Family fun exploring Pasir Ris mangroves

There's so much to see and discover at Pasir Ris mangroves, just minutes from the MRT station. Bugs literally show up on our hand, as Ian shows.

Although we had only a small group of families (it's exam period?), they were most enthusiastic and great spotters. So we saw the owl, snakes, flying lizard and lots of other interesting animals.

14 Sep (Sat): Free evening tour for families at Pasir Ris mangroves

Specially for families and kids! Come for a cool evening walk to spot crabs, giant mudskippers, birds and more!

These mangroves are just a short walk from Pasir Ris MRT station. The tour is FREE, but please register online.

Chek Jawa Boardwalk Anniversary trip on 7th Sep (Sat)

We're almost in September, and time to get out to Chek Jawa Boardwalk for our monthly free nature walk.

And guess what! We're celebrating 6 years, yes, SIX YEARS, of monthly nature walks (with a break here and there) by the Naked Hermit Crabs at our favourite natural but vulnerable coast! Has it been 6 years? Absolutely. Go check the blog post of our first guided walk at Chek Jawa: First NHC Guided Walk at Chek Jawa Boardwalk, dated 8 September 2007.

First Chek Jawa Boardwalk outing by NHC in September 2007

So, come on down and join us at this anniversary walk.

Date: 7 September, 2013 (Saturday)
Time: 9:30 am for 2 hours
Meeting place: Chek Jawa Information Kiosk at Pulau Ubin
Charge: Still free!

If you are new to Chek Jawa, here's what you can expect to see in the mangroves and coastal areas.
- Lots of mudskippers and tree-climbing crabs.
- coastal forests, mangrove trees, fig trees, nipah palms
- mud lobster mounds
- fiddler crabs
- insects such as weaver ants, stink bugs, stick insects, cotton stainer bugs.
- reptiles, i.e. snakes, water monitor lizards, changeable lizards
- birds, such as the Oriental Pied Hornbills, eagles, sharmas, bulbuls, tailor birds, flowerpeckers, sunbirds.

This tour is kid-friendly, so bring your families.

Now for the important bit... how do I sign up? We have an online registration form. Sign up and we will send you a confirmation after that.

For more information on Chek Jawa, Pulau Ubin, how to get there and other useful information, please read this post: http://nakedhermitcrabs.blogspot.sg/2013/01/2013-free-chek-jawa-boardwalk-trips-on.html#.Uh4gK2TMpN2

Or contact us at nakedhermitcrabs@gmail.com

See you soon!

mudskipper

otters (year 2012)

Oriental Whip

tree-climbing crab

on the mangrove boardwalk

on the coastal boardwalk

Crabs, stink bugs and ... a cobra!

The Crabs spent a delightful Saturday morning on 3 August exploring Chek Jawa Wetlands with 45 visitors. This is one of our monthly scheduled public walks on the boardwalk where we take time out to share the lovely Chek Jawa mangroves and coastal areas with members of the public, so that they gain a better understanding of our local plant and animal biodiversity. Many came with their children. It's great! They expressed that they do not want their children to grow up without gaining respect and appreciation for nature. Three cheers for these wonderful mamas and papas!!!

In addition, we hosted some student leaders who are keen to advocate greater awareness of environmental and conservation issues. Eight of them are from CHIJ Katong Convent, while four are from Raffles Institution. They came to understand how nature guiding works.

Chek Jawa Boardwalk - sign up for walk on 3 August (Sat)

Another monthly walk is creeping up on us, and it is time to open the registration. Yay!

If you are new to the work that the Naked Hermit Crabs do, we run a monthly free walk to Chek Jawa Boardwalk as part of our nature outreach program to the public. Chek Jawa is part of a natural wetlands area located on the eastern tip of Pulau Ubin, just off Changi Point. We will bring you out on the boardwalk that passes through mangroves. The boardwalk also loops around the coast of Chek Jawa, allowing the visitors to view the inter-tidal area without getting their feet wet. That's right, we will not be going down to the mudflat and sand bar itself.

Chek Jawa has amazing rich biodiversity. On a typical boardwalk outing, we should be able to see animals such as fiddler crabs, tree-climbing crabs, many species of mudskippers, kingfishers, fishes, jellyfishes, monitor lizards, weaver ants and many other types of insects too. If we are lucky, we might even spot snakes, White-bellied Sea Eagles, herons, Oriental Pied Hornbills, and who knows, perhaps the otters that live in Chek Jawa might reveal themselves to us!

Date: 3 August 2013 (Saturday)
Time: 9:30am
Meeting place: Chek Jawa Information Kiosk, Pulau Ubin
Duration of walk: 2 hours (approximately)
Charge: None. You just have to pay for your transport to get to Chek Jawa.

Online registration form: CLICK HERE

Email us if you have questions: nakedhermitcrabs@gmail.com

We are able to answer emails only during the weekends. We are volunteers; this is not a full-time business!

For more information on Chek Jawa, Pulau Ubin, how to get to Chek Jawa, and what to prepare for the trip, please click on this post: CLICK HERE

Crabs at the Festival of Biodiversity!

President Tony Tan visited the Festival and the Crabs take the opportunity to share about the important aspects of our biodiversity. Heng Pei Yan managed to get a smile out of him by showing him how the dugong leaves a feeding trail in our seagrass meadows.

Mama Crab Wong Ley Kun together with Ivan Kwan also met with the President for a short while. They took the opportunity also to share about the work done by the Naked Hermit Crabs.

The Crabs worked very hard during the Festival to reach out to families, kids and others at VivoCity.

WACKY CRAZY Festival of Biodiversity this weekend!

Dear friends of the Naked Hermit Crabs,

If you're coming to the Festival of Biodiversity held at VivoCity this weekend (13-14 July), do drop by the marine exhibition to say Hello! We'd love to see as many of you come and visit. You'll get to meet lots of people passionate about nature conservation in Singapore.

(photos by Ria Tan)

Many of the volunteers have spent the past few weekends preparing for the festival. There will be beautiful photos to admire, interactive games to play, and lots of information to be shared with you. We had a fantastic Festival of Biodiversity in 2012, and this year, the festival promises to be even more exciting. The venue, VivoCity, is a dream! We simply want to reach out to more people and tell them about the amazing wildlife that we have in Singapore.

Volunteers from the following community will be at the Marine Exhibition of the Festival:

Mangrove Action Squad
Hantu Bloggers
Blue Water Volunteers
Mega Marine Survey
The Leafmonkey Workshop
Wildsingapore
TeamSeagrass
International Coastal Cleanup Singapore
Naked Hermit Crabs


How to spot the nature volunteers this weekend? Easy! We will all be wearing the cutest, wickedest, funniest soft-toy mascots. These mascots represent many of the species of animals that can be found in Singapore. Somehow, I get this warm fuzzy feeling that this is going to be a WACKY CRAZY Celebration of our cherished biodiversity in Singapore! Definitely looking forward to the two days.

Here's a sneak preview of some of the mascots that we made and will be wearing.

So, here are the dates again: 13-14 July (Saturday, Sunday) at VivoCity

More information can be found in the official Festival of Biodiversity website