Things We Find in the Woods Part Nine

Now that I'm back to working with the monkeys full-time, I'm seeing a lot more fun nature stuff. For example, check out this awesome bird I spied one day near Bukit Timah! Isn't it beautiful?! It's obviously a raptor of some sort, but I've been unable to pin down an exact ID, so any of my wise nature friends are welcome to chime in with a suggestion! (update: my knowledgeable nature pal Ivan says that this is a changeable hawk-eagle, totally capable of snacking on little monkeys! Woah!)

Doesn't he look regal perched up there?!

We've been having exceptional luck with birds lately, and we've seen several Asian koels, which we typically hear loud and clear, but don't often see. If you look closely at the photo below, you can see that they have blood-red eyes!

A male Asian koel

One day at Chinese Garden, we saw this yellow bittern, busy hunting prey along the water's edge.

The little fish hate to see this guy coming their way!

OK, brace yourselves, because this next one's a little weird. But it's so freakishly bizarre that I feel compelled to share it, even though it will involve using the word "poo" for the first time on this blog. You remember the super-cool colugo?

Remember these awesome things?!

We've discussed before the total weirdness of the colugo: they have a rat face, bat ears, and loris eyes. Well, apparently, it gets even stranger. You see, when the colugo takes a poo, it flips its back end over its front end, like it's opening the trunk of a car.

Whaaaaat?!?!

Isn't that crazy?!

While we're on the topic of strange things, have you ever seen dragonflies mating? They look like contortionists! It looks very painful! I read a little about it, and apparently dragonfly mating is rough stuff. The males often mate with the females against their will, and sometimes they bite them! Although these two are locked in a painful-looking position, I like that they're making a lopsided heart.

Iberian bluetail damselflies

And now my friends, I can think of no better way to end this post than with a photos of baby monkeys! I'm sure I'll be sharing lots more monkey pictures in the months ahead!

Cuddling with Mom

Thirsty baby

Cuteness triple-take