It was pouring cats and dogs at 3am in the morning but the rain had stopped way before daybreak.
It was not the most spectacular sunrise.
Still, it makes for a beautiful dawn and an interesting sky.
Looking east there's the sunrise coming up but over on the western shores, it was storming up...
The way I see it... "This Morning".
What a morning!
I was out of the house before the twilight hours and did not get home again till six hours later. And, no, I do not have another sunrise photo to boot but I have had a field day with birds and dragonflies. Even the cows had put on a head-butting show for me!
The truth is that I had intended to get more photos of the dawn skies but it just did not happen. Not that the sky was not pretty this morning but I wanted to check out another location and it was the wrong choice. Anyway, that spurred me to move on to other sites and it was a step in the right direction for the rest of the morning. Lucky!
After checking out a few ponds and found to my dismay that the dragonflies seem to be sleeping in, I spent a fair bit of time birdwatching instead. And it was great! But the birds and the cows would be for another story and that can wait till another day.
What I am excited about is the dragonfly that I finally did identify today. I have mentioned this red dragonfly before in one of my earlier ramblings.
Anyway, there were two different species that I saw this morning that I have yet to identify for the Langkawi checklist. But I scored one. Both are rather large dragonflies, one is red and the other is brown. Both were patrolling a big area in the padi fields, their paths sometimes intersect, but they were not bothered about each other. And both were flying up and down and around everywhere quite relentlessly. From time to time, they would disappear from the fields but I could not see where they had gone to perch.
I found a shady spot and sat to watch the dragonflies. After a long wait, the large, red dragonfly finally did perch on a twig high up in a tree next to me and I was in a mad, mad scramble to get the right setting on my camera to shoot it. I was not the most successful, but I did get one photo. Lucky, again!
This mysterious red dragonfly is the Tramea transmarina of the family Libellulidae. It is a large dragonfly with the male having hindwing length of 43mm and recognised by the dark patch at the base of its hindwing. The Pocket Guide says that this species is widespread in tropical Asia.
It also says that the female has brown abdomen... so that makes me wonder?
So far, this is only the second time I have seen this dragonfly and I had spotted just two individuals this morning so it does not seem to be a common species to me, or at least not locally abundant here. Add to that, the last one was eaten up by a Bee-eater!
And, actually, I do have another photo of the morning sky...
Since I got up early this morning, I thought I'd go catch that witching hour at twilight. But then I got caught up with some other stuff instead and was a bit too late.....
Nevertheless, I did catch the good sol breaking through over the hills and caught the morning's first rays on my face.
The highway early this morning.
The skies at dawn.
The sun rising behind Gunung Raya...
...and then caught behind some clouds.
Early morning haze in the hills beyond the padi fields.
And, finally... blue skies over Langkawi.
This is bliss.....
"You're wolfing down your food."
A friend pointed out to me one afternoon when I was having a late lunch. Most people would find this hard to believe as they know me to be a slow eater and I am always chewing my food. But I was so hungry that day, I was really shoving "fried mee hoon" into my mouth. And I was practically just swallowing them. I didn't care if I was eating like a hog.
Or perhaps it might be apt to say I was eating like a dragonfly?
Here's a look at feeding time for these dragonflies and damselflies and a few other insects...
The Orthetrum sabina wolfing down its meal of another dragonfly, of the Crocothemis spp.
The Brachythemis contaminata, a male, had caught a damselfly and the first thing it did was chomp off its head.
A female Brachythemis contaminata feeding on a damselfly of the Pseudagrion spp.
The Ischnura senegalensis subduing another dragonfly, the Agriocnemis femina, to secure it for its meal.
A damselfly, the Pseudagrion microcephalum, feeding on a spider it had caught.
And here's a spider feeding on a damselfly of the Ischnura spp.
Another damselfly, the Pseudagrion microcephalum, that had fallen prey to a spider.
A robber fly feeding on a blow fly
There is nothing like a bit of a walk and a lot of nature for some healing powers to kick off the feelings of lethargy or restlessness and to uplift the spirits.
Initially I had thought I would just sweat it out going up the 4287 steps to the top of Gunung Raya. In the end, nature prevailed and I took a slower-paced walk mid-way up the 881m mountain. Along the way, I took the time to listen to the symphonies of the forest; of birds chirping and cicadas singing, I immersed myself in the greenery of the surroundings, feasted my eyes on everything that I could feast on and breathed in lungfuls of fresh air.
Being close to nature always work wonders in healing the mind, body and soul.
The buttress roots of a rainforest tree.
A fig tree that towered over me. Figs are a source of food for birds and primates.
The green canopy.
Green leaves of a young plant and young shoots of a tree.
Beautiful, lush white fungi.
Seeds.
A Lucilia Blow Fly (Diptera: Calliphoridae)
A plant bug.
Also spotted several Dusky Leaf Langgurs, a Great Hornbill and a snake, though I could not identify it as yet. It was about 30-35cm in length and its diameter about the same size or smaller than my little finger. The head section is an orangey-reddish colour that extended down about a third of its length. The rest of its body is a bronze-brown colour. Again, no snake photos!
Another blue damselfly!
Don't ask me how I knew this would turn out to be a different species when I decided to take this photo. I didn't. I had thought it seemed a bit different and, true enough, it is different from all those other blue damselflies that I have come across previously.
This little blue damselfly is the Aciagrion hisopa of the family Coenagrionidae and this species is common in open areas. The males have hindwing length of 17.5mm, S8-10 of its abdomen is blue and there is also the distinctive markings on its head.
View of the head and thorax of the Aciagrion hisopa.
S8-10 of the abdomen
Blue damselflies aside, perhaps I've got a bit of the blues too. I am quite used to being on my own but since that hectic weekend in the valley, being home by myself is just not quite the same. I am restless. Anyway, I am sure I will get back into the swing of things soon enough.
And, perhaps, all I need right now is just another dose of nature.....
