Damsel in distress

Another extremely hot and humid day, but this time I was properly tooled up for a blip safari, with UV block, bandana, scruffy shorts and knee bandages. I headed back to the stream by the concrete pond, to start some insect work.

I must have gotten down and dirty to about twenty of this new (to me) species of red dragon with colored wings, but I just could not get close enough as they are very skittish. The same is true for all the other red dragons and is probably a result of their extreme coloration which does not exactly blend them into their surroundings. I guess the red dragon will be an ongoing project. Plenty of new butterflies too, but again, I am not managing to get close enough yet.

I have also found what I suspected that was manufacturing all these large webs along the stream, yes, the illusive golden orb weaving spider that I have mentioned a few times in previous blips. It will take me a few sessions to figure out the best way to capture a decent image of this most impressive arachnid, as they tend to be inaccessible, hanging over the stream and the rich vegetation is making the lighting very poor, but I will figure it out. I am also still searching for a decent size specimen, rather than blip something mediocre. I will warn you the day before I do the spider blip. This is possible because the spiders do not move from day to day and so make guaranteed blips.

An hour into the session and I was joined by young Fitri, whom I blipped back in February. She had obviously spotted my bike parked up and came looking for me. It was quite fun having a companion so young assisting my on the safari, although in some circles back in the UK it might be deemed totally inappropriate, but what can I do!

Fitri was very helpful too. She picked the cluster of fungi, saving me the effort of having to climb down to collect the potential blip. She even caught a butterfly in her sticky little mitts so that it would not fly off before I could capture the image. However, with little Fitri skipping along ahead of me with blatant disregard for the extreme stealth that I was demonstrating, running up to see what I was photographing every time I got down to my knees, it became plainly obvious that the safari was concluded. Still, more than enough material in the can.

On the way back, I met farmer Maman again, this time accompanied by his charming wife. I resisted the temptation of extracting a blip, as by now sun was directly overhead and not the best lighting to capture her dark complexion, earned by her hard work in the fields. Another day for sure.

So I did, "Goodbye my darling" to my young friend and listened to her repeating the same as I rode off into the distance.

Dave