So close yet so far

Ok everyone I have a challenge for you. What do you see in this picture?

 Anyone see anything besides leaves? Well if you saw something that looked like a butterfly, congrats! You have a very sharp eye. For the rest of you, let's try again. Here's a closer but unfortunately blurry shot.

See anything yet? Nope? Well to those of you who have well done! You also have a fairly sharp eye.

Now this, everyone, is the butterfly you were looking for in the previous two photos. If you can't see it now, I am afraid you might need to make a visit to the eye doctor because I can't make the butterfly anymore obvious than this. This butterfly is known as the Common Five-Ring and it is fairly common in Singapore. Though I must admit, this is my first memory of ever seeing one. I found it yesterday at the Singapore Botanic gardens and it looked exactly as it did in the first photo. As you can see, it is very hard to spot from the wrong angle and if I had not seen it land, I must confess that I might not have seen it myself. This just goes to show how butterflies and other wildlife can actually be so close to you but yet, so far. To see them, you need a keen eye for movement and even then, you might still miss them. It took thirteen years for me to reach this point where I seem to find wildlife everywhere. So, I recommend patience when doing this. Lots and lots of patience.

This is also to those who say butterfly spotting is easy. In some ways yes I must admit that it is true. Some species such as the Grass Yellows, seem to be everywhere and it's child's play to see them. Others on the other hand, are so perfectly camouflaged that they look like leaves. They are difficult to spot and worse still, they are brown, the same colour as the leaf litter which they land on. Those butterflies certainly do not make spotting them easy. Perhaps it to remind us that butterflies aren't just flying beauties, they are also prey to birds and lizards and do not always want to be seen. It's a tough dangerous world that they live in after all.

Another so close yet so far fun fact about this butterfly is its remarkable similarity to the Malayan Five-Ring. The Malayan Five-Ring is a moderately rare butterfly in Singapore and when I was identifying the butterfly above earlier today, I thought that it might just be the Malayan Five-Ring. Sadly, it wasn't to be and my search for a rare butterfly continues. The two butterflies look remarkably similar the difference is seemingly trivial. In the Common Five-Ring, the third spot from the top is bigger than the second spot but in the Malayan Five-Ring, the second spot is bigger than the third spot. And so, this small difference turned a butterfly from moderately rare to common. Alas, what can I say?

So close yet so far

May

A fruitful trip

I went to the Singapore Botanic gardens yesterday morning. There were a lot of butterflies and birds and etc. there and I managed to get some photos. So here are some of the wildlife I spotted.

This one here is a chocolate pansy. One of its wings has been damaged. I wonder how. Hopefully it's not because some pesky kid tried to grab its wings. Note to all kids! You can pick up a butterfly by letting it slowly crawl onto your hand. There is no need to grab its wings!

And this cute little creature is a red bellied Squirrel. I found it in the frangipani garden and we mutually surprised each other. Surprisingly, it let me get really close and I managed to get within 1 to 2 meters of it. Isn't it cute?

 As for this flighty little bugger, I have absolutely no idea what it is. Found it on the outer edge of the frangipani garden near the rolling stone fountain. It kept hopping from up and down the plant and from twig to twig. Terribly difficult to take picture of. Especially if you are using zoom so as to not scare the bird away. I recall talking to myself as I took this picture. Wonder what the lady nearby must have thought.

This lovely bird is called a Magpie Robin. It wasn't so common in Singapore a while ago and when the  bird guide book I'm using was published, it wasn't very common at all. The book mentioned that they had introduced breeding pairs into the botanic gardens and it appears that their efforts had paid off. This was one of the most common birds I saw in the gardens.

In addition to the animals mentioned above, I also saw two bird's nest, a suspected lemon emigrant (butterfly), multiple leopard butterflies, a whole lot of centipedes, some common palmflies (butterflies. I think I saw them. hard to say, they are brown like chocolate pansies), ducks, way too many ants and these were big and a common five-ring (butterfly) which I will elaborate on in the next post.I think I also saw a common Mormon (butterfly) but alas I could not take a picture of it. I took my eyes off it for one second and poof! It vanished. Oh well, better luck next time. I mistook it for a common rose at first but now I think it must be a common Mormon. It's an easy mistake to make, the common Mormon mimics the Common Rose and the main difference between the two is that the Common Rose has a red abdomen while the Common Mormon had a black one. Talk about similar huh? The butterfly world is full of look alikes but again, more of that on my next post.

Ciao
May

Update 21/6/14

I have just been checking out the butterflies of Singapore blog which is up kept by the same people who wrote the butterfly guide book that I am currently using and guess what I found? That there have been new butterflies spotted in Singapore! And not only that, one of the new butterflies is called Red Helen and it looks remarkably like the butterfly I saw in the Botanic gardens. Could it possibly be the Red Helen that I saw? Man! I wish I could have taken a picture but it was just too fast. Now I am not sure if it was a Red Helen or Common Mormon that I saw. Ah, the ups and downs of butterflying.

May