Friday, March 21, 2014

Lakeside Loop

The original plan for the day is to cycle to Upper Pierce Reservoir. On checking FB, noticed that LCSG has an event going to the same place on Sunday. I decided to abort the trip and go for this route instead. It beats being alone cycling at so remote places.

The route starts from Lake Side MRT. Going along the lake Side and on the bridge on the water front is quite fun. Also, I know that there are plants grown on the lake along the bridge. Besides the pandan leaves there were other plants now.

Cat's tail are nice Typha plants.


The Arrow leaf pondweed flower grows besides the water. The flower is not very clear as the weather is cloudy and my hand is a bit shaky.


The Water pennyworth picture looks sharp though as the zoom is optical.

The Dwarf Papyrus looks small because I am using handphone camera instead. Too lazy to change back as I just switched off the camera.

Today must be a mushroom day. There are mushrooms all over the place. This one looks nice.

My youth time favorite tree - Cherry Flower.


There were some Swiss Cheese Plants growing on a tree.


The Cannonball tree flower smells quite nice. I found out during the Esplanade loop trip which I did not blog about.


This Paper Flower is unusually large in size.


I never get tired of looking at Hibiscus.



Noticed a Mangrove Trumpet tree. No flowers except the dried fruit pod.


I am always puzzled by this thing. Not sure if it is spider web or fungus. Could not find any spider near it. Couldn't zoom in too much as I am only using the 5X magnification camera.


I don't know the name of the tree but its seed pod is all over the floor.


This Weeping Bottlebrush took me a long time to focus. Due to the dim light condition, it is very hard to get a sharp picture. Finally decided to use flash. It turned up sharp but the color is a bit too artificial. Without flash, the color will look softer.


Another mushroom. This one is quite big. You can tell by the grass besides it.


One more mushroom.


This bird is a Eastern Imperial Eagle I think. Tried to zoom in but it moved each time I try to focus. Finally took this blurry picture before it flies off. Not surprising to see many birds here as the whole stretch opposite the golf course is Fauna Sanctuary.


While crossing over to Corporation Rd, I saw quite a number of Indian nationals with their kids. I was quite puzzled and though that there were some Indian festive event till I saw the name of the school - Yuvabharathi International School.

This green Dendrobium Orchid looks exquisite.


This Micky Mouse Plant grows in a small garden near the orchid.


The first park besides Corporation Rd along my route has a community garden and a smaller open private garden. There are quite a number of plants there.

This hairy cactus looks unique.


Another unique plant is this green Butterfly Plant. It's the first time I saw this plant. Very easy to identify due to its odd leave shape. Surprisingly it is a bean family plant.


The Maxican rose plant looks very elegant.


A very close up view of a Crown flower.


At the other end of the park there were a few plants too. This Chinese Honeysuckle looks nice.


Almost missed this red Passion flower as it was facing the other side.


My favorite Blue Pea Vine flower.


Here also you will find non flowering Dracaena and Cordyline plants too.



This Jurassic looking plant is very tall. I just can't find its name.


I walked right into the thread of this Geometer Moth caterpillar. It dropped on to the floor. It moved by looping its body as there are feet at the front and back but not in the middle.


Along the walls of a private estate perimeter is this Creeping Fig.


Yet another mushroom. This one looks special. It seems to have its grills on the top side.


Could not take a better picture on the Oyster Plant. It is a medicinal plant (凉茶). The leaves are purple on the under side.

This is the only plant from a community garden that have tags in Chinese (南非树).



Having a good zoom camera is good at taking large pictures of very small objects. However, if you do not have a camera stand, it is hell trying to take the picture. This one slants to a side despite several tries. Its a Brazilian Joyweed.


I totally don't know the name of this plant till I posted it in iNaturalist. One member told me it is a Tobacco Plant.



Taking pictures of birds is never easy. You can't go too near and it is almost impossible to capture large image of the bird from afar using zoom. It took me a few minutes to just snap one picture of this bird. I should have used the burst mode but wanted to try my skill with single shots. The result is not bad. Its a Zebra Dove.


Guava plant is common but to find one with large fruit is another thing.


This unknown plant grows besides the canal near the MRT.


Finally, just for the fun of it, took a picture of a tiny White Heads Flower. This one is taken free hand with maximum zoom. It is still not perfect but at least it covers almost the whole flower. Couldn't have done any better. Some student were laughing at me taking pictures on the grass beside the road. Who cares!


The Picasa album is here.
The WikiLoc route map is here.