidermized birds and a sign telling the public that in the light of the recent bird flu outbreak, it’s still very safe to visit places with birds such as jurong bird park or sungei buloh. you’d only catch bird flu if an infected bird sneezes or coughs in your path. so watch out for sick sparrows or mynahs.
we also spotted some archer fish and half-beaks from the bridge. kudos to daniel for advising that half-beaks have a yellow spot that gar fish lack. the half-beaks at sungei buloh seem at least twice the size of the ones we usually see at kusu lagoon. maybe the swamps serve a better buffet.

one thing i love about this place is its quiet beauty. and lack of noisy people. i hate crowds. i really do. here, you can just sit and watch the birds tussle over what matters to them. just take flight.

Birds sing after a storm; why shouldn’t people feel as free to delight in whatever sunlight remains to them? – Rose Kennedy

Damn kewl… Looks like translucent egg-yolk to me. So, wuzzis man?

Finally back from my 4 days of treacherous kayaking orientation.
So, here’s my share of account during Reefwalk on 24th June 2005…

Once again, I was there during the wee hours in the morning to be amazed once again, by the sheer number of enthusiastic participants and friendly guides’ presence. After selling about 10 odd copies of the Southern Island guide sheets to the visitors, we have finally arrived on the familiar island. The guides were told which group to take and for the very first time, I have less then 10 people to guide! *yeah!!*

So off we went into the lagoon and it was the moon snails (Polinices sp.) that had came to welcome us…
Amazingly, this group of participants are interested in even the tiniest and most insignificant-looking things like algae.. and I was stopped to talk about them instead of the hermit crab that I already had in my hand. When I ask them if they wanna play with the hermit, none of them want to.. they told me instead that they were not suppose to touch… kekeke …

So moving on…

Due to the day’s super low tide, we got to see lots of corals. Blue corals are in abundance for the vistors to see… As well as many boulder corals, the branching ones and lots and lots of sponges.

And the one coral that my group remembered the most will have to be this one – the dead men’s finger (Sinularia sp.) . They can’t seem to get enough of it…

Of course they saw more then just that. But I shall save it till the next time…

Greengardn and I stayed on and as usual the other guides and particiapnts were waving, saying goodbye to me: the islander.
It was a rather puzzling sight, why everyone seems to be rushing off to somewhere.
Nonetheless, the sharing session and nuar-ing with Greengardn had been wonderful. We came up with some creative ideas that we could do for Reefwalk as well as for our dearest guides…

The hardworking bluebird, though missing-in-action, smsed me from his holiday asking about how everything went. But of course, with our dedicated guides and coordinators working so hard to make sure that things go smoothly, I reassured him that everything’s fine and we all had a great time! Don’t you agree?!

Hmmm… Never have I realised that Greengardn and Floggie were in my guide group before till greengardn told me! And man… How heartwarming it is to learn that you people came back for more and now, you are all formally trained reefwalk guides! *winks*

May the words of conservation spread amongst you, to the people who came. That they may learn about the beauty of our fagile world, and felt the drive that you have within yourself! Keep discovering and keep that faith going…

ps: special thanks to Greengardn for all the pictures in this blog entry…

Thanks to Greengarden and BluEbIRd,

Here’s my first Klog…. Yes, My first, and YES, last Sunday was my first guide over a group with Hwee Ling as my OJT. WoW, and just imagine that at my last walk on 29 May, I was a OJT assigned to Elaine. Many thanks to Elaine and my previous guides Jeffrey and Min Sheng for their guiding, and Ria for the very useful training session on guiding technique (and inspiration!) on 18 May and the very useful practical training session with Min Sheng on 30 Apr – 1 May 2005.

Unlike Greengarden, my group was assigned to the sea lagoon, where I did all my OJTs. I remembered the sticky affair we had when we did our practical training there on 1 May 2005!

The weather was perfect. The Group comprised of college and university students, two of whom did bio studies. Wow, and my highest standard passed for biology was at Sec 2! Anyway, like most good Singaporean students, it turned out that they returned much back to their lecturers and I was able to survive!

There were ten of us in the group. We started with the pre-walk safety brief on the Four T’s, connect with the group with the four F’s. Broke the ice by introducing ourselves and asking them what they expect to see during the walk, asking questions instead of lecturing, recalling Ria’s advise that its all about THEM and not about ME!

And like in every walk, they were a fantastic group and even helped out. I was having a hard time looking for the sand dollars, and they found them! It was my first encounter with a sand dollar, so I was as excited as them.

Ended the walk, after almost an hour and a half with a re-cap of the issues and selling some ko yok on other nature walks, like Chek Jawa. I believed they had enjoyed and had fun.

As in everything done the first time, I had to put a fair bit of effort to keep thinking of what’s next, so more practice will make it perfect. YES, I believe that I’ve found my stars

Today, the North West CDC held a Responsible Pet Ownership event called “Love Your Pets” at Woodlands CC.

On the way to Woodlands CC, I saw this stray at the bus interchange.
It’s sad how people can abandon such beautiful creatures…

The main message for this event – Love your pet. Not for a day. Not only while its still small and cute. Not only until something better comes along. Love it for a lifetime.

Blue Water Volunteers, as well as other animal welfare organisations such as the Green Volunteers Network, Nature Society of Singapore, ACRES, Cat Welfare Society, House Rabbit Society, SPCA and others were invited to set up booth at the event.

The National Library Board displayed an array of animal-/pet-related books:

A message from ACRES:

The NSS Education Group offers many interesting and interactive
exhibits, games and souvenirs:

Hey… I thought Bluebird went to Sabah?

And presenting….ReefExhibits!

Tse-Lynn speaks to Guest-of-Honour Dr Teo Ho Pin,
Mayor of North West District, MP for Holland-Bukit Panjang GRC:

Abby educates:

The message we were trying to get across was not so much about ownership, but definitely responsibility… Sort of like, “Love marine life… Just don’t take them home as pets!”

“To remove an animal from its natural environment and keep it in a domestic situation interferes with natural processes…” (Wildlife Belong to the Wild, Virginia Department of Game & Inland Fisheries, Sept 2004).

People decide to get pets for various reasons. The most common would be parents getting a pet because their child wants one, or because they hope a pet would keep the child company, or for some, because they would like their child to grow up loving and caring for animals, and learning how to be responsible care-givers in the process.

There are also dating couples who get a pet together, which helps them prepare for a future of shared responsibility if they were to marry and have kids one day.

And then there are “hobbyists”, who keep prized pets for “luck” or just for the thrill of it.

And so we had our owners with their pets:

And of course we had our kids:

But when children outgrow their interests, couples outgrow each other, and “hobbyists” outgrow a passing fad, where do all the pets go?

Imagine if you were a helpless little dog, passed on from owner to owner like an unloved child.

Imagine if you were a helpless cat, thrown out of the home you had grown to love, left to wander the streets, begging for food, only to be run over by a car because nobody cared.

Imagine if you were a clown fish, enclosed in a glass tank, watching the anemone and other marine life around you die one by one before it’s your turn to go, because your “owner” no longer wanted to spend money for proper upkeep of your artificial habitat.

We find it so easy to love, yet so much easier to “un-love”. Our pets don’t care if we’re rich or poor, fat or skinny, young or old. All they need is the same unconditional love in return, one that lasts a whole life through.