My Best Butterfly Moment 2016
AUG : August was lil bit dull but we local members were happy observing migration of 100s of CROWS , and BLUE TIGERS
SEPT : Team Rajapalayam butterfly club was on a trip to Siruvani for a butterfly walk which wasn ' t that promising and fed up . Worried we would be returning with nothing , the next day sudden plan to Kallar with team WYNTER BLYTH ASSOCIATION- Manoj na , Jee Jeevith na , vinod na and I was pleased to meet butterfly expert Vkchandrasekharan Lic sir . Such a great and humble person . The trip which was worthless turned out to be the best from this KALLAR AND NILGIRIS trip . We got ORCHID TIT , NILGIRI TIT , YELLOW BREASTED FLAT AND BABY FIVE RING . All rarities in one GO . One of the best occasions . Also from this trip completed photo documenting other family " HEDGE BLUES ". Got WHITE DISC HEDGE BLUE as a lifer . NEVER TO FORGET wildlife week was celebrated and I was happy to be teaching various school kids about butterflies and getting
NOV : from Nilgiris trip , till Nov mid not much good butterflying sessions and days went dull . My cousin Rajith Kumar showed me a pic he took in his spinning mill saying this butterfly came today and 2-3 were flying around . Seeing his picture after clarifying doubts with experts it was PLAINS BLUE ROYAL . I visited his mill after 3 days and I was shocked to see nearly 30 + individuals were just flying restlessly in the bushes of neem tree . All the neem there had Loranthus and few among the individuals were freshly eclosed . One more unforgettable moment to CHERISH . Also never to forget Butterflies of India by Isaac Kehimkar sir was finally in my hands which featured my pictures of rare and endemic EVERSHEDS ACE .
DEC : last month of the year , thought I can visit eco park Courtallam which turned out to be a dull day . I was there butterflying from 9.40am to 12.30pm and no interesting activity was going on . When I decided to just leave the park and go home , 2 individuals of MANY-TAILED OAKBLUES came from nowhere and sat right in front of me . Dreams do come true . There ' s always something called as LUCK . Managed to make a decent picture . Back home in Rajapalayam I have got 100s of COMMON JEZE- BEL caterpillars , pupas etc . and I wanted to do a setup photography . I took 3 cats which was about to pupate and put them in a stick . In 1.5 days they pupated in a line and it was so exciting for me to wait for it to eclose so that it would be too colourful and a dream image anyone will look up to . Likewise it got eclosed 5-6 days later and I had made my dream image . Recently I got a chance to attend Arippa Butterfly meet where I got to meet one of INDIAS butterfly legend Peter Smetacek sir . Learnt a hell lot of information ' s from him and he was so kind and spoke / taught like a friend . Never to forget moment having met him nearby my locale . We got to sight two Rare Oakblue sps , ROSY OAKBLUE and TAMIL OAKBLUE in the same patch in 30seconds gap . How lucky I was I couldn ' t imagine . Happy to have got 4 OAKBLUE sps in a year .
This year was yet another great year though it was too dry compared to last year . But each moment is to be cherished and loved . Happy that I started trying out doing lifecycles though most were failures , and just learning scientific names of them . looking forward for another FABULOUS YEAR .
Prakash Gurunathan
Many-tailed Oakblue - Siruvani - 6th Nov 2016
Gopal Krishnan
Stalking and capturing this endemic beauty during butterfly walk along with our TNBS friends in Kallar is my cherished moment of this year .
Nilgiri Tit-Hypolycaena nilgirica . Aug 16 . Kallar . TN .