Back to Chek Jawa Boardwalk

After nearly six months of closure for repair works, Chek Jawa Boardwalk is open once again to visitors. The Crabs were eager to resume their monthly walks, and we did, on 14 March 2015. What a wonderful morning spent exploring our favourite mangroves with our lovely visitors! Read on to find out all the cool creatures we saw in Chek Jawa.

As the tide was low during the time of our visit, there was lots of wildlife activity in the inter-tidal area. From the Jejawi Tower, we saw 2 Great-billed herons out on the mudflats. These tall birds are regular visitors. If you time your visit to Chek Jawa at a low tide, you may be able to see these relatively rare birds in their natural habitat.

Photo taken from Jejawi Tower

In fact, while we were at the top of Jejawi Tower, we saw more herons flying above us. What a beautiful treat to see the graceful posture of these birds in flight!

[Note: This Chek Jawa walk is funded from the kind contribution by Raffles Institution, channeled through wildsingapore.com for a talk that Ria conducted in the school. On behalf of the visitors and guides, I would like to say "Thanks" to the folks in RI!]

Mar 14, Saturday: We are resuming our Free Chek Jawa Guided Walks

After being closed for almost half a year for upgrading works, the Mangrove Boardwalk is open once again! We have been eagerly awaiting to start our walks at Chek Jawa once again and to be able to share the experience with more families and individuals!

We have been doing FREE nature trips to Chek Jawa Boardwalk for close to 8 years now. Each month, we bring small groups of visitors out on to introduce them to the plant and animals found in the mangroves and intertidal areas of Chek Jawa. All from the safety and convenience of the boardwalk. There is always plenty to see on these trips, such as wild boars, insects, lots and lots of crabs, spiders, snakes, fishes, perhaps a jellyfish or two in the sea, and not forgetting the birds in the forests and flying high above us. Who says there is no nature in Singapore! Come explore Chek Jawa with the Crabs!

To sign up for the walk, click here!

Sign up at the Online Registration Form, and we will confirm your attendance via email in a few days! 

Date: 14 March (Sat)

Meeting time: 9:30 am

Meeting place: Chek Jawa Information Kiosk, Pulau Ubin

Duration of walk: Around 2 hours

Cost: Free

Read on for more photos and details about the walk.

Mudskippers, birds and other animals at Pasir Ris Mangroves

The Crabs had a great outing at Pasir Ris Mangroves on Sunday! 25 visitors came to explore the mangroves with us. We also had 10 students from Dunman High join us as volunteer guides, sharing their knowledge and love for nature with the visitors. The Dunman High students are doing their nature guiding as part of a leadership programme named Excel in their school. The programme hopes to expose the students to real issues faced in everyday life.

Lots of interesting sightings right from the beginning!

A solitary grey heron was hanging around the toilet area. We were all able to creep closer to take a look at it. The kids whipped out their camera phones to capture photos of it. The heron didn't fly away, perhaps a little disoriented. There was no visible sign of injury. It looks smallish, so perhaps it is a juvenile that isn't good with flying yet.

It made its way across the carpark (with help from us to stop the cars), and walked into the wooded area. Stay safe, little fellow!

We had sightings of at least 2 other species of birds.

2015 - Free guided walks at Chek Jawa Boardwalk with the Naked Hermit Crabs

We have finally confirmed our 2015 dates for the public walks at Chek Jawa Boardwalk! Thank you for your patience....

14 Mar (Sat) - school holidays
11 Apr (Sat)

9 May (Sat)

13 Jun (Sat) - Special Ubin Day Walk, 4:30 - 6pm

11 Jul (Sat)

22 Aug (Sat) - UPDATE: this is the new date for our celebratory SG50 National Day walk!

12 Sep (Sat) - school holidays

10 Oct (Sat)

21 Nov (Sat) - UPDATE: this is the new date for November. We had to change because of a clash of dates with another conservation event

12 Dec (Sat) - school holidays

[Update 8 Feb 2015] - Upgrading works at the Mangrove Boardwalk and Jejawi Tower have completed, and we are able to bring our visitors to that segment of the Boardwalk. The Coastal Boardwalk segment remains closed till 31 March 2015. See full notice of the upgrading works at the NParks website.

Photo of mangrove boardwalk taken on 7 Feb 2015 (Photo credit: Sumita)

Do sign up for our walks. We open registration one month at a time, as soon as we complete the previous one.

This is the normal schedule at each walk:

Meeting time: 9:30 am

Meeting place: Chek Jawa Information Kiosk, Pulau Ubin

Duration of walk: 2 hours

Fees: None

1 Feb (Sun): Free Guided Walk at Pasir Ris Mangroves

Specially for kids and families, explore Pasir Ris mangroves with volunteer nature guides from the Naked Hermit Crabs on this FREE guided tour of the boardwalk! Sign up now on our online registration form! Don't miss the opportunity to see some wildlife in action!

Pasir Ris mangroves is conveniently located 10 minutes away from Pasir Ris MRT station. Bring your children down to enjoy nature during the weekend! There are many creatures look out for in the mangroves, such as mudskippers, tree-climbing crabs, herons and monitor lizards. Sometimes, you may even spot kingfishers and water snakes! It will certainly be an unforgettable experience with your friends and family!

An eager participant jotting down notes!

Not only kids learn on our walks! Adults learn a lot too.

10 Jan (Sat) evening: Free guided walk at the Pasir Ris mangroves

Specially for kids and families, explore Pasir Ris mangroves with volunteer nature guides from the Naked Hermit Crabs on this FREE guided tour of the boardwalk! Sign up now on our online registration form! Don't miss the opportunity to see some wildlife in action!

Pasir Ris mangroves is conveniently located 10 minutes away from Pasir Ris MRT station. Bring your children down to enjoy nature during the weekend! There are many creatures look out for in the mangroves, such as mudskippers, tree-climbing crabs, herons and monitor lizards. Sometimes, you may even spot kingfishers and water snakes! It will certainly be an unforgettable experience with your friends and family!

An eager participant jotting down notes!

Not only kids learn on our walks! Adults learn a lot too.

Sharing Pasir Ris Mangroves with families in our December walk

Looking for an activity to break the monotony of work or school life? Simply join us for our walks as over 70 participants did on our last walk of the year at Pasir Ris Mangroves! The beauty of nature is that it is dynamic and even after visiting the same place many times, you will always have a different experience. 

Fun starts at registration!

Look out for our placard before the walk so you know you've found us!

Sharing with kids on some types of insects using fake insects.

Kids are wonderful at spotting creatures!

Our drawing session for kids and adults alike! 

Even though it was the weekend after the Christmas,
the spirit of giving was still alive as a participant gave us cookies!

A special mention to the cheerful student councillors
from Dunman High School. Thanks to their teacher, Kok Sheng!

Look out for updates on our next walk coming up soon!