A rare butterfly spotting as well as great views had while hiking on a beautiful high visibility day (Photo-essay)

When I visited Fung Yuen Butterfly Reserve on a warm December day last year, I had interesting chats with a couple of staff members manning its Education Centre, including about the number and types of butterflies that have been spotted in the area.  At one point, one of the staffers got out a butterfly book and showed me images of those he considered to be the reserve's "stars": rare butterflies that the staffers as well as visitors get pretty excited and happy to see flitting about the place. 

After I mentioned that I had seen white dragontails about that day but had found it really difficult to take photos of them, the staffer noted that that species of butterfly is really hard to snap shots of because they seem to be always in motion.  Midway through our conversation though, it dawned on me that I did have a photo of a white dragontail seemingly at rest -- taken some time back on a hike to Ma On Shan Country Park's Ngong Ping plateau along the Ma On Shan Country Trail.

Seeing how the man's jaw dropped when I showed him the photo I had taken (which I had saved in my camera's memory card), I realized how unusual my photo is.  Ironically, on the spring day that I went on that hike, I actually had got far more excited at the high visibility we were enjoying -- something that is sadly not as commonplace as I'd like here in Hong Kong but still less rare, actually, than a white dragontail spotting and photographing! ;b

Behold, the photo of a white dragontail that wasn't in motion!

 

A less clear -- but still cool? -- snap shot of 

a white dragontail in flight

 

Hairy caterpillars spotted early on in the hike!

 

Hong Kong's beauty gets revealed when you can see

for miles and miles and miles :)

 

Incredibly, we could see not only High Junk Peak and

Tseung Kwan O but even Tung Lung Chau and Hong Kong 

Island from the Ngong Ping plateau that afternoon! :O

 

Yes, Hong Kong has grasslands! :)

 

Although I'd hiked along this trail before, I had not 

previously seen (or heard) the stream along the way 

with so much water flowing along it

 

One of the beauties of Hong Kong's having four seasons 

is that the scenery viewed on a trail you're on can look quite 

different from the previous time you cast your eyes on it :)