Tuesday, October 16, 2012

From Mount Parker down to Tai Tam Road (Photo-essay)

After getting up to the top of Mount Parker (as shown in my previous photo-essay), my hiking companion and I retraced our steps down to Quarry Gap, then headed southwards and then eastwards to Tai Tam Road via the southern section of Mount Parker Road and then Tai Tam Reservoir Road.  And lest there be any doubt: yes, there were plenty of critter spottings along the way to really make our day!

First though, we hung around a bit at the summit of Mount Parker to enjoy the views but also do such as take photos of a swallowtail butterfly (known as papilio bianor) -- a butterfly so big that in my early Hong Kong hiking days, I had initially mistaken it for a small bird when it flew swiftly past me!  Something else to note about this kind of butterfly is that it tends to beat its wings even while perched atop a flower, so it's really not easy or that usual for me to be able to get non-blurry photos of it -- and yet, on this particular hike, I somehow did!! :b

Although it may not look it, the butterfly in this photo...

...and the butterfly in this other photo 
are actually one and the same!

One more view from the top of Mount Parker -- this one
looking towards Shau Kei Wan (where the Hong Kong 
Victoria Harbour to Devil's Peak, Lei Yue Mun and Yau Tong

 
On the trunk of a tree at Quarry Gap, we spotted 

Then, on a bank of the Tai Tam Upper Reservoir, 
we caught sight of this good sized lizard!! :O

Also on the side of the Tai Tam Upper Reservoir
is this waterfall area that, if memory serves me
right, has its origins in a landslide

Water rapidly flows from the Tai Tam Byewash Reservoir

 The Tai Tam Tuk Reservoir offers up a much
calmer sight that same afternoon

3 comments:

sarah bailey knight said...

hi ytsl,

How close to the waterfall does the trail go? It looks very close from the photo. And a fun hike too.

alejna said...

Wow! These are all such striking photos. I would not have guessed that the 2 butterfly photos were the same butterfly. So neat! And you got two really spectacular photos of it.

Those stink bugs are also quite cool--so very colorful!

YTSL said...

Hi sbk --

There are trails that go fairly close by the waterfall but it's not as close as I'm thinking that you're thinking -- because the railings that you can see in the photo aren't for a public trail but slope management personnel and associated workers rather than members of the public. But yes, it was a fun hike. :)

Hi Alejna --

It's amazing how a single butterfly can look so different when its wings are folded versus when they are not, isn't it? (And in case you missed it, I've got another example at http://webs-of-significance.blogspot.hk/2012/10/camouflaged-creatures-with-focus-on.html ).

And re the stink bugs: they do look cool and colorful -- but I sure wouldn't want to smell their stink! ;b