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.

No New Surpirse @ Bukit Brown

On a fine Saturday afternoon (24 Sept), I decided to drop by the Bukit Brown cemetery ground again. At the main gate, I noticed this rather tame and small cricket resting on a leaf.

At the round-about, this white planthopper flew past me and perched above my eye level. I walked casually towards the location where I found the Banded Line Blue (Prosotas lutea sivoka) last December. Sadly, I could not find a single specimen this time. 

A small lycaenid, this Tailless Line Blue (Prosotas dubiosa lumpura) was fluttering at the ground level. Its momentarily perch on a piece of wood provided me a chance for snapping some shots. 

A mating Malayan Five Ring (Ypthima horsfieldii humei) kept me busy for a short while along a shady and mosquitoes infested forest trail.  

My first sighting of a Common Posy (Drupadia ravindra moorei) at Bukit Brown was at a shady spot along a dirt path.

It was flitting around from leaf to leaf and sun-bathing occasionally.

My final shot of the afternoon was a  robberfly. I noticed that robberflies like to perch on the tip of a leaf looking outwards demonstrated by this particular shot.

Very soon once the construction of a new road commences, I doubt we will be able to visit Bukit Brown as often as we like. So it is important that we should record the fauna and floral species that can be found here before they disappear completely.  

  

Have You Seen These Creatures in the Wild ? - Part 1

I went to this wild place in the northern part of Singapore on two consecutive Saturdays in March. Let me showcase some interesting critters that I encountered.

Along a forest trail, a very dark skipper perched on a leaf at my knee level. I squatted down and took a few shots at low shutter speed. This is a male Quedara monteithi monteithi.

Two small black-and-white lycaenids were flitting on the ground. They were looking for something on the forest floor to puddle on. This guy decided to climb up a "slope" and gave me a few seconds for some shots.

I was lucky to spot this rather rare White Spotted Palmer (Eetion elia) - my second sighting along the trial. In between its swift and speedy darting flights, it stopped a few times. I stayed still,  observed where it landed and with a bit of luck, I could snap some quick shots this time.  

I met N and E one early morning. Though the forest appeared to be quiet and devoid of life,  nothing could escape the sharp eyes of N who spotted this strange and beautiful critter - perhaps a kind of cricket (hope someone can come in to id this) (this is a katydid belonging to the genus Scambophyllum - thanks Zick for identifying it in Oct 2022)  

Here is another shot.

Guess what this butterfly is who was high on a leaf on performing its surveillance duty.

The undersides of this male Horsfield's Baron (Tanaecia iapis puseda) are rather dull and uninteresting. Having a tendency to visit the same high perch, he never gave me a chance to take a shot of his more attractive uppersides. 

An adventure into forest rewarded me with a few shots of this stack of butterfly eggs - I guess this is a way to protect all the eggs being parasited by other insects.

I bumped into S in the afternoon and we were very lucky to see a female Banded Swallowtail (Papilio demolion demolion) hovering around a young shrub with big leaves. She stopped and I snapped a few shots but we didn't notice she was actually ovipositing her eggs in a stack. S took a shot from another angle and noticed this unique and valuable moment.

Somewhere Along Yeo Chu Kang Road

We were fortunate to have a rather nice, in fact hot Saturday morning (24 Nov) in this monsoon season. Thanks BJ for initiating this outing and giving me a lift to this wild place somewhere along Yeo Chu Kang Road.

Except for a short concealed path, I was rather surprised to see there are well-conditioned tarred road in this "no-man's"  land. We strolled leisurely, looking out for butterflies and  hoping that some durians high on the trees would drop in front of us.

The very first butterfly came to our notice was this male Malayan Eggfly  form-nivas (Hypolimnas anomala anomala).  

It has been a long time since my last sighting of this form in the wild. The underside of this form is characterised by  a  patch of diffused post-discal white streaks on the hindwing.

This is form-anomola which is more commonly seen in the wild. 

Females lay many eggs, clustered together and usually underneath a leaf. If you are observant, you may find a large group of larvae on the host plant but I guess only a fraction of them survive ultimately as I have never seen a sizable colony of the adults in the wild so far.  

There were a few lycaenids puddling on the gravel ground but waiting for them to stay still in the hot sun was a torturing experience. This is my only lucky shot of a Ciliate Blue (Anthene emolus goberus) which happened to stop in front of me while I was chasing another puddling lycaenid.  

We ventured quite far away from where we started. Nice scenery at a few spots and a solitary Dark Glassy Tiger (Parantica agleoides agleodies) was found feeding on the Bidens flowers. 

At another location, a few butterflies were puddling but they were extremely skittish and never stayed still on one spot. This Common Bluebottle (Graphium sarpedon luctatius) just refused to let me go closer.

    A rather small and different grasshopper with some green patches was resting on a grass blade. 

There were quite a number of different dragonflies at a few locations. This beautiful  blue dragonfly is a male Common Blue Skimmer (Orthetrum glaucum). Though it was alert and active, we could still snap a few shots as they had the tendency to come back to its previous perch.    

There were quite a number of dragonflies at different locations. A couple of Coastal Glider (Macrodiplax cora)

There were many species of wild flowers in the area. I am sure you find the shape of this flower  interesting and the colours attractive.  What is this ? 

I have seen this attractive flowers of a climber on beaches.   

This flower also attracted skippers to feed on them. After feeding, this brown Pelopidas species rested on the flower.  

I will visit this place again and hopefully  take more pictures of the wild plants and flowers growing on this huge "no-man's land".

Making A New Friend @ USR

It was a cloudy Saturday morning on 13 Oct. Despite the unfavourable weather for outing and nature photography, I headed to Upper Seletar Reservoir (USR) Park. Indeed, the forest trails were exceptionally quiet and calm.

Along a patch of overgrown grasses along the forest fringe, I took a shot of this very docile grasshopper as there was nothing else could attract my attention.        

For a long period of time, I was just strolling on the forest trails alone without touching the camera shuttle. I came back to the shelters and while I was about to leave for Mandai Track 15, this female Hoary Palmer (Unkana ambasa batara) suddenly appeared,  zipping around and feeding on the Ixora flowers.

A very alert and active skipper, she made me work hard, tracking and chasing her around the shelters. While I was almost giving up of her, CH came with a Taiwanese friend who was a teacher on a study trip to Singapore but took time off on a cloudy Saturday to photograph our tropical butterflies. 

While CH brought his friend exploring USR I stayed in the shelter, waiting for the Hoary Palmer to appear again. A male Great Helen (Papilio iswara iswara) came instead and settled on a low perch for a few seconds before he fluttered off.  

I went behind the toilet. A lonely brown skipper which looks like a Contiguous Swift (Polytremis lubricans lubricans)  was resting on a leaf.

I have not been shooting any dragonfly for a long time. I found this fellow very tame and decided to take a few shots. It looks like a juvenile dragonfly but which species is this ?

It started to rain after I had shot this little beauty. Due to bad weather, we had to leave USR for an early  lunch at our usual food stall  before we headed to the Butterfly Lodge (BL). Thanks CH for introducing Mr 呂晟智 to me. Three of us had a long chat at BL after our guest had taken some shots of our local butterfly species in BL. I realised that Mr 呂 is a very experienced and knowledgeable butterfly enthusiast and photographer. Mr 呂, thanks for giving us your butterfly book and we look forward to meeting you again.         

Rare Skippers @ Dairy Farm Park After Rain

A prolonged  pre-dawn shower on 9 June delayed my usual morning outing. Thanks CH for picking me up at Toa Payoh around 10:30am and heading to Dairy Farm Park (DFP) instead of our original plan of going to somewhere in the north east. 

The sky cleared up quite a bit when we reached DFP. We headed straight to the hut where I usually hung around looking for butterfly and other insect species. On the way, a couple of Grass Demons (Udaspes folus)  was taking a nap in a cool morning.

A few dark brown skippers were zipping around. Once they perched, they were tame enough giving us a few seconds to fire a shot like this. It looks like a male Quedara monteithi monteithi, a relatively rare skipper.

This is another more pristine individual appearing in the early afternoon. 

I encountered only one female which can be identified rather easily by the presence of a prominent white band on the forewing discal region. 

Here is a a view of her uppersides on another perch.  A male Common Birdwing (Troides helena cerberus) was hovering around the area feeding on flowering nectar in midair - getting a decent shot  of this fellow is challenging as it never stayed still most of the time.

A male Common Birdwing (Troides helena cerberus) was hovering around the area feeding on flowering nectar in midair - getting a decent shot  of this fellow is challenging as it never stayed still most of the time. 

The Ultra Snow Flat (Tagiades ultra) is another relatively rare skipper that I encountered in this outing. It was a pity that I didn't have  a chance of shooting another pristine specimen.  

The highlight of the morning was at least two, perhaps three Banded Swallowtails (Papilio demolion demolion) speeding past us in the late with high speed. We were all waiting at the small yellow Virgin Tree (Mussaenda philippica Family : Rubiaceae) for it to perch - this was a lucky shot.    

Here is an upperside shot when it rested in a shade for a short while  - getting the correct exposure to reveal the pale green bands and markings on the wings was a nightmare to me. 

As time went by and with the sun emerging from behind the clouds, more butterfly activities were observed. A few Malay Lacewings (Cethosia hypsea hypsina) were busy feeding on the Lantana flowers.  

A few Common Mormons (Papilio polytes romulus) were  "chasing" each other and feeding voraciously. These small flowers attracted a few skippers. One dark brown skipper which looks like a Paintbrush Swift (Baoris oceia) was feeding high up on a flower.

The small yellow flowers attracted a few butterflies. One dark brown skipper which looks like a Paintbrush Swift (Baoris oceia) was feeding high up on a flower. 

I have not seen this beetle with a white dot before. 

and lastly a small cricket perhaps. 

It was nice meeting a couple of  butterfly photographers from Hong Kong (sorry I can't remember their names) who were accompanied by a local butterfly guide, Yi Kai (sorry if I got your name wrong).