North East Butterfly Meet– Season IV
Day 1 (03.09.2017)
The day starts little early in this part of country and we could see good light 5AM IST. The overnight rain has relented a bit and
we were hoping for the light to stop totally and sun to come out. This was never the case to be for the day. Since, it was the
first day of the meet, people took the walk to the open ground and beyond on the road before the breakfast. The first to make
appearance to us was a Common Dartlet (Oriens gola) which was nectaring. A Straight-banded Treebrown, a Dark Evening
Brown and a Common Hedge Blue, all made their appearances quickly and went off. The banana bait could attract only a Lilac
Bushbrown and that too vanished quickly from the scene.
However, much of the action before the breakfast was t the grounds. The grassy open land with a few wild flower plants were
hosting Purple Sapphires and Yellow Costers. In fact such a vast area had only these two on the Day 1. The small sized purple
Sapphire kept everyone engaged while the Yellow Coster was seen moving slowly amidst drizzle and lack of light. All of us had
to return to the dining table for the Break fast and we could add only a Paris Peacock flying past to the list before we all went
for the opening meeting which was held at a local administrative block, couple of kilometres away. The detailed account and
the official version of the meet is given in the previous sections.
The minister took some time to around and it was good enough for most of the people to have a go at Bushbrowns, Grass Yel-
lows, Hill Jezebel, Yellow Helen, Yellow Jezebel, Indian Fritillary, Striped Tiger, Bevan’s Swift and an Autumn leaf, which was
resting on top of the outer wall.
The meeting got underway, once the Forest Minister reached the meet. After the customary introductions and facilitations, a
few of the organisers and resource persons spoke. The Forest Minister then took the stage finally and he dwelt in length in
English as well as in Nepalese language since there were many school children and he wanted them to understand what he
spoke. He was suggesting them to chase their passion.
While the meeting was going on , the light actually improved for a while, although none of us were able to move out. Eventual-
ly the meeting was over around 2 PM and we returned to our campsite for the Lunch. It started raining in the after noon and
totally hampered the enthusiasm of all.
The rain coats, umbrella and improvised camera covers were then out from everyone and we walked around the campsite
looking for some butterflies. It was probably our first experience, butterflying with umbrella and rain coats. Our relentless
search in failed light yielded a Forest Pierrot, a Banded Treebrown and a Pale Hedge Blue apart from Grass Yelllows, Yellow
Costers and Purple Sapphires.
With no more luck and light, we have returned to the camp and there was a couple of technical session on Butterfly Identifica-
tion by Mr. Monsoon, who is one of the two resource person for the event along with Mr. Isaac Kehimkar. It was then time for
the day’s consolidation of species, and it was a surprise that the whole group was able to record 56 species for the day 1 while
we have personally recorded 25 species.
The time after the dinner was spent on watching and photographing Moths which came for a Moth trap through lights. There
were about 20-30 species of moths and a Common Peacock too came to the light. The group was then divided into two teams
with plan being each team go on a different paths the next day and exchange the places, the day after. With rains started
again, in fact, it was getting heavier by the time, we were all worried about the prospectus of the coming day!