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While en route to Mersing today decided to have a famil/recce on Panti... Just could not resist shooting them after sighting them from the car...all shots taken within 10 meters from my car.
Went all the way to the end of the track and backtrack, total time taken was 1.5 hours and 18KMs
Here are some of the unprocessed shots other than cropping and level.
Apologies no time to ID them....
Khew will surely know all of them!;P
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Well captured and these shots certainly entice many of us to visit Panti in the future.
So many species within 10m of your car - must be a butts season at the moment or it has been like this whole year round?
I believe this is Bunker Trail, Federick. :)
Woah! You make me feel like shooting some Malaysian butts too!
Amazing photos,:thumbsup: but it raises one question. Where is Panti, surely not Singapore with these species?
From top to bottom:
Trogonoptera brookiana trogon (female I believe!)
Terinos clarissa malayanus
Ragadia makuta siporita ; Parthenos sylvia lilacinus
Zemeros emesoides emesoides
Cirrochroa orissa orissa
Parantica aspasia aspasia
Catopsilia pyranthe pyranthe
Agasta calydonia calydonia
Cepora iudith malaya
Les:cheers:
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Panti forest (the large area around Gunung Panti) is in the state of Johor in Malaysia. Search for the keyword Bunker Trail or Panti and you will find earlier threads of this place.Quote:
Originally Posted by Painted Jezebel
Just to add the commonly used English names to the species that Les has kindly identified. :)
From top to bottom:
Rajah Brooke's Birdwing - Trogonoptera brookiana trogon (female I believe!) - yes, this is a female, we use the subspecies name mollumar though I think it's a synonym with trogon. This is a lowland subspecies of the other Malaysian subspecies albescens which is found usually in the highlands of Malaysia.
Malayan Assyrian - Terinos clarissa malayanus
Striped Ringlet - Ragadia makuta siponta ; The Clipper - Parthenos sylvia lilacinus
Zemeros emesoides emesoides
Banded Yeoman - Cirrochroa orissa orissa This one can be found in Singapore
Yellow Glassy Tiger - Parantica aspasia aspasia
Mottled Emigrant - Catopsilia pyranthe pyranthe
Glorious Begum - Agasta calydonia calydonia
Common Gull - Cepora iudith malaya
Thanks for correcting my spelling, I can't read my own writing!
Regarding the Trogonoptera brookiana trogon, it is my understanding that the females are much much harder to photograph, as they very rarely descend down from the canopy, whereas the males often descend. Is that correct, or is it just the montane subspecies?
Les
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You're welcome! People of our age are usually visually challenged when it comes to small print. ;PQuote:
Originally Posted by Painted Jezebel
In this location, no. Their host plant Aristolochia foveolata is found here, and on one particular outing, I counted no less than 7 females circling the host plant (not at the same time, of course!). I didn't have my :shoot1: D2X at that time though.Quote:
Regarding the Trogonoptera brookiana trogon, it is my understanding that the females are much much harder to photograph, as they very rarely descend down from the canopy, whereas the males often descend. Is that correct, or is it just the montane subspecies?
In fact, for this subspecies, males are much rarer, and don't puddle like ssp albescens (which tend to puddle in large numbers during a good season)
Thanks SK. Perhaps the required minerals are available in other forms in the lowlands.
Les
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Quite intriguing though. In all my years of observing them in Malaysia, I've never come across a male Common Birdwing or any of the related species in the genus Troides puddling. (Maybe I haven't been going to the right places!)
Then John Moore from up north from where you are, goes and shoots several shots of T helena and T aeacus males happily puddling away in the mountain stream banks of Chiangmai. :hmmm:
I wonder if there are geographical behavioural differences amongst the species/subspecies as well. :thinking:
First male Rajah Brook was sighted barely 100 meters into the trail. Was thinking they puddle, so concentrated my scan on the river banks at 5th , 7th and 9th kilometer mark but no luck on puddlers.
The female Rajah Brook was shot on her second visit to the flowering vine near the 9th KM stream.
For the Common Ringlet, have to shoot him proning on some thick underbush near a stream .... and realised that in the process donated blood to two leaches of Panti a few hours later.
Sighted also are Tree Nymphs that descended to road level and there were multiple Clippers along the track.
Some construction were ongoing on a visitor center 200 meters from the main road with carpark and a lookout tower almost completed . On-going military training in the area, stopped by to chat with some troops and their officers along the way. A number of civilian and commercial vehicles including a Sing one was encountered along the way in my short drive.
Wlll find time to shoot Panti more in future
:cheers:
I've never seen any Troides puddling either, only thoroughly enjoying my neighbours' Ixora bushes, could be altitude related. Whats missing from their diet at altitude? So many questions, so few answers!Quote:
Originally Posted by Commander
Les
231
Yes, then you were definitely at Bunker Trail. The construction is expected to complete some time in the middle of the year. After that, access to Bunker Trail is gated and chargeable. MNS is working on the logistics of having paid guides for each group entering Bunker Trail.Quote:
Originally Posted by Silverstreak
It was a good hunting ground for us in the past and we went in quite regularly. The birders are taking advantage of this last "free" period before the construction is completed and fees charged for entry.
Yes, we should go there and shoot more often, but I don't think our guru Simon will ever want to go there again. :sweat:
Khew ,
I knew that road to Mersing very well, after transversing it numerous time to date Miss Black Marlin at Pulau Aur, so I was certain that it was the Bunker Trial of Panti forest, marked by the two world war II bunkers constructed by the British in their effort to defend the Japanese advance down the Mersing Kota Tinggi Road.The streams at 5th ,7th and 9th Km on the trail was described to me by Ericp, who is very well versed as a birder on that trail,during one of our casual conversation when butt shooting at AHBT.
The stretch of "roller coaster" road has been widen considerably and along with it the forests on the opposite side has been cleared and now planted with oil palm as far as the eyes can see.:-(
Was rather shocked to encountered the RB barely 100 meters into the trail with dust flying in the air from a convoy of military trucks that were exiting the training area. It was in fact beyound my wildest dream of seeing the RB within such a distance from the main road ,whilest people travel half the globe to get a glimsp of it.... I got out of the car awe strucked and was totally captivated by its majestic flight .... my camera was still in the car boot!:bsmile:.
On Chin Fah Shin's site the last pic was of 6 Males puddling, I wonder if the puddling pic was shot at Fraser's Hill.
http://www.angelfire.com/journal2/ch...ies/rajah.html
:cheers:
I have been in Bunker Trail over a dozen times, though after the last one on that fateful day on 17 June 2005, I haven't been back since.
Here are two pictures taken at our favourite "Base Camp" at the 7th mile just before the stream. There is an open clearing where we can park our cars and the place is full of butt activity.
Bunker Trail, at milestone 267, is more widely known. There is another track at milestone 270 which is also as interesting. However, as this is an active logging area, the guard sometimes chases people away. Bunker Trail's sand quarries are probably still active but should be shut down soon after the Johor Parks and MNS take control of the nature area.
The RBB is a resident of the forests at Bunker, and only on one outing that I didn't see it flying (cos it was raining! ;P). They're always there as the host plant vines can be found at various locations.
Fah Shin's shot shows the subspecies albescens which is the more widely known subspecies of Malaysia's Rajah Brooke's Birdwing. In my younger days, :prrr: when I was collecting, I used to visit the sandbanks near Ulu Gopeng in Perak and picked out the best specimens as they were puddling. :)
The Bunker Trail's ssp mollumar is a "recent" discovery by the group led by Norman Parker (who was based in Singapore). Read the write up in C&P4 and you will see Parker and his friends' names as the "discoverers" of this subspecies. Interestingly, the males of this subspecies have never been known to puddle.
On the way back wandered into the barricaded track at milestone 270( I think, the track before reaching Bunker Trial from Kota Tinggi) late in the evening , recced till the big staging area for log processing and noted its logging activity has been closed .
Must be a playground for the resident elephants as I noted a number of elephant excreta on the open land.;P Maybe the famed "Big Foot" of Masai area is in there too!:bsmile:
khew, you are right... I wouldn't wanna go back there, thinking of it, brings back the goosebumps
That's perfectly understandable. I needed a "cooling" off period too, as the memories of what happened and the rest of that fateful day are still fresh in my mind.Quote:
Originally Posted by Elbowed Pierrot
I haven't been back there nor to ER since then. :-(
But I wouldn't mind if we fly to thailand :) as long as there is no long car rides
;-) May be Les need some photog support with his old browny box drown?;P
You can fly direct to Samui from Singapore! Also, as the Island is only 21x25KM in size, there are no long car rides, just short bumpy ones:gbounce: ! Its particularly bad for me, I can't drive, so I have to go everywhere by motorbike. (Anyone wanting to visit will need to hire either a bike or a 4X4.)
If anyone can dare explain, what happened 'that fateful day'?
Les
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Noticed that this particular Mottled Imigrant has a "double barrel" proboscis...
Is this a characteristics of this species?
Looks deformed somehow. But a typical butt's proboscis is formed from two tubes. You can search the internet for more details about how it works by capillary action and so on...
read it some where, it formed from two tubes but can hold them together... haiz can't remember....
Hi Khew,Quote:
Originally Posted by Commander
This was shot by a fellow birder wkcheah from AWA, he spotted this (male?) RB apparently puddling near the observation tower which Sunny mentioned, this is about 200m into the Bunker Trail.
Image (c) Cheah Weng Kwong 2007
Good evidence of puddling of the ssp mollumar. At least we do know that the males do puddle. Must be a male, cos there haven't been any records of females of this genus puddling either (unless someone also has more shots showing a female puddling).
Even at Endau Rompin, where I suspect that where the line between the two subspecies cross, we have not yet seen any puddling RBBs.
The males of ssp mollumar and ssp albescens are quite similar looking with the green patches less extensive in ssp mollumar.
Hi Sunny,Quote:
Originally Posted by Silverstreak
I have been to Panti on a few occasions in the past couple of months and observed quite a lot of butt activity going on. In particular the RB birdwing has been spotted almost all occasions when I was there, some flying very low, locations where they are almost ground level is around the observation tower 200m into the Bunker Trail entrance, and one of the streams (I think the 7th km one where there is a clearing and a hut - spotted 1 x male puddling at the muddy soil near the stream).
BTW great pics, and wonderful catches. It is definitely an awesome experience when you see the RB birdwing in flight for the first time! :thumbsup:
Steven and Weng Kong ,
Thanks for the pic on the puddling RB.
Will concentate on those areas where they were found puddling on my next trip.... wish me luck!
:cheers:
Ah... now Sunny is globalising already... starting with more shots from Malaysia soon! :gbounce:
Read that the butterfly proboscis is make up of 2 lobes that the insect must fuse together soon after eclosure to make it work like a drinking straw.Quote:
Originally Posted by Silverstreak
Have seen my freshly eclosed butterflies (Lime Butts, Common Mormons and Common Mimes) coil and uncoil the 2 lobes separately. Just wondering if your Mottled Imigrant is a freshly eclosed one or can the butterflies do that all through their lives.
-Elizabeth
Was watching the program on Arts Central. Indeed, the newly emerged butterfly has two semi-cylinder and they will be zipped to form the tube-form proboscis to suck liquid.
Interesting progrram for a non-SCV subscriber. :)
Is the title of the show "Life in the Undergrowth" by David Attenborough?Quote:
Originally Posted by Common Mime
Here is a closeup and cross section view of the proboscis
saw that too... i think it's "Life in the Undergrow".Quote:
Originally Posted by Common Mime