I ventured out to the Tree Top Walk Trail last Wednesday, which proved to be the right choice, if not the best one so far. A total of close to 900 pictures were taken, which was the highest so far for any of my field trips. Besides the interesting finds along the way, the other part of the reason was my aging camera which had some exposure problem, turning the pictures either pitch dark or white image, thus wasting some shots. Time had finally arrived to look for another camera.

The most significant highlight of this trip, which was also the best find for this year, was the sighting of two rare Golden Black Cicada (Huechys fusca) on the leaf of a Common Yellow Stem Fig tree (Ficus fistulosa). The leaf where the cicada resided was about 2 metres high. I had to gently pull the branch downward to get some good pictures and at the same time minimize any movement that might cause the cicada to flee. Cicada is usually very sensitive to movement. They stop their calls as soon as they sense someone approaching their location. Fortunately, the two of them on the leaf seemed not ready to flee at anytime. According to a local publication, most sightings of this species of cicada were at a specific area in Bukit Timah Nature Reserve.

There was a young Wagler's Pit Viper (Tropidolaemus wagleri) sleeping on a treelet just by the side of the board walk not too far after the tree-top bridge. A few visitors walked pass the location but no one seemed to notice it. One other interesting observation was the tiny metallic Jewel Beetle (Endelus cupido) on the Centipede Fern (Blechnum orientale). I already knew that this beetle feeds on another closely-retaed fern species (Blechnum finlaysonianum) but was excited to know that it also patronized the Centipede Fern.

This time round, the Singapore Durian tree (Durio singaporensis) was fruiting and flowers were available on the forest floor. Of course, I had not missed the chance to look for the unusual Grass Fern (Schizaea dichotoma), which I had found 3 of them along the way.

There were obviously more interesting finds other than those that I had highlighted here. More details are available in my trip write up.