Dispatches 24.1
‘Twas back to the hills near Westwood for me – the Needlies were calling again. I knew it was going to be hot as hell and I had tried to prepare accordingly. The brolly and the ultra-light hammock were packed. My co-hound’s flights were delayed several times and so we had a fairly late night – I’d never met the young one before and so there was an element of trepidation whilst waiting to pick him up. Thankfully we were aligned in many aspects and one of the unknowns for the trip had a pleasant resolution.
Up in the hills shortly after dawn the next day we began our constant vigil. Pretty quickly I realised that it was going to be a fairly slow trip – it was about 33°C by 0830 and the birds were quiet as a consequence. Thankfully the hilltops were alive with leps and this, along with some pleasant conversation, helped the first day pass pleasantly. The next day was a bit slower, with less sites to get around; this meant I was sniffing for a nice hammock location for the lunchtime break. A beautiful big old Brachychiton populneus sitting in a mini-SEVT patch was selected and after a bit of stuffing around I had a mint setup off the ground, in the deep shade and with a pleasant breeze. I was rereading HP – the Triwizard Tournament helped me get through the heat of the day in relative comfort… I grabbed a bunch of seeds from the SEVT before we left (Jasminum, a bunch from the Brachychiton and a couple of Denhamia disperma). Hopefully I will be setting up a hammock in a baby of the Brachy at Woodfordia in about 30 years time 🙂
The next day proceeded in much the same fashion, with one difference: the Lep activity had increased by an order of magnitude. The first interesting beast I noticed was Black-spotted Grass-blue (Famegana nisa) – I’d only seen one of these little cutey’s before hilltopping at Mt Gravatt in Brisbane. They seemed to be attracted to some Glycine but were only rarely landing. Up the top of the hill at the next site I bagged another that I’d only seen once – Southern Purple Azure (Ogyris genoveva). Nice! Traversing the ridge to our last site for the day I was feeling pretty flat, but all fatigue was blown away by the shocking appearance of several Jewelled Grass-blues at our count site. Damn… I’d been wanting this little beast for ages, and it completed my Grass-blue set. Unfortunately my real camera was about a kilometre (and 100 m or so of elevation) away so a shit digiscope was the best I could manage.
After one more day on the western side of the range, without much of interest to report beyond some nice Wedge-tailed Eagle encounters, we relocated to the east. We were staying in one of the most peculiar places I have ever visited: Mt Morgan. Presumably once a thriving town, the closure of the gold mine has led to a gradual dispersal of funds and people. What remains is a strange mixture: grand old brick buildings, wide avenues and Queenslander’s are situated amongst a rabbit warren of fibro shacks, abandoned houses and single lane roads winding up into the hills. We were spending more time in the field than in to town which probably wasn’t a bad thing.
The tracks to access our next round of sites had degraded significantly since the last time I’d been on site almost two years ago and the next four days were decidedly uncomfortable in the Hirelux we’d gotten. Thankfully we field hounds have a hearty constitution! The heat was oppressive and the lack of shade was punishing and I was getting tired. Hilltopping action was limited but I did manage to pull one more lifer out of the mix – Fiery Jewel (Hypochrysops ignitus). What a monster… a mix of electric blue and fiery colours adorned the underwing. I was chatting with the young hünd late on the last afternoon when I glanced out of the window – NEEDLIES! We had relatively few sightings on this trip (as expected; the majority of the population is further south at this time of year) but it was nice that they came to say goodbye to us.
Now it’s time to enjoy the fruits of my labours and the comforts of civilisation… until next time.