Nature - Sightings

Now I run less but still run at times with walking, cycling added on. Variety is the spice of life? Walking is not bad at all. It's like walking the talk. I tend to see more things when I walk. Or even cycling where one can stop any time to take in the sights, smell and all. Maybe you can walk closer to God. You need a little quiet time.

Besides smelling roses, I like watching insects. Like dragonflies, butterflies, etc.

Or praying mantis and grasshoppers.

When I was young, we could just walk downstairs and we could catch lots of grasshoppers but I didn't like the "chow mare kong" - the grandfather grasshopper which besides hopping so powerfully could actually fly with their wings and they are huge. I do not like them as their hind legs are extremely prickly and the eyes are huge.

I remember catching fighting spiders at the backyard behind my granny's place. Especially good catches among the pandan leaves. Every time I saw two leaves closed together I would used both palms to "kope" and bring back the leaves to a safe place. Some times, when I opened up, it was not a fighting spider but a ghost spider. Fighting spiders have two psychedelic greenish loops around their body. At other times, I "kope" too hard and the spider got flatten. Are you like a "kan cheong" spider?

Today, Singapore is so well developed, it has been much harder to catch fighting spiders. Some times, when golfing and when the front flight was slow, I have a minute or two to catch spiders. This is called "multi-tasking" but there are fewer fighting spiders today. Male ones are very quick and jumpy and harder to catch but female ones are vain. They even allowed me time so that they could pose for photographs. Here's looking at you kid. Can you see the psychedelic green loops. Male ones has got smaller backsides and darker in tone so that the psychedelic green appears brighter. They would "kombang" when they meet another male and fight. I love their stance which is "Bruce Lee-like" - backsides tilted and arms apart ready to strike. At times, they were no longer motivated and we have to use a female spider to motivate him. There would be times when I don't have a female one so I have to borrow it from  friends. 

Sometimes when the waiting at golf is too long and if I find a feather, I'll do this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnDeo0yhIws  where I'll need about 8 minutes.

I was told a story by 2 friends. They went to Bintan for holidays. From the poolside, they caught and played with many fighting spiders caught from the surrounding plants. Then they had a good idea which was to "da pao" (take away) these spiders in a plastic bag and brought them back to the hotel room. Later when they were about to return, they found out that the bag was torn and the spiders were all over the room. Lol.

I was cycling at Punggol over the weekend and I saw something that made me stop in my tracks. It was a snake. I do not know what snake it was and on closer inspection it was a dead snake. Some kind of rat eating snake?

Did somebody killed it? Or was it ran over by a cyclist? "You played dead but you never bled. Instead you lay still in the grass all coiled up and hissing". Some people are like that ain't it? Here is REO Speedwagon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJOfJFkkE-0

Just not too long ago, my son recorded a video from his mobile phone when he caught a rare sight of a group of around 6 wild otters swimming around the water way and even coming on land. This augurs well for our surrounding. Spotting insects and animals in the wild is truly amazing. 

I once knew Bidadari cemetery quite well. A friend Asrori lived there. It is now flattened and in Singapore even ghosts got nowhere to live. Where do birds lay eggs? Bidadari is a bird haven? I am going to check it out. Watch this space.