vespa_bicolor
30-Oct-2010, 02:06 PM
The guys at Fung Yuen Butterfly Reserve said that the best time to shoot the white dragontail (Lamproptera curius) is around October to November. Indeed, Fung Yuen is one of the best places to see this unusual, skittish butterfly in Hong Kong and you wouldn't be surprised to see it there any time, but whether it comes down low enough and hovers long enough to focus and shoot is another thing. I have visited Fung Yuen around this time in previous years, but have never seen anything like what I saw yesterday (29/10/2010).
The whole reserve was literally swarming with them! Every patch of flowers known to attract them had at least 3 or 4, all hovering around and stopping long enough for anyone with enough patience to get brilliant shots of them! Here is a video I took - sorry for the poor quality, it isn't easy taking a video of constantly moving insects with my old compact camera! There were at least 5 or 6 on this particular patch of flowers alone, although I didn't manage to video all of them together.
Video here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VGC243CMjI)
If you look closely, from 0:05 to 0:14, there is a single individual of the common bicolored hornet (Vespa bicolor) flying around. It was attempting to catch the dragontails, although this was not obvious in the video. This hornet appeared from 11am and by the time I left at 4pm, was still trying hard, apparently without success. This hard work without payoff must have knocked 2 weeks off her lifespan!
And one poor record shot, but better than my older ones. The one time I get a nice composition, my flash had to choose that moment to die on me - a relatively low shutter speed under sunlight blew out the white parts a little. It is a miracle that the wings aren't too blurred out given the shutter speed which was not that high!
The whole reserve was literally swarming with them! Every patch of flowers known to attract them had at least 3 or 4, all hovering around and stopping long enough for anyone with enough patience to get brilliant shots of them! Here is a video I took - sorry for the poor quality, it isn't easy taking a video of constantly moving insects with my old compact camera! There were at least 5 or 6 on this particular patch of flowers alone, although I didn't manage to video all of them together.
Video here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VGC243CMjI)
If you look closely, from 0:05 to 0:14, there is a single individual of the common bicolored hornet (Vespa bicolor) flying around. It was attempting to catch the dragontails, although this was not obvious in the video. This hornet appeared from 11am and by the time I left at 4pm, was still trying hard, apparently without success. This hard work without payoff must have knocked 2 weeks off her lifespan!
And one poor record shot, but better than my older ones. The one time I get a nice composition, my flash had to choose that moment to die on me - a relatively low shutter speed under sunlight blew out the white parts a little. It is a miracle that the wings aren't too blurred out given the shutter speed which was not that high!