#flutterbyes — Public Fediverse posts

One of the "blues" and I have no idea which species. Pretty sure the only way to identify these things is to dunk in a jar of formaldehyde and send to a museum somewhere in London.

Which I do not want to do. Happy just to take photos thanks.

Anyway, the Nepali name for butterfly is Putali. Do whatever you want with that information.

#Butterflies #FlutterByes #Putali #Photography #Lumix #TheJoyOfTashi

These little fellas were so hard to get close to. Every so often one will give up for a while and let you take a shot.

#FlutterByes #ButterFlies #Photography #Lumix #TheJoyOfTashi

We're into the butterfly section of this journey. Could be here for a while!

#Photography #TheJoyOfTashi #Lumix #FlutterByes

Little things make all the difference. We spent nearly two hours today just dottering about a patch of marigolds at a temple. Didn't walk far at all, just waited for butterflies to drop by and offer a shot.

Photography is a marvellous way to avoid exercise :)

#Nepal #Himalayas #Photography #Butterflies #Lumix #FlutterByes #Annapurnas #EwenInNepal

Melbourne this morning. Cabbage Butterflies in the sage bushes.

The bokeh on the 100mm F2.8 macro is a bit lush. These shots on the S5II.

#Photography #WalkInTheHood #Butterflies #FlutterByes #Melbourne #NotTennis

These guys have been our constant companions while staying in this patch of forest near Paro. Rain or sunshine, they are flitting about and adding a touch of joy to the landscape.

I wish I'd spent a little more time capturing them now. Instead, I let the fancy ones distract me too often! I have the same problem with donuts.

#Bhutan #Paro #Photography #Lumix #FlutterByes #Himalayas #Butterflies #Ypthima #NotADonut

@photography

These fellas were more interested in licking rocks, for salt or minerals or whatever, than flying away from my lens. A real treat for my walk this morning.

Western Courtier (Sephisa dichroa).

#Bhutan #Paro #Photography #Lumix #FlutterByes #Himalayas #Butterflies #SephisaDichroa #SaltLickers

Gonna try to get some clearer pics of this guy tomorrow. I saw a pair of them looping around that same patch of forest today, I think I can find them again tomorrow.

Might be harder to get an ID than get a photo though. Crazy gorgeous stone-like lower wing, plus electric blue streaks on the upper.

Nature is just unbelievably amazing.

#Bhutan #Bumthang #Photography #Lumix #FlutterByes #Himalayas #Butterflies #WeirdBugsAreCoolBugs

Me in the morning vs me in the afternoon.

#Bhutan #Bumthang #Photography #Lumix #FlutterByes #Himalayas #Butterflies

I'll wrap it up there. I could have spent hours at the site observing all the moths and trying to capture them with a little more art. Bhutan throws all manner of surprises at me, but rarely something so impressive and unexpected.

Hope you enjoyed getting a glimpse into this world too.

10/10

#Mothstodon #སྤྱན་སྡེབ་སྦྱིས་མཆོད་རྟེན། #Bhutan #Chendebji #Photography #Lumix #FlutterByes #Himalayas #Butterflies #NotButterflies #MothsToTheLight

I just can't express how much I love those 60s and 70s designs on some of these critters. Pure art. I couldn't paint something that beautiful if I tried.

9/x

#Mothstodon #སྤྱན་སྡེབ་སྦྱིས་མཆོད་རྟེན། #Bhutan #Chendebji #Photography #Lumix #FlutterByes #Himalayas #Butterflies #NotButterflies #MothsToTheLight #NatureIsArt

A hint of yellow in the colour range too. I can dig it.

8/x

#Mothstodon #སྤྱན་སྡེབ་སྦྱིས་མཆོད་རྟེན། #Bhutan #Chendebji #Photography #Lumix #FlutterByes #Himalayas #Butterflies #NotButterflies #MothsToTheLight

None of these guys were doing a great job of hiding I might add. Most were just clinging to grooves in the side of the chorten. Many were on their last legs too, barely able to fly.

A few had camouflage more suited to the forest than a white washed temple.

7/x

#Mothstodon #སྤྱན་སྡེབ་སྦྱིས་མཆོད་རྟེན། #Bhutan #Chendebji #Photography #Lumix #FlutterByes #Himalayas #Butterflies #NotButterflies #MothsToTheLight

I was fascinated by this glimpse into the wild moths of Bhutan. Makes you wonder what else is hiding out there in the forests? You just need the right triggers to bring them "into the light".

I found one fluffy white moth with metallic teal spots. In the right light, the blue/green hues shine back at the lens.

6/x

#Mothstodon #སྤྱན་སྡེབ་སྦྱིས་མཆོད་རྟེན། #Bhutan #Chendebji #Photography #Lumix #FlutterByes #Himalayas #Butterflies #NotButterflies #MothsToTheLight

I can tell you that Chendebji is covered in white lime. The stupa and chorten are very very white.

But in recent times they repainted and added some super bright flood lights. When I stepped closer to these, I found literally thousands of dead moths.

Not to say they wouldn't have died somewhere in the forest anyway, but it seemed very sad.

4/x

#Mothstodon #སྤྱན་སྡེབ་སྦྱིས་མཆོད་རྟེན། #Bhutan #Chendebji #Photography #Lumix #FlutterByes #Himalayas #Butterflies #NotButterflies #MothsToTheLight

The sheer variety of moths in one tiny little space was amazing. But why?

I did notice that a lot of them were white. And one particular species far outnumbered the others. The doorway was awash with moths.

I know next to nothing about moths myself. I've only just tuned my brain into being more aware of butterflies.

3/x

#Mothstodon #སྤྱན་སྡེབ་སྦྱིས་མཆོད་རྟེན། #Bhutan #Chendebji #Photography #Lumix #FlutterByes #Himalayas #Butterflies #NotButterflies #MothsToTheLight

Not just a few moths. But thousands and thousands of moths.

When I first stepped through the archway I noticed a few moths on the timber, then I noticed a few more. And the more I looked, the more I noticed.

I started taking photos. I was in a rush and a little confused. Not much art to my snaps. I just kept taking shots.

2/x

#Mothstodon #སྤྱན་སྡེབ་སྦྱིས་མཆོད་རྟེན། #Bhutan #Chendebji #Photography #Lumix #FlutterByes #Himalayas #Butterflies #NotButterflies #MothsToTheLight

I want to tell a little story about a stupa in Bhutan called Chendibji, a beautiful place I have visited many times but has a sad story.

It's a special place for Bhutanese, a spiritual place surrounded by wild forests. Recently they restored the stupa and chorten and installed immense flood lights to illuminate at night.

Moths flock to it.

1/x

#Mothstodon #སྤྱན་སྡེབ་སྦྱིས་མཆོད་རྟེན། #Bhutan #Chendebji #Photography #Lumix #FlutterByes #Himalayas #Butterflies #NotButterflies #MothsToTheLight

At first I thought they only liked yellow flowers but then... plot twist!

Copper on purple. Bhutan style.

#Bhutan #Bumthang #Photography #Lumix #FlutterByes #Himalayas #Butterflies #CommonCopper #Lycaena

Some days you just see the same species over and over, as though somebody cleaned your glasses and suddenly the things that were right in front of you are clear to see.

#Bhutan #Bumthang #Photography #Lumix #FlutterByes #Himalayas #Butterflies #CommonCopper #Lycaena

Went to a festival in Bhutan. Found a giant yellow moth.

#Bhutan #Bumthang #Photography #Lumix #FlutterByes #Himalayas #NotButterflies #BigYellowMoth #Mothstodon

A little reminder that I wrote a few words about how I shoot these images, and why Bhutan is such a peach of a place for butterfly photography.

https://ewenbell.com/blog/Butterflies_in_Bhutan

#Bhutan #LongReads #Photography #FlutterByes #Himalayas #Butterflies

I really wish I didn't have to make a living and instead could just wander the Himalayas looking for meadows where butterflies enjoy the morning light.

Azure Sapphire here, male.

#Bhutan #Phobjikha #Photography #Lumix #FlutterByes #Himalayas #Butterflies #AzureSapphire #Heliophorus #BlueMood

What an amazing day! It was coolish and very damp this morning in Trongsa. I spotted one of these fellas just posing, next to the female. Then saw another. And as the morning progressed I realised they were everywhere :)

I was too slow to capture the female. They flitter off quickly. But the boys just hang about and show off their colours.

Azure Sapphire
(Heliophorus moorei)

#Bhutan #Phobjikha #Photography #Lumix #FlutterByes #Himalayas #Butterflies #AzureSapphire #Heliophorus #BlueMood

Saw a heap of Junonia today, some of them in a romantic mood. Slightly different markings at this spot in Trongsa compared to the Thimphu or Nobding shots I got the other week.

Just adore these little gems.

#Bhutan #Trongsa #Photography #Lumix #FlutterByes #Himalayas #Butterflies #Entomology #BugLife #JunoniaOrithya

Seconds later I got a cheeky glimpse of a Heliophorus (Sapphire).

I feel I've wasted my life when instead I could be sitting in a cow paddock at 2900m looking for little flappy blues.

#Bhutan #Phobjikha #Photography #Lumix #FlutterByes #Himalayas #Butterflies #BugLife #BlueMood

One of those teeny tiny little butterflies that might be a sapphire or might not and my only reference for Bhutanese blues doesn't actually show the upper wings for most of the species.

I do love how every flash of blue fluttering by could be something totally new to my eyes.

#Bhutan #Phobjikha #Photography #Lumix #FlutterByes #Himalayas #Butterflies #BugLife #BlueMood

Just a little update to the Emerald Tiger Moth (Callindra principalis) seen zipping about Bhutan at 2900m.

I first saw one two days ago, and posted those pics above. But then yesterday while visiting Gangtey Gonpa another one landed right in front of me while walking the grounds of the gonpa!

#Mothstodon

#Bhutan #Phobjikha #Photography #Lumix #FlutterByes #Himalayas #Butterflies #NotButterflies #MothOrMonster #Callindra #TigerMoth

Saw a little Grass Dart and until today I did not know they existed. The wings look like they were designed in Sweden, so elegant and sleek.

Maybe Notocrypta curvifascia (Restricted Demon)

#Taractrocera #Bhutan #Punakha #Photography #Lumix #FlutterByes #Himalayas #Butterflies #NotocryptaCurvifascia