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
#Mothstodon #སྤྱན་སྡེབ་སྦྱིས་མཆོད་རྟེན། #Bhutan #Chendebji #Photography #Lumix #FlutterByes #Himalayas #Butterflies #NotButterflies #MothsToTheLight
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 that beautiful if I tried.
9/x
#Mothstodon #སྤྱན་སྡེབ་སྦྱིས་མཆོད་རྟེན། #Bhutan #Chendebji #Photography #Lumix #FlutterByes #Himalayas #Butterflies #NotButterflies #MothsToTheLight #NatureIsArt
A hint of yellow in the colour range too. I can dig it.
8/x
#Mothstodon #སྤྱན་སྡེབ་སྦྱིས་མཆོད་རྟེན། #Bhutan #Chendebji #Photography #Lumix #FlutterByes #Himalayas #Butterflies #NotButterflies #MothsToTheLight
None of these guys were doing a great job of hiding I might add. Most were just clinging to grooves in the side of the chorten. Many were on their last legs too, barely able to fly.
A few had camouflage more suited to the forest than a white washed temple.
7/x
#Mothstodon #སྤྱན་སྡེབ་སྦྱིས་མཆོད་རྟེན། #Bhutan #Chendebji #Photography #Lumix #FlutterByes #Himalayas #Butterflies #NotButterflies #MothsToTheLight
I was fascinated by this glimpse into the wild moths of Bhutan. Makes you wonder what else is hiding out there in the forests? You just need the right triggers to bring them "into the light".
I found one fluffy white moth with metallic teal spots. In the right light, the blue/green hues shine back at the lens.
6/x
#Mothstodon #སྤྱན་སྡེབ་སྦྱིས་མཆོད་རྟེན། #Bhutan #Chendebji #Photography #Lumix #FlutterByes #Himalayas #Butterflies #NotButterflies #MothsToTheLight
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
#སྤྱན་སྡེབ་སྦྱིས་མཆོད་རྟེན། #Bhutan #Chendebji #Photography #Lumix #Himalayas #Butterflies #NotButterflies #MothsToTheLight #StagBeetle
I can tell you that Chendebji is covered in white lime. The stupa and chorten are 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
#Mothstodon #སྤྱན་སྡེབ་སྦྱིས་མཆོད་རྟེན། #Bhutan #Chendebji #Photography #Lumix #FlutterByes #Himalayas #Butterflies #NotButterflies #MothsToTheLight
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
#Mothstodon #སྤྱན་སྡེབ་སྦྱིས་མཆོད་རྟེན། #Bhutan #Chendebji #Photography #Lumix #FlutterByes #Himalayas #Butterflies #NotButterflies #MothsToTheLight
Not just a few moths. But thousands and thousands of moths.
When I first stepped through the archway I noticed a few moths on the timber, then I noticed a few more. And the more I looked, the more I noticed.
I started taking photos. I was in a rush and a little confused. Not much art to my snaps. I just kept taking shots.
2/x
#Mothstodon #སྤྱན་སྡེབ་སྦྱིས་མཆོད་རྟེན། #Bhutan #Chendebji #Photography #Lumix #FlutterByes #Himalayas #Butterflies #NotButterflies #MothsToTheLight
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
#Mothstodon #སྤྱན་སྡེབ་སྦྱིས་མཆོད་རྟེན། #Bhutan #Chendebji #Photography #Lumix #FlutterByes #Himalayas #Butterflies #NotButterflies #MothsToTheLight
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!
This little guy had such a lovely paint job. Less of an "Evil Warlord" vibe and more "Let's play with paint tins".
When the local moths are even more colourful than the dancing monks! Just in awe of these miniature moments of nature flittering past me every time I take a walk outside.
Stopped to shoot some flowers on the drive today but got distracted by the bees. This little fella was loaded down with pollen sacks but still going in for more.
Dialed in my "birds in flight" custom setting for these shots, because the bees never really sit still. F2.8 with 1/2000th sec exposure and auto ISO.
