Chek Jawa Boardwalk during high tide

We're back at Chek Jawa for our November guided walk! And this time during a high spring tide!

One of the best ways to orientate yourself at Chek Jawa will be to climb up the Jejawi Tower to have a bird's eye view of the whole surrounding. And of course it is the perfect spot to have a group photo! :)

We were fortunate to spot a couple of the white bellied sea eagles perching on the branches. This was soon followed an excellent view of them soaring in the sky. We were awe-struck!

Fun walk in Chek Jawa during the school holidays

We have lined up 2 fabulous fun walks in Chek Jawa (Boardwalk) for the next two months, November and December. Registration is now open for both walks. In particular, we welcome families to join us to discover what kind of plants and animals can be found in one of the natural shores of Singapore. With trained guides leading the groups on the boardwalk, we should be able to point out lots of animals such as fiddler crabs, mud crabs, mudskippers, fishes, snails and many kinds of bugs to you. And as I always tell my visitors, if we are very lucky, we will get to see hornbills, eagles, jungle fowl, wild boars and beautiful forest birds too.

It is our firm belief that kids (and adults!) need to learn about the natural world so that they can begin to understand about conservation of animal and plant species. Knowledge first, then love for and protection of the animals will come naturally. Parents, help plant that seed of love for nature in your child.

Dates: 12th November and 10th December (Saturday)
Time: 9:30 am
Duration: about 2 hours
Meeting Place: Chek Jawa Information Kiosk, Pulau Ubin
Cost: The Crabs do not charge for the trip but you will have to pay for the bumboat and taxi rides to get to Chek Jawa.

Write to nakedhermitcrabs@gmail.com to register. We welcome small family and friend groups.

Stingray and hornbills

We had a small turnout of visitors for the 8th October walk but that didn't dampen the mood of the group. Jael brought her family and friends, 7 in total, while KP brought his friend's son who has just finished his PSLE exams and needed some nature therapy!

The wild boars (Sus scrofa) were there at the Information Kiosk to welcome us. It was a sow with her 4 piglets. They seem rather tame and were lingering around the information kiosk apparently hoping to get food handouts from us. We did not feed them since we knew that it is better for the wild boars to forage for food in the forests than to receive sugar and starch-rich food from us. But they were really cute, and all the visitors were happily snapping pictures of them.

Wild boar at the Information Kiosk of Chek Jawa

8 October - Chek Jawa Boardwalk outing

PSLE is over? What about giving your special kid a special treat this Saturday? Come on down to join us as the Crabs explore Chek Jawa Boardwalk with families and friends. We run this nature trip every month so as to introduce Singaporeans to the amazing shore and mangrove wildlife in our own backyard. Marine biodiversity is often under-appreciated in our very urbanised society, and it is time to get everyone excited about nature and its preservation!

We have tailored our trips for the true blue urbanised fellow citizens. There is plenty of native flora and fauna to observe from the safety of the Chek Jawa Boardwalk. No need to get your feet wet. We should be able to observe interesting creatures like mudskippers, tree-climbing crabs, fiddler crabs, weaver ants, kingfishers, tailorbirds, etc. Sometimes when we are REALLY lucky, we get to see spectacular aerial displays by the White-bellied Fish Eagles.

If the tide is low, we might also observe the shore birds feeding away on the mudflats. We are entering the season when the migratory birds from the far north are starting to fly south, and Chek Jawa is a vital stopover for some of these migratory birds.

So, start planning your trip! If you're interested to join us, write in to nakedhermitcrabs@gmail.com

Date: 8 October, 2011 (Saturday)
Time: 9:30 am
Duration: about 2 hours
Meeting Place: Chek Jawa Information Kiosk, Pulau Ubin
Cost: The Crabs do not charge for the trip but you will have to pay for the bumboat and taxi rides to get to Chek Jawa.

10th Sep - Free Chek Jawa Boardwalk trip

Chek Jawa remains one of the few unspoilt natural shores in Singapore. You might have heard lots about the place and the abundant biodiversity that still exists there. Come on down and join the Crabs as they do their monthly visit to Chek Jawa.

On a typical trip on the boardwalk, we would expect to see mudskippers, tree-climbing crabs, fiddler crabs, monitor lizards, jungle fowl, molluscs and fishes in the mangroves as well as on the shoreline. And if you are interested in birds, then you won't be disappointed too. The more spectacular species seen at Chek Jawa are the Oriental Pied Hornbills, Grey Herons and White-Bellied Sea Eagles. But the smaller birds are equally interesting too. We have seen (and heard) tailorbirds, sunbirds, woodpeckers, kingfishers and bulbuls.

Write to us at nakedhermitcrabs@gmail.com and tell us how many people are coming along. We welcome small family and friend groups.

Date: 10 September, 2011 (Saturday)
Time: 9:30 am
Duration: about 2 hours
Meeting Place: Chek Jawa Information Kiosk, Pulau Ubin
Cost: The Crabs do not charge for the trip but you will have to pay for the bumboat and taxi rides to get to Chek Jawa.

It's August!

The Crabs had a wonderful trip out to Chek Jawa Boardwalk together with their visitors on 13 August. About 30 people came and we split into 3 groups led by our volunteer guides - Pei Yan, Daniel, Kok Sheng and Ley Kun. Two of KS's students came along to help us as part of their environmental exposure programme.

We had a number of kids in the groups, and true to form, the kids were wonderful in spotting lots of interesting stuff. Read on to find out what they spotted.

Along the path leading to the shore, Ley Kun's group stopped to admire the Sea Poison Tree (Barringtonia asiatica). It is a rather tall tree with large leaves. The fruits have an unusual box-like shape. Its fibrous covering enables the fruit to float on water, just like the coconut, thus allowing it to have a wider seed dispersal. Here is a young visitor holding the lovely pom pom flowers of the Sea Poison tree, found strewn under the tree.

13th Aug - Free Chek Jawa Boardwalk trip

Registration is open for our monthly outing to Chek Jawa this coming Saturday, 13th August.

Chek Jawa is a natural shore located on the eastern tip of Pulau Ubin. On a typical trip, we would expect to see mudskippers, tree-climbing crabs, fiddler crabs, monitor lizards, jungle fowl, molluscs and fishes in the mangroves as well as on the shoreline. Last month, we had sightings of wild boars in the forest, as well as several herons feeding on the mudflats. The guides miss seeing the Oriental Pied Hornbills for a while now, and we hope we are luckier this month. It is always a special treat when we get to see the hornbills in Chek Jawa.

Come and see for yourself. Write to us at nakedhermitcrabs@gmail.com and tell us how many people are coming along. We welcome small family and friend groups.

Date: 13 August, 2011 (Saturday)

Time: 9:30 am

Duration: about 2 hours

Meeting Place: Chek Jawa Information Kiosk, Pulau Ubin

Cost: The Crabs do not charge for the trip but you will have to pay for the bumboat and taxi rides to get to Chek Jawa.

Wild Boar Day

Kudos to all the moms and dads who took the kids out to visit Chek Jawa with us on 9th July (Saturday). We had a great time, and hope you did too!

Excitement was in the air when we arrived at Chek Jawa in the morning. Someone had found durians from the nearby forest and was sharing them with the visitors. Yes, we are in the middle of durian madness in Pulau Ubin, and there are several durian trees planted by villagers in Chek Jawa a long time ago. Unfortunately the fruit that we had was rather tasteless, but we were assured that there are better ones to be bought from the Ubin town centre. Do visit soon if you want to taste home-grown durians. We probably have about 2 weeks left of the durian season.

Besides durians, it seems to be Wild Boar Day as well. Families of wild boars could be seen running in circles around Chek Jawa. We saw the pigs crossing the main path several times, and concluded that they must be running in circles! The piglets are adorable! Some of them seem to have grown bigger since we last saw them in May and June, and have already lost their 'watermelon' stripes. They seem relatively unafraid of people too. As always, we reminded our visitors to keep a distance from the wild boars.

9 July - Chek Jawa Boardwalk nature trip

The kids are back in school, and the boardwalk at Chek Jawa is a lot quieter now. Would you like to join us for a public walk on 9 July, Saturday? In fact, the durian fans among you might want to combine a trip to Chek Jawa with a durian feast at Pulau Ubin.

Chek Jawa is a natural shore located on the eastern tip of Pulau Ubin. On a typical trip, we would expect to see mudskippers, tree-climbing crabs, fiddler crabs, molluscs and fishes in the mangroves as well as shoreline. In many of our previous trips, our visitors were treated to sightings of the Oriental Pied Hornbills, White-Bellied Sea Eagles, herons and even jungle fowl. In recent months, there were sightings of wild boar too.

Come and see for yourself. Write to us at nakedhermitcrabs@gmail.com and tell us how many people are coming along. We welcome small family and friend groups.

Date: 9 July, 2011 (Saturday)

Time: 9:30 am

Duration: about 2 hours

Meeting Place: Chek Jawa Information Kiosk, Pulau Ubin

Cost: The Crabs do not charge for the trip but you will have to pay for the bumboat and taxi rides to get to Chek Jawa.

Free Chek Jawa Boardwalk outing on 11 June

It's the June holidays! Time to take a break from the books, and go out to get some sunshine! Better still, come and explore Chek Jawa (boardwalk, not shore walk) with the Naked Hermit Crabs. The trip will be an eye-opener for many of our Singapore school kids, many of whom have not visited a mangrove and natural shore habitats.

Typically on our trips, we get to see fiddler crabs, tree-climbing crabs, mudskippers, monitor lizards, jungle fowl, weaver ants just to name a few. On some occasions, when we are really lucky, we might see the magnificent Oriental Pied Hornbill, White-bellied Fish Eagle and Great-billed Heron. Every trip is different. Thankfully, Chek Jawa is still very rich in biodiversity.

Date: 11 June, 2011 (Saturday)

Time: 9:30 am

Duration: about 2 hours

Meeting Place: Chek Jawa Information Kiosk, Pulau Ubin

Cost: The Crabs do not charge for the trip but you will have to pay for the bumboat and taxi rides to get to Chek Jawa.

To register, please write to nakedhermitcrabs at gmail.com, and tell us how many people are coming for the walk. We welcome small groups of families and friends, but unfortunately are unable to handle corporate events.

Drawings by our visitors

We had a wonderful outing at Chek Jawa on May 14. There were about 60 visitors and we had 6 volunteer guides that day. A group of RGS girls from the Environment Club and RA Biology Class joined us together with their teachers. This is the second year they came for our walk.

It will be such a waste if we did not put up the lovely drawings done by our visitors. What animals and plants did we see from the boardwalk? What are the feelings after the walk? How do people feel about the conservation efforts done for Chek Jawa? We are always fascinated to find out  what captures the eye of our visitors. Sometimes we are worried that perhaps they didn't see much and didn't quite care about the future of a biologically rich shore like Chek Jawa.

Well, the drawings do show that they care!

This first picture shows that we encountered lots of animals and plants in the short one and a half hours. Take a closer look at the picture and you'll see spiders, monitor lizards, crabs, snakes, butterflies, birds, jellyfishes and wild boars. Yes, we saw families of wild boars crossing jungle paths and foraging in the forests around Chek Jawa. To top it all, there were several piglets with their characteristic striped bodies. The wild boars are breeding as wild boars do!

Chek Jawa Boardwalk trip this Saturday, 14th May

We still have about 15 places for our monthly Chek Jawa Boardwalk trip this Saturday.

Please write to nakedhermitcrabs@gmail.com to register. Happy to share Chek Jawa with you.

Date: 14 May, 2011 (Saturday)

Time: 9:30 am

Duration: about 2 hours

Meeting Place: Chek Jawa Information Kiosk, Pulau Ubin

Cost: The Crabs do not charge for the trip but you will have to pay for the bumboat and taxi rides to get to Chek Jawa.

Chek Jawa is not a zoo

After a busy week of registrations and last-minute cancellations for our monthly walk, we were pleased that we had a good turnout of about 55 visitors on 9th of April. So between the 3 of us, CH, Ivan and myself, we each took about 15 to 20 visitors to show them our favourite Chek Jawa trail.

Here's a picture of Ivan briefing his group at our meeting point, the Chek Jawa Information Kiosk.

Our first stop was at the Jejawi Tower. On our climb up the 20-m high tower, we spied 2 fresh nests made by red weaver ants on a mangrove tree. The nests are made of fresh leaves weaved together into a ball shape with an opening at the bottom, serving as entrance to the nest within. It was a hive of actvity. It is said that the ants could build several satellite nests on a tree, but effectively the satellite nests belong to the same colony.

Free walk on 9th April 2011 - Chek Jawa Boardwalk

Join the Naked Hermit Crabs for their monthly guided walk at Chek Jawa Boardwalk this April 9 (Saturday).

There is plenty of native flora and fauna to observe from the safety of the Chek Jawa Boardwalk. No need to get your feet wet. We should be able to observe interesting creatures like mudskippers, tree-climbing crabs, fiddler crabs, weaver ants, kingfishers, etc. Sometimes when we are REALLY lucky, we get treated to spectacular aerial displays by the White-bellied Fish Eagles. We have also spotted the Oriental Pied Hornbills on many of our trips. These are animals in the wild, and Chek Jawa is not a zoo, so the sightings are never guaranteed. But that makes an outing to Chek Jawa ever so exciting simply because you'd never know what you get to see!

So come and see for yourself. Signup by writing to nakedhermitcrabs@gmail.com. We welcome small groups of family and friends. If you are planning a corporate or organisation outing, we urge you to pool your money to hire the professional nature guides.

Date: 9 April, 2011 (Saturday)

Time: 9:30 am

Duration: about 2 hours

Meeting Place: Chek Jawa Information Kiosk, Pulau Ubin

Cost: The Crabs do not charge for the trip but you will have to pay for the bumboat and taxi rides to get to Chek Jawa.

Chek Jawa Boardwalk trip, 12 March 2011, bookings open

Time for the monthly outing to Chek Jawa Boardwalk with the Naked Hermit Crabs.

Do join us this March holidays for an outing to one of the loveliest natural shores in Singapore. Chek Jawa is located on the north-eastern corner of Pulau Ubin. Even though this is a boardwalk trip, there will still be plenty to see. On most days, we see the fiddler crabs on the shore, tree-climbing crabs in the mangroves, mudskippers, monitor lizards, weaver ants, the list goes on. At our last trip in February, we were treated to a sighting of jungle fowl. These are the ancestors of domesticated chickens. The male jungle fowl have colourful plumage and can fly short distances.

Jungle fowl sighted on 12 February 2011

To register for this trip, please write to nakedhermitcrabs at gmail.com and let us know how many people are coming. We have limited places due to the small number of volunteer guides.

Date: 12 March, 2011 (Saturday)
Time: 9:30 am
Duration: about 2 hours
Meeting Place: Chek Jawa Information Kiosk, Pulau Ubin
Cost: Free (you have to pay for the bumboat and taxi rides to get to Chek Jawa)

Plenty to see at Chek Jawa

The Naked Hermit Crabs had a wonderful outing to Chek Jawa Boardwalk on February 12. It was our regular monthly trip out to our favourite place. There were 12 visitors and so we split into 2 groups, one led by PY and Daniel, and the other by LK.

At the start of the walk, an observant visitor, Karen, spotted an Oriental Pied Hornbill (Anthracoceros albirostris) perched on a high branch right above our heads. The hornbills were really quiet that morning, but fortunately we managed to catch a glimpse of this large beautiful bird. It is reported that there are approximately 100 hornbills in the wild in Singapore. It was definitely a good start to the trip! A joy!

Oriental Pied Hornbill in Chek Jawa

CNY nature walk at Chek Jawa Boardwalk - 12 Feb 2011

Gong Xi Fa Cai!

Done all your CNY visiting? Tossed a few "yu-sheng" already? Eaten one too many pineapple tarts? I'm sure you had a great time this Chinese New Year! If you want to walk off some of the fat gained from all that CNY feasting, come on down to join us for a nature outing to Chek Jawa Boardwalk on 12th February. The Naked Hermit Crabs run these nature walks every 2nd Saturday of the month with the hope of introducing fellow Singaporeans and residents to the natural flora and fauna that are thriving in our backyard.

Chek Jawa is a natural shore located on the island of Pulau Ubin, off the Changi coast. We will be walking on the boardwalk, but still expect to see quite a bit of inter-tidal and mangrove wildlife such as mudskippers, fiddler crabs, tree-climbing crabs, monitor lizards, fishes and jelly-fishes. Sometimes, when conditions are right, we might see some of the large birds of Pulau Ubin - the Oriental Pied Hornbill and White-bellied Fish Eagle.

Date: 12 February, 2011 (Saturday)
Time: 9:30 am
Duration: about 2 hours
Meeting Place: Chek Jawa Information Kiosk, Pulau Ubin
Cost: Free (you have to pay for the bumboat and taxi rides to get to Chek Jawa)

Write to nakedhermitcrabs@gmail.com to register for the walk.

Please keep your group small, preferably fewer than 10 people, so that we can welcome as many family and friend groups as possible. If you are organising a corporate event, we encourage you to hire the professional nature guides.