The raining season was finally over in early January which allowed me to visit the following macro sites during my off days:
(1) Thanggam Forest
It is located near Jalan Kayu. If you wish to visit this place, you could park your car at the public car park near the end of Jalan Kayu. You could also take bus no. 85, 86 or 103 and alight at Jalan Kayu Shop houses. Alternatively, take LRT and alight at Thanggam station.
(Map of Thanggam Forest)
There are greenery on both side at the start of the trail.
(Start of the trail)
Common subjects that were spotted include red hopper, katydid nymph, hover fly, caterpillar, butterflies, dragonflies, spiders, etc.
However, as we moved further into the forest, subjects were fewer probably due to some construction works going on there. My best image for the outing is a katydid nymph having purple flowers as breakfast.
(2) Clementi Woods
Clementi Woods is an interesting greenery area located somewhere between Clementi Ave 4 and Sunset Way. This site is actually part of the old Malayisa Railway Line (Jurong Line) but has been disused for more than 20 years. A small section of the railway track is still there.
(Map of Clementi Woods)
(Clementi Woods macro site)
There were quite a no. of wild flowers here attracting butterflies, hoppers, katydids, spiders, caterpillars, hoverfly, etc.
(Flowers attracting insects)
My favourite image from this outing is a backlit katydid posing on a nice perch with a colourful flower. The balance of lighting from the front and back helps to make this image stands out.
(Backlid Katydid)
(3) Chestnut Nature Trail
A surprise find was a ladybird larvae which looks completely different from their more colour parents. Ladybird larvae are natural predators of aphids and are much more voracious than their parents.
(Ladybird larvae)
The most common insects spotted were kaydid nymphs. Here were 3 of them in different poses.
(Katydid nymphs)
(4) Dairy Farm Nature Park
Not much find on this late morning here except a few spiders and an unique translucent leaf-footed bug nymph.
(5) Zhenghua Forest
My best photo for the month of January 2015 is a shot taken at Zhenghua forest where a young praying mantis came face-to-face with a leaf-footed bug nymph. They stared at each other for quite a while before the praying mantis leaped off from the wild flower.
(Confrontation between praying mantis and leaf-footed bug)
There were many interesting subjects here such as a pair of mating Leaf Beetle, a young Green Crested Lizard, a newly moulted Leaf-footed Bug, Shield Bug babies, etc.
The Wild Side of Singapore 