Some Fauna Species Shot in Hong Kong

On 7 Dec, even though the weather was gloomy, my colleagues and I still took a West Rail train to Tai Po Market from Shatin followed by a short taxi ride to Fung Yuen (refer to my previous post) as we had to register for the WALS International Conference in the late morning at Hong Kong Institute of Education which is nearby.A light drizzle had started by the time we reached Fung Yeun. While waiting patiently for the rain to stop (anyway, the weather was bad for 3 consecutive days), we were chatting and browsing the books on display(for sale and occasionally I was showing some of the species featured in the books that can be found in Singapore.As mentioned in my previous post, I went back to Fung Yuen again on 10 Dec. Of course, apart from butterfly species, we are sure to spot many other animals in Fung Yuen. These two wasps were shot while waiting for butterflies to pose for me. John identified this a Scoliid wasp, possibly a male Liacos erythrosoma.
The next shot is one of the Hong Kong's most common paper wasps, Parapolybia indica. According to John, this species usually disappears by October, so it was a surprise to see this bugger still around in December.
This handsome lizard looks like our local Changeable lizard (Calotes versicolor)After lunch (thanks Colleen and Chung), John drove me to Sai Kung area where he lives. We checked out a few places along our way to hilltop. One of our stopovers is this Wong Chuk Yeung Village, it has been deserted and abandoned for quite a while. John used to see many butterflies feeding on Lantana flowers on the left side of this picture. But now, no flowers mean no butterflies and insects.We saw at least three Indian Red Admiral (Vanessa indica) and a Sailor chasing each other on the hilltop, a typical territorial behaviour. They were too active and alert for me to get a decent shot. Here is a long distance record shot when one of the Admirals basking on the floor. This beautiful Lemon Pansy (Junonia lemonias) was spotted while I climbed up some stairs in a nature park not too far away from the Sai Kung town.Blue Admiral (Kaniska canace ) is abundant in Sai Kung's parks . I noticed that it had a tendency returning to the same perch but I still could not get a good shot as it was too skittish, it could detect any slightest movement. This is another record shot from far.
Before we took our flight back to Singapore on 11 Dec, we had a free-and-easy morning. We decided to take a leisure walk in Shatin Park just behind our hotel. A big grasshopper was like contemplating its next move so deeply that it wasn't aware of my presence. Of course we were greeted with many colourful and gorgeous flowers. These magnificent blooms really liven up our spirit, no wonder there were many locals out in the park on a cool and windy morning. My past few visits to Hong Kong were all during winter period. Next time I should visit Hong Kong in summer. I must visit Fung Yuen again - a heaven for butterflies.

Wising all readers of this blog a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Photos by Wan San, John and Federick Ho