At the rooftop garden at my office, butterflies are a common sight. Grass yellows, lemon immigrants, and a couple of pansies are normal. However, every once in a while, there comes so many butterflies that your heart goes wild at the sight of them. And they can come so close! There might even be a couple of surprises among them.
Today was such a day and it was difficult to keep from dancing along at the sight of so many wonders weaving and twisting all about me. I came across some old friends too, made some new ones, and, of course, took some pictures. I absolutely love my phone camera. The 10x zoom is wonderful.
First of, some old friends. A Chocolate Pansy. I see these all the time but rarely do I get a chance to take a good photo or video of them. I quite failed at the picture this time but look at the video!
Next up is a new friend. This was fiendishly difficult to identify but I think it's most likely a Small Branded Swift. (See more here). The problem with identifying butterflies is that the change in the placement of a white mark or the number of dots or the tiniest detail is the difference between one butterfly and another. Also, the Small Branded Swift is known to have many lookalikes so, take this identification with a pinch of salt. All I can say for sure is that it's probably a swift.
Still, I'm so happy with this picture. I've fallen in love with my phone camera all over again.
Do excuse the high pitched noise. I can't help it. It's so sharp! Boy am I glad that swift stayed still then. It kept going from flower to flower. Taking pictures of butterflies is as much a test of patience as endurance. I still remember going after that Blue Pansy when I was in JC. I must have spent ages chasing it down to the amusement of all watching. Still, I got a good picture out of it (A Blue Pansy).
Speaking of pansies, I found another friend from the pansy family. This one is comparatively elusive. I see Chocolate Pansies all the time and Blue Pansies I see every once in a while but this one I hardly come across.
It's a Peacock Pansy! Lovely isn't it. This one was sunbathing some distance away so I thank God for my high quality zoom once again. Gosh, so many pretty butterflies today. I was over the moon. They are just soooo pretty!
I think the rest of the garden had had enough of my squealing though and so plotted a surprise to shock me back into my usual senses. There is a spider I often see in the lift lobby on the way back up to work. It's a jumping spider so you can guess that it's about 1.5 cm big which is pretty big for a jumping spider. Today, I opened the door to the lift lobby expecting to see it again and instead saw....
GAH! I said 1.5cm not this almost 15 cm monster. It was right in my face too so it gave me a scare. Here's the door for a size reference. It's an enclosed space. How did it get in there?
I certainly stopped squealing,
May.
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