Compound wildlife

A few pics from around the compound over the last month or two:

Interesting flowers.

Blue Tiger.

Tree Pie.

Yellow-billed Blue Magpie.  There were some of these nesting behind where the
SWH project is.  When a cat comes along they take it upon themselves to warn
the whole neighbourhood.  And then hound the beast out of the area by dive-
bombing it.

Looks like one of those glow-in-the-dark plastic beasties.

There are lots of young birds fresh from the nest at the moment.  This Indian
Myna hadn't quite worked out what its wings were for yet.  The other day we saw
a couple of adult Black Drongos encouraging their 3 sulky offspring to budge
off the wire they were determinedly clinging to and fly.  With little success.

One of our semi-resident bug catchers.

All that was left of a Common Peacock after some bird had had a large and
tasty snack.

And the underside.  I think I'd like a rug like this.

A beast of a bee.

Now this is a proper sized thistle!

Finally, a not completely blurred pic of a Paradise Flycatcher.
Its love of shady overgrown places combined with its hyper-
active nature do not make it an easy photography subject.
It's fairly amazing to watch hunting, with a fantastic hovering
ability, as you'll see in the 2nd half of the video below.  His
oddly unmatched mate is chestnut-y red and without the tail
streamers, but equally aerobatic.

Another beast of a bee.

Lepidoptery 6

Another brilliant batch of beautiful butterflies (previous episodes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5):

A Blue Pansy - a different variant from the last one, I think - most of these pics are from a few weeks ago before it got cold, but there are still quite a few of these guys left hanging on even after most of the other species have died off or migrated somewhere warmer:



















A Dark Clouded Yellow:

























A Common Wall:



















A Lime Butterfly - these ones get up to a fairly impressive 10cm wingspan - there were dozens of them enjoying some big red-flowered bushes at a motorway service station on the way to Lahore:



















And another one dreaming wistfully of freedom. Or something. It could be an elegant poetic portrayal of the tragedy of locking up something so beautiful or somesuch, were it not for the fact that the other three sides of the room were open to the fresh air. Stoopid insect:



















A Plain Tiger at our conference in Lahore last month (well, not at the conference, but you know what I mean):



















And from just the other day, apparently still braving the coldness, the grandly titled Queen of Spain Fritillary:

Lepidoptery 5

The next instalment... (see also parts 1, 2, 3 & 4)

These were all taken 3 weeks or so ago in the gardens near our house. It's now cold enough that there are few left, the bigger ones dying off or migrating sooner than the small ones. This little chap is a Common Punch:



















This is a Common Grass Yellow:



















Back to the more outlandish names - this one is called The Pioneer:



















And this rather beautiful (and slightly muddy) fellow is a Blue Pansy - pretty common to see them resting in the grass.

Lepidoptery 4

Time for a few more flutterbies. These are from a few weeks ago now. The cold weather beginning to kick in is causing the different species to disappear one by one.

This fine beastie is an Indian Fritillary, enjoying the flowers just outside our front door:



















As is this one (may even be the same one - there were a few fluttering about):

























And this is a Common Wall (bizarre name! My favourite name is the one called THE LEOPARD - sounds a bit ferocious for a mild-mannered insect - and one of the few that I didn't manage to photograph before it disappeared - maybe next spring...) - apparently a female one:



















And last but not least of today's selection, this is an Indian Tortoiseshell, seen on our walk up Mukshpuri the other week (as was Mrs Wall above).

Lepidoptery 3 - Striped Tiger

Lepidoptery 2

It's high time Herbert was demoted from the top of the blog in favour of more beautiful creatures...

(click the images to see larger versions)

This one's an Indian Cabbage White - there are loads of these.

And this fine fellow is an Indian Fritillary.

EDIT: Actually, no he's not; she's a Painted Lady. (Mistook page 31 for fig. 31 in my book. Oops.)

I'm much better pleased with these pictures than my previous attempts; partly aided by the fact that these ones do occasionally pause (and actually land rather than hover), partly by better light, but mostly because I finally found the manual focus mode on my camera. Its macro mode has an unfortunate habit of focussing on entirely the wrong part of the picture, so while manual can be slightly more hit-or-miss, it's worth it when they come out right. I think I need a proper SLR.

I love the way you can see her tongue going right down into the depths of the flower. Which brings us to what I think is my favourite of all my photos from this trip so far:

Also, the other day we saw a large dark one, similar in shape and size to the Common Peacocks, but entirely black, and I think with slightly different shaped wings. I haven't managed to track down his identity anywhere. Maybe he's some kind of nefarious butterfly anti-hero.

Photo post: a walk and a look at the local scenery

(click to see bigger versions)

Last week we had our first proper outing in the local area, and it was nice to see a bit of what surrounds where we live. We took a suzuki (taxi) up out of the village with a couple of our colleagues, then walked a few miles back down to another point on the KKH to catch another home again.

Here is a brilliant little cable car, apparently made from the top half of a suzuki suspended from a couple of cables on little wheels. We didn't have time to stop and have a go unfortunately - hopefully next time.

I generally associate cable cars with tourist attractions or ski resorts, but this is a perfectly serious everyday method of transport.

A view over part of one of the villages.

Jenny with two of our hospital colleagues. This is a typical inter-village road. Some of the main ones are tarmac-ed, others are just gravel. The landscape is very hilly, with deep sheer valleys cutting through everything, so the roads are never direct. Hence the cable car above.

The other day I went to visit one of the workshop employees houses - the hospital puts some funds into helping its employees with their house repairs/improvements now and again, so we went to see what could be done at this guy's. The journey there was quite an adventure, involving a suzuki ride (other vehicles are too big to fit) along a riverbed complete with flowing stream, tracks tilting at crazy angles above steep valleys, and a memorable uphill section which required a run-up, followed by most of us hopping out, pushing, then walking up to catch up with our driver. The chap and his family live in 3 rooms perched on the edge of a valley, one breeze-block, the other two mud-brick, with bits of old corrugated iron sheeting for a roof - quite an eye-opener.

Looking out across the main valley - the hospital is somewhere down behind and to the left of the ridge with the village on it.

My photo-stitching program (Hugin) produces some fairly excellent results, but the power lines seem to have defeated it!

Lollipop tree.

Blue pansies (the blue part's on the inside of their wings - perhaps a photo another day!). There were lots of amazing (but fast-moving) butterflies which I entirely failed to get anywhere near with the camera, and it was only when we got back to the hospital that I got the ones in the previous post.

Corn is one of the main crops, grown in fields, and wherever there's a free patch of ground. The locals will often stop to greet you and chat, but are a bit bemused by the concept of walking for pleasure or to enjoy the scenery!

Stairway to heaven? Buildings are built wherever there's a moderately flat piece of ground. Often the land is owned by absentee landlords from whom the local people rent their plots.

Looking down one of the valleys back towards the KKH.

10-foot grass.

Lepidoptery

After 5 weeks of trying to get close enough to these beauties with a camera, here's a few snaps of what may or may not be a Paris Peacock.

EDIT: On the other hand, after looking through a butterfly book someone lent me, it might be more likely to be a Common Peacock...

All of my pics are somewhat blurry, which, while slightly galling from a photography point-of-view, actually gives a good impression of how they look. Because I have yet to see one of these stop. Ever.

Also, the best view you get of them is when they stop flapping for a second or two and go into a glide, and you can see their full 5-6 inch wings in all their glory. Trouble is, they tend to move at a speed roundabout a reasonable running pace - which obviously wouldn't coincide with optimal photo-taking pace, should you be foolish enough to bother to actually run after one.

Most butterflies I've come across give the impression of flapping about in a somewhat aimless, random fashion; these, however, move with purpose, seemingly choosing the next destination from a good distance away then heading straight for it. And they seem to visit similar areas at similar times of day, which makes taking their pictures that little bit less difficult.