Butterflying @ Yeoor

Went to watch butterflies at Yeoor Hills (which is on the Thane side of the Sanjay Gandhi National Park) yesterday morning and it was a great experience! 

In a few hours of effortless butterfly-watching we* just sat in one spot near the small water body (that’s quickly drying) and watched 100s of butterflies engrossed in mud-puddling. 

Here's a few photos:

Line Blues

Spot Swordtails

Angled Pierrot

Leaf Blue

Zebra Blue

Short-banded Sailor

Angled Sunbeam - female

Golden Angle

Plum Judy

Common Leopard

Indian Red Flash

A few more group mud puddling photos ...

I have been going to Yeoor off and on since 7-8 years now but never have I seen soo many butterfly-watchers here! As long as this helps spread awareness about the plight of this city’s ever diminishing green areas I think it’s great  :-D …

…. but deep down my growing worry is that some people have started taking photos of butterflies(birds and wildlife in general) as a new means of Trophy hunting for our ever growing social media platforms!

Anyways here's a butterfly list for the day (I'm sure I've missed a few species on this list):

1 Common Tiger 

2 Blue Tiger 

3 Plain Tiger 

4 Common Crow

5 Common Mime 

6 Zebra Blue

7 Angled Pierrot

8 Common Pierrot

9 Golden Angle

10 Gaudy Baron

11 Lemon Pansy

12 Blue Pansy

13 Yellow Pansy

14 Chocolate Pansy

15 Peacock Pansy

16 Angled Sunbeam

17 Indian Red Flash 

18 Leaf Blue

19 Blue Oak Leaf 

20 Common Sailor 

21 Short-banded Sailor

22 Line Blue (s)

23 Common Jay

24 Forget-me-not 

25 Malayan

26 Common Hedge Blue 

27 Plum Judy 

28 Spot Swordtail 

29 Spotless Grass Yellow 

30 Common Emigrant 

31 Vindhyan Bob

32 Black Rajah 

33 Glassy Tiger

34 Bush Brown 

35 Common Leopard 

36 Common Psyche 

37 Common Gull

38 Danaid Eggfly

39 Indian Sunbeam 

40 Common Cerulean

41 Plains Cupid 
42 Chestnut-streaked Sailor

Besides the amazing array of butterflies Yeoor is also a great place for other forms of wildlife… we saw a few birds – Brown-headed Barbet, Crested Serpent Eagle, Oriental Honey Buzzard, Ashy Drongos, Red Whiskered Bulbuls and even an elusive Little Heron…. 

Then there were a few insects – Stalk-eyed Flies, Hover Flies, Horse Flies, Honey bees, Carpenter Bees, Potter Wasps, Mud Dauber Wasps, Day-flying Moths, Silk Cotton bugs.. and a few species of dragonflies, damselflies and spiders.

To end this post here’s a photo of one the spiders we found at the edge of the water body..  

 * - Shivani, Uma, Tripura and myself

More images from Nagla

To add to yesterday's post of the Blue Oakleaf butterfly from Nagla Block.. Here's a bunch of other stuff we saw there. 

It's getting hot and the forest has started shedding its leaves for the summer and the leaves of the Kusum tree (Schleichera oleosa) have started turning into the most amazing hues of red.. 

I'll start with the birds 

A female Golden Oriole takes off 

I got a fleeting view of this Black-naped Monarch Flycatcher 

The amazing crimson throat of the Vigors's sunbird

Ashy drongo (check out it's bright red eyes)

And a pair of billing Indian Grey Hornbills ...

.. besides these birds we saw the Red-whiskered bulbul, White-Throated Kingfisher, Palm swift, Purple sunbird, Flowerpecker, Common Myna, Spotted Dove, Brown-headed Barbet, Leafbird, River Tern, Jungle crow, Asian Koel, Rufous Treepie, Magpie Robin, Brahminy Kite, Cattle Egrets, Oriental Honey Buzzard and a White-browed bulbul... 

We also heard numerous birds that I have no idea about..

Moving to the butterflies - as it started heating up there was a lot of butterfly activity

Common Leopard

There were 100s of Line Blues flying all over the place.. I clicked quite a few of them..

Not quite sure which species of Line Blues these are but if I had to make a calculated guess I would go with Tailless Line Blue

Forget-me-not 

Chestnut-streaked Sailor

I finally managed a few decent photos of the Indian Red Flash   

Even managed this partly opened wing shot of the Flash  

 And a close up of the underside where you can see the Red glitter like spots.

And a Baronet

And to end this post a couple of other life forms..

A Golden coloured Jumping spider

 

and some sort of a fly with awesome green eyes...

Blue Oakleaf @ Nagla

Check out this animated gif of a South Indian Blue Oakleaf (Kallima horsfieldii) opening it's wings.. changing from a dry leaf into a brilliantly coloured beauty!

I took these photos earlier today at the Nagla block of the Sanjay Gandhi National Park, Bombay.

Please be patient for the file to upload completely to see the full transformation :-D

Saturday birding @ Al Warsan/Pivots/Ras-al-Khor

Asian Pied Starling

While on a short visit to Dubai I made a short birdwatching trip to the edge of the city last week with Nimeesh Suseelan.

Asian Pied Starling

White-cheeked Bulbul

I know Nimeesh from my school and thru Facebook I discovered that he had recently taken to birding. 

White-cheeked Bulbul

Common Hoopoe

I gave him a call and he was more than happy to accompany me for a few hours of birding. 

Habitat panorama - Al Warsan Lakes

 We started at - Al Warsan Lakes - a site that I had only read about.

Grey Heron and Socotra cormorants

It's an amazing wetland at the edge of a large residential development called the international city and was supposed to be development into a proper bird watching park till the recession hit the city and stopped the work. 

Marsh Harrier

Little Grebe

Common Chiffchaff?

Socotra cormorants

Common Chiffchaff?

Common Chiffchaff?

Graceful Prinia

Purple Sunbird - female

Socotra cormorants in flight

Socotra cormorants

Isabelline Shrike

View from one of the hides (this has been left incomplete and abandoned)

Probably that's a good thing because if the park was completed it would probably be attracting 1000s of (noise) people like at all the other parks in Dubai and would end up chasing away the very birds they came to watch..

Black-headed Gulls

Collared Dove

Socotra cormorants and some Gulls

Another habitat photo

Purple Sunbird - Male

 Our next stop was the close by site popularly known as Pivot fields. I had been here once a couple of years back and was impressed with the diversity of this site and this visit was even better.

Nimeesh photographing a Pratincole!

 Nimeesh knew exactly where to go to find almost every bird I asked for (of course I have been keenly following the bird sightings at this and other locations in Dubai on this meticulously updated UAE birding website by Tommy Pedersen - http://www.uaebirding.com/ ).

White-tailed Lapwing

White-tailed Lapwing

Here I even got a couple of lifers .....  the White-tailed Lapwing, and a Wheatear species. 

Crested Lark

Little Ringed Plover

Long-billed Pipit?

Isabelline Wheatear?

Grey Francolin

Yellow Wagtail

Northern Wheatear?

Common Starling

Collared Pratincole

White-tailed Lapwings

White-tailed Lapwings

Bluethroat

A better view of the Bluethroat's Blue throat :-)

Little Ringed Plover

Cattle Egrets glowing in the morning sun..

 Our last site was Dubai's most famous birdwatching site (especially with non-birding folk) - Ras al Khor.

Habitat photo of the Ras-Al-Khor flamingo sanctuary

Greater Flamingoes and a Common Shelduck in the foreground

This is one of those places that can never disappoint and this time around the fact that the winter chill is still here meant that the ducks and other wintering species were still very much here.

Mixed group of Greater Flamingoes, Western Reef Herons,  Socotra cormorant, Common Teals, Northern Pintails and a Northern Shoveler

More Greater Flamingoes, this time with Eurasian Spoonbills in the foreground

Green Shank

Another mixed group of Western Reef Herons, Grey Heron, Socotra cormorant and a Northern Shoveler

Green Sandpiper

And one more photo of Greater Flamingoes

All in all an amazing day and what a list we managed in just a few hours of almost effortless birding. Here's a complete list including a few I saw in between these site (in particular order): 

1 Asian Pied Starling

2 Common Myna 

3 Little Brown Dove 

4 Black-headed Gull 

5 House Sparrow 

6 White-cheeked Bulbul 

7 Red-vented Bulbul 

8 House Crow 

9 Purple Sunbird 

10 Rose-ringed Parakeet 

11 Bluethroat 

12 Common Starling 

13 Socotra cormorant

14 Pallid Swift

15 Long-billed Pipit?

16 Isabelline Wheatear?

17 Red-wattled Lapwing 

18 White-tailed Lapwing 

19 White Wagtail 

20 Yellow Wagtail

21 Northern Wheatear?

22 Marsh Harrier 

23 Common Chiffchaff

24 Graceful Prinia

25 Collared Pratincole 

26 Collared Dove 

27 Black-winged Stilt 

28 Greater Flamingo 

29 Northern Pintail

30 Northern Shoveler 

31 Green Sandpiper 

32 Pond Heron

33 Grey Heron

34 Purple Heron

35 Western Reef Heron

36 Cattle Egret 

37 Little Ringed Plover 

38 Isabelline Shrike

39 Eurasian Spoonbill 

40 Common Teal

41 Common Shelduck 

42 Grey Francolin 

43 Little Grebe 

44 Barn swallow

45 Common Hoopoe 

46 Crested Lark 

47 Blue Rock Pigeon  

48 Great White Egret?

49 Green Shank 

A big shout out to Nimeesh for his time and enthusiasm - THANKS DUDE!! 

Next time we'll aim for Al Ain and Fujairah ... I hope we can get some owls :-D