2 Jun 2019 (Sun) - Balik Chek Jawa

Once a year, and only once a year, during Pesta Ubin, volunteers from several groups come together to offer a Chek Jawa Open House. Free, no registration required, simply come to Chek Jawa!

Date: 2 Jun (Sun)
Time: 10am - 2pm
Meeting point: Chek Jawa Info Kiosk
More details here: tinyurl.com/balikcj2019

Volunteer guides will be stationed all over the boardwalk to share about Chek Jawa's amazing heritage  and wildlife. 

See you at Balik Chek Jawa!

Our first time guiding over 300 participants at Berlayer Creek, Labrador Park!

The Naked Hermit Crabs had a blast at yesterday's Celebrating Singapore Shores' event at Berlayer Creek, Labrador Park. It was the first time the marine community got together to offer free activities for families to raise awareness about the wildlife found near our shores. We had over 300 participants sign up for our hourly walks. Over our 4 walk sessions, we saw a variety of wildlife. We saw birds such as the Ashy tailorbird, busy weaver ants and a family of otters.

Photo by: Ley Kun

That's a wrap!

Instead of the usual run-of-the-mill post on the flora and fauna we saw, we’ll share about why Naked Hermit Crabs’ walks are so rewarding for guides. As volunteer guides, we enjoy what we do when we see adults whose faces light up with the same curiosity and excitement as our younger participants.

Our guide, Sumita, sharing about who we are and
why we do walks at endangered shores such as Chek Jawa

Photo by: Liz Lim

Photo by: Ria Tan

One of our guides, Chen Xi, shared with us that "I enjoy guiding with NHC because I get a chance to introduce people to the plants and animals they may not know about. It's also a good way to have a nice walk outdoors and relax."

The sight that always takes our breath away

Photo by: Liz Lim

Excitement!

Photo by: Ria Tan

Photo by: Ria Tan

We’ve been guiding at Chek Jawa for almost a decade and no two walks are ever the same. On most occasions, you’ll catch our guides being surprised about things we don’t expect to see. Another of the Naked Hermit Crabs, Xiang Tian says, "I enjoy guiding because the places we guide at are great to visit and we never know what we're going to see on our walks! The places we guide at are also at risk, so it's meaningful to show people what is there before it is gone.".

Sometimes we just enjoy the things
Ubin has to offer, such as organic Ubin jackfruit!

Photo by: Ria Tan

Looking forward, we hope to continue raising awareness about our vulnerable shores and to lend our voice to safeguarding our beautiful shores. We have a lot of exciting things coming up in 2019. Watch this space and our Facebook for our 2019 walk dates!

Over 60 participants and 7 guides joined us
at our last walk for 2018 at Chek Jawa, Pulau Ubin!

We-fie by one of our participants, Jimmy Ng

14 Oct (Sun) - Free guided walk at Chek Jawa Boardwalk

Join us our regular Chek Jawa Boardwalk outing on 14 October, Sunday. Come explore this very special and beautiful corner of Singapore mangroves with us. Just gather your family and friends, and have someone do the signup on behalf of the group. Best of all, this nature walk is free! Register on Eventbrite here.

Chek Jawa is rich in biodiversity, and with the help of our volunteer guides, you should be able to see lots of interesting plants and wildlife. Even though we are not going on to the shore, there is still much to see and enjoy. There are monitor lizards, fiddler crabs, spiders, rare plants, wild boar, mudskippers and lots of fruit trees. If we are lucky, we might even spot the Oriental Pied Hornbill, White-bellied Sea Eagle and the giant Atlas Moth.

Date: 14 October 2018 (Sunday)
Meeting place: Chek Jawa Information Kiosk, Pulau Ubin
Meeting time: 9:30 am
Duration of walk: 2 hours
Fees: No charge for now, but small donations are accepted
Sign up here.

For more information on what to expect at our Chek Jawa Boardwalk outings, and when preparing for your visit, please make sure you read our post specially written for you.

More photos in the next section.

Celebrating a decade of fun at Chek Jawa!

Photo by Ria Tan

For our final walk of 2017, thirty participants joined us as we celebrated our 10th anniversary of guiding at Chek Jawa! Over the decade, Naked Hermit Crabs has grown with many old and new guides joining the family and learning from one another.

A picture of our visitors right before we started our walk!
(Photo by Liz Lim)

To further commemorate our tenth birthday, we took similar shots of old photos from 2007 during the walk to find out how much Chek Jawa has changed over the years. Here are some of the 'before and after' photos!

The once sparse vegetation in front of Jejawi Tower completely covers the tower today.
(Photo by Ria Tan)

Young trees planted in 2007 have become tall and lush.
(Photo by Ria Tan)

The coastal boardwalk still offers beautiful views all year round!
(Photo by Ria Tan)

Taking in the views
(Photo by Liz Lim)

We were also graced by the presence of a Gerard's water snake (Gerarda prevostiana), which was spotted by one of our participants. This was the first time this species has been recorded on the island! This is the only recorded snake species that loops its body around its prey and tears the prey into smaller pieces rather than swallowing its food whole [1].

Gerard's water snake (Gerarda prevostiana)
(Photo by Sumita Thiagarajan)

Searching for food
(Photo by Sumita Thiagarajan)

We spotted loads of tree climbing crabs as we walked along the boardwalk as well. One of them was even seen eating a very special meal: a snake moult!

Crab eating a snake moult
(Photo by Liz Lim)

The Nipah Palm has always been a crowd favourite, with one of the visitors excitedly exclaiming "It's atapchee!" when they saw the plant! They were also fascinated by a young Nipah Palm that had just started out its life.

Young Nipah Palm!

It was one of the highest tides we have ever seen and there were many mudskippers taking refuge on the roots of the mangrove trees!

Can you spot the mudskippers?
(Photo by Liz Lim)

Mudskipper
(Photo by Liz Lim)

On the coastal boardwalk, we were greeted by a Collared Kingfisher and Common Sandpiper that were resting by the rocks. One group had even seen a White-bellied Sea Eagle swoop out of the trees above them on its way out to hunt some fish!

As it was our 10th anniversary, many visitors had written well-wishes for us!

An extremely cute card by one of our participants!

(Photo by Ria Tan)

Some lovely drawings from a family
(Photo by Ria Tan)

Finally, we would like to thank Ley Kun, Ria, Sumita, Ivan, Liz, Chen Xi, Dayna and Xiang Tian for helping us to guide the participants on this very special walk! Also, big thanks to Ley Kun, Ria, Sumita, Dayna and Liz for your amazing photos of this walk. Lastly, we'd like to thank all the visitors for joining us on this very special day and we hope you've enjoyed yourselves!

(Photo by Ria Tan)

See you in 2018 for more fun walks!


[1] Jayne, B. C., Voris, H. K., & Ng, P. K. (2002). Herpetology: Snake circumvents constraints on prey size. Nature, 418(6894), 143-143.

25 Nov and 16 Dec, 2017 (Saturdays) - Free guided walk at Chek Jawa Boardwalk

The year-end school holidays are here.... YIPPEE! If you are looking for outdoorsy nature activities to do with the family during the holidays, why not join our nature walks at Chek Jawa Boardwalk, Pulau Ubin? Come explore this very special and beautiful corner of Singapore mangroves with us. Best of all, our nature walks are free!

We are running two public walks, and both dates are open for registration now! Just appoint someone to signup on behalf of the group. We welcome small groups of families or friends. Unfortunately we are not able to accept registration from large groups of people due to our limited resources. Click on our Online Registration Form.

Date: 25 November 2017 (Saturday) and 16 December 2017 (Saturday)
Meeting place: Chek Jawa Information Kiosk, Pulau Ubin
Meeting time: 9:30 am
Duration of walk: 2 hours
Fees: No charge for now, but small donations are accepted

Chek Jawa is rich in biodiversity, and with the help of an experienced volunteer guide, you should be able to see lots of interesting plants and wildlife. Even though we are not going on to the shore, there is still much to see and enjoy. There are monitor lizards, fiddler crabs, spiders, rare plants, wild boar, mudskippers and lots of fruit trees. If we are lucky, we might even spot the Oriental Pied Hornbill, White-bellied Sea Eagle and the giant Atlas Moth.

For more information on what to expect at our Chek Jawa Boardwalk outings, and when preparing for your visit, please make sure you read our post specially written for you. The post will also give you lots of details like how to get to Chek Jawa, where to meet, what to bring.

Meeting place: Information Kiosk at Chek Jawa Wetlands

Group photo before the walk begins

Click to see more photos of our past events at Chek Jawa.