Friday, January 30, 2015

Quiet Days in The Nature Reserve

After a quick breakfast at the Prata shop on 10 Jan, I decided to walk along the peaceful and tranquil Old Thomson Road. Surprisingly, there were very few cyclists and cars passing by me on a cool and windy Saturday morning.  As usual, I headed towards the Upper Peirce Reservoir Park. 

I usually hang around at two locations to look for dragonflies. True enough, a few damselflies were perching on the leaves of  the aquatic plants or twigs along the reservoir edge. This one looks like the Orange-striped Threadtail (Prodasineura humeralis).
My first butterfly shot of the morning was this Common Four-ring (Ypthima huebneri) the smallest of the Ypthima species that we can find here.
Low butterfly activities meant that I could spend more time enjoying the serenity of the surroundings. When it was time to go, I chose to trek along a quiet forest trail towards the main road. It was a bad choice  as the trail now was full of obstacles and  not a single shot was fired.  

It was the same situation on the following Saturday at areas around Mandai Track 15. I didn't have a chance of taking any shot until a Common Bluebottle (Graphium sarpedon luctatius) was attracted by a cluster of Bidens flowers.
This Nacaduba specimen had lost its tails. There are too many look-alikes in this genus, I could not identify it with certainty. It fluttered with a rather erratic flight pattern along the biking trail for a long period of time. It finally perched on a leaf, just for a few seconds. 
This skittish mating pair looks like the Dark Brand Bush Brown (Mycalesis mineus macromalayana). I had to chase them relentlessly before I could snap a few shots.
I noticed there were many fallen trees in these two outings. As a regular hiker looking for critters, especially butterflies at various locations in the nature reserve, I have reasons to be worried about  the states and conditions of  our nature reserve.  

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