The annotated budak

Web on wing

It was still a little too early for dragonflies to be fully active. But this small libellulid (a female Brachythemis contaminata?) by the shores of Upper Seletar already bore the scars of a disturbed morning. Strands of silk stuck to its wings, hiding some veins but doing little to hinder its flight over the dewy green. It was probably sheer speed and the luck of lurching through weaker webs that let her last the night to find relief on a day of half-felt conversation that offered no release from overheated words and an excess of questionable glances.

Enough crab to last the week

Thalamita spinimana, Beting Bemban Besar

Some crabs have the knack
of pulling nasty rabbits
from the weekend hat

Slugs, shrimp and spider

Some sea slugs are in season. One of the prettiest is Chromodoris fidelis, a little nudibranch with a mantle of milk ringed by a vermilion skirt and traced by a band of richer red. Most are no longer than an inch and despite their brilliance, offer a sensory challenge to divers more used to crystal clear waters. But of late, the sponge hunters have turned up on slightly less demanding shores to prowl on Pulau Jong's reef flat, the muddy shoals of Pulau Tekukor and patch reefs in the south.   

While the dorid forages with unperturbed grace, another opisthobranch exhibits greater agility when faced with a barrage of flash lights. Pulau Hantu offers surefire opportunities to catch this dendronotid as it follows the scent of fresh hydroids, but the the pale and orange slugs have also been sighted at shores such as Pulau Semakau, Pulau Subar Darat and Beting Bemban Besar. A larger congener boasts the ability to flee like a fish, but this species merely flexes its body to lift off from the seabed in an evasive dance of slow, silent rhythms.

A good majority of large anemones on the shores house a pair (and occasionally a threesome) of five-spot anemone shrimp, which enjoy immunity from roving predators in soft beds of undulating tentacles. Sometimes, the shrimp share their home with a family of restless anemonefish. But both symbionts must at times find temporary lodgings when the tide leaves their homes high and a little too dry. A few burrow into the damp folds of their host, while others languish in adjacent pools. This female, however, found refuge on an octocoral that remained immersed while its usual quarters hung limp and livid from an outcrop at Kusu Island that endured a brief morning of exposure to the sun of a scorching spring.

The tables are turned for long-jawed spiders in the genus Desis, who must make the most of every falling tide to capture prey and meet mates before retreating into pockets of thin air in thick rubble. The arachnids seem to thrive even on patch reefs that offer them mere hours of breathing room each week. It's clearly enough, though, for the desids to colonise almost every rock that raises its head from the sea to recall the days of its youth before the waves surged high to wear down its dreams and wreck its sunken heart.

Feeling the heat

The recent heatwave is causing small furry mammals to suffer hot and sweaty nights. Zooxanthellate sea creatures, many of which lack the means to hop away from high temperatures, appear to holding up less well. Soft corals, scleractinians and sea anemones on a number of local shores as well as regional waters have been showing signs of bleaching, turning from a rich palette of throbbing colours to glow with a ghostly shade.

Some populations could learn to take the heat, but the triple whammy of warmer seas, acidifying oceans and overfishing is likely to chip at the ability of these cnidarians to resist each scorching cycle of faltering trade winds. And Singapore's reefs will find a little less room for manoeuvre each year as they lose what little ground they still hold to the notion that it's only natural that every square inch of land and sea must eventually gives way to the greater good in the irrefutable pursuit of progress and even more people.

There's nothing here...

Amphiprion ocellaris in Stichodactyla gigantea, Kusu Island.

... but overlooked fragments of life too faint for headlines and too insignificant to be rescued by the best of intentions.

Striped hermit crab, Pulau Sekudu.

What's there to worry about when there's little on the shore but reclaimed land, sea walls and canals?

Stone crab, Pulau Sekudu.

It's just the price we pay for the spoils of wealth that spill over into the seas.

Octopus, Pulau Sekudu.

With a little perspective, we will all learn to live with noise, pollution and the sweet scent of fresh hydrocarbons in the morning.

Chromodoris fidelis, Pulau Jong.

And suffer mere inconveniences that last only as long as the crude sinks out of sight and out of mind...

Frilly sea anemone, Pulau Jong.

... to swamp acres of land that lie dead beneath the wind.

Anemone shrimp on Heteractis crispa, Kusu Island.

That's the way it is in a world that prizes only the big picture, forgetting all the little things that make no difference to those who care only for what they can count and earn too much to bother with what really matters.

Out house

Flaming red, banana yellow or blinding white. I can't show you as many colours as you'd like. Or offer yet a hand you'd be willing to wrap your mind around and drag through the high-strung melodies of a life that's more than the sum of its parts. But does it matter at these hours we love when everything fades to grey and one can walk undogged, save by what the heart needs but doesn't really know?