First of all, Happy Lunar New Year to everyone.
It is the year of the Rooster.
Enjoying the year of the rooster is a cooling intertidal fieldtrip to the southern part of Pulau Semakau.
Today we had a small team exploring this shore.
While the rest were checking out the intertidal area, I decided to take a look at the above small stream that flows from the mangrove to the shore.
Before heading into the mangrove, this mama swimming crab with eggs gave me a warning greeting.
Swimming crab
Upon entering the stream into the mangrove, the airy open environment immediately turns into a peaceful, calm, enclosed area with occasional birds chirping and flying around.
Here, the damselflies, Ischnura senegalensis (Common Bluetail), fly around the surface of the stream, often taking a break on the aerial roots of the mangrove trees.
This is perhaps my first time looking at the live Rodong snails (Telescopium telescopium) upclose, as they forage on the soft mud grounds.
Rodong snail
Rodong snail forgaing for food?
While in the mangrove, I found a large clam among the rockbund.
As I head out of the mangrove, a coastal horseshoe crab (Tachypleus gigas) greeted me.
Coastal horseshoe crab
And shortly after, Kok Sheng alerted me to a juvenile dog-faced water snake (Cerberus schneiderii).
Dog-faced water snake
Moving onto much smaller critters on Semakau, here is a strawberry slug (Costasiella sp.), which we commonly call it “Shaun the Sheep” from its facial resemblance to the animated character. Diver like to find them to photograph their cute faces. They are really tiny, almost of the size of sand grains.
Strawberry slug, “Shaun the Sheep”
The next tiny critter is the orange slug, Cystiscus minutissimus, found by Chay Hoon. While I often encounter this slug when diving, this is my first time seeing it on intertidal.
Cystiscus minutissimus
At the start of the trip, there was a light rain but stopped along the way, while there was a heavy downpour in many parts of mainland and the southern islands.
On a sad note, the small team encountered a long driftnet as we landed on the shore. Unfortunately, there wasn’t enough people to help remove the net so we left it undisturbed on the shore and hoped that the owner will come and retrieve it soon. You can read more about the animals caught in the driftnet in my other blog post here and also on Project Driftnet.
Peiyan.Photography 