Butterfly Photography at Our Local Parks - Coney Island

Butterfly Photography at Our Local Parks
Featuring : Coney Island


The west entrance to Coney Island Park

This week's article features a small "offshore" island known as Coney Island. No, we're not talking about the famous entertainment island in New York City, better known for its amusement parks and seaside resorts. And we're not referring to the yummy hot dog by the same name previously, sold by A&W fast food chain . The Coney Island here in Singapore is a tiny 100 Hectare island that has recently (in 2015) been made accessible to the public by the National Parks Board. Coney Island Park, managed by NParks, covers about 50 Ha of the island that is opened to the public.

A typical view of the Casuarina forest with wild undergrowth along the trails

There are shelters along the tracks, just to take a break from the hot sun, or shelter, if it rains

With the completion of two link bridges from Singapore island, Coney Island is now opened to the public from 7am to 7pm daily. The island is intentionally left relatively "wild" and covered with mainly secondary growth and Casuarina trees. So do not expect creature comforts like water coolers or ceiling fans in the shelters. There is a public toilet at the eastern entrance of the island, so if you enter the island from the Punggol Settlement side, you'll be facing a 2.4km walk before you reach a rest room.

Also known as Serangoon Island, Coney Island Park was once owned by the Haw Par brothers who built a 600m2 beach villa on the island, now known as the Haw Par Beach Villa. As the delapidated structure is unsafe, the public can only view it on only specially guided walks by NParks. The island changed hands several times before the Singapore government acquired it in the 1970's.

There are signs along the main track to indicate where you are, and the distances to your next destination

Vegetation on the island was largely left intact after some development works by NParks. Some boardwalks were constructed in certain areas, and the public toilet at the eastern entrance of the island. Habitats on the island include coastal forests, open grasslands, mangroves and casuarina woodlands. The diversity of flora on the island appears to be quite limited at the moment, although it has been reported that some plant species on the island are considered critically endangered.

There are wild boars on Coney Island, so do keep your distance from them if you stumble upon them

Bird diversity on the island is relatively good, with some 80+ species spotted on the island so far. Other than the now-deceased Brahman bull roaming the island, animals like otters and a family of wild boars inhabit the island. There are probably snakes and other rodents that share the island as well.

Access to the island is via one of the two bridge links - one at Punggol and the other at the Lor Halus side. As the island allows cyclists and other personal mobility devices, hikers will have to share the trails with them, so do keep a look out when you are out checking the bushes for butterflies. It is relatively easy to walk on the island - along the main track and the side trails that lead to the seashore areas at five locations.

Look for the Spanish Needle bushes where the Common Tigers can be found

I checked out Coney Island recently, walking the length of the island from the West Entrance to the East Entrance, and some of the side trails leading to the themed beach areas. It drizzled abit right at the start of my walk, but it was hot sunshine for the rest of the morning. Right at the start of the West Entrance was a large area covered with Spanish Needle (Bidens pilosa / alba) bushes. Two Common Tigers (Danaus genutia genutia) were feeding on the flowers as were a couple of Lesser Darts (Potanthus omaha omaha). Nearby, a number of Common Caeruleans (Jamides celeno aelianus) were fluttering restlessly around the low shrubbery.

Moving into the trails, I found a few Tawny Costers (Acraea terpsicore) perched on the flowers of the Spanish Needle. I saw a few vines of their host plant, Passiflora foetida nearby, climbing up some dead branches. A Jacintha Eggfly (Hypolimnas bolina jacintha) flew past quickly. It was a female, and appeared to be looking for a nice leaf of its host plant, Chinese Violet (Asystasia gangetica micrantha) to lay her eggs.

At the open grassy side tables adjacent to the main track running from west to east, there were some skippers sunbathing at the shrubs, zipping around and then opening their wings in the usual half-opened skipper fashion. Also present with a Dark Grass Brown (Orsotriaena medus cinerea) and several Dark Brand Bush Browns (Mycalesis mineus macromalayana). It was not surprising to find these species whose caterpillars feed on various grasses, including the ubiquitous lallang (Imperata cylindrica).

It was getting hot as the sun moved overhead by late morning, and I spotted some Chocolate Pansys (Junonia hedonia ida) and Blue Pansys (Junonia orythia wallacei) frolicking in the sunshine. In the shaded areas, both the Blue Glassy Tiger and Dark Glassy Tiger were seen feeding on some wildflowers by the road side. At one of the beach areas, I saw a King Crow (Euploea phaenareta castelnaui) trying to lay eggs on the Pong Pong tree (Cerbera odollam)

A large Cycad tree found on Coney Island

Along the mangrove trail, there was a large Cycad tree and the attendant Cycad Blue (Chilades pandava pandava) were seen fluttering nearby. Some Rustics were seen flying near a plant that appears to be a caterpillar host plant alongside the mangrove boardwalk.

A Formosan Swift feeding on the flower of the Chinese Violet

Back along the main track, a skipper zipped around the flowers of the Chinese Violet, and a closer shot of it confirmed it to be a Formosan Swift (Borbo cinnara). Several other skippers were flying around the grasses in the hot sunshine. Besides the Lesser Darts, I also saw a pair of Chestnut Bobs dogfighting with each other.

Many Common Tigers, a Dark Glassy Tiger and a Black Veined Tiger on the Rattlebox weed plant

It was almost past noon when I reached the Eastern Entrance to Coney Island Park. This is where the newly-constructed rest rooms were located and along the paths leading to the beach area were scattered bushes of Spanish Needle. Again, there were many Danainae around, feeding on the flowers. Spotted were the Common Tiger, Blue and Dark Glassy Tiger and a Black Veined Tiger. A solitary shrub of the Rattlebox weed (Crotalaria retusa) attracted a large number of these Danainae.

Along the walk back to Punggol Settlement where I had parked my car, I spotted a Striped Albatross (Appias libythea olferna) and a Psyche (Leptosia nina malayana). The Common Grass Yellow (Eurema hecabe contubernalis) were commonly sighted throughout the walk, and a couple of Common Mormons fluttered around the Lantana shrubs along the main track.

The butterfly diversity on Coney Island Park was not particularly rich, although the common species that inhabit the coastal and open grass habitats were quite expected. The large number of Common Tigers suggest that their caterpillar host plants must be plentiful on Coney Island. The island's proximity to Pulau Ubin may attract more species over if more host and nectaring plants are cultivated on Coney Island in future.

A view across to Pulau Ubin from Coney Island

How To Get There :

From Punggol interchange, take bus 84 to Punggol Point Park/Punggol Settlement. Walk about 500m east along the Punggol Promenade Nature Walk to get to Coney Island West Entrance. For those who drive, there is ample parking available at Punggol Settlement. Those who prefer to enter Coney Island Park via the East Entrance can park along Pasir Ris Coast Industrial Park 6 (at your own risk!) and look for the entrance to the Coney Island Park.

A Checklist of butterflies spotted during my outing :

1. Common Mormon (Papilio polytes romulus)
2. Striped Albatross (Appias libythea olferna)
3. Psyche (Leptosia nina malayana)
4. Painted Jezebel (Delias hyparete metarete)
5. Common Grass Yellow (Eurema hecabe contubernalis)
6. Common Tiger (Danaus genutia genutia)
7. Black Veined Tiger (Danaus melanippus hegesippus)
8. Dark Glassy Tiger (Parantica agleoides agleoides)
9. Blue Glassy Tiger (Ideopsis vulgaris macrina)
10. King Crow (Euploea phaenareta castelnaui)
11. Striped Blue Crow (Euploea mulciber mulciber)
12. Common Palmfly (Elymnias hypermnestra agina)
13. Dark Grass Brown (Orsotriaena medus cinerea)
14. Dark Brand Bush Brown (Mycalesis mineus macromalayana)
15. Chocolate Pansy (Junonia hedonia ida)
16. Blue Pansy (Junonia orithya wallacei)
17. Peacock Pansy (Junonia almana javana)
18. Autumn Leaf (Doleschalia bisaltide bisaltide)
19. Short Banded Sailor (Phaedyma columella singa)
20. Jacintha Eggfly (Hypolimnas bolina jacintha)
21. Malayan Eggfly (Hypolimnas anomala anomala)
22. Rustic (Cupha erymanthis lotis)
23. Tawny Coster (Acreae terpsicore)
24. Lesser Grass Blue (Zizina otis lampa)
25. Cycad Blue (Chilades pandava pandava)
26. Common Caerulean (Jamides celeno aelianus)
27. Lesser Dart (Potanthus omaha omaha)
28. Formosan Swift (Borbo cinnara)

Text and Photos by Khew SK and Patrick Khew

Butterfly Photography 101 - Part 7

Butterfly Photography 101
Part 7 - Off to the Great Outdoors!

In this seventh and final part of this series, we pack our gears and armed with the theory and tips from the earlier six articles, head off to the great outdoors. Whilst it is important to know your photographic equipment and learn the technical basics of using your butterfly-shooting arsenal, what remains is to get out into the field and test all the techniques that you have learned. Otherwise, it is all theory and classroom information that you have, and no butterfly photos to show for it!

Preparing for an Outing

Have you packed everything that you need for your outing? © Lowepro

Every veteran butterfly photographer will tell you stories of that "facepalm" moment when they reach their butterfly-shooting destination, only to realise that they have forgotten to charge their batteries, or to slot in their storage card in their camera. Yes, it has happened to the best of us, and there is no embarrassment admitting it. So prepare a mental checklist of your equipment before you head out for a day outing.

• Charge your camera batteries the night before, and make sure you have at least a spare battery in your bag.
• Make sure you have your CF or SD storage cards in the camera, and your spare(s) in the bag.
• Charge those AA batteries for your flash and have a spare set on standby if you are going on an extended outing.
• Pack your correct macro lens in the bag!
• If you are fastidious about the cleanliness of your equipment, carry your cleaning kit and blower brush along.
• Standardise your other paraphernalia in your bag and ensure that every item has its place in your bag - umbrella/poncho for rainy day surprises, spare towel and T-shirt, mosquito repellent, snacks, a bottle of water (important!), hat, camera strap and anything else that suits a day out in the field.

Gearing Up for the Outing

Uniformed, camouflaged and all ready for battle!  The butterflies will be out-gunned!

Wear appropriately coloured clothes for your outing. Butterflies (and anything else out there, for that matter) will spot bright coloured objects earlier than drab coloured ones faster, and beat a hasty retreat. So gear up with dull coloured clothing (browns, greens and beige are best) and try to remain as inconspicuous as possible. After all, would you be wearing a bright red shirt or your psychedelic Hawaiian hat for a safari outing in the Serengeti?

A good pair of pants will minimise abrasions and scratches if you have to bash through undergrowth

There will be times when you may need to bash through thick bushes and undergrowth to get at a perched butterfly deep in the forests, so try to avoid wearing shorts unless you want to end up with injuries from thorns and sharp twigs. A good pair of trekking/hiking shoes with thick socks would also help avoid any mishaps off the beaten track.

Where to Look for Butterflies in Singapore

Now you are ready to head out to the great wild yonder to hunt butterflies. But where do you go? Singapore is blessed with excellent accessibility where you can reach a butterfly-shooting location, usually in no more than half an hour's travel. There are many urban parks and gardens where you can find butterflies. Do check out this blog's section on Butterfly Shooting Locations.

Butterfly Hill at Pulau Ubin is a good location for shooting butterflies

The Central Catchment Nature Reserves and our offshore islands like Pulau Ubin are also great places to go to, for the rarer species that are seldom seen in urban areas. Be prepared for the hot humid conditions of our equatorial forests and not to mention the mosquitoes and some biting insects. Fortunately, there are no blood-sucking leeches in Singapore, and that is something that we have to be thankful for (at the moment!)

Stalking and Hunting Butterflies

Being active insects, butterflies are best observed when they are distracted with some activity like feeding on flowers, puddling, etc. With some experience, the butterfly photographer will quickly learn where to find the "hot-spots" of butterfly activity. On bright sunny days, look for areas with flowering plants where Lantana, Snakeweed, Spanish Needle and other favourite nectaring plants grow. Other species are attracted to rotting fruits on the forest floor, whilst others are attracted to bird droppings, carrion or urine-tainted muddy paths and sandy stream banks.

Some butterflies, like this White Banded Awl, are crepuscular and are on the wing during the earlier hours of the morning

We have often been asked, "what are the best times in the day to go shooting butterflies?" In general, butterflies are up and about and most active between the hours of 9am to about 3pm in the afternoon. However, there are crepuscular species that fly as early as 7am and those that remain active till the dusk hours of the day. So, if you want to expand your collection of photos to as many species as possible, it would be advisable to vary your butterfly-hunting hours.

Different handholding techniques for different photographers.  Whichever technique suits you best, practise and get it perfect!

Butterflies are alert to movements, so remember to move slowly and remain still until the butterfly is settled before moving in for a closer look. You should also remember not to cast any shadows over them. Plan your approach when you spot a butterfly and be patient! Moving apart bushes like the T-Rex did in Jurassic Park will not get you many nice butterfly photos.

It is often advisable to stand back and observe the behaviour of your "prey" before moving in to shoot them. For butterflies that are fluttering actively from flower to flower, it is often more fruitful to "predict" which flower the butterfly would next go to, and wait there rather than chase the butterfly when it is already feeding on a flower. You will often have anything between 1 and 3 seconds to compose, focus and shoot, if you are lucky.

Different species of butterflies will have their corresponding "circles of fear" whereby they will take flight if an intrusion is detected. Remember that, to the butterfly, you are no different from a large predator coming in fast to attack them. And the resultant reaction from the butterfly is to take flight. Hence move stealthily and avoid sudden movements. Some species are more skittish than others, and with some field experience, a butterfly photographer will quickly learn how to stalk and approach them.

Proning is the best position for getting that butterfly's eye level shot!  But be prepared for a good laundry effort at the end of the shooting day.

To get that 'perfect' eye-level (the butterfly's eye level!) shot, many photographers have to contend with a spectrum of inconveniences and sometimes agony. These range from being soaked in a stream or having to prone in mud to get into the best position to shoot a butterfly. To the non-butterfly enthusiast, watching a butterfly photographer at work may be amusing, and often perceived as a most inadequate cause for suffering such agony just to get a photograph of a butterfly!

Getting down low for that perfect shot!

Be aware of your shooting environment and set the appropriate settings on your camera and flash to get the best option for the lighting conditions. Once you get close to your subject and focus, press the shutter gently but firmly without ending up in camera shake. In most digital SLRs today, you may also want to shoot a series of shots to minimise motion blur and/or capturing a fast-flying butterfly in the best pose (somewhat like what bird photographers do when they "machine gun" a flying bird)

When out in groups, do practise shooting etiquette and queue up, and everyone will go home with a nice shot of the butterfly

It is often useful to go butterfly shooting in a group of 2-4 so that you have extra pairs of eyes to spot butterflies. In the forests, it is also good to have shooting 'buddies', should anything untoward happen and you require some assistance in an emergency. Larger groups are often less preferable, as too many photographers rushing to shoot a butterfly often ends up with no one getting a shot of it at all!

This ends the Butterfly Photography 101 series of articles, and we hope that our readers have enjoyed the information shared in the series and found them useful. What remains is to go out in the field and keep shooting butterflies until you perfect your craft. The satisfaction of seeing a well-executed shot of a beautiful butterfly on your computer monitor is worth many hours of hard work in the field!

Text by Khew SK : Photos by Bob Cheong, Sunny Chir, Huang CJ, Khew SK, Loh Mei Yee, Loke PF and Simon Sng.

Butterfly of the Month - February 2017

Butterfly of the Month - February 2017
The Plain Plushblue (Flos apidanus saturatus)

The first two months of 2017 have been interesting from a global perspective, as the world watched the 45th President of the USA Donald Trump dish out interesting, but controversial executive orders. These ranged from building a 1,000 mile wall between the US and Mexico and immigration orders that barred visitors from seven Muslim-majority countries. There appears to be a shift to nationalistic and protectionist policies in many countries in the world today.

Whilst the rest of the world waits and wonders how all these changes in politics are going to affect each country's economy and trade, 2017 moves into a very uncertain and potentially tumultuous era as the Chinese population around the world heralded the year of the Fire Rooster. Predictions by soothsayers and geomancers from Nostradamus to local experts didn't have much positive news for the rest of the year. So it remains to be seen if their forecasts hold true.

Speaking of roosters, the Year of the Rooster didn't start too auspiciously for a group of free-ranging chickens in Singapore. Apparently acting on complaints of noise nuisance, about 20 of these birds were rounded up by the authorities and summarily culled. This raised the ire of local animal activists and the more tolerant public, which created a lot of buzz on social and mainstream media.

The rationale for the culling was later amended to public health safety reasons, but this appeared more of a bit of back-stepping by the authorities which didn't go down too well with the public. But the news of this fowl play provided quite a bit of chatter and amusement in cyberspace, and everyone, from the local coffeeshop auntie to our politicians gave their two cents worth on the matter.

Then a life was lost when a massive 270-year old Tembusu tree fell at the Singapore Botanic Gardens. The tree, which was over 40m tall with a girth of 6.5m, had just been recently given a clean bill of health by government arborists, when it inexplicably uprooted, tilted over and crashed onto the hapless family who were waiting for a concert to start. Deepest condolences to the family of the deceased.

Investigations are ongoing, but this is going to leave a lot more questions than anyone has answers for, as the tree fell on a normal fair day (albeit it was an exceptionally windy day on that day). I can only hope that the authorities do not adopt a knee-jerk reaction and start chopping down our large and beautiful trees around our City in a Garden.

Our Butterfly of the Month for February 2017 is the Plain Plushblue (Flos apidanus saturatus). This is one of four species of Plushblues of the genus Flos that are extant in Singapore. It is the most regularly encountered of the four, and is moderately common. It can be encountered from our urban parks and gardens to the forested reaches of our nature reserves.

The male Plain Plushblue is deep blue-violet on the upperside, with a thin black forewing border. The female is a shining purple-blue with broad black borders on both wings. The upperside of this species is seldom seen nor photographed, except with the butterfly is encountered in the late evening hours of the day with the full sun shining at a low angle.

The underside of the species bears dark brown cryptic patterns with a purplish wash. There is a small reddish patch on the base of both wings that is more distinct in freshly-eclosed individuals. The hindwing bears a stubby white-tipped tail at vein 2 and is toothed at veins 1b and 3.

The butterfly is skittish and has a strong erratic flight when disturbed. The caterpillar of the Plain Plushblue feeds on a variety of host plants amongst which are two species of the Syzygium which are relatively common roadside bushes. Usually, the species is encountered singly either feeding on the sap of certain plants, on the ripened fruits of the Singapore Rhododendron or on flowering plants.

Text by Khew SK : Photos by Chng CK, Huang CJ, Khew SK, Koh CH, Loke PF, Billy Oh, Jonathan Soong, Horace Tan and Anthony Wong