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Ewen Bell · @ewen
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These guys have been our constant companions while staying in this patch of forest near Paro. Rain or sunshine, they are flitting about and adding a touch of joy to the landscape.

I wish I'd spent a little more time capturing them now. Instead, I let the fancy ones distract me too often! I have the same problem with donuts.

#bhutan #paro #photography #lumix #flutterbyes #himalayas #butterflies #ypthima #notadonut

Last updated 1 year ago
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Ewen Bell · @ewen
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These fellas were more interested in licking rocks, for salt or minerals or whatever, than flying away from my lens. A real treat for my walk this morning.

Western Courtier (Sephisa dichroa).

#bhutan #paro #photography #lumix #flutterbyes #himalayas #butterflies #sephisadichroa #saltlickers

Last updated 1 year ago
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Ewen Bell · @ewen
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Gonna try to get some clearer pics of this guy tomorrow. I saw a pair of them looping around that same patch of forest today, I think I can find them again tomorrow.

Might be hard to get an ID than get a photo though. Crazy gorgeous stone-like lower wing, then electric blue streaks on the upper.

#bhutan #bumthang #photography #lumix #flutterbyes #himalayas #butterflies #weirdbugsarecoolbugs

Last updated 1 year ago
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Ewen Bell · @ewen
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Me in the morning vs me in the afternoon.

#bhutan #bumthang #photography #lumix #flutterbyes #himalayas #butterflies

Last updated 1 year ago
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Ewen Bell · @ewen
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I'll wrap it up there. I could have spent hours at the site observing all the moths and trying to capture them with a little more art. Bhutan throws all manner of surprises at me, but rarely something so impressive and unexpected.

Hope you enjoyed getting a glimpse into this world too.

10/10

་སྡེབ་སྦྱིས་མཆོད་རྟེན།

#mothstodon #སྤྱན #bhutan #chendebji #photography #lumix #flutterbyes #himalayas #butterflies #notbutterflies #mothstothelight

Last updated 1 year ago
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Ewen Bell · @ewen
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I just can't express how much I love those 60s and 70s designs on some of these critters. Pure art. I couldn't paint something beautiful if I tried.

9/x

་སྡེབ་སྦྱིས་མཆོད་རྟེན།

#mothstodon #སྤྱན #bhutan #chendebji #photography #lumix #flutterbyes #himalayas #butterflies #notbutterflies #mothstothelight #NatureIsArt

Last updated 1 year ago
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Ewen Bell · @ewen
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A hint of yellow in the colour range too. I can dig it.

8/x

་སྡེབ་སྦྱིས་མཆོད་རྟེན།

#mothstodon #སྤྱན #bhutan #chendebji #photography #lumix #flutterbyes #himalayas #butterflies #notbutterflies #mothstothelight

Last updated 1 year ago
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Ewen Bell · @ewen
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There was more than months too. Beetles were drawn in by the light, big ones! Many of these were still alive. One in particular was so feisty, even flipped upside-down.

I righted him up and he tried to murder me. Nature is dangerous people!

5/x

་སྡེབ་སྦྱིས་མཆོད་རྟེན།

#beetles #སྤྱན #bhutan #chendebji #photography #lumix #flutterbyes #himalayas #butterflies #notbutterflies #mothstothelight

Last updated 1 year ago
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Ewen Bell · @ewen
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I can tell you the Chendebji is covered in white lime. The stupa and shorten at very very white.

But in recent times they repainted and added some super bright flood lights. When I stepped closer to these, I found literally thousands of dead moths.

Not to say they wouldn't have died somewhere in the forest anyway, but it seemed very sad.

4/x

་སྡེབ་སྦྱིས་མཆོད་རྟེན།

#mothstodon #སྤྱན #bhutan #chendebji #photography #lumix #flutterbyes #himalayas #butterflies #notbutterflies #mothstothelight

Last updated 1 year ago
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Ewen Bell · @ewen
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The sheer variety of moths in one tiny little space was amazing. But why?

I did notice that a lot of them were white. And one particular species far outnumbered the others. The doorway was awash with moths.

I know next to nothing about moths myself. I've only just tuned my brain into being more aware of butterflies.

3/x

་སྡེབ་སྦྱིས་མཆོད་རྟེན།

#mothstodon #སྤྱན #bhutan #chendebji #photography #lumix #flutterbyes #himalayas #butterflies #notbutterflies #mothstothelight

Last updated 1 year ago
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Ewen Bell · @ewen
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I want to tell a little story about a stupa in Bhutan called Chendibji, a beautiful place I have visited many times but has a sad story.

It's a special place for Bhutanese, a spiritual place surrounded by wild forests. Recently they restored the stupa and chorten and installed immense flood lights to illuminate at night.

Moths flock to it.

1/x

་སྡེབ་སྦྱིས་མཆོད་རྟེན།

#mothstodon #སྤྱན #bhutan #chendebji #photography #lumix #flutterbyes #himalayas #butterflies #notbutterflies #mothstothelight

Last updated 1 year ago
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Ewen Bell · @ewen
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At first I thought they only liked yellow flowers but then... plot twist!

Copper on purple. Bhutan style.

#bhutan #bumthang #photography #lumix #flutterbyes #himalayas #butterflies #commoncopper #lycaena

Last updated 1 year ago
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Ewen Bell · @ewen
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Some days you just see the same species over and over, as though somebody cleaned your glasses and suddenly the things that were right in front of you are clear to see.

#bhutan #punakha #photography #lumix #flutterbyes #himalayas #butterflies #commoncopper #lycaena

Last updated 1 year ago
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Ewen Bell · @ewen
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Went to a festival in Bhutan. Found a giant yellow moth.

#bhutan #bumthang #photography #lumix #flutterbyes #himalayas #notbutterflies #bigyellowmoth #mothstodon

Last updated 1 year ago
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Ewen Bell · @ewen
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A little reminder that I wrote a few words about how I shoot these images, and why Bhutan is such a peach of a place for butterfly photography.

ewenbell.com/blog/Butterflies_

#bhutan #longreads #photography #flutterbyes #himalayas #butterflies

Last updated 1 year ago
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Ewen Bell · @ewen
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I really wish I didn't have to make a living and instead could just wander the Himalayas looking for meadows where butterflies enjoy the morning light.

Azure Sapphire here, male.

#bhutan #phobjikha #photography #lumix #flutterbyes #himalayas #butterflies #azuresapphire #heliophorus #bluemood

Last updated 1 year ago
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Ewen Bell · @ewen
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What an amazing day! It was coolish and very damp this morning in Trongsa. I spotted one of these fellas just posing, next to the female. Then saw another. And as the morning progressed I realised they were everywhere :)

I was too slow to capture the female. They flitter off quickly. But the boys just hang about and show off their colours.

Azure Sapphire
(Heliophorus moorei)

#bhutan #phobjikha #photography #lumix #flutterbyes #himalayas #butterflies #azuresapphire #heliophorus #bluemood

Last updated 1 year ago
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Ewen Bell · @ewen
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Saw a heap of Junonia today, some of them in a romantic mood. Slightly different markings at this spot in Trongsa compared to the Thimphu or Nobding shots I got the other week.

Just adore these little gems.

#bhutan #trongsa #photography #lumix #flutterbyes #himalayas #butterflies #entomology #buglife #junoniaorithya

Last updated 1 year ago
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Ewen Bell · @ewen
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Seconds later I got a cheeky glimpse of a Heliophorus (Sapphire).

I feel I've wasted my life when instead I could be sitting in a cow paddock at 2900m looking for little flappy blues.

#bhutan #phobjikha #photography #lumix #flutterbyes #himalayas #butterflies #buglife #bluemood

Last updated 1 year ago
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Ewen Bell · @ewen
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Just a little update to the Emerald Tiger Moth (Callindra principalis) seen zipping about Bhutan at 2900m.

I first saw one two days ago, and posted those pics above. But then yesterday while visiting Gangtey Gonpa another one landed right in front of me while walking the grounds of the gonpa!

#mothstodon #bhutan #phobjikha #photography #lumix #flutterbyes #himalayas #butterflies #notbutterflies #mothormonster #callindra #tigerMoth

Last updated 1 year ago
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