sentosa

After what feels like a fairly a long hiatus, I was back to the shore, this time Sentosa, a place I had always wanted to visit but never quite got down to doing so.

Unlike some of the other shore areas in Singapore, the one at Sentosa is rich not just in its marine life, but also for his rich diversity of flora and fauna around the periphery areas. Some of the trees in the area were flowering quite profusely, though I haven't quite managed to identify them. There were also a couple of mangrove-like plants with handsome glossy leaves, as well as large specimens of Nepenthes rafflesiana creeping amidst other plants from the cliff face. I saw a couple of little egrets (Egretta garzetta) and little herons (Butorides striatus) which I managed to take some photos of. The one bird which I saw but still did not manage to photograph is the very elusive Greater Coucal (Centropus sinensis). I saw this bird once at the Bukit Brown Cemetery area but also did not managed to shoot it.

As for marine life, the shore was strangely quiet. I did manage to see one solitary gigantea anemone in the rocky areas as well as a couple of snails. The waters in the reefier parts was quite clear, but again seemingly devoid of life, apart from the tape grass (which looked quite healthy) and sargassum. I did catch a glimpse of a carpet eel blenny (Congrogadus subducens), a copper-banded butterfly and a small painted scorpion fish. I also managed to capture on camera, an octopus and a few floral and red egg crabs.

As with all my trips to the shore, we usually either get a fantastic sunrise or a dramatic sunset, and today's is no exception. In fact, the sunset was rather dramatic thanks to the dark stormy clouds looming at a distance.

All in all, it was a good trip and am already looking forward to the ones in January of the new year! Pulau Hantu has always been on my list!