wetland escapade

I’m excited for my day out tomorrow for our Navigators staff sports and communication (our once a month activity). We are going to Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserves. This is the instruction I got from the office. Sounds like it’s going to be a fun day!

 

Meeting time and place: 1:45pm, Kranji MRT Station

Essentials:

1. Comfortable clothing: suitable for walking, and neutral in color (so that we won’t attract birds?? I don’t know, this is the instruction)

2. Shoes or sandals for walking 3 km

3. Water

4. Insect repellant!!

5. Good pair of eyes to watch birds, insects, and to avoid crocodiles in the swamps!

Good to have:

1. Cap ( in non-bright colour)

2. Binoculars (for bird viewing)

3. Camera

4. Pen, notebook (to take down interesting things)

Note: Please come after you have your lunch!! We can’t hunt the birds there for you to eat if you are hungry! We will be taking the 3-km route which can take up to 2 hours depending on our speed.

Route 1, approx. 3km.

• Circles two main ponds where resident herons and migratory waders feed.
• Look out for sluice gates that control the flow of water in and out of the ponds.  
• Observation hides with murals depict various habitats of the reserve.
• Passes the aquatic plant pond with a good collection of aquatic plants.
• Spot the common monitor lizard, golden web spider, common tailorbird and white-bellied fish eagle.

If there are any of us who really think 3 km is too much, there is an alternative - the 500-m Boardwalk.

• Walk on wooden stilt structures weaving through the mangroves.
• Listen to the calls of the cicadas.
• At high tide, observe crabs and shellfish on tree trunks.
• At low tide, look out for the unusual roots of the mangroves.
• Spot mussels and mangrove oysters in the mud.
• Look out for water snakes and horseshoe crabs in shallow streams.
• Watch mudskippers maneuver across the mudflats.