Second Visit to 企嶺下 (Kei Ling Ha) @ Sai Kung, Hong Kong

What a chaotic and abnormal weather in Hong Kong this week (21 - 27 Aug). We started the week with two extremely hot days but a drastic change of weather on Wednesday due to the  devastating T10 typhoon Hato inflicted severe damages and inconveniences to some places. Three days later on 27 Aug, while some places are still grappling  with repair and maintenance work,  we had to face with another T8 typhoon Pakhar - moving towards south China coast and about 150 - 200 km at its closest distance away from HK. Again, the path of Pakhar brought strong winds and heavy thunderstorms, turning a normally vibrant Sunday morning in this activity-filled city into a standstill.    
No outing with my usual hiking group so I  could complete this blogpost on a butterfly-hunting trip to Kei Ling Ha last month (1 July) with my usual group of butterfly enthusiasts.

After a long bus journey from Shatin MTR station (Bus 299), we alighted at the Kei Ling Ha San Wai  and walked towards a coastal village. My first shot of the morning was a mating shield bug - what a difference between the size of a male and a female.

Unlike my last visit last year, Kei Ling Ha was rather quiet this year. For a long  period of time we were actually just strolling along a coastal track without seeing any "worthwhile" species. 

We decided to walk twoards Kei Ling Ha Lo Wei. Along the way near a public toilet,  a Yellow Rajah (Charaxes marmax marmax) was seen puddling on the ground. 

While focusing on shooting this guy, I received a call from my friend  asking me to go forward to a bridge area. Indeed there were a lot more butterfly activities there. 

There were at least two pristine Commanders (Moduza procris procris) loitering around the area. Once they settling down, we quickly queued up  to snap some shots.

This guy also liked to perch on a metal railing - it did that a few times otherwise I would not have a chance to snap this shot. 

Common Hedge Blue (Acytolepis puspa gisca) is a very common lycaenid which is often ignored by many of us if we have another species to go after. 

The Bamboo Tree Brown (Lethe europa beroe) is another common butterfly that I have started to leave it alone unless it looks "suspicious" to me.

散紋盛蛺蝶 (Symbrenthia lilaea lunica ) is also a very common butterfly in Hong Kong.  Though a beautiful butterfly, I don't see many butterfly photographers here chasing after it.  

I have seen the Courtesan (Euripus nyctelius) a few times in HK. I broke away from the group which was perfecting their shots on the Commander, I found this guy on a roadside about 100m away. 

I had an instinctive shot of its uppersides when it puddled on the ground.

I was alerted to this critter hiding underneath a big leaf - I guess it is a nymph of a katydid.

A praying mantis was nearby looking out for its preys. 

Skippers at Sheung Shui, Hong Kong

It was a overcast morning on 1st October - The National Day of PRC. However, the bad weather didn't dampen our enthusiasm of our weekly butterfly outing  - my friends and I still headed out to He Sheung Heung (河上乡） in the north-western part of  New Territory, Hong Kong to hunt for a relatively rare skipper, the Halpe porus.  

We took minibus (51K) from the Sheung Shui MTR station. The moment we  reached the mini-bus terminal station, the sky opened up - we had to wait in a shelter nearby. Fortunately, we didn't have to wait very long before the rain subsided. We walked towards the Sheung Yue Rive where our shooting location was.

However, as the sun was overpowered by the clouds and passing rains dominated almost the whole morning, we were just waiting patiently and roaming around until around noon.

Though no butterflies, I shot other things  - this wasp was drenched and it just felt too larthagic to fly.

It was doing "exercise" to warm itself.

Dragonflies seemed to be common here - I encountered quite a number of them; some were not awake. Without any reference guide, I cannot identify any of these dragonflies.

Another small and beautiful dragonfly.

An attractive damselfly resting on a blade of grass.

At last, I managed to see butterflies coming fluttering when the air was warmed up.  A Palm Bob (Suastus gremius) appeared and immediately attracted some attention as we had nothing else to photograph.

Pieris canidia is one of those butterflies that is common in HK but difficult to shoot. Anyway, I have not encountering it often since August.

 

I was stalking a very skittish Angled Castor (Ariadne ariadne) as I have not shot this species in Hong Kong.

 I could only get a long-distance record shot of  both its upper and underside shot.

When I was trying to get more shots, Ivy alerted me on the phone that the skipper, the Halpe porus that everyone aimed to photograph was found on the opposite side of the river - so I gave up chasing the Angle Castor. 

I noticed that two specimen were zipping around. As I have shot this species many times in Chiang Mai and Malaysia, so I decided to look for the more pristine one. Another guy and I were lucky to see it zipping close to the ground and landed on the Biden flowers. A burst of of shots were taken when it was feeding on the flowers.

 

We hung around the same area after we had our late lunch at a small eating place nearby. At a far end corner, I was presented with this rare opportunity of  taking some quick shots of  the uppersides. 

In the late afternoon, this guy became less active and it stayed and posed on the flowers for us.  Look at the number of people queing up to shot this guy.

There were a few other skippers zipping around us. This pristine orange skipper, a Telicota species was having a afternoon nap.

 I cannot be certain what Swift this is - all these brown skippers are really difficult to identify them by just looking at the underside shots. 

A slightly larger Swift.

The next two shots were from the same specimen - it looks like a Borbo species?

My last skipper shot of the day - thanks to Samuel's dad who spotted this very pristine Common Redeye (Matapa aria) at a  muddy place.  

To wrap up this post, I would like to seek your advice on this critter as I have not seen this before - is this a nymph of  a lantern bug? 

A Solo Trip to Fung Yuen Butterfly Reserve @ Tai Po

On 18 June, I dropped by at  Fung Yuen Butterfly Reserve again. This time there were not many butterfly photographers around.

The abundacne ofTree Flitter ( Hyarotis adrastus) provided me with many shooting opportunities.  

I saw this bevaiour before - this guy went in and out of  a Morning Glory flower a few times.

We can see some drawings on the white spots of this Notocrypta curvifascia - how did this happern ?

The Melanitis phedima (Dark Evening Brown) were abundent. They were hooked on to the moisture on the tree trunk or perhaps tree sap for a long period of time.   

A rather skittish Tanaecia niepelti was looking for food on the ground. It moved around so frequently that I had to stalk it for sometime before snapping some quick shots.

It perched on a leaf for a while

There is a steep flight of stairs at one side of Fung Yuen - these steps leading us to the Cloudy Hill and Sha Lo Tung Village. There wasn't good butterfly activity wereat at higher altitude.

On my way going down,  I noticed an Athyma ranga keeping an eye on me from a high perch.  

There were a lot more butterflies at the foothill instead. One of my favourite butterflies, the Hestina assimilis seemed to be quite common - but I have not had the luck to photograph a pristine specimen yet.

Just a few meters ahead of the Hestina, the  Polyura athamas was enjoying something smelly for us - some animal faeces.

I saw it scooting off and landing on the ground. Approaching it slowly, I noticed that if flapped its wings a few times before showing off its uppersides - a rather rare behaviour.

This is the Lethe europa, a species that we can find in Singpore.

Many small to medium-sized butteflies love the Biden flowers. Feeding on flowers is the best moment to take a shot of a Common Grass Yellow (Eurema hecabe).

Not sure what this small brown skipper is. But one thing is sure - it likes the Bidens flower too.

I might have taken this bug before in Singapore. But I have no idea what it is now.

It gave me a different pose before it went underneath the fern.

A nymph of a bug? An interesting and nice critter.  

Finally, my last shot of the day at a shady place before exiting the Fung Yuen's back gate was this purple water droplet appearing at the tip of a stem.