Dear Krushnamegh This is just sensational! Especially that Large Siverstripe underwing pic! That for me Shot of the year! While processing that image for IFB I really feel jealous! :) I hope we can have blast in Northeast some time in future! And I did compensated for Krishna Peacock with Brown Gorgon and Jewelled Nawab
Cheers On Mon, Jan 30, 2012 at 10:41 AM, Krushnamegh Kunte <[email protected] > wrote: > ** > > > Hi all, > > Here is my late entry for the “Photo of the Year”. I have been busy > setting up my lab and settling down in India since I moved back from Boston > at the end of December. Anyway, I was hoping to make two field trips to > India in 2011, but I managed to make just one. This is because I received > my job offer and wanted to make progress on some work back in Boston before > I left. But that turned out to be one wonderful whirlwind of a trip! In > that month, May 2011, following the advice of Usha Lachungpa, I visited > parts of South, East, West and North Sikkim Districts, and saw many > butterfly species that I had dreamed of for many years. Some of them were > new to me, others were new only to my camera. Gaurav Purohit joined me for > two weeks, and we had a blast! I also made a new friend, Harsha Kumar, a > young and fairly inexperienced fella, who scared away many a butterfly and > made me miss many pictures that I wanted to take, but I enjoyed our time > together, anyway. Here’s the selection from our trip: > > *Large Silverstripe (Argynnis childreni):* This is a common species and > anyone who has been to mid-elevation Himalaya has probably seen this > butterfly. I had seen it many times but had never managed to take a decent > picture. And then one day we saw this individual that would not go away no > matter what was going on in its neighborhood. I even managed to take out > some larger stones from its background by hand while it was feeding. That’s > how I got a clean, diffused, out of focus background in this picture. And I > loved the green and pink in this frame. The picture is also available > online at: > > http://ifoundbutterflies.org/122-argynnis/argynnis-childreni > > *Green Awlet (Burara vasutana):* I had never seen this species but had > been waiting for it for years! One evening, as I walked along my favorite > Pabung Khola, a reddish-brown butterfly swung around in front of me and > kept circling round and round at super high speeds. When it finally settled > on a bird dropping, I could not take my eyes off the metallic yellow-green! > You can see why in the attached picture, and online: > > http://ifoundbutterflies.org/275-burara/burara-vasutana > > *Krishna Peacock (Papilio krishna):* This was another lifer for me. The > only picture I knew of this species was that of Alka Vaidya from the > Eaglenest WLS, which she had posted on this group some time ago. One day, > after a morning of heavy rains, I opted out of field work to process my > samples and tidy up notes in my field notebook. Unencumbered by such > scholarly concerns about notes and data, Gaurav and Harsha set out to look > for whatever butterflies they could photograph. They returned an hour or so > afterward, their faces grinning ear to ear! They produced two species that > made me turn green: the Tailed Redbreast (*Papilio bootes*) and the > Krishna Peacock! Gaurav’s picture of the Krishna Peacock is now online (see > URL below), and it is such a fantastic image! I did not think anyone would > be able to take a picture of this species coming anywhere close in quality > to Gaurav’s picture. But then, this was Sikkim, and just a few days later, > we faced another Krishna Peacock that was just born to pose for pictures. > See what I mean: > > http://ifoundbutterflies.org/47-papilio/papilio-krishna > > I must end this narrative with perhaps my biggest discovery so far, the > *Scarce > Jester (Symbrenthia silana)*. You probably remember the history of this > species; if not, check my website and my paper on the species. I have been > to Sikkim three times, and I have seen this very rare species every single > time! The attached picture was taken at Pabung Khola, at almost exactly the > same spot where I had photographed this species one and half years before > this picture. I like to think that this individual was perhaps the > great-great-grandson of the individual that I had photographed here in > 2009. Who knows! Pictures of both the individuals are available at: > > http://ifoundbutterflies.org/173-symbrenthia/symbrenthia-silana > > I met Subhasis on this trip for the first time, and met Arjan on my way > out after a few years. Rohan, Usha and others wanted to join me on this > trip but could not for various reasons. Now that I am back in India and > will be in the field often, I hope to meet many of you in our forests to > watch butterflies together. > > Wish you a happy and very productive 2012. > > With best regards, > > Krushnamegh. > > PS: I had replied to a few emails in the past two weeks (e.g., to emails > by Subhasis and Sahil), I am not sure those emails made it to the group. I > am copying this email to Vijay in the hopes that at least this email will > reach you folks. My primary email address has changed, and there may be > some hiccups before emails from the new email address start rolling out > smoothly. > > ------------------------------------------------- > > Krushnamegh Kunte, PhD > > Ramanujan Fellow and Reader > National Center for Biological Sciences (NCBS) > Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) > GKVK, Bellary Road, > Bengaluru 560065, India. > Ph: +91 80 2366-6001/02/18/19, ext 6410 > Mobile: + 91 9403-975-925 > Email: [email protected], [email protected] > Website: http://biodiversitylab.org/ > > Indian Foundation for Butterflies: http://ifoundbutterflies.org/ > Emails: [email protected], [email protected] > > -- Enjoy
