A Cute Baby Bulbul on Tecoma Stans

Tecoma stans never disappoints, producing lovely canary yellow blooms throughout the year, rain or shine.

Its a low maintenance plant, needing a slight pruning once in a while to keep it trim and neat.


This bush of Tecoma stans has played host to many bird nests, so its no wonder that fledglings are commonly seen on it.





I spied this solitary baby bird perched forlornly on a branch of Tecoma stans.





The Bird's nest fern below the branch seems the perfect foil for chilling out.

 
 
 
It perked up after a while and appeared ready to face  the world.


The striae leads the flower fly into its inner sanctum.

Having fully indulged, it crawled on the soft velvety petals to exit.

Thunbergia Grandiflora - A Sky Blue Curtain

I have this vine of Thunbergia Grandiflora and Tristellateia australasiae (Maiden's jealousy) planted on the right side of the house. Both were trained to clamber up the wall and cascade down the front of the car porch.

The Tristellateia australasiae vine is slower growing and just managed to reached the top of the porch. Its canary yellow flowers can be seen peeking out on the right side.

 This photo was shot in the late afternoon, so a number of blooms have wilted under the searing heat of the sun.


Over time this curtain gradually grew thick and lush.






The sky-blue flowers are the favourites of Carpenter bees.





A carpenter bee buzzes in without much ceremony.

  Thunbergia blooms on vine intertwined merrily with a tecoma stans shrub.

The flaming red spikes of Alpinia purpurata (Red ginger torch) added a dollop of dramatic pigments to an otherwise pastel curtain of sky-blue flowers.

Ants at a gathering on the underside of the leaf.

Come dusk, it was chow-down time for this scavenger snail.



A vessel of freshly-plucked flowers make for a welcoming eye candy.

Ruellia Elegans and Sunbirds

The various flowering plants in the garden are a great source of delight as they bring in the birds. The easy to plant Ruellia elegans is one such plant. They bloom year round and the birds visit daily. Any time that I step out into the garden, there would be avian activities to amuse me.

I saw this cluster of red Ruellia elegans flowers bobbing up and down and sure enough a sunbird was busy nectaring.

 

 

It sipped with its fine curved beak, while at the same time looking up intermittently to watch out for signs of danger.

At the slightest sound, it flew off to secure perches, but returned soon after.

 
  The bud with fine silvery hairs.

 
 
The pretty bloom.

 
 
 
It dropped of after two to three days, but still attached to the plant through a fine filament of the reproductive system.
  
 
After the flower had completely detached.

 
 Ruellia elegans and Tecoma stans.

Thanks to Andrea of Kalantikan, Ruellia is spelt without the 's'. I've make the correction.

Pleasing Visits From The Jacintha Egg-fly

Of late, the Jacintha Egg-fly (Hypolimnas bolina jacintha) have descended on my garden and designated it as one of their playgrounds. They fluttered in and out, taking sweet 'tea breaks' on flowers and breathers on foliage and other assorted objects.

Love is like a butterfly: It goes where it pleases and it pleases wherever it goes. ~ Anonymous

 

One of these lovely butterflies decided to be adventurous and fluttered onto the blades of a toy wind-mill.

Here it spread its wings, displaying its beautiful blue-fringed white markings, indicating that its a male. The bright yellow bells of Tecoma stans beckon in the background.

Yellow Tecoma stans with red Alpinia purpurata in the background.

The reticulated leaf of Pseuderanthemum reticulatum under full sunshine made an attractive landing pad

 for this male Hypolimnas bolina jacintha to chill out. With the wings folded up, it looked completely different; just brown and white colouring without the the bluish tinge.

Nearby, another male Jacintha Egg-fly settled on the leaves of a Hibiscus bush, H. rosa-sinensis 'snowflake'.

The male Great Egg Fly can easily be distinguished from the females by the circular markings on the upper side of its wings.

It is rather difficult to differentiate from the underside.

It then fluttered to the leaves of Bauhenia kockiana. The red buds of Ruellias elegans can be seen in the background.


An inflorescence of Bauhenia kockiana. 


 Another one of these butterflies landed on the leaf of Ochna Kirkii. Here it perched unperturbly and actually ignored my presence.

Ochna Kirkii aka Mickey Mouse plant.

When it got tired of verdant surroundings, it flew to a wooden post for a change of ambience.


This female Hypolimnas bolina is taking a breather on the leaves of ...


 Quisqualis indica aka Rangoon creeper.

 The egg-like markings are absent on the females.

 

Sometimes, when at rest, it slowly opens and closes its wings.

They tend to take a respite from the scorching sun by hanging upside down on the underside of leaves. A favourite hangout is the Baphia nitida which is a border or hedge plant in the garden.

The leaves of Baphia nitida have a light pandan plant () fragrance. However there is no discernible scent from the flower.


It even landed on the dustpan.


This must be a very curious female Jacintha Egg-fly!

Hibiscus rosa-sinensis 'snowflake' is a flower much favoured by butterflies.