Some Butterflies@Lower Peirce Reservoir Park

After an early lunch at the Casuarina Road Prata shop on a Saturday (25 Jan) morning, my plan of heading to Upper Seleter Reservoir Park was dashed by the bad service of  bus 138 (two buses refused to stop for me). I decided to drop by Lower Peirce Reservoir Park for my weekly butterfly photography outing.

This damselfly showing an elegant perch on some leaves was spotted at a quiet corner of the reservoir edge.  I have no idea what species this is.

Strolling leisurely on the boardwalk, I noticed a Burmese Lascar (Lasippa heliodore dorelia) sailing and gliding past me. When it settled down, I managed to snap a quick shot.

A skipper was zipping around with high speeds. But on a very quiet day, I decided to wait and observe carefully where it would stop at. I was lucky to be able to spot it again and take a few quick shots. This brown skipper turned out to be the Pugnacious Lancer (Pemara pugnans).

A rather pristine male Archduke (Lexias pardalis dirteana) gave me an opportunity to increase my camera's shutter count - my last shot of the day.

Visiting Mount Faber Park Again - After A Long Time

It has been more than 2 years since my last visit to Mount Faber Park. On 18 Jan, after an early lunch at Seam Im Food Centre, it was only sensible for me to walk leisurely up to the Mount Faber Park via Marang Trail.

Only some hikers walked past me on a rather quiet morning along the trail. For a long period of time, I was alone hunting for critters. At last, a small orange skipper rested on a leaf of the Hairy Clidemia. It looks like a Lesser Dart (Potanthus omaha omaha).

I was loitering around the Merlion statue amongst many tourists, not shooting anything but enjoying the cold breeze, the panoramic view of the sea and the southern islands afar. Finally, this male Great Eggfly (Hypolimnas bolina bolina) succumbed to the cooling effect of the breeze and  hid beneath a leaf.

Along my way to a rather secluded high ground where some of us liked to station there during our many past outings, I bumped into this skittish female Malayan Plum Judy (Abisara saturata kausambiodes).   

I spent more than 30 minutes resting and waiting for butterflies to appear at this particular spot. My first visitor was this Large Dart (Potanthus sarina) which landed on some ferns.

A female Scarlet Flash (Rapala dieneces dieneces)  was changing her perch frequently. With some luck and patience, I finally managed to snap a few instinctive shots.

It seems that the Transparent Six-line Blue (Nacaduba kurava nemana) is a permanent resident of the Mount Faber Park.

Luck and being observant usually play a big part in spotting small butterflies especially skippers in the Coeliadinae subfamily as they have the habit of hiding under foliage. This cute and chubby-looking Orange Awlet (Burara harisa consobrina) was spotted taking a short nap along the Marang Trail while I came down from the hill top.  

Rare Dragonflies and Fallen Trees

It was a long trekking deep into the forest on 11 Jan 2014. I started at Old Upper Thomson Road and walked along  a forest trail that would lead me to the Upper Peirce Reservoir.

My very first shot of the morning was this Ultra Snowflat (Tagiades Ultra) at the entrance to the trail.

The Flashwing damselfly is beautiful. There were quite a few of them sunbathing along a quiet forest trail. I am not sure if this is the Vestalis amethystina.

This is the Malay Viscount (Tanaecia pelea pelea ) feeding on a kind of fruit - not sure what it was and I wasn't able to get closer to it.

A Tree Flitter (Hyarotis adrastus praba) just appeared from nowhere when I was at the spot where I could not proceed any further. It kept changing its perch even it was feeding on the Common Snakeweed flowers. 

My first sighting of a Libellago species deep in the forest near a stream. It looks like the rare Libellago hyalina - am I correct ?

Another rare dragonfly was found nearby - again it was my sighting of the  Paragomphus capricornis if I had identified it correctly.

Another damselfly was shot at a low-light environment when I was on my way out  - what is this species ?

I would like to sound an alarm here as there are clear symptoms that our forest has been "falling sick". I encountered more than five fallen trees along the forest trail; let me just post two shots here.

More fallen trees would mean that very soon our forest undergrowths would be taken over by the fast and wild-growing ferns like this.

This "patient" needs a lot of attention now. We need suitable "medicine" to nurse this "patient" back to good health before it is too late.