Arab Butterflies

While out birding yesterday (see my previous post - http://goo.gl/XD0YO) we* managed to see a few butterflies outside the Al Badiyah mosque in Fujairah, UAE. 

Here's a few photos of the 4 species we saw:

1. Mediterranean Pierrot (Tarucus roseacus)

 

 

 

 

  

2. African Babul Blue (Azanus jesous)

 

 

 

3. Lesser Millet Skipper (Pelopidas mathias)

  

4. Blue Pansy (Precis orithya)

* - Nimeesh and myself.

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...