My First Outing in Year 2013

My first outing to the nature reserve this year was on 5 Jan. I had a short trip to the Upper Seletar Reservoir (USR) Park  in the morning. The forest trails were rather wet and exceptionally quiet. I had no chance of taking any shot until this mating Common Five-Ring (Ypthima baldus newboldi) presented their intimate moment for me to take a few shots.

Perhaps a breezy and cold morning made the critters more lethargic and kept them in the comfort of their overnight shelters - that might explain why I could hardly see any movement of fauna for a long period of time. At last, I stumbled upon a Dark Blue Jungle Glory (Thaumantis klugius lucipor) resting on the ground along the first trail.      

A very skittish female Cruise (Vindula dejone erotella) was attracted by the Ixora flowers. She loved coming back to visit different flowers. But getting a good shot was difficult as she kept flapping her wings and moving around on the flowers while feeding.

In fact, a male Cruiser also came down to feed. But it preferred the moist on the ground to the flowers.

The Hoary Palmer (Unkana ambasa batara) seemed to be a regular visitor to these Ixora flowers. This male Hoary Palmer was first sighted zipping around the shelters before it settled on the flowers but lasted just a short while. 

Another common skipper that we often encountered at USR is the Tree Flitter (Hyarotis adrastus praba). I was amazed by the accuracy and precision that these skippers know exactly where to insert their long proboscis into the corolla tubes of the flowers for nectar.