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A day out into the wilderness of The Western Ghats
Then we walked through a forest (man-made forest say for 100m or so and these were done about 40 years back when the
accompanying APW was part of the exercise). This is an unproductive area for the butterflies and only when the real forest
showed up, we could see butterflies like Tiny Grass Blue, Chestnut Bob, Rings, etc. The path is a ‘Horse” path and is so named
after the path is used by the tribal living uphill and they use horses to transport the loads down to the town, which is usually
their farm produce including fruits and vegetables. So, the path is just a few feet wide and very basics and I wondered in a few
places, if the horses could really mange to track down or up. The track is laid next to the flowing River which should be an easy
way to track down for people and hence tracks are made along the river.
The path on either side was dominated by grasses and was not a surprise to find many Bushbrowns including Dark-branded
and one of them was a Tamil Bushbrown, in its Wet Season Form. But here in, there were many Common Bushbrowns. We
soon reached a small open rocky surface, where in last time around, the team has seen a Nilgiri Four-ring and a Painted Courte-
san. We could only see an Orange-tail Awl on this slippery rock and a Common Pierrot resting on top of a grass reed. Time to
move on since those specialities are not to be found anymore and the sun is still struggling to come out.
We eventually reached the first of the two hotspots that we need to cover, after 90 minutes of walk and reached exactly at 8
AM. The boys who were here earlier were mentioning that we were late, and the much-famed Orange Awlet may not show up
at all. This is a rocky area where the stream is flowing on the middle and the edges of the rocky area were mud-puddling and
some great sightings were reported last time around. We were soon able to spot a few Orange-tail Awls and a White Banded
Awl too came in for a while and went off. Many Three-spot Grass Yellows were roosting on the low climbs of the trees. The
wait for an Orange Awlet was finally over when a specimen came, circled the small water area and dived to cool it off and flew
like a razor bullet, this was repeated many times. It never settled down. A Common Hedge Blue and a few Lineblues were the
only other species sighted here. And with total disappointment looming large, the Orange Awlet was moving fast on the floor
under a shady area and a poor record shot is what we could manage. Having exhausted the interest to stay on this place, we
decided to move on to the next stop after spending approximately an hour or so, here.
The next 20-minute walk is through thick grasses. An Indian Skipper was seen and moved past before we could approach it. We
were again treated by Bushbrowns, including Glad-eye, and Rings. Many Castors too were seen in this stretch, both Common
and Angled. There were however two good sightings on this path, one is a Palani Bushbrown and another a Baronet. Both were
very shy and made a disappearance quickly. We have to climb down deviating from the horse path for about 50 m or so
through pathless shola to reach the second spot. This is a much larger open rocky area at least 10 times the previous one that
we stopped on.
The next couple of hours were spent here and we indulged in butterflying. The real first show of butterflies were to unfold
here. By this time, the sun is fully out with no clouds to hide them and this made sighting easy although soon, at least I felt the
hot climate and have to take out the umbrella. The Blue Mormons in huge numbers and Common Mormons in some numbers
were mud-puddling in couple of spots and this took some attention of us for a while. A Commander was reportedly sighted by
one of the team members which I did not see. There was small water area on the rocks here and there, and these were primar-
ily occupied by blues for their mud-puddling need. We could spot species like Pointed Ciliate Blue, Forget-me-not, Lineblues,
Opaque Six-Lineblue, Dingy Lineblue, Banded Blue Pierrot, Common Pierrot. Elsewhere, an Indian Sunbeam and beaks (both
lobed and club) were running around the rocks with no time given by them to us. One of the members again spotted a Monkey
Puzzle while others missed it. A Common Leopard, a few Sailers and a (Extra) Lascar were there too. Tigers and Crows were
represented very poorly with a few specimens each of Striped/Plain/ Dark Blue/Blue were seen. The only Hesperiidae species
seen here was a Golden Angle which joined the mud-pulling party with other species. Southern Bluebottles too were trying to
form a small party on the mud-puddling and other fast fliers sighted include Great Orange-tip, Emigrants and the Wanderers.
The important sightings missed out here from the last trip include Painted Courtesan, Yamfly, Rustic, Tamil Yeoman, Map, Indi-
an Red Admiral and Blackvein Sergeant. With those disappointment in mind, we decided to leave the place and suddenly a
Palani Bushbrown showed up and everyone got it around and had a good time. I was personally sent off by a Common Nawab,
however. We took another route to get into the path and the walk down to the first spot began.
On our approach to the first spot, the only additional attraction was a few Baronets showing up and this was a lifer to a few
too. It was a playful time for the Baronets and tough time for the photo seekers. Eventually, people have taken a few shots of
them and we descended down. We could from a distance see mud-puddling of butterflies in small groups. We have seen
Southern Bluebottles and Jay forming one group, Blue Mormons and Red Helens forming another, Grass Yellows forming a
third one and another group of Mormons in another area. A lone Common Banded Peacock was freely engaging with all of
these groups. It was a total transmission from where we left here. Lot of butterflies were now available for us to seek. Blues
that were seen here as part of mud-puddling are Angled Pierrot, Banded Blue Pierrot, Lineblues, Common Hedge Blues, Point-
ed Ciliate Blue and Forgot-me-not. Single specimen of blues seen include Malayan, Indian Cupid and Gram Blue. A lone Tailed
Jay joined very briefly their cousin and vanished.
PATTAMPOOCHI
A TNBS MAGAZINE
WINGS 2 VEINS 4
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