From MNT to Ranger Station

On a fine Saturday morning (2 Aug), I decided to take a long distance walk from MacRitchie Nature Trail (MNT) to the Ranger Station. My first shot of the morning was these beautiful cactus flowers outside a private house next to the forest.

Many red and blue dragonflies were either hovering, darting in the air or resting on twigs and leaves at a small stream along the forest fringe. I am not sure what this pretty blue dragonfly is.

A rather skittish damselfly was found along a very shady forest trail. I just could not get a shot with a brighter background without over-exposing the abdomen of the damselfly.   

Though the sun was high up but it didn't seem to be strong enough to wake the the forest up with movement of life. At last, a Branded Imperial (Eooxylides tharis distanti) was flitting across my path and landed on a big rattan leaf.

I also noticed a rather worn out small lycaenid kept fluttering around a particular plant. Yes, she was trying to oviposit but I just could not find any egg. I guess this is a Pointed Line Blue (Ionolyce helicon merguiana).

I finally reached the Ranger Station - it was quite crowded with hikers. No flowering Leea indica shrubs that I used to see here.  While on my way towards Venus Drive, I just snap any shots that I could - here is another damselfly shot but I am rather lazy to find out what it is at the moment.

This dark and dull low-flying butterfly looks like the Dark Brand Bush Brown (Mycalesis mineus macromalayana).

For a change, I took a slow walk along the Island Country Club Road instead of the shady Venus Trail. A wasp, perhaps, was busy feeding on the Leea indica flowers.

I was lucky to notice a female Scarce Silverstreak (raota rochana boswelliana) roaming around a Ficus tree at a T-junction. Most of the time she perched high up on tree branches and leaves.

Her behaviour seemed to suggest that she was trying to lay eggs but I could see any. A rare moment happened when she decided to open her wings on a leaf at my knee level.