Announcement - Chek Jawa Boardwalk trip on 12th May (and a belated blog post)

We're ready to accept signups for our next Chek Jawa Boardwalk trip on 12th May. Click here to access our online registration site. We will follow-up with an email to confirm the booking.

Update on 8 May: Registration for the trip on 12th May is closed. Please sign up for the trips in June and July instead.

More about our Chek Jawa Boardwalk trips:
Our outings are always entertaining and educational. They are suitable for kids and grown-ups alike. The Crabs just want to share our knowledge of mangroves and natural shorelines with you as part of ongoing efforts to create public awareness of inter-tidal biodiversity. Even though we are not going down to the shore at this outing, there is still much to see and enjoy. There are monitor lizards, fiddler crabs, shore birds, spiders, rare plants, wild boars, mudskippers and lots of fruit trees. If we are lucky, we might even spot the Oriental Pied Hornbill and White-bellied Sea Eagle.

Dates: 12th May 2012 (Saturday) 
Time: 9:30 a.m. 
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.

If you have questions, write to us at nakedhermitcrabs@gmail.com

Read this article for more information of how to get to Chek Jawa and what to bring for the trip.

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And this is a belated post about our Chek Jawa outing last month (April) ....

The trip in April happened on a relatively low tide day. The tide was about 0.6m during the time when we were there. This is one of the best tide conditions to be visiting Chek Jawa. There is an abundance of wildlife and action that can be observed from the safety and comfort of the boardwalk. As we had more than enough guides that day, I had the pleasure of enjoying the walk together with PY, and we took tons of pictures, especially the birds that were feeding on the mudflat and sandbar out on the shore.

I'm happy to share the pictures with you.... what a happy day!

We saw 3 Great-billed Herons on the sandbar on 14th April.

and lots of Grey Herons on the seagrass lagoon area

Grey Heron

and smaller shore birds on the northern sandbar

On the near shore, we saw countless numbers of little fiddler crabs. Some of these crabs have rather colourful shells. The kids were excited to see them at close range, so it was a good experience for them.

Besides the fiddler crabs, there was this swimming crab (dead or a molt?) under the boardwalk. This is a common crab found on our shores. Many of us are familiar with this crab because it is one of those species of crabs that we eat in Singapore.

And there is this picture of tape seagrasses that I took too. I am happy to report that the seagrass patch is growing nicely.

We also saw the tracks left behind by a monitor lizard. See how there are 2 pairs of claw marks and a line in the sand made by the heavy tail of the monitor lizard. I was initially confused by the prints, and thanks to Ria, she recognized it immediately that they belonged to a monitor lizard. :)

Back on the terrestrial segment of the trail, we stopped to look at the nesting box of the hornbills. This is already the third month that we see the box in use. Through our camera lenses, we were able to see movement inside the box. Mama hornbill (Oriental Pied Hornbill) and her chicks are in there. We expect them to fledge anytime soon, if it has not already happened since this is a belated post! (any update from anyone who's been to CJ in the past week? Drop us a comment please.)

At the end of our trip, we spotted the wild boars around the trees at Punai Hut. The pigs are quite used to human presence. In this picture, the wild boar was sitting on the ground, and kind of posing for us. We happily clicked away.

Thanks to all our visitors who came on the 14th of April. A big "shout-out" to you all! And of course, we must not forget our volunteer guides for the gift of their time - Thanks Ivan, Daniel, Pei Yan, Ria and Ley Kun!