wild shores of singapore: Pasir Ris fun with families

31 December 2014

Pasir Ris fun with families

Another awesome trip with kids and families at the Pasir Ris mangroves at the last Naked Hermit Crab walk for 2014 last weekend.

And so lovely to spend the year end with kind friends at a picnic at Sungei Buloh. Seems like the Buloh Brunch Bunch is beginning to become a tradition.

At Pasir Ris, Mama Crab Ley Kun is sorting everyone out as usual. We had 150 visitors signed up and were worried about managing them with only a few guides. We planned a semi-station-walk approach. But in the end only 70 visitors turned up and all went well.

Thanks to Sankar for the lovely place card which we hold up at the meeting point to help visitors find the Crabs.

It was such joy to have the Dunman High School Student Councillors with us. This is part of Kok Sheng's effort to introduce his students to nature and nature guiding under a very apt name of EXCEL. This programme hopes to expose students to real issues, and real efforts to address them by real people. It is the fourth year that Kok Sheng is running this awesome programme!

Sean was overseas and I forgot! I had brought his bug-box to return it to him. But the Law brothers and Ian had fun showing the kids the contents of the box (plastic creepy crawlies).

As usual, the kids and visitors spotted all the cool critters. Leaping squirrels. Lots of Tree climbing crabs. Also Giant mudskippers near the burrows that they build with their mouth! And large Rodong, snails that look like ice-cream cones. And Ley Kun showed us a Dog-faced watersnake that was hiding in a hole.

We were puzzled by the large stacks of freshly cut mangrove tree branches piled near the middle of the boardwalk. Perhaps a tree fell and NParks was clearing it?

We're so glad the jetty over Sungei Tampines is open again after repairs. It's a great place to spot all kinds of birds from kingfishers, herons and white-breasted water hen. In the water archerfishes, halfbeaks swim around.

And above us on the trees, a Malayan water monitor clinging on a branch.

The jetty is also a great place to do some drawing. The kids have fun recounting what they saw during the walk.

Dad gives a hand, a great activity for the whole family.

We are so touched to receive a gift from one of the visitors! Such a lovely gesture that really means a lot to the volunteer guides.

The Pasir Ris mangroves are just 10 minutes from Pasir Ris MRT and just next to DownTown East. It has educational and interesting panels so you can explore it on your own. It is the only mangrove boardwalk that is open 24/7. A night trip to here can be quite amazing. And here's more about why Pair Ris mangroves are so awesome.

The highlight of the year end is the a wild picnic with dear wild friends. These kind friends first brought me out for a Buloh picnic last year end when I was still wheel-chair bound due to a broken foot. The highlight of the year end is a wild picnic with dear wild friends. Seems like the Buloh Brunch Bunch is beginning to become a tradition.

This year, we had the picnic at the awesome new Sungei Buloh extension at Kranji. With a great view of the mudflats full of feeding shorebirds, and lots of eagles flying overhead.