The Tampines Eco Green Park (TEGP) is situated in Tampines Town at the north-eastern part of the island. Occupying a large area close to 36.5-ha, it is bounded by Tampines Expressway, Tampines Avenue 12 and Sungei Tampines canal. My first visit to the park was on a sunny Saturday morning on 23 July.
Alighting at the Tampines train station, I followed the the direction of the rail track, heading towards the Sun Plaza Park and TEGP is just opposite the Sun Plaza Park.
This Black Veined Tiger (Danaus melanippus hegesippus) was found perching in the shade at a distance away.
You are likely to get attracted by the strikingly red flower buds of the Leea rubra (Family : Vitaceae) shrubs in the park. A very informative write-up on this shrub can be found in the online journal Nature in Singapore.
Many insects loved to visit the tiny flowers - one of them was this Club Silverline (Spindasis syama terana) which spent more than an hour feeding on the flowers.
A rather haggard Common Grass Yellow (Eurema hecabe contubernalis) also loved to feed on the tiny flower.
Some green fruits on this Leea rubra shrub on the foreground of this shot and the digger wasp (?) create a bit more variations in terms of composition compared to previous two shots.
There were a few Dark Glassy Tiger (Parantica agleoides agleoides) butterflies fluttering in the park. I noticed this guy particularly liked the flowers of a grass.
On the same tree, there was this small Tailless Line Blue (Prosotas dubiosa lumpura) which preferred to stay high up on the leaf eyeing on the flower.
Many Pea Blue (Lampides boeticus) were flitting around because of its host plant - a crotalaria species was rather abundant there.
This bee which looks like a Apis dorsata kept visiting the yellow flowers of the Aquatic Sensitive Plant (Neptunia plena). This park was designed with the concept of preserving the natural environment and wasteland habitat - the wild flowers reminded me of the Pungol wasteland I used to visit.
The highlight of this outing was shooting this lycaenid, Peacock Royal (Tajuria cippus maxentius) which made me stand under the hot sun for more than 20 minutes.
A very uncooperative fellow which either stayed high on the tree or hid behind some branches or leaves. 
On my way back to the entrance, I was lucky to spot this beauty, a Long-banded Silverline (Spindasis lohita senama ) at the forested area.
This female Striped Albatross (Appias libythea olferna) was feeding on the flower of its hostplant - Purple Cleome (Cleome rutidosperma).
A good garden or a park should integrate a water ecosystem that allows aquatic life to thrive in. Indeed, I could see quite a number of dragonfly species darting around the pond. This was one of the species I managed to capture.
Apart from the 9 different butterfly species that I showed here, other butterflies I encountered were Plain Tiger (Danaus chrysippus chrysippus), Tawny Coster (Acraea violae), a Flash, Bush Browns and a few orange skippers. TEGP definitely has a lot to offer to nature lovers and photographers.
Nice! After army I shall go there to serious learn about butterflies. :)
ReplyDeleteHi Sy
ReplyDeleteThanks. Glad that you have an interest in understanding more about butterflies. The forum www.butterflycircle.com/forums should be useful for you.