Afternoon Walk At Windsor Nature Park (17 Jun 2023)

 I recently decided to simplify my macro camera setup and decided to go to Windsor Nature Park to test out the setup. As the weather has been hot and dry, I was not expecting to find many beetles on this trip.

Fungus Weevil ~ 6 mm

Leaf Beetle (Hoplosaenidea singaporensis) ~ 5 mm

Tumbling Flower Beetle (Glipa malaccana) ~ 8 mm

Leaf Beetle (Hoplasoma unicolor) ~ 8 mm

As expected only a few beetles were encountered, nevertheless it is still a good trip as I was able to test out my simplified macro photography setup, albeit that my flash died half way during the trip.

Afternoon Walk At Windsor Nature Park (29 Apr 2023)

 Today's weather seemed dry so I decided to go for my long awaited macro photography session at Windsor Nature Park. It's been at least two months that I last went for any macro photography sessions, mainly due to the thunderstorms that coincided with my planned macro photography sessions. By the way, it was thundering during this trip and I have to hasten my pace in order not to be caught in the rain in forest. It rained heavily just when I was on my way home.  

Here's photograph of the place - it was hot and humid, with an overcast and thundering sky.

Leaf Beetle (Lema diversa) ~ 4mm

Leaf Beetle ~ 3mm

Tumbling Flower Beetle (Glipa malaccana) ~ 8 mm

Fungus Weevil (Acorynus frontalis) ~ 15 mm

Although the number of beetles encountered was pathetic, it was still a good trip as I was able to get a feel of the new macro lens (ref - Morning Walk At Lower Pierce Reservoir (03 Feb 2023)). Guessed that I will be doing this more frequently if the weather permits.

Morning Walk At Lower Pierce Reservoir (03 Feb 2023)

 To overcome the camera problem that I faced previously, I decided to change the macro lens and managed to find the cheapest macro lens online (7Artisan 60mm F2.8 Macro Mk II). The lens was delivered a day before so it was opportune time for me to test out the lens as I happened to be on leave. 

The original plan was to go to Windsor Nature Park as it has been raining for the past few days and based on past experience Windsor Nature Park would have a better chance of finding any beetles. As I was enroute to the park, the traffic leading to there was reported to have a massive traffic jam, so I decided to go to Lower Pierce Reservoir instead.

As expected, I was only able to find one beetle (Darkling Beetle) on this trip but the purpose of the trip was to test out my new macro lens, so it doesn't matter if I don't find any beetles. As such, I photographed whatever critters that I came across on the trip. 

Here are some of the photographs of some interesting spiders that I took.

Darkling Beetle ~ 10 mm

Although I only find one beetle on this trip, it is still consider a fruitful trip as I managed to test out my new macro lens. I am pretty happy with the new lens and hopefully I will be able to have more fruitful macro photography trips when the weather turns better. Until then, stay safe!

Afternoon Walk At Windsor Nature Park (07 Jan 2023)

 After last week walk at Windsor Nature Park, I decided to make some changes to my macro camera setup. To test the new setup, I decided to go back to Windsor Nature Park in the afternoon since the number of people walking there will be lesser compared to the morning. Of course, the chances of finding beetles in the afternoon is also significantly lower. 

Here's a shot of an interesting fungus mushroom growing on a rotten tree stump. 

Tumbling Flower Beetle (Glipa malaccana) ~ 8 mm

First-time-encounter Net Winged Beetle ~ 4 mm

Leaf Beetle ~ 8 mm

Weevil (Derimaea bakeri) ~ 3 mm

Ground Beetle ~ 4 mm

Fungus Weevil ~ 4 mm

This trip was considered fruitful even though the number of beetles encountered was relatively small as I was able to test out my new macro setup. From the less than sharp photographs taken, I guessed that there are a lot more adjustments required. Back to the drawing board. ;P

Noon Walk at Windsor Nature Park (27 Dec 2022)

 It has been a long while I last did any macro photography of beetles, partly because I got lazy 😆 and my camera problem still persisting (Night Walk At Mount Faber Park (23 Apr 2021)), and also partly because my usual macro photography buddy HW was out of action for a while. 

Nevertheless, taking advantage of my leave and good weather today, I decided to go to the Windsor Nature Park to do some macro photography actions. In order to avoid the morning crowd, I took the risk of going there around noon, knowing that the chance of finding beetles at this time is significantly lower as we get later into the day. Do pardon the poor quality of the photographs for this trip due to my camera problem which affected the focusing of the subjects.

It is probably due to the weather, I was pleasantly surprised to come across two snakes on this trip. HW, here are the photos specially taken for you (pardon the quality of the photo due to taking it using the macros camera). 

 Painted Bronzeback (Dendrelaphis pictus)

Mangrove Cat Snake (Boiga dendrophila)

Tumbling Flower Beetle (Glipa malaccana) ~ 8 mm

Tiger Beetle (Therates dunudiatus) ~ 8 mm

Ladybird Beetle ~ 4 mm

Leaf Beetle (Hoptosarnidea singaporensis) ~ 6 mm

Net-winged Beetle (Taphes brevicollis) ~ 15 mm

I am not sure of the identity of this beetle which seemed to be a Firefly (Lucidina clavareaui) according to an internet search (iNaturalist NZ), but I was not able to find it on the The Biodiversity of Singapore website. If you have a definitive ID of this beetle, appreciate that you can let me know in the comments section. Thanx.

This was an interesting trip after a long break. Although the number of beetles encountered was small, they are still interesting to me because it has been a while I last encountered them. Once again, my apologies for the poor photograph quality, guessed that I need to do something about the problem.😬

Unplanned Morning Walk At Lower Peirce Reservoir (02 Jul 2022)

I was on leave and happened to be around the Lower Peirce Reservoir area to run some erands, so I decided to do an impromptu macro-photography session using my handphone. 

The weather was nice and dry in the morning and the place looked perfect for walking around. Here are two shots of the place where some of the beetles on this trip were found.

The first beetle for the trip was a colorful Darkling Beetle.

Darkling Beetle ~ 5 mm

Fungus Beetle (Eumorphus quadriguttatus quadriguttatus) ~ 15 mm

False Click Beetle ~ 8 mm

Fungus Beetle ~ 2 mm

Fungus Beetle ~ 15 mm

Beetle Larva

 

The trip was a bonus and has given me the opportunity to try out the idea of using handphone for macro photography. Although it seemed viable, what is lacking is still very much of the resolution of the handphone camera as compared to DSLR with a macro (1:1) lens. Nevertheless, I think it is still good for impromptu macro-photography sessions like this. 😊

Afternoon Walk At Windsor Nature Park (25 Jun 2022)

 It has been almost 6 months since I last did any macro-photography session. Guessed that I got lazy with Working-From-Home. 😊

The weather has been wet over the past few weeks, so the place with the best chance of finding beetles in the afternoon in such wet weather would be the Windsor Nature Park. Because of the wet weather, there were a number of interesting fungus mushrooms popping up in many places. Here's a brightly colored fungus that I found on a fallen log.

The first beetle of the trip was a special Leaf Beetle with two different colored elytra.

Leaf Beetle (Lema rufotestacea) ~ 8 mm

Dung Beetle (Onthophagus phanaeides) ~ 5 mm

Darkling Beetle ~ 2 mm

False Click Beetle ~ 8 mm

Fungus Beetle (Triplatoma gestroi) ~ 15 mm

Tumbling Flower Beetle (Glipa malaccana) ~ 8 mm

Net Winged Beetle  ~ 10 mm

Fungus Beetle (Episcapha quadrimacula) ~ 20 mm

The number of beetles encountered was expectably low due to the time of the day and also the wet weather for the past few days. Nevertheless, it was wonderful to be able to find some interesting beetles on this trip.