Indian Red Admiral @ Mount Faber Park 26 Dec 2008

It was a last minute decision that I decided to try my luck at MF in the late afternoon hunting for an elegant migratory butterfly from the north, Vanessa cardui (Painted Lady) because the weather was quite sunny and most importantly a fellow ButterflyCircle's member James had shot the "Admiral" a few days ago. In fact last two days of bad weather prevented me from hunting for this species. But to our surprise, what it was intially thought to be a Painted Lady is actually an Indian Red Admiral, Vanessa indica indica. Lady Luck was really with me as another senior BC’s member Sunny who was there early had already spotted the "Admiral". I was delighted and within seconds, I sprang into action, stalking, chasing and snapping shots on this pretty "Admiral". In late afternoon, the "Admiral" seemed to love the ground, openning its wings gradually from partially to fully for sunbathing. However, when there was no direct sunlight, it went for a perch on the upper side of a leaf with wings folded most of the time. Another behaviour was that this "Admiral" liked to flutter around the nearby area. After awhile, it got used to our presence and became quite tame, even resting on my finger, my back and bag. We were therefore presented with adequate opportunities to snap more shots with different backgrounds and compostions even though shooting conditions were not ideal in a windy late afternoon. How did this beauty end up in Singapore remains unknown. We will definitely welcome this Indian Red Admiral visiting Singapore more frequently.