Nature Walk Series

Upper Seletar Reservoir

5 November 2010

Highlight:

It was a public holiday and I was deciding to either go to MacRitchie trails or Nee Soon swamp forest. I did make up my mind when I alighted at Katib MRT station. Obviously, I did not do my homework on the location of Nee Soon swamp forest. I walked along Lentor Ave, right turn at the cannel to reach Sembawang Road before moving on to Mandai Road. I was not aware then that my planned destination was just around that area. So, I decided to just roam around Upper Seletar Reservoir area which turned out to be a good move.

It started drizzling 15 minutes after I started my walk from the train station. Fortunately, the rain was not heavy and was gone in about 45 minutes later.

This was a very fruitful trip considering the number of new plants that I had managed to identify and add to my website, a total of 7 of them. They were as follows:

There were 2 unknown plants (pictures on the right). Both were ground covers found growing in the wild, one was found near the edge of the cannel [Update: Blue Pussyleaf, Nelsonia canescens] while the other was seen on the forest floor. Judging from the appearance of the flower heads, they resembled those seen in some members of the Acanthaceae family. [Update: Staurogyne kingiana]

Besides the monkeys and freshwater snails, the only other creature that I managed to get a picture was this butterfly, Archduke (Lexias pardalis dirteana). There were plenty of them around but they simply refused to allow me to get close.

The macro function of the new digital camera, that I just acquired, was not as good as my previous one. It failed to focus on what I wanted most of the time, especially when the features were slim. As a result, I was not able to focus on tiny features and missed quite a few opportunities.

I had already checked the location of the Nee Soon swamp forest. It will be my next destination if thing goes according to plan.

Photo Gallery:

Below are selected photos from this trip arranged according to the sequence that they were taken. There is a text link under the photo that will direct you to more photos of the same species if they are available in my website.