Queensland butterflies

Some of the butterflies I've seen in Conway National Park, Airlie Beach. No idea what they are - I left my books at home.

Fellow campers

We settled ourselves into a spot in a caravan park at Airlee Beach for a couple of weeks. Two Bush-stone-curlews standing very still under a tree - maybe under the impression that we couldn’t see them - watched us very carefully as we set up our van. They growled if we got too close. I didn’t know stone-curlews do that.

We relaxed into our camp chairs ... and saw a big blue butterfly land in a shrub several metres away. That was the end of relaxing.

It was a male Common Eggfly Butterfly Hypolimnas bolina nerina (known in New Zealand as the Blue Moon Butterfly). Apparently each male defends a territory about 30-40 metres apart and usually rests on a leaf one or two metres above the ground. This particular butterfly was not very active so I was able to get a reasonable photo.

Views from the boardwalk

The tide was out but a little pond of saltwater remained near the mangroves. It looked very dull and murky but then we noticed several schools of tiny fish. I couldn't get a clear image on the LCD screen on my camera but took several photos anyway. After I'd downloaded them to the computer, cropped the image a little and corrected the colour balance I was amazed to see colourful little fish appear on the screen. I've no idea what they are.

And I don't know what this little skink is either. Two of them were on the wooden fence near the beach. (Update: Apparently it's a Wall Skink Cryptoblepharus virgatus.)

An almanac of essays

I'm missing my library of reference books, but have decided that names are an artificial adjunct of progress anyway, and that I can just enjoy the environment. A friend gave me Aldo Leopold's A Sand County Almanac to read and I brought it away with me. The essays on conservation were written half a century ago but they are now a classic and I'm enjoying them immensely. Every second paragraph seems to have a 'quotable quote' and one or two might find their way into this blog. If you haven't read it try and get a copy from your library asap.

A bit of this and that

A few of the things I noticed in Conway National Park today.

A bottler of a tree

This tree is only found within 40 km of Airlie beach. It's a Bracychiton compactus and the locals have called it the Whitsunday Bottle Tree. It's currently listed as 'rare' under the Queensland Nature Conservation Act (1994).

The local council decided last year to survey the distribution of this tree, to determine whether it is under threat from urban development. Of course it is, but luckily it is growing in several reserves and is easy to propagate. One tree we found is on a new subdivision, sprouting pink tape and barrier cloth. Will it survive? We saw another at Shute Harbour in a reserve, and another, pictured below, beside a car pull-over.

The remarkable thing about brachychitons is that they store water in their bottle-shaped stems. Some of the bottle trees in northern Australia are remarkable shapes and we (and tourists) love them. The Whitsunday Bottle Tree isn't as big or as spectacular but still it should be protected. If I owned the block of land below I'd be making a highlight of the tree in my garden. I hope the new owners do as well.

Views from a boardwalk

We've escaped from the cold, wet and windy weather in Geelong. Here in Airlie Beach it's sunny and over 20 degrees. This morning we walked the 5 km boardwalk along the beautiful foreshore, had an icecream (selecting from the 40 varieties available and choosing not to have a Freddo Frog or Smarties or snakes mashed into it), and caught the bus home because we were exhausted from having a good time.

This is a beautiful area, and the developers are having a field day. The mangroves are getting a hammering but I think most of what is left will survive because of the boardwalk. But then we get blokes like this, pictured below, who thinks it's OK to clear an area to pull the boat up into.

Right near the centre of town, between the man-made swimming lagoon and the man-made marina there is a stretch of mangroves and it is there that we saw an Australian Brush-turkey playing with a coconut, and a male Great Bowerbird tending to his bower in amongst the mangrove stems a metre from the path. All of his decorations were green.

And suspended from a branch of a eucalypt was this metre-long construction that I thought was a wasp nest but I'm out of my comfort zone here. I've really got no idea! Any suggestions?