An Afternoon Walk Along MacRitchie Reservoir Trails

Due to bad weather on a stormy Saturday morning (11 Apr), my weekly photography-cum-walking outing was postponed to the next day. Strolling along the Prunas Boardwalk on a quiet Sunday afternoon at the MacRitchie Reservoir Park, I noticed a late instar larva of the Acacia Blue (Surendra vivarna amisena) resting motionlessly on a young shoot of a Petai tree (Parkia speciosa).

Many butterflies in the family Lycaenidae display a myrmecophilous association with ants - here is another shot demonstrating this mutually-rewarding relationship between the Acacia Blue larva and the ants. These ants were climbing over the body of the larva to benefit from the secretions of the nectary organs.  An excellent write-up  the life cycle of this species can be found here.

After completing half of the boardwalk, I branched off to check out a stretch of the forest fringe along some private houses. Some tiny Pygmy Grass Blues (Zizula hylax pygmaea) were seen fluttering around.

A solitary Yamfly (Loxura atymnus fuconius) was flitting past me. It finally perched on a leaf of the Singapore Rhododendron.

I followed it closely whenever it changed its perch and rewarded with a a few more shots.

A surprise for me in this late afternoon outing was the sighting of a worn out male Magpie Crow (Euploea radamanthus radamantus) - my first encounter of this species at MacRithchie Reservoir. It liked to rest on the brickwall and use it proboscis to "taste" the wall.   

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.

From MacRitchie Nature Trail to USR

I am glad to know that one of my current PGDE (Sec) students WH has an interest in macro photography. With his initiation, we went for a hike with our cameras along the MacRitchie Nature Trail (MNT) on a fine Saturday morning (17 Aug).

We saw this Glossy Starling feeding on a big tree full of fruits -I am yet to find out the name of this tree

A small but hairy leaf beetle (Trichochrysea hirta) was found along the MNT.

We walked for a long time before spotting a Banded Yeoman (Cirrochroa orissa orissa). From far, I saw this fellow sun-bathing on a leaf, I approached closer and snapped a few shots while it was   flapping its wings constantly.

A notoriously skittish species, it was highly sensitive to human movement, flitting around tirelessly between short perches. 

A pair of mating fly was found on a twig. What kind of fly is this ?

Along MNT, there were not many macro subjects for us to photograph. When we reached the Island Country Club, we made a right turn walking towards the Venus Trail. 

To show WH where my other hunting grounds for butterflies are, we took  Bus 138 to Upper Seleter Reservoir Park (USR).  This damselfly being a permanent resident of USR,  

We didn't stay long at USR. Before we called it a day, this open-winged Palm Bob (Suastus gremius gremius) allowed us taking some shots.

Two Short Outings During Lunar New Year

The Lunar New Year period was exceptionally wet this year. Gloomy weather and the erratic passing showers during the Lunar New Year week (10 - 17 Feb) made long-distance outings impossible. I could only sneak out to the nature reserves for a short stroll and photographing session when the sky appeared to be clear on two afternoons.  

The Tree Yellow (Gandaca harina distanti) is a forest denizen. The damp forest paths provided some ideal  spots for them to puddle. Apart from being very skittish and alert to movement, the water-logged trails  gave me a hard time taking some shots. 

The Ypthima species are rather unattractive in appearance but they too are naturally alert - this Common Four-Ring (Ypthima huebneri) was no exception.

Nearby, a tiny spider unknown to me, was waiting patiently for its prey to be trapped in its webs. I noticed that somehow the butterflies seemed to be able to avoid the spider webs.

Along a forest fringe, this small Yellow Grass Dart (Taractrocera archias quinta) enjoyed its quiet moment on a low perch.

I was quite lucky to see this slender but beautiful red-headed snake crawling on the forest floor. It deprived me a second shot as it  wriggled underneath the forest litters rather quickly when I approached closer.

How can I resist taking a shot of the uppersides of this male Common Posy (Drupadia ravindra moorei) even thought it was not pristine. 

I didn't see many butterflies on both occasions so common butterflies such as the The Lesser Grass Blue (Zizina otis lampa) also attracted my attention.

A Scarlet Flash @ MacRitchie Nature Trail

On a cloudy Saturday morning (28 April) I decided to take a slow walk along MacRitchie Nature Trail. There wasn't anything worth shooting until I saw a couple of Peacock Pansies (Junonia almana javana)  frolicking, feeding and basking under the morning sun. 

There were some Mike-a-Minute flowers at one of my favourite locations. I spotted this male Scarlet Flash (Rapala dieneces dieneces) feeding voraciously on the flowers. Oblivious to my presence, it allowed me to take quite a number of shots of his different feeding postures.

It moved from flowers to flowers. I didn't know it was so close to death while feeding on one of the clusters of flowers.

Now, it was even closer to the crab spider and one of his legs was in fact touching the spider. The spider seemed to be busy with other things ?

He even demonstrated different stunts when feeding.

This hairy larva belongs to a moth species for sure. It was lying so still on a leaf surface that any predator could easily swallow it up.     

Last shot of a very quiet morning was this Common Snow Flat (Tagiades japetus atticus ) just before it scooted off from a leaf high up above me. 

A Short Outing to MNT

On a fine Saturday morning (11 Feb), I went for a short outing to a quiet corner of MacRitchie Nature Trail (MNT).

My first shot of the morning was this Chocolate Demon (Ancistroides nigrita maura). I spotted at least two of them zipping around and one of them finally decided to sunbathe on a Hairy Clidemia (Clidemia hirta) leaf.

It showed me another posture before it took off hastily.
I usually encountered the male of one of our smallest dragonflies, the Scarlet Pygmy (Nannophya pygmaea) at another location in the forest. So it was a pleasant surprise for me to see this female along a stream here.

I nearly missed this small damselfly which perched on a twig on the opposite side of the Scarlet Pygmy dragonfly.

Looking around for its prey on a leaf surface, this jumping spider was quite alert and refused to stay still.

On my way out, I noticed a Palm Bob (Suastus gremius gremius) taking a short rest on a Hairy Clidemia leaf.
This orange skipper belongs to the genus Potanthus . I have ruled out P. omaha as the veins of both wings are not prominently darken. I will post this shot at the ButterflyCircle forum to seek confirmation of the species

Due to a lunch commitment, I had to leave early. I wise I could have stayed longer as more skippers came out to sunbathe around 10 plus.

Strolling From MNT to LT

We experienced rather weird and bizarre weather in the first two weeks of September, very much wetter than the past. It was not an ideal day for outing on 11 Sept, I still went for a leisure stroll from MacRitchie Nature Trail (MNT) to Lornie Trail (LT).

An oddly-shaped green fruit lying on the shady forest floor caught my attention. I have no idea what this strange-looking fruit is.

Look at this cluster of Asystasia flowers, they really presented themselves beautifully and quite prominently. No wonder this small fly was also attracted by these flowers. With a bit of luck and patience, I managed to capture an instantaneous moment when it was about to make a landing.

This pink dragonfly is Trithemis aurora - a common species that can be found at the ponds near the main entrance. How could anyone ignore its beauty and the stylish perch ?

There were quite a few Ring butterflies hopping and feeding on the Mile-a-minute flowers at one particular spot along LT. Though unattractive, this Common Five Ring (Ypthima baldus newboldi) displayed an elegant perch on a bunch of flower buds.

It is usually not easy to identify a skipper by just looking at its uppersides.

However, the underside markings of some orange skippers such as the Bush Hopper (Ampittia dioscorides camertes) are distinctive enough for us to differentiate it from other species.

This Knigh (Lebadea martha parkeri ) came and disappeared as soon as I snapped this shot while it was feeding on some flowers. If you don't look at it carefully, you may have thought that this is an in-flight shot.

Three Beauties @ MacRitchie Nature Trail

What a disappointment on 25 June morning when the overcast weather gave me a clear indication that a looming heavy downpour would be imminent. True enough, many nature lovers and photographers like me were grounded at homes for the whole morning.

Late in the afternoon, sunshine finally gained control and started to penetrate through some remnants of clouds. Within 30 minutes, I was at the MacRitchie Nature Trail (MNT).

This relatively small lycaenid Semanga superba deliciosa was extremely skittish and energetic, kept flitting around.

Not only was she alert and uncooperative, she reacted quite violently to camera flashlight especially at a close distance as shown in the picture below - why this behaviour ? perhaps she was young, pristine and shy to be a model. I wonder what factors would trigger this reaction in butterfly - intensity of the light, angle or time of the day ?

Another rather rare flying beauty spotted on a quiet afternoon was this Royal Assyrian (Terinos terpander robertsia). But it din't oblige my persistence and patience of making it to come down.

It has been a long time since my last encounter with it. What a pity as it bid farewell quickly after I had taken a few long distance shots. Its uppersides are as beautiful as its undersides - this shot below does not reveal the true beauty so you can only imagine how the iridescent bluish purple will look like.

It was close to 5 pm when I saw this Common Posy (Drupadia ravindra moorei), a rather common forest species, perching tamely on a leaf of Clidemia hirta. Not a perfect specimen though, it was deserved some shots for its elegant perch and cooperation.