Busy Sea Lane - off Marine Parade

It was a warm Sunday. I was trying out a borrowed Canon EOS 80D, with a Canon EF 75~300mm f/4-5.6 III USM lens that I bought three months ago. I have not been to this beach for a long time and it was great looking out with a long lens.

They are indeed a distance away. The 300mm lens makes them appear like they are about 200m away! Of course, I like the distance compression! It certainly gives me a positive perspective about seeing far ahead.

Here is a close up. Not all large ships are done-up, pretty boxes. I guess the owners and customers are happy so long as these large ships are doing a good job - shipping!

More of them parking around. Some are just waiting for service boats to come by.

In the midst of the giants, we do have at least one ardent fan of the waters doing what she likes best.

From the end of the Bedok Jetty, a 250m long fishing jetty, a lone angler hopes that those ships will not scare away his potential huge catch. I do wish him great success!

Before I left the nice beach. Such a wonderful sight.

And so I was walking by the Sembawang Park jetty when a smell hit me. Not that I was shocked but it did set me out to find where that came from.

Yes, it was a sad sight. Whose could it be?

The Day A Crocodile Visited An Urban Canal

Recently, while doing my usual rounds of nature and macro photography at the vicinity of our PCN (Park Connector Network), which runs along the Sungei Sembawang (Sembawang River), which has been enhanced to be both a mangrove cum modern canal, I met a few people who told me that they had sighted a crocodile in our canal.

Most of them only managed to see it swimming for a few seconds before it went deeper and disappeared from view. Fortunately, on 8 June 2017, I spotted a crocodile (probably the same one) near a drain outlet just beside Block 469B. It was resting on the concrete slope and slithered away when I got nearer to record it with my mobile phone. Of course, the video came out passable.

After hearing from two latest sources, I concluded that the crocodile should be making its presence at the upstream of the canal as each sighting seemed to point to that direction.

So, with my newly acquired 75~300mm lens, I went out for an afternoon patrol earlier this evening. I was not disappointed. The crocodile has kept to its habit and was found sun basking incognito. You will know why when you see the photos below.

 

At this point in time, I was at the other side of the canal. As usual, weaver ants are plentiful and I have to be on the alert. Spots that were being used by anglers are usually free from these ants, and of course are inevitable potholes for litters. Suddenly, I spotted something that was not normal. The above picture was taken with the lens set to 75mm. It was at the embankment of the PCN just below block 467A. Can you see it?

Bingo! At the 300mm zoom, the crocodile can be seen with its mouth opened and relaxed, without a care in the world. Not wanting to disturb the wild reptile, I decided to make my way to the other side to take some closer shots. 

From above the canal, partially protected by barriers, I took this shot. Actually, it is not possible for anyone from this side of the PCN to have spotted the crocodile, due to the thick foliage. I had to find a small opening for a clear shot. Man, the crocodile is large!

Here is another angle. It was much later that I did some calculations and figured out that this crocodile is approximately 2.7m long.

A few minutes later, it decides that it has enough and gently makes its way into the canal and disappear. It is good that nature has its way around gracefully.

The uncomfortable thing is that, just about 60m downstream, a foreign worker was doing some fishing of his own. I managed to feedback to him about what I saw when I caught up with him later.