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A Butterfly Walk to the Hills of Siruvani
Geethanjali R
It was 07:30 in the morning; it was a compelling weather
for a perfect birding session! Some sightings of the session
were Wood/Bay back/brown shrike, Vernal hanging par-
rots, Plum-headed parakeets, Black-hooded Oriole, Jungle/
Rufous babblers, Scarlet Minivets and lots of Drongos
(Black/Bronze).
The place started warming up and the activity of butter-
flies began rapidly, starting with a beautiful Gram blue
with early morning dues on it. As we went on, an explosion
of the Common sailor was found with an approximate
count of ten. It was 09:00 am when we found a fresh spec-
imen of Grey pansy accompanied by Obscure branded
swift and Common lascar many in numbers. Travelling
near the check dam, few commoners like Common/Dark
blue tigers, Common/Double branded crows were found in
abundance! Suddenly, there came the pride Black Rajah
and transparent six-line blue for mud-puddling. Mean-
while, Short-banded sailor made a visit along with Pointed
ciliate blue, Common/Tailless line blue and few Common
Cerulean. The tiny and confusing Lycaenidae family was
considered satisfactory as we’ve recorded three Hedge
blues (Plain/White/Common), four Grass blues (Dark/
Lesser/Pale/Tiny), three Cerulean (Common/Dark and Me-
tallic was seen).
Some interesting ones were also found, such as the Dingy line blue, Pierrot, Quaker, Forget-me-not, Lime blues and the lovable
Indian Cupid. Advancing to the dam, few Striped tigers were drinking the Eupatorium nectar and the Many-tailed Oakblues
were found 10+ in numbers. Here comes the visitor, Tree flitter, who gave us few seconds to click him! This is a usual place for
the Lycaenids to mud puddle but to the contrary, we found Blue Tigers on the ground (quite disappointing). Planning for a re-
turn, we found a pretty skipper, the Fulvous pied flat and the Lesser Gull, who got tired after a strong and active flight. The in-
teresting part was watching the shiny-fresh Gaudy baron (first record in Siruvani) fly, giving us few seconds to identify it and
the Indigo flash was sighted deep inside the bushes, but the best part is yet to come! Time for PAINTED COURTESAN! We ini-
tially found it difficult to photograph, but as time went on, the butterfly settled for mud-puddling, giving us a heavenly experi-
ence of noticing the features closely. Pea blue and Hedge blues were photographed along with a Tamil grass dart.
Thanneerpallam is a paradise for butterfly
chasers. The first encounter was with the
Grey Count butterfly, later with the fe-
male specimen of the Black Prince, bask-
ing in the11am sunlight. Few iconic Siruva-
ni flutters were found, such as the Com-
mon baron, Rustic and the floating Mala-
bar tree nymph. The sunlight was getting
harsh and we were about to start when
we saw the Clipper butterfly basking. On
the way to the grassland, we found a
Blank swift, beautifully opening its wings
along with a Coon/Dusky Partwing and a
dart spp. Reaching the grassland, we
found few Chestnut-headed bee-eaters
busy catching the bees and to enlighten
us, five Nilgiri Langurs were jumping on
the tree branches!
PATTAMPOOCHI
A TNBS MAGAZINE
WINGS 2 VEINS 2
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