Insect visitors

I live on the 23th floor, and yet, there's a myriad of insect visitors to my humble abode.
Above is a dragonfly zipping around the kitchen and got the whole family in excitement while trying to catch it. It was hard to identify the exact species of dragonfly due the the opaqueness of the plastic bag in which the it was trapped.
Dragonflies belong to the order Odonata, which also contains Damselflies. Interestingly, Odonata came from the Greek word "Odonto-" which means tooth, in relation to the strong teeth found on the mandibles of most adults. For more information on this order, refer to here.
This cricket flew to my room and reappeared in the hall
A weird yet interesting looking fly-like insect landing on my notes. haha
The body of a wasp, i think my dad found it in the balcony
Toilet Moth Fly (Psychodidae), a common insect found in the toilet, hence the name
There was a day when it was the termite mating season and all the termites came buzzing into my flat, attacking all available lights. That above was the one at the balcony.
The next day most of the termites died, above is the bodies of the termite alates. Most of us mistake the winged insects for flying ants, my dad couldn't believe it when i told him they were actually termites. Click here for the differences between ant and termite.
This weird looking ant-like insect had a pair of pincers in front, that opened up wide when it felt threatened. It was so funny; the sadistic me 'bullied' it for awhile just to see how it opened and closed up its pincers. A shot-glass gift from my friend's birthday party is proving to by handy in catching insects which landed on my table, haha!
Can anyone tell me the species of this insect?
Probably a flying ant, that was rather big in size (in my opinion), crawling over my Microbio notes. By the looks of this picture, this insect probably disapproves of Koch's Postulates, hahaha
This cute little bug is pretty common; its really tiny and likes to 'hop' around
In flight...
I have no idea what insect is this, it's probably a bug. It seemed to have some trouble in moving around, and was just crawling frantically in circles o.O I forgot what i did to it =x
This pretty looking insect landed one night, hid behind piles of notes, and died the next day on my table =(
Possibly a stink bug, this insect gave me some pretty nice poses for my camera, as well as a well-deserved break from my studies =P

Don't worry, i have a policy at home which is to catch the insects and release it outside instead of killing them, so the insects were either released or left alone in my room. I don't blame my Mum for calling me crazy. hahaha

Kallang Beach

Visiting my childhood playground, Labrador Beach, was somewhat a disappointment. The place i once knew that was so full of life, hidden within the moist sand and drifting in the clear waters were gone. What faced me was a barren land which bore the desolate remains of what life there was ages ago.the ghost shells of the Common Local Oysters (Saccostrea cuccullata) and barnacles (Balanus sp.) which once ruled the walls of the jetty.
skeletons and empty homes...
the shore was littered with hollow shells of snails and rubbish and blackish dirt...
the footprints of a Little Heron foraging for food
Little Heron (Butorides striatus). It is the most common and widespread of the herons found in Singapore.
Dark clouds looming; this added a touch of misery to this 'dead' beach. White-vented Mynas (Acridotheres cinereus) were gathering near the foreground.
And finally a sign of life! At a rock bunk. Bottom view of the snail.
Top view
All of them, of the same species which i'm not sure of which type, were congregating at the water's edge, unfazed by the perpetual currents
And another sign of life! Is it a coral?Close up of that bright pink living creature.
Pretty flowers at the wild patches of grasses.

The sky was threatening to pour, so i had to make my way back home, nevertheless i spotted some birds along the way:
1. Grey Heron (Ardea cinera)
2. Cattle Egret (Bubulcus ibis)
3. Collared Kingfisher (Todiramphus chloris) - it was perching steadily on one of the poles of the jetty despite the heavy raindrops that came crashing down

Well the presence of birds at least gives evidence that there is still life in the waters of Kallang River, and it isn't as desolate as i'd thought.

Nevertheless, although i'd plan to reach at the time at which there was supposed to be low tide, it was surprisingly high tide when i arrived. Maybe the sand was levelled off (i noticed that grass was growing at the area where i once played sand when i was younger), or that something was wrong. Maybe i didnt reach at the lowest of the low spring tide. Whatever it was, what lies on the lower shore remains a mystery to me, and perhaps i may one day be lucky to see it for myself the real wonders of Kallang River.

birds here, birds there, birds everywhere

while walking home along the canal, i saw some birds, which i finally know how to identify (well with some help nonetheless, haha):

1. Little Heron (Butorides striatus)
2. Collared Kingfisher (Todiramphus chloris) [was pretty pleased to see this]
3. White-vented Myna (Acridotheres grandis)

that's all but i'm sure there's lots more birds around my area. After years of seeing them as "just many different kinds of birds", i'm now glad to say that these are the birds i've seen throughout the years living in my neighbourhood:

-Common Myna (Acridotheres tristis)
-House Crow (Corvus splendens)
-Rock Pigeon (Columba livia)
-Spotted Dove (Streptopelia chinensis)
-Olive-backed Sunbird (Nectarinia jugularis) [a pair nested at my flat's balcony early this year, but sadly their offspring didn't survive =( ]
-Black-naped Oriole (Oriolus chinensis)
-Eurasian Tree Sparrow (Passer montanus) [used to see this pretty often when i was younger, but now where'd they go? ]
-Asian Glossy Starling (Aplonis panayensis)
-Yellow-vented Bulbul (Pycnonotus goiavier) [never actually saw this bird but heard it's loud piercing call a couple of times; when i was a little kid i used to think "oh thats a monkey calling! can you hear that?" hahaha]

okays that's about it, i'll be on the lookout of more birds as the days go by =)

References:
A Guide To Urban Creatures. Singapore Science Centre

Land & Hunting-Seeking Survey 4th-5th December 2009

There was a land survey on Pulau Semakau from 4th-5th december which also ended with a hunting-seeking survey on its inter-tidal area.

Starting with hunting-seeking survey on the 5th, this was what i saw:

sandfish sea cucumber (Holothuria scabra)

fan worm (Sabellastarte indica)

peacock anemone (Order Ceriantharia), a pretty sight to behold

Acanthozoon sp.

pygmy squid

dog-faced water snake (found in the area belonging to next group)

Gafrarium pectinatum

Onch slug

a species of Nerita

Lightning Dove Shell. It's really pretty!

Porcelain Fiddler Crab

a juvenile crab, probably sentinal crab?

Bead Anemone

Cerithidea cingulata, hundreds of them on the sandy/rocky area

For the land survey, this was the sad fate of the insects after they were caught (by the 'sadist' insect team, haha) :

R.I.P. you guys will be kept for posterity!

this was a huge Oval St. Andrew's Cross Spider (Argiope aemula)

weird looking fly-like insectpretty blue pansy butterfly (Junonia orithya)Common Tiger Butterfly (Danaus genutia)
and a toad (*wadcha looking at?!) caught by Robert!

Due to the overcast weather, there wasn't many birds caught by the Bird Team:

a black-headed munia (Lonchura atricapilla) , notice it's rather thick blueish beak, made for cracking open seeds.

Zitting Cisticola (Cisticola juncidis) we caught two of them, one on the 4th and the other on the 5th

nothing is as splendid as the beauty of a morning greeting by the sleepy sun

the long winding road

sorry for the poor-quality pictures and snappy captions, will try to do a better job next time! =)