Bukit Panjang Area On Two Saturdays

I went to the western part of the nature reserve on two consecutive Saturdays (8 and 15 March) near Bukit Panjang. Walking alone underneath an overhead bridge towards the forest on 8 March, I bumped into this Black Veined Tiger (Danaus melanippus hegesippus) when it was taking a morning nap - I thought it was a good start for the day.  

But after that, it was just trekking and no shooting for a long period of time until a rather worn-out female Horsfield's Baron (Tanaecia iapis puseda) (correction: this should be a female Malay Baron (Euthalia monina monina)  was seen flitting around. 

I was attracted by this rather strange-looking creature above my head - a kind of fly with a long tail? 

I met up with Scast on 15 March at Kim San Leng coffee shop. After a quick lunch, we started to trek from Bukit Panjang to Dairy Farm Park. We saw quite a number of Pea Blues (Lampides boeticus) and Gram Blues (Euchrysops cnejus cnejus) flitting around a small plot of land used by residents to grow vegetables and cucumbers.

Staying rather tamely on a leaf, this pink grasshopper looked nice and unique.

An orange skipper appeared to be a Telicota species was resting peacefully at the same vicinity as the Pea Blues.

A beautiful and commonly sighted dragonfly in the nature reserve, this is likely to be a female Cratilla metallica. She had a tendency to come back to the same perch again.  

The ovipositing bebaviour of a Pygmy Grass Blue (Zizula hylax pygmaea) along the roadside caught our attention. 

The sky turned cloudy and followed by a short period of drizzling when we were near Zhenghua Park moving towards the Dairy Farm Park. We welcomed this long-overdue light shower after more than one month of drought. 

Our last shot of the day (15 March) was this Silver-Forget-me-not (Catochrysops panormus exiguus) when it landed on my bag at the washing point. Lately, I have encountered and shot this species quite often than before - a  rather strange phenomenon.

Two Different Pansies @ Punggol End

It was rather hot and hazy but windy when I arrived at Punggol end in the late morning on 1 March. I could feel the heat emancipating from the ground - wild vegetation was struggling to fight the drought; a large patch of a grassland had been wiped out by bush fire brought about by a prolonged period of dry spell since mid January. In fact, this February is Singapore's driest month since 1869 (see here and here).

I was delighted to see a few Blue Pansies (Junonia orithya wallacei) actively flying around at one particular location and occasionally resting on the dry ground. With a lot of patience waiting for them to perch, I managed to snap some quick shots.

Another specimen rested on a dry lalang leaf.

While exploring the surrounding area, I came to a stream near Track 17 where I noticed a small colony of Grey Pansy (Junonia atlites atlies). 

Another specimen was feeding on some wild flowers.
A very worn out Arhopala was flitting above me but I failed to get a shot. Instead, I noticed a dark moth-like bug resting on a leaf - a kind of planthopper or something else?

Prunas Trail On A Windy Day

It has been a long time since my last visit to the Prunas Trail at MacRitchie Reservoir. I decided to drop by Prunas Trail on a windy late morning on 15 Feb. After a long period of time strolling along the boardwalk, shooting nothing, a Malay Viscount (Tanaecia pelea pelea) flitting past me and settled on a leaf of the Hairy Clidemia (Clidemia hirta).

A few meters away along the boardwalk, I was lucky to bumped into this female Knight (Lebade martha parkeri).

The Great Helen (Papilio iswara iswara) seemed to be a permanent resident of the MacRitchie Nature Trail. I had a long distance shot of this female Great Helen when she made a short perch.   

The all orange coloured Yamfly (Loxura atymnus fuconius) is a very distinctive lycaenid. It was loitering around its larval host plant Smilax bracteata at a side trail leading to some private houses.

This small Pygmy Grass Blue (Zizula hylax pygmaea) was my last shot of the day before I packed my camera gears, heading towards a coffee shop.

A Quiet Afternoon @ Mandai Track 15

Very well-camouflaged and blended impeccably with its habitat, this skittish Common Evening Brown (Melanitis leda leda) was photographed at a undergrowth of a forest trail on a windy and dry Saturday afternoon (9 Feb).

At the training shed where skippers were commonly sighted, I noticed this Potanthus feeding on Bidens flowers. 

A colony of lycaenids was actively flitting along a section of the biking trail. This lucky shot was the result of my curiosity of  knowing what species it was - surprisingly, it was the Silver-Forget-Me-Not (Catochrysops panomus exiguus). 

Another super active small butterfly was teasing me for a long period of time. At last, this Blue Brownie (Miletus symethus petronius) presented me with a tilted perch underneath a leaf at my knee level - what a "torturing" perch for me to shoot. 

Due to other commitment in the early evening, I didn't venture very deep into the forest. While looping back to the starting point using another trail, I bumped into a small colony of Arhopala species - this is Arhopala major major.  I suspected there was another species flitting around.