Report of June 2011 fieldtrip to Singapore

Day 3 (5th June)

Since It was raining cats and dogs, we didn’t got any idea on where to go when friends of ButterflyCircle came to pick us up. After we had our breakfast in the hotel, we played a board game while we were waiting for better weather. Finally, we decided to go to Oh Chin Huat Hydroponics Butterfly lodge when the rain was not so heavy. This Butterfly Lodge is a private farm set up for educational purpose by Mr Yeok Keong with professional advice from the experienced members of ButterflyCircle. We were glad to meet two more members of ButterflyCircle, Chung Pang and Ban Yam, there. After taking some photos in the farm, we went to upper Seletar Reservoir, North East of the Central Catchment. The weather was still gloomy. We walked around the trails. The first thing I met was a Royal Assyrian, fresh and at eye level but we didn’t got a chance to raise our camera before it flew away. We saw a Common Tree Nymph flying high on the canopy thus we couldn’t take a good photo. In the forest, we saw the Lexias dirtea merguia, an uncommon sight for me. We always see the pardalis if both are found in the same place. I considered we are very lucky. However, the female did not behave normally, we found them staying on the trees. The most common butterflies we saw there were theJamides celeno and the Chocolate Pansy. At the end of the day, we were convinced that we could find the Pale Mottle, so we looked for ants. Finally we were rewarded by our effort, we found three. The only draw back was that they stopped high up on the branches and we did not get a very good shot. We left quite late and had dinner in the famous Rangoon Road Bak Kut Teh, 肉骨茶.