"Tigers" @ Gardens By the Bay

Before I went on a family holiday trip to Kyoto, I dropped by Gardens By the Bay (GB) again on a fine Saturday morning (15 June), hoping to shoot or at least see the Vagrant (Vagrans sinha sinha) which CH had shot it in early June (see here).

I arrived GB early and went around the car park area where the Ixora blooms were - there still looked good and attractive. There were a few specimen of the Slate Flash (Rapala manea chozeba) feeding on Leea indica shrubs at the far end of the row of Ixora hedges.

I met some ButterflyCircle members near the car park area around 10 am. Loke spotted this Peacock Royal (Tajuria cippus maxentius) flitting around the Ixora flowers.

There were many ornamental flowering plants at the meadow, attracting quite a number of butterflies fluttering and looking for nectar. The Tawny Coster (Acraea violae) has been doing very well in many parts of Singapore. However, this was the only female specimen that I could see at GB. 

The Common Tiger (Danaus genutia genutia) is an attractive butterfly. There were at least a couple of them fluttering gracefully and feeding on the blooms. 

Take a good look at The Black Veined Tiger (Danaus melanippus hegesippus); it resembles closely to the The Common Tiger.

Just like other Tigers, it has a tendency to "feed" on the Crotalaria seed pods by scratching the surface of the seed pods.

This Common Tiger displayed the same behaviour.

The Small Branded Swift (Pelopidas mathias mathias) is a common skipper that can be found in our urban parks. The seed pod seemed to be able to attract skippers as well.

The Plain Tiger (Danaus chrysippus chrysippus) was rather abundant in GB and all except one individual were of the form-alcippoides (with large patches of hindwings) - it was a shame that I could not get a shot of the skittish specimen of the form-chrysippus.

A rather tame Common Tit (Hypolycaena erylus teatus) was feeding on the Leea rubra flowers.

On my way out, I was lucky to bump into this Common Banded Awl (Hasora chromus chromus) - very fast and alert bugger, it gave me just a few seconds for me to take two instinctive shots.  

Let us hope that GB continues to provide good feeding and breeding ground for butterflies and other fauna - this would make the garden more vibrant and attractive.

Some Critters and Flowers @ Gardens by the Bay

Continue from the last post.

Besides butterflies, beautiful flowers and other critters were my subjects for photographing in this outing. This dragonfly which looks like a female Diaplacodes trivialis was shot on the ground behind the dragonfly lake.

There were quite a number of  red dragonflies - the male Crocothemis servilia.

There were too many variety of flowers in the garden. When there were no butterflies or critters around, I would take some shots of those colourful and unique-looking ones such as these Jetropha integerrima flowers. 

These small star-shaped red flowers are attractive.

This is a kind of shield bug I believe - there were many of them found at different Ixora flowers. Thanks Pat for identifying it as a kind of Sting bug (Catacanthus incarnatus).

Another specimen - the "human-face" markings seemed to be smiling at me .

The cluster of small and beautiful flowers stimulated my curiosity - but what is this ?

The light purple star-shaped petals of the Crown flowers (Calotropics gigantea) look unique due to the "crown-like" structure at the centre of the flowers.

Another type of flowers.

A wide variation of colours and shapes of the flowers in the garden would help create a positive and lasting impression in the minds of the visitors.   

I didn't see many blue flowers - this prominent and showy flower with a white pattern resembling a miniature flower at the centre was interesting. 

A changeable lizard (Calotes versicolor) crawled along a tree trunk and paused there a while for me to snap a few shots. (Correction: this is the American brown anole a newly introduced species. More info about this "foreign talent" can be found at  http://rmbr.nus.edu.sg/nis/bulletin2012/2012nis359-362.pdf. Thanks Marcus). 

On my way back towards the Bayfront Station, I saw this red dragonfly - Neurothemis fluctuansm perching on a slender blade of grass.

Lastly, let me showed two record shots of two common birds - a pair of woodpeckers high up on a tree.

Is this a Yellow-vented Bulbul (Pycnonotus  goiavier) ?

here were some relatively "wild" areas I had not explored at GB - this would provide me with sufficient motivation to visit GB again in the near future.  

Butterflies@Gardens by the Bay

With the completion of the Gardens by the Bay (GB) in the year 2011, Singapore is a step closer to achieving the vision of transforming itself  into a "City in a Garden".  Occupying more than 101 hectares of reclaimed land at Marina South, the garden has become one of the  must-visit iconic places in Singapore.  Besides the two indoor attractions - the Flower Dome and the Cloud Forest, the various theme outdoor horticultural gardens and pockets of "wild" places are particularly attractive to people who have a special interest in nature or macro-photography.    

Despite a rather gloomy Saturday morning (18 May), I went ahead exploring the garden. It was good to see many people streaming towards the garden  from the Bayfront Station. 

My first shot of this small lycaenid Lesser Grass Blue (Zizina otis lampa) was taken near the Meadow Bridge. There were quite a few of them fluttering around  at the ground level amongst some wild flowers.  

In fact another look-alike species Pygmy Grass Blue (Zizula hylax pygmaea) was mingling around with the Lesser Grass Blue - not easy to differentiate them apart unless we look at them on pictures.

While I walked towards the Fragile Forest, I saw a Blue Glassy Tiger (Ideopsis vulgaris macrina) feeding on some Lantana flowers in front of  a giant sculpture of a sleeping baby, named as Planet by Marc Quinn,  an renounced  British artist.      

A skittish female Plain Tiger (Danaus chrysippus chrysippus) was fluttering past me. She perched and took off a few times before settling on some leaves for me to snap a quick shot.

One best way to attract butterflies to the garden is to cultivate enough larval host plants. Soon we would be able to find more Plain Tigers because many different instars of  the Plain Tiger larvae were feeding on the Crown Flowers (Calotropis gigantea). 

The Common Grass Yellow (Eurema hecabe contubernalis) is quite abundant but taking a good shot is never easy.   

These wild Bidens flowers provided a good source of food for different insects - a day-flying moth showed us how it enjoyed the nectar.

  

A row of  Ixora blooms near the Bay South Meadow entrance attracted my attention. I strolled down the row and noticed this Plain Plushblue (Flos apidanus saturatus) - it was very sensitive to flash so I had to take a snap shot without the flash. It scooted off to the canopy after this shot. 

It was almost noon when I reached Satay by the Bay-a dinning area where I replenished my energy level. Seeing the weather getting more cloudy with strong wind, I finished my food and drinks fast and went for another round of butterfly-hunting before the weather would not allow me to do so.  

I walked towards the Ixora hedges. This Yellow Palm Dart (Cephrenes trichopepla) rested on a leaf taking its afternoon nap.

This is another more pristine specimen - you cold notice that the sum in fact penetrated the dark clouds when this shot was taken.

In fact with patience, we could actually find quite a few species of butterflies visiting the flowers. At least two Painted Jezebels (Delias hyparete metarete) were seen fluttering around and visiting the flowers.   

I wasn't fast enough to snap a shot when I first spotted a Peacock Royal (Tajuria cippus maxentius) landed  on some Ixora flowers. I waited a while and finally it appeared again.      

In fact, there was another specimen near by - appeared to be a female as the paler uppersides could be seen when it fluttered and changed its perch.

The Contiguous Swift (Polytremis lubricans lubricans) zipped past me with high speed. But when it landed on a leaf surface, it had a tendency to open its wings.

There were quite a number of  Mottled Emigrant (Catopsilia pyranthe pyranthe) larvae and eggs on some Seven Golden Candlesticks (Senna alata).  

I witnessed this female Motted Emigrant laying a single egg on a young leaf before giving herself a well-deserved rest in a shade.

The Leopard (Phalanta phalantha phalantha)  was quite abundant at GB but getting a good shot was extremely difficult as they were very sensitive to movement with a tendency of flapping their wings even on perch or feeding - this was a lucky shot resulting from "rapid firings".              

Lastly, a surprise catch of the day was this Rustic (Cupha erymanthis lotis) which turned up at the Bay South entrance - but it was too skittish and shy for a better shot.

Apart from a good variety of flowers, a rich fauna diversity would add live and vibrancy to a garden. A group of ButterflyCircle (BC) members has completed a butterfly survey on a Sunday (19 May) and subsequently more BC members had photographed and recorded collectively close to 40 different butterfly species at GB (see a BC's blog here) - I hope more butterflies, birds and other insects would frequent GB  often with good numbers and thus making GB a unique and  memorable outing location for both nature lovers and photographers.     

In my next post, I will feature some non-butterfly critters and some beautiful flowers found at GB.