9 August 2016: Afternoon Butterfly watching at Upper Seletar

Lunch was obviously roti prata from the last Prata restaurant at Casuarina. The prata was not too fantastic but the curry was relatively decent.

Having settled lunch, we headed over to Upper Seletar where our last visit 9 July 2016: Butterfly Watching at Upper Seletar had many goodies. Given the time of the day when we reached (close to 3pm), we were expecting lesser. In nature, if it is there, it is there.

Well, if it is not there, you can always put it there. Upon arrival, we found a handful of young American Bullfrogs at the stream. Not native to our shores, these must have been released by “merciful” people – seeking mercy for themselves while cursing others. There are definitely better ways to show mercy than to release alien species that will damage the native ecosystem. Here are some examples:

1. Donate to Acres.
2. WWF
3. Wildlife Conservation Society

Behind the adorable looks is a voracious appetite… Say goodbye to the stream inhabitants! 

Thankfully, the forest of Upper Seletar is far richer than what the alien species could bring. For butterflies, we were delighted to be able to re-connect with the Darky Plushblue. A worn individual but its underwing patterns are still amazing.

“Missing a bit of glitter but not missing my identity..” – Darky Plushblue 

At our favorite trail, we found our new butterfly for the visit, the Narrow Spark. Its flight resembled that of the Common Caerulean. However, when perched, it was clearly something different. Our sole spark of the visit! (pun intended)

Narrow Spark

Lastly, we encountered a pair of Anderson’s Grass Yellow busy mating. For privacy, they took to the middle-storey to carry out their business. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough when dealing with intrigued busybodies.

Mating Anderson’s Grass Yellow

Upper Seletar is definitely a must-visit for new butterfly-watchers looking to cross path with the forest denizens. No amount of visits will do sufficient justice to this place. Simply amazing!

9 August 2016: Mid-day Butterfly watching at Upper Pierce

Where’s next?

After a quiet morning at Lower Pierce and with only an hour or two to lunch, we decided to check out Upper Pierce. Not sure how others would relate to Upper Pierce. For me, it was the place where I first saw the black bird with a very long black tail to which I prescribed the name, Japanese Paradise Flycatcher. It was also the place where I found my first Yellow-Browed Warbler which we actually called Inornate Warbler back then. Apart from the birds, it was also the place to find the globally vulnerable Raffle’s Banded Langur, which I have the fortune to see the resident troop on two occasions. Will I leave this place with more great memories as I did years ago? Hmmm…

Starting from the reservoir carpark, we had a slow and quiet walk. Apart from the teasing Five-rings, the ubiquitous Chocolate Pansies and the numerous Malayan Lascars, we did not find anything exceptional. Things improved after walking a few hundred meters. We spotted our first Colonel flitting in the trees. Although spotting similar upperwing patterns as the Chocolate Pansy, its notably slower gliding flight gave its identity away.

Colonel – The butterfly that nearly got away

Continuing, we chanced upon a flash-like butterfly, which we subsequently identified as the Cornelian. Although it appeared out of the blue, its intent was pretty straightforward – the flowers.

Cornelian checking out the flower buds of the Melastoma Capitellata

Among the many species of butterflies, the ones that left a lasting memory on my mother was the “sotong” (a Malay noun for squid). Since we spotted our first “sotong”, the Branded Imperial, my mother was hooked onto its squid-like flight and was always on the look out for the next one. It didn’t take many trips before we added the Common Imperial the Common Posy and the Fluffy Tit to our list of “sotongs”. On last Saturday, we were rewarded with a sighting of the Great Imperial during the NSS butterfly watch walk at Rifle Range. That was our latest addition to our list of “sotongs”. It didn’t take much time before we added our next. This visit to Upper Pierce  yielded another rare “sotong”, the Grand Imperial. Resembling the Great Imperial very closely, its main differences are the much longer tail, the presence of the shorter tail at vein 3 of the hindwing and the three black streaks (instead of four) on the thorax. Sharp spotting by my mother led us to this beauty and thankfully, it cooperated for a few shots. Incredible!

The Grand Imperial

Although Lower Pierce was quiet, Upper Pierce had a few surprises, leaving us with great memories yet again. Really starting to wonder what other surprises can this place have for us in future… A Grey Tinsel? But lunch will have to come first though.

9 August 2016: Morning Butterfly watching at Lower Pierce

Happy birthday Singapore!

Making use of the public holiday and the fine weather, we decided to do some butterfly watching. Unfortunately, we went to the wrong place and ended up at Lower Pierce. During our previous trip, we did not find much but it could have been the timing as it was approaching 3pm when we were there. Giving the site another go, this time, we went there at 10.30am…

Things went pretty slow. Apart from the lone Malayan Lascar, we did not see another butterfly along the Costus Trail. However, that cannot be said about the many grasshoppers that perched on top of the green leaves in full glory.

Proceeding to the Oncospermum Trail to catch my brother at the Pokestops, I was rewarded with an approachable “puddling” male Common Bluebottle, shown to me by my brother.

“Puddling” male Common Bluebottle

The wet reservoir banks really got him hooked. As he kept drinking and peeing, drinking and peeing,… like an alcoholic seeking more beer to wash down the regurgitated beer. Of course, that is not the real purpose of the peeing behavior for this butterfly. He was just getting rid of the excess fluids as his body system absorbs the dissolved minerals.

Watch out for the squirt!

Prior to re-grouping, I spotted a dart, sun-tanning on a fern. Based on the well-defined yellow post-discal band on the upperside of the forewing and the green-tinged thorax, the dart is a Besta Palm Dart. Although not a new butterfly for me, it was always nice to see a skipper – what I would call a hybrid between a moth and a fly months ago.

Besta Palm Dart

That rounds up our short and lifer-less stopover at Lower Pierce. With some time before lunch, where should we head next for our lifers (and new Pokemons for my brother)?

 

6 August 2016: Butterfly watching at Rifle Range

Since we started butterfly watching on 14 May 2016, we have never met another butterfly watcher during our trips. They must be somewhere but there are too many sites and too few eyes, so the probability is almost close to zero. To be frank, that was how it was twelve years back when I had just started birdwatching. Now, there are so many birdwatchers and bird photographers that to get the best spot, it can get a bit competitive.

Thankfully, Singapore has a couple of NGOs that are into raising public awareness of our precious “few” biodiversity. Nestled near the center of the Greater Sunda biodiversity hotspot, a great effort is needed to be ignorant of what we actually have. Even the number of different bugs and birds landing at our doorstep is staggering…

Back to the subject on NGOs, this Saturday morning was sense in the sense that  Nature Society Singapore had organised a butterfly walk at Rifle Range. Taking advantage of the numbers, we decided to join the walk at the last minute. A quick message to Amy, our guide, and we were all set to go.

Starting at the entrance of the Rifle Range trail, we enjoyed a short briefing by Amy on the resident butterflies that we may encounter along the way. As with most walks, the guide never fail to mention the specialties like the biggest butterfly in Singapore, the Common Birdwing, and the famous like our national butterfly, the nationally endangered Common Rose. Amy really did a great job to get us excited. Besides excitement, what else can we feel in the largest connected forest in Singapore?

Our first stop was at the flowering Arthrophyllum diversifolium, less than five meters from the entrance. The combined experience of Amy, Lena, Yik Shin and Simon really paid dividends immediately as we quickly identified a couple of butterflies, including the rare Yellow Flash. As usual, for me, photographing the butterflies took precedence over trying to identify them. With hindsight, that was probably the best decision for the day, only bettered by the decision to come for the walk.

Can you spot the Yellow Flash? Apparently, it wasn’t the rarest butterfly in this photo.

Based on my photographs, we identified a total of 11 species of butterflies and incredibly, 5 species of sergeants. Maybe there was an ongoing mobilization requiring the Sergeants to report to their Commanders right outside of the military camp… Butterfly joke aside, it was a really exciting moment to see so many butterflies!

Feasting Dot-Dash and Color Sergeants

 

Studded Sergeant taken with Instagram effect. Yah right, the effect was unintended and was caused by the clearing of my fogged-up camera lens…

Reluctantly, we left the butterfly bonanza to continue our walk. The next attraction was a stinkhorn fungi in full bloom that had attracted a male Cruiser. It was something that we don’t usually  get to see – or smell – during a typical nature walk.

Some things don’t smell bad when you are only looking at it…

Approaching noon, we stopped at a Leea Indica plant to admire the large Sultan dragonfly. Unexpectedly, a Great Imperial made an appearance. My mother calls it another “sotong” because of its squid-like flight. However, to everybody else, this was something special. We couldn’t figure out its identity then but the sighting was certainly great. (Pun intended.)

The morning had been great. We had a great sighting and chanced upon a couple of forest gems, which we don’t get to see outside of a forest. Wrapping it up, did I forget to mention that we actually saw a Sumatran Gem?

A female Sumatran Gem taking a break after fluttering across our path.

Many  thanks to NSS for organising this walk and to Amy and Simon for the great guiding and company! It was our pleasure to have this opportunity to meet and learn from you! Our Central Catchment forest is truly a biodiversity treasure trove and should be conserved in its entirety for the generations to come…

List of Butterflies seen:

1. Dot-Dash Sergeant (1 seen feeding on Arthrophyllum diversifolium)
2. Color Sergeant (>2 seen feeding on Arthrophyllum diversifolium)
3. Studded Sergeant (1 seen feeding on Arthrophyllum diversifolium)
4. Lance Sergeant (1 seen feeding on Arthrophyllum diversifolium)
5. Malay Staff Sergeant (1 seen feeding on Arthrophyllum diversifolium)
6. Grey Sailor (>4)
7. Malayan Lascar (>10, including >5 seen feeding on Arthrophyllum diversifolium)
8. Knight (>2, including 1 seen feeding on Arthrophyllum diversifolium)
9. Commander (>3 seen feeding on Arthrophyllum diversifolium)
10. Yellow Flash (1 seen on Arthrophyllum diversifolium)
11. Suffused Flash (1)
12. Rustic (>4, including 1 seen feeding on Arthrophyllum diversifolium)
13. Malay Baron (1 seen feeding on Arthrophyllum diversifolium)
14. Malay Viscount (1)
15. Archduke (>6)
16. Common Mormon (>2)
17. Blue Jay (1)
18. Plain Nawab (1)
19. Common Mime (1)
20. Branded Imperial (>3)
21. Great Imperial (1)
22. Common Posy (>5)
23. Sumatran Gem (1)
24. Ultra Snow Flat (1)
25. Lesser Dart (1)
26. Common Dartlet (1)
27. Chestnut Bob (1)
28. Starry Bob (1)
29. Yellow-Veined Lancer (5)
30. Elbowed Pierrot (4)
31. Striped Black Crow (1)
32. Striped Blue Crow (1)
33. Cruiser (>8, including 1 male seen feeding on stinkhorn fungi)
34. Common Faun (>6)
35. Malay Lacewing (2)
36. Common Awl (1)
37. White Banded Awl (1)
38. Brown Awl (1)
39. Common Grass Yellow (2)
40. Chocolate Grass Yellow (1)
41. Tree Yellow (>3)
42. Lemon Emigrant (1)
43. Malayan Bush Brown (4)
44. Dingy Bush Brown (2)
45. Dark Branded Bush Brown (2)
46. Long Branded Bush Brown (1)
47. Mycalesis Perseoides Perseoides (1)
48. Common Three-Ring (3)
49. Common Four-Ring (2)
50. Common Five-Ring (1)
51. Purple Duke (3)
52. Chocolate Pansy (>5)
53. Common Palmfly (2)
54. Tawny Palmfly (1)

 

List of Birds seen:

1. Red-Eyed Bulbul (1)
2. Cream-Vented Bulbul (1)
3. Olive-Winged Bulbul (h)
4. Blue-Throated Bee-Eater (1)
5. Pin-Striped Tit-Babbler (>3)
6. Red-Crowned Barbet (1)
7. Drongo Cuckoo (1)
8. Malaysian Hawk Cuckoo (heard 2 short call “whi wick”)
9. Blue-Winged Leafbird (2, including 1 female and 1 juvenile)
10. Crimson Sunbird (1)
11. Oriental White-Eye (>3)
12. Orange-Bellied Flowerpecker (1)
13. Changeable Hawk Eagle (1)
14. Common Tailorbird (1 juvenile)
15. Dark-Necked Tailorbird (h)

9 July 2016: Butterfly Watching at Upper Seletar

Its been more than a year since I last visited Upper Seletar. If my memories did not fail me, it was a place that was swarming with hungry macaques, waiting for treats from passing vehicles or visitors.

That, however, was yesteryear. Now, it is just another quiet corner on our little red dot, where birdwatchers (like us) and butterfly lovers (like us) can hone their crafts. Most importantly, there is no passer-by to ask us what are we looking at.

Back to the butterflies, in the first forest trail that we explored, we found ourselves a couple of skittish Purple Dukes in their preferred position – on the underside of the leaf!

The best find of the trail though was a supposedly “very rare” Darky Plushblue. We were very lucky to have spotted its perch on the sunniest spot of the undergrowth. For something as still as that bugger, it should have been a miss…

Moving on, we explored another forest trail. As with all forest trails, it is so much easier to overlook the inhabitants. Had my mother not alerted me to its presence, I was definitely going to miss the butterfly in the featured picture, the outrageously colored Hieroglyphic Flat. Here is another look at it – for those who had missed it.

If someone tells me that I am crazy to expect different results from doing the same thing over and over again, I have to agree with he or she, provided the assumption that ceteris paribus holds. In nature, it doesn’t. On our second visit of the same trail, we couldn’t find the Hieroglyphic Flat. Instead, we found its cousin, the Large Snow Flat. Just as inquisitive as us, it couldn’t resist peeking at us through the holes in the leaves. Every time we approached too close to it, it would find another “holey” leaf to hide underneath. Very interesting behavior! Like a kid peering through the gaps between the fingers to watch the horror show…

Having seen two members of the Pyrginae and a Flos, we are pretty impressed with the forest at Upper Seletar. It was well maintained such that these forest-dependent species can still call home. Not indicative from this trip is the fact that there is still so much to find at this place. It is simply incredible that I managed to stay away in the past few years…

List of Butterflies seen (9/7/16, 1030-1300h):

1. Common Mormon
2. Plain Lacewing
3. Malayan Eggfly
4. Lemon Emigrant
5. Chocolate Grass Yellow
6. Long Branded Bush Brown
7. Common Four-Ring
8. Malayan Five-Ring
9. Malay Viscount
10. Purple Duke
11. Common Faun
12. Tawny Coster
13. Chocolate Pansy
14. Rustic
15. Cruiser
16. Grey Sailor
17. Malayan Lascar
18. Common Hedge Blue
19. Common Caerulean
20. Darky Plushblue
21. Arhopala Amphimuta
22. Hieroglyphic Flat
23. Large Snow Flat
24. Chequered Lancer
25. Tree Flitter
26. Chestnut Bob
27. Common Awl
28. Small Branded Swift
29. Lesser Dart

 

Introduction

Hello Guests,

I am Lau Jia Sheng, a Singaporean. Since young, I have been deeply fascinated with nature and was privileged to have the opportunity to explore it as a hobby. For the past twelve years, I have been birdwatching in Singapore and around the region (W. Malaysia, W, C, E Myanmar, S, C Vietnam, N Sulawesi, Halmahera, Sumba, Timor, W. Java, E. China and W. Australia). For my birding adventures in Singapore and W. Malaysia, my friend, Kok Hui, has done an impressive job in archiving our incredible experience on his blog, http://singaporebirders.blogspot.sg/.

Starting from end of May, after attending Nparks’ butterfly watching survey together with my parents and my sister, I added butterfly watching to birdwatching and marine life photography. Without a friend to archive my butterfly watching journey, I decided to take up the task. For all Singapore-based butterfly watchers or nature lovers, I hope that my blog will find it well with you and may you share my joy in watching the wonderful butterflies and birds that call Singapore their home!

Please feel free to contact me at ljs1991991@hotmail.com to inquire on my blog post or to share a trip invite.

Thank you and have a  great time enjoying nature!