Dark clouds loom ominously above us as we headed out towards the sea to look for marine life...
the friendly stray that followed us about as we explored the shore...
Alas! All we had was 15 minutes before the rain pelted relentlessly on us. Armed with our poncho and umbrella, we gamely continued with our exploration.
Despite the rain, we still saw many marine creatures! Such as this Thorny Sea Cucumber (Colochirus quadrangularis)...
the prehistoric-looking Horseshoe Crab (Tachypleus gigas) with encrustations on its shell. Am really happy to find this as it has been a long time seen I last saw a live one...
and this is the more commonly seen, but quite hard-to-photograph Mudskipper. Mudskippers are actually fish that breathe with gills. When out of water, they breathe by retaining water in enlarged gill chambers. They can also breathe air through their wet skin!
A trip to Ubin (or Changi) would not be complete without a starry find. And we were not to be disappointed. We saw many Biscuit Sea Stars (Goniodiscaster scaber).
and a number of Cake Sea Stars (Anthenea aspera)...
What's so interesting about a sponge? 
There's more to it than meets the eye. It's actually a Sponge Crab in disguise! Sharp-eyed Ria spotted it as the crab had given itself away by leaving two of its legs outside the sponge. =)
Towards the end of our trip, Kok Sheng found a pair of Lined Chromodoris Nudibranchs (Chromodoris lineolata) while flipping over rocks.
This is what it looks like when relaxed in a pool of seawater... This is indeed a nice surprise as this nudibranch is usually only found on our southern shores.
On our way back towards the jetty, Rene spotted this huge web with a rather large black spider on it. Don't you think the web is beautiful?It was nice to be back exploring the shores after a long hiatus. Looking forward to more trips!
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