Photos of local echinodermata

N. Sivasothi — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 22:17:48 GMT

Visit WildSingapore's Echinoderm collection for lovely photos by Ria Tan.

Seahorse surprise last Friday

N. Sivasothi — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 12:57:00 GMT

Last Friday, most groups were forced off the shore when rain clouds over Ubin and Tekong unleashed lightning repeatedly on those islands.

With the wind blowing towards Changi, I alerted the TAs and we all got off the beach. The dark clouds and strong winds had forewarned us so the transfer to the various shelters in Changi Beach Park was carried out quite quickly. Later two groups went to Changi Village reduce the congestion.

With us gone, the mynas used the peace to continue with their beach feeding.

While the TAs were disappointed about being unable to show their students an exciting array of fauna in various phyla, they made do and soldered on, using Casuarina and anything else they could talk about. I dropped in on a couple of groups and featured items from the strand line to brighten their afternoon with things to see - lots of plastics and mangrove hypocotyls.

Eventually, though, the strong winds blew the clouds away and the groups spread out over the shore to see what they could see and to check out the tanks setup for the fauna the TAs had come earlier to catch. A black and white cat kept us company.

Abigayle's group were lucky to try out the seine and I shared a video of their fortunate discovery of a pair of seahorses with the rest of the students in the lecture today.

We returned the fauna to the sea and left, happy that we managed to make the best of it. For the students, its the last field trip until their third year, provided they take ecology. However a lot of local opportunities exist these days, which is why Abi made several suggestions in a post-field trip email to her group.

Here's hoping Group B when its their time at the beach...

How many Molluscs can you spot?

N. Sivasothi — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 05:41:15 GMT

Specklet on Flickr featured "Tiny animals on fingers" - its a really lovely collection!

Can you figure out how many of them belong to the Phylum Mollusca? Click the image to view the complete set.

LSM1103 BIODIVERSITY : photos

Photos of local echinodermata

Seahorse surprise last Friday

How many Molluscs can you spot?