Butterflies & Dragonflies of Java & Sumatra

These are some of the butterflies and dragonflies that I photo'd in Java and Sumatra in August 2026. There are a few I've not specifically identified, please leave a comment if you can offer a suggestion.

Butterflies on Java

Angled Castor Ariadne ariadne

Chocolate Pansy Junonia iphita

Common Cerulean Jamides celena

Cyrestis lutea

Papilio arjuna

Butterflies on Sumatra

Papilio sataspes

Cyclops Brushbrown Mycalesis mnasicles

Common Jester Symbrenthia hippoclus

Common Jester underside

Chocolate Pansy underside

Jungle Jade Swallowtail Papilio karna

Common Cruiser Vindula erota

Wizard Rhinopalpa polynice

Wizard underside

Circe Hestinalis nama

Veined Grass Dart Taractrocera luzonensis

Malayan Lacewing Cethosia hypsea

Short-banded Sailor Neptis columella

Dragonflies on Java

Orthretrum sp

Dragonflies on Sumatra

Vestalis lugens

Neurothemis sp

Treehugger Tyriobapta torrida

India Part 1

This was a private trip to Southern India concentrating on the Western Ghats endemics organised via Bluetail Birding with a short pre-tour extension.

Monday 17^th

I met up with Lynne and Neil airside at Heathrow T3 mid-afternoon and we headed for the nearest coffee shop. It wasn’t long before we were boarding our 18:00 Virgin flight to Mumbai. I’d elected for Premium Economy for the extra legroom and the welcome drink of prosecco also went down nicely!

Tuesday 18^th

We landed at 08.20 local time in India’s second largest city, home to 23 million people. Black Kite kicked off our trip list with a few seen floating around the airport. Once through immigration we collected our bags and met up with our driver who took us a short distance through the city to our hotel. We couldn’t check in for a while and then decided to rest up for the remainder of the day as we had nothing scheduled.

Wednesday 19^th

We had a very early start as we had to drive out of the vast city and northwards to Tansa. We picked up our guide, Prathamesh Desai, at a nearby rail station and arrived at the reserve at 7am having consumed our packed breakfast. The day was all about seeing Forest Owlet but there was time for general birding as well. Green Warbler was heard as soon as we got out of the car and we heard many more during the day and did eventually see one. We taped in a Mottled Wood Owl which flew over the clearing a couple of times being pursued by mobbing Black Drongos and briefly landed where we could see it before disappearing back into the forest.

Mottled Wood Owl with mobbing Drongos

We drove a short distance to the main area for the owlet and one soon started to call. It took a while to get decent views but the pair decided to give themselves up in the end. Also seen in the area were Thick-billed Flowerpecker, Indian Grey Hornbill and Alexandrine Parakeet. We went to a nearby location and saw another Forest Owlet – there are several known territories in the area.

Forest Owlet

With the main target safely in the bag we spent the rest of the day birding the area seeing Rufous Treepie, Indian Golden and Black-hooded Orioles and Grey-breasted Prinia. We stopped at a bridge over a river where several Chiffchaffs (probably Siberian) and a Blyth’s Reed Warbler were feeding. In the sunshine, raptors began to appear and Oriental Honey-Buzzard and White-eyed Buzzard were both seen.

Asian Green Bee-eater

Black Drongo

Indian Golden Oriole

Malabar Woodshrike

White-eyed Buzzard

Yellow-throated Sparrow

We went off for lunch and a rest at the reserve where we were entertained by a family of Peafowl chicks that had been rescued and had soon adopted people as substitute parents, one even climbing up me and falling asleep on my shoulder! 

Reserve entrance - made out of plastic trees!

napping Peafowl chick

We resuming birding the area in the afternoon; it was a lot quieter but we did manage to find Red-headed Bunting, Small Minivet and Cinereous Tit before stopping at 17:30. 

Blue Tigers

Common Sailor

Common Tiger

A couple of unidentified frogs

Large Wood Spider

Slender Skimmer

We dropped our guide back at the station and started the long drive back to Mumbai where the evening rush hour had ground the traffic to a crawl and we didn’t get back to our hotel until 21:15, some three and three-quarter hours later. We had a late dinner then packed for tomorrow’s departure. 

July birding

July typically sees the true start of autumn migration, especially with waders and this was definitely the case this year. There was also plenty of fine settled weather to look for insects as well.

Rainham Marshes

I've started increasing my visits to Rainham after the midsummer break and went seven times this month. I added two new birds to my London yearlist: a Crossbill heard flying over the woodland and a moulting Ruff that was present most of the month.

Ruff with a Black-headed Gull

Also around on the reserve were five Great Egrets, regularly seen feeding out in Aveley Pools. They appear to be a family party so may have bred in the vicinity.

4 of the 5 Great Egrets

A couple of Green Sands hung around but there was no sign of the hoped for Wood Sand so that'll have to wait for next month. Black-tailed Godwits streamed back in decent numbers, mostly still sporting their summer dress.

Black-tailed Godwits

Dragonflies were regularly seen, taking advantage of the sunny weather. On one particularly day I saw Norfolk Hawker, Lesser Emperor and Southern Migrant Hawker, all recent colonists. I still haven't photo'd the last two so I'll keep trying for those. Butterflies are still a bit thin on the ground, possibly due to the heatwaves we've had drying all the vegetation up. I did manage to see a Clouded Yellow on one visit. As usual, Jersey Tigers were frequently seen.

Jersey Tiger

Dagenham Chase

I put in a lot of effort this month with 18 visits. The Slack continued to dry up during the month despite the odd day of heavy rain and a few days of pumping water into it. Green Sands were present on most days with up to six seen but the best wader on show was a Black-tailed Godwit that remained for the entire day and was my first one on the patch.

Black-tailed Godwit and 2 Moorhen

A Great Egret decided that a stretch of the River Rom was to its liking and remained for a couple of weeks. Although mostly visible from the main road by the entrance to Grenfell Park, it often wandered down the river towards The Chase and could be hard to find.

I spent a lot of time searching the elms and oaks for hairstreaks but couldn't find a single one. Gatekeepers were everywhere and I did manage the odd Common Blue.

Common Blue

I also went round all the ponds and lakes regularly looking for the afore-mentioned London colonists but haven't had any success so far.

female Banded Demoiselle

Beam Parklands

I visited seven times in July. My local patch was in the news mid-month when a wildfire burnt a large section of it and got quite close to some adjacent houses. This is the third year in a row that there's been a fire here and while the grassland has already started to recover following some rain, the gorse bushes took a severe battering and may not recover.

Bird wise it was fairly quiet until the last week of the month when I saw my first Buzzard of the year and, even better, heard my first ever Green Sandpiper on the patch.

I also popped into Barking Riverside and Mayesbrook Park but both sites were fairly quiet. Hopefully things will be busier in August.

June birding

June is often a quiet month for birding and with long spells of hot dry weather in the capital, it was particularly slow. I usually turn my attention to insecting instead but even that was hard at times with dried out waterways and vegetation.

Beam Parklands

I visited my local patch five times in June and walked up into Beam Valley CP a few times as well. The Cuckoo was still calling and warblers such as Blackcap, Common & Lesser Whitethroats started singing again after raising their first brood. Small and Essex Skippers were both found after a bit of searching along with a few other common butterflies but the only dragonfly seen was Black-tailed Skimmer.

Pair of Black-tailed Skimmers

Dagenham Chase

I managed a respectable 14 visits this month. From the middle of the month there were clear signs of the autumn migration commencing with a rise in the number of Lapwings on The Slack (reaching 20 by the end) and the first returning Black-headed Gulls. The water level is severely low at the moment but they are proposing to start pumping water into it this week.

I spent a lot of time searching all the elm trees for White-letter Hairstreak but to no avail. Although there are a lot of elms, there's very few mature ones as the rest have succumbed to Dutch Elm Disease. 

Last year I saw a lot of damselflies on Crowfoot Marsh but haven't found any this year and I suspect it's because of the dogs that go into the water. If the dogs have been treated with a particularly toxic anti-tick/flea treatment it washes off in the water and kills off all the insects.

Despite all this I still managed to find a reasonable number of insects here this month. After finding the first Marbled Whites in the area last year, their colonisation continues and this year they've expanded their range out of Fels Field.

Black-and-Yellow Longhorn Beetle

Marbled White

Red Admiral

Ringlet

Rainham Marshes

I went to Rainham three times but only did the loop around the reserve once. I was particularly targeting dragons and damsels and managed six species, a fairly low total as it was a struggle to find any damselflies. I was especially pleased to find and photograph Norfolk Hawker as that was my main target for the day.

Norfolk Hawker

Ruddy Darter

Small Red-eyed Damselflies

I also had a wander around the country lanes outside of Rainham Village hoping to find some partridges. I didn't manage any but instead saw a Barn Owl which was probably bird of the month.

Goresbrook Park

This small park is a couple of minutes walk from my house but I rarely visit it as it's a bit hopeless. A river runs through it - The Gores - but is hideously choked with Himalayan Balsam. There's been some attempt to plant trees and shrubs but they're mostly dead which is a shame as it could be a nice place with a bit more effort. I had a wander round looking for butterflies, most of which were feeding on a Buddleia.

Comma

South London

I ventured south of the river a couple of times, first to Epsom Common to look for Black Hairstreak. It was just my second visit to this site, the first being many years ago to see a Little Bittern. It's a fairly easy journey on the train but there are some very specific instructions to follow to get to the hedge the hairstreaks live on. 

As we got there I saw one fly past and then never saw any more for the whole time we were searching. We met a few other people who were also searching but they hadn't found any although they had been seen earlier in the week. I'll give it another go next year. At least there were other butterflies and insects around and we got great views of White Admirals.

Variable Longhorn Beetle

White Admiral

The following week we went to Crossness where the Ruddy Shelduck was located on the foreshore. It was one of the hot days so we only walked part of the route and took a bus  back to Abbey Wood station.

Ruddy Shelduck

Small Red-eyed Damselflies

The dry summer has taken its toll on my garden and everything is looking like it belongs in the Atacama Desert. However, the few flowers that are thriving have been a boon for insects and I found a few Small Skippers on the lavender in my front garden and, best of all, a Bee Beetle in the back garden, a really stunning insect.

Bee Beetle