Butterflies in flight

I should be trying for better shots but for now, some results out of attempts so far. Almost all of below shots are sharpened quite harshly and in third shot have removed a flower just left of the butterfly.

Scaly thrush and more

Scaly thrush is one of those birds that you are always thrilled to sight. Stays on the ground, under dense bushes and loves to stay hidden. I had seen it here once two years back – had assumed it was on her way back to summer home. This season, a week ago as I was walking by around where I had seen it previously, something took off from ground and gone in a fraction of second. I was sure it was a Scaly thrush. Was it here on its way to South or was here for the winter? In few days I got the answer. Same place, I was careful this time and stopped as soon as heard the thrush walking on the ground. It watched me for a while from inside those plants that hid it nicely, and then flew off. landed on a tree not far, on a branch at eye level. (tree was at lower height then ground I was standing on). too good to be true? Well, I wasn't carrying right equipment. Here is a crop from what I got using smaller cam. (it was on Aperture priority and I clicked without noticing what shutter speed cam had selected. I was surprised that I got at least one shot steady enough at 50x zoom at shutter speed of 1/50.) 

After above shot, I thought ‘How lucky to get it on a tree in clear sight’. While indeed for a bird that spends almost all its time on ground and hiding I was lucky to see it on the tree, what stuck me as odd fact that it was my third photograph of the bird so far and in all three it was on a tree. I remembered term for this that I had learned more than 15 years ago in context of performance measurement of portfolios - its called Survivorship bias.

Some couple of hundred meters from where I saw the thrush, is a spot that was favourite get-together place for many birds last week (they seemed to have moved elsewhere this week), mostly resident and some local migrants (i.e. those who are technically resident but appear during some season and disappear in other). Essence of being there can be best captured by capturing sound, which I haven't done so far. for now, a black hooded Oriole Juv there while it was playing with other Oriole.

Another day. I saw below flycatcher at low and clear perch. Now, I was supposed to take as good picture as possible, as fast as possible. and flycatcher was supposed to notice me and fly off. but, for the reasons I did not try to understand, my camera kept refusing to focus on the bird - probably it was underexposed or bird was too small to focus on but whatever it was, I stubbornly refused to apply mind and kept pressing shutter hoping I will get a shot. (for the fear that bird will fly off by the time I correct settings / move closer.) the bird too refused to play its part well and gave me unreasonably long time to shoot. In the end, however, being anxious about getting result, doing same thing and expecting different result policies didn't work and I was left with this below shot losing excellent opportunity. - I think I am falling back in that trap of getting anxious seeing a shot I want where probability doesn't favour me getting it. for the first time last year I had managed to get out of this trick mind plays with me and stay calm and enjoy what I see no matter how rare the shot may appear. I had managed to stop wanting to grab it. It had, as expected increased success rate, but more than that, feeling of winning over mind's trick was more enjoyable. I guess, this flycatcher reminds me that less time I am spending with nature in last few months is not a development in right direction.

Lastly, an encounter with this inquisitive butterfly. It was flying with what looked like intention to reach some flowers, suddenly notices the other butterfly on ground, alters its flight path in typical 3 dimensional unpredictable zigzag pattern to move near the butterfly on the ground, with two three dips it appeared to have understood what it wanted to and was back on its way. 

I was watching the episode and to me the butterfly on the ground appeared dead - and therefore the other one more of a concerned individual rather than just a curious creature. I thought to keep dead butterfly away from this walking path so someone doesn't step on it / cause stress to other butterflies around. I took a step towards it and it flew away :-)

Managed to get a shot of above because I was already trying for some in-flight butterfly shots. no good shots so far, but flying butterflies appear most interesting subjects right now. hope will get a post with them soon.

An adventurous and adamant butterfly

Have you experienced a mood like wanting to do something adventurous (and playful)? You probably can understand the butterfly here well then. I saw an Eggfly butterfly sitting. I wasn't holding a camera or for that matter there wasn't a shot too (it was a very worn out butterfly and sitting in cluttered setting), I anyway stopped and tried to see what kind of shot it would be if I use mobile camera. but before I do much, butterfly noticed me and flew in. yes, it did not fly away, it flew in. wanted to sit on my head, shoulder. I am not totally unfamiliar to butterflies wanting to do that and I make slight backing off movement indicating that I am not a very welcoming perch.

It however flew around me searching for another opportunity to land and even when it did go and sat on some plant, it launched itself in my direction every few seconds. and then, I gave up to its persistence and extended my hand in its direction saying, ok, come and sit. It actually turned midair and sat on my extended hand! I was quite surprised and reacting to my surprise it flew away but came back happily when I extended the offer again. It then sat proudly on my hand as first I stood still like a plant and then moved carefully to adjust orientation of hand to take a photo. after all, it knew it was on a moving animal so it was ok for me to move somewhat. It sat for few minutes, moved around on hand and after what I think it was enough time, we said goodbye to each other.

I feel butterflies have grown more friendly towards me even though I cant actually be sure about it – probably I wasn't spending enough time around them earlier? but that doesn't stop me from wondering if they indeed have become more friendly, what might be the reason? those probable reasons ranges from my movements becoming less hurried and more mindful of nature around, better connection with nature etc. I even thought about things like it wanting minerals from my skin to it being infected with some parasite that wanted to transfer itself on to me. (ok, it neither tried to probe skin and cant bite – but anyways, I didn't claim my guesses were educated or even sensible.)

and probably there was no deeper meaning to it other than that it wanted to spend few moments with someone and I came across. Probably it wanted to ride a human just for sake of doing something unusual?

No matter what was butterfly's reason, I still cant get over how it responded to my extended hand..

Common Sailor pair dance

Post Paradise flycatcher sighting I have restarted my morning walks with camera. While birds are nowhere yet as expected, butterflies have started showing up in good numbers. Yesterday among them, I noticed a common sailor, sailing. No, there were two. Initially I thought one was chasing away the other but after a while it become apparent that they were dancing around each other. Pair oscillated in all three directions as well with respect to each other with typical butterfly flight pattern and soon I realised there was no point in hoping for a photo while they were in flight. I kept watching them expecting to take a shot once they stopped and perched somewhere. but they went on and on and on and on... and somewhere down the line, I forgot that I wanted to take a shot and just started enjoying the live performance of two involved dancers for whom nothing other than dancing with his/her partner mattered. 

As I was walking away after some 10-15 mins of watching the show, I realised what separated an enjoyable experience from a frustrating one. What I had just found so enjoyable could have been really frustrating with just one difference. If my focus was getting a Shot. but with the 'Want' removed, it was all just fun.

While I enjoyed the performance, though I no longer was focused on wanting the shot, did press shutter while keeping the camera pre-focused somewhere in the range they oscillated. and I actually got them in half a dozon frames (out of some 100+ shots). with two best shots as below. I am quite pleased with the second one. 

Common Sailor (Neptis hylas)

Common Sailor (Neptis hylas)

Today morning, I thought the Common sailor was a yesterday story. but to my surprise, as I reach same place, the pair is still dancing. Did they dance all the day? or was it this particular time of the day? Anyhow, I noticed an obvious thing. their co-ordination had improved drastically. their movement was much more smooth and graceful around each other. I dont know why (if there is a why in first place) they worked towards achieving that perfection, but I would guess they enjoyed it.

Below is a small video. first eight seconds is yesterday's dance, later its today's. quality of the video is absolutely bad. frame, focus, small size/quality to keep file size small (around 700kb) but i think it gives fair idea of pair's movement.

Before I end, this small moth that is commonly seen. Dont know its ID.

Tawny Coster and Common Jay

Seeing this beautiful butterfly for the first time for last few days. Much scope to improve on photographs as such, so hope I continue to see them around. Its much smaller than most butterflies.

Tawny Coster (Acraea terpsicore)

Tawny Coster (Acraea terpsicore)

In complete contrast to above, Common Jay below is neither seen first time, nor as beautiful. Its seen frequently but it keeps flying and doesn't feed on those decorative flowers. it seem to prefer feeding on bushes at some height and I never manage a shot, leave alone good shot. here is the first shot, and now that I got first one, hopefully better will follow.

Common Jay (Graphium doson)

Moths and Butterflies

Few days back, suddenly something amazingly beautiful flew past me. I didn't remember seeing any such white butterfly with coloured spots before. As I tracked down the creature, it was a Moth. My Macro lens doesn't give me magnification range to capture this sized subjects in best way so couldn't really capture its beauty, but still, here is a shot.

Heliotrope Moth (Utetheisa pulchelloides)

While at the Moth, I had seen another very interesting Moth sometime back. It didnt look like a moth at all and I got to know only accidentally that its a moth. This tiny moth is called Plum Moth. It seemed to love Punarnava flowers as I regularly found them there for few days before they disappeared.

Plume Moth (Pterophoridae)

Plus two commonly seen butterflies below.

Danaid Eggfly (Male)

Common Silverline (Cigaritis vulcanus)

 

Butterflies

Butterflies are like many other things. So very illusive to get when you are after it desperately and when you arent looking for them, they come and sit almost on your camera. or, butterflies were like that with me at least. I still remember time when after trying to photograph them for many days, I had given up and now, few days back, as I was shooting with lens where they dont even fit in the frame, came and insisted I take a shot. 

Striped Tiger