Changi CP1, 4 June 2011

It has been sometime since I last visited Changi Beach (near Carpark 1). We were blessed with good weather on the morning of 4 June '11 when we seized the low tide and checked out this beautiful shore!

Amongst the first creatures we sighted was the leaf porter crab. These hide themselves underneath fallen leaves and you can only detect their presence via "moving" leaves! We upturned this leaf to get a good look of this fascinating crab.

NOTE: Always remember to return the creatures to its original location or orientation after checking them out!

Yuan Chun found this tiny cute little cuttlefish and we all scrambled to take good shots of this shy creature! It actually changed colour from dark brown to orangey-yellow. Alas these were the best I could manage.

This part of Changi beach houses many species of anemones.

The peacock anemones are always a delight to see! They come in many shades of colours. I especially like the pink ones..

and the lovely luminescent ones like this one, that gives a slight greenish glow.

The swimming anemones.

This looks like a juvenile carpet anemone.

There were a few striped bead anemones too.

There were quite a number of species of sea pens on the shore! Early on in the trip, we sighted the flowery sea pens.

The slender sea pen?

The thumbs-up sea squirt stands solitary.

Crabs were everywhere. Though common, these are important scavengers on our shores!

Strangely, we saw quite a number of octopuses that morning. They were all squirting water from the sides of their heads, an amusing sight indeed!

Ball sea cucumbers could be seen as well. This one released some water from its anus!

The thorny sea cucumbers are such beautiful creatures.

Hermit crabs are common too. They are usually very shy.

Soon the sun rose above the horizon!

Yuan Chun has really sharp eyes. One of the many things he spotted during this shore visit was the biscuit sea star!

We saw a couple of these around and initially thought they were a kind of sea cucumber. But no, these are sea pens too! They are the spiky sea pens.

Likely the remarkable sea cucumber?

Later on in the trip I found this really tiny anemone. I wonder if it is the juvenile of the swimming anemone!

Then I found this one that looks like a swimming anemone, but it had a distinct bright yellow mouth!

Peacock anemone are really pretty.

Another striped bead anemone.

I have no idea what species this anemone belongs to.

Egg capsules of drills turned purple, so it seems the free-swimming larvae have hatched from them.

Our most exciting find of the day was this Geographic sea hare! It is such a magnificent creature.

Before we left, we found this reef bristleworm stranded up the shore. So we got it back to the waters.

Somebody left this on the shore :)

Good trip, wonderful companions! Here is Jaclyn and Yuan Chun :)