Marching on
After a relatively hideous week at werk, and some hard(ish) mid-week training, by Saturday I was ready for a little expedition out of the human territories. J was resting ahead of her Fun-Run on Sunday (she ended up with a PR in the 5k) and didn’t fancy my chosen mish: a trip out to a Spring Mountain hilltopping site shared by Martin Purvis. I was hoping to see some Ant-blues but it was a good all-around choice I thought – some time out in the forest, some elevation gain for the leggies and the chance of some new leps. Motivation on Saturday morning was very low but I eventually dragged myself out of the door and headed up the hill.
After a bit of confusion at the start of the trail, in a maze of poorly marked tracks, I was soon cruising along nicely. The south-easterlies were ripping and on approach to the ridge I saw barely any leps except for the occasional Emperor dashing along above the fire trail. It was pretty quiet all the way up to the first real prominent bump – an un-named hilltop with some sandstone boulders. There was a fair bit of activity around here, with Blue Triangles, Emperors, Glasswings and Wattle-blues all jockeying for position above the low shrubby items. I was pretty puffed at this stage and so I took a bit of a water break here, togging a Dingy Grass-skipper who kept returning to a small Lantana bush and (eventually) snatching a few photos of a mini-skipper who settled from his frantic patrol of a canopy gap for about 5 seconds. He ended up being my first lifer of the day – confirmed on iNat by the boffins as Barred Skipper (Dispar compacta).
That was about it here and so I pressed onwards. The fire trail soon ran out and the trail became a much more interesting singletrack that hugged the ridgeline. Despite being overgrown in many areas this was intriguing enough to start me thinking about running back to the car. A bit further on I disturbed a nice little beasty from a rock, and eventually managed some decent shots of him – an Eastern Iris Skipper (Mesodinia halyzia), my second lifer for the day! After spending about 20 minutes trying to photograph him, I started to feel as though I was running out of time, so packed up the kit and jogged the last ~1.5km to the ‘real’ hilltop. Wow! A prominent little sandstone knoll appeared above the trees, with good views in pretty much every direction once I had scrambled up to the summit. The Flinders-Goolman peaks were the most prominent feature on the horizon, but it was nice looking back at my ascent ridge as well. My gourmet lunch (blue cheese and rocket sandwich with stingless bee honey) was consumed and then it was time to lep hard.
Well, as hard as the gale force winds would allow anyway. There was a fair bit of action up there, but it wasn’t until a lull in the wind that anything settled. Creeping amongst the shrubs I surprised my third lifer, a Trident Pencil-blue (Eirmocides margarita) resting… and then continued to the lee side of the hilltop where, almost immediately, I was overwhelmed by point-blank views of a swarm of Hypochrysops ignitus! Eventually I dragged myself away from the fire and checked out the rest of the critters. A stange little beast that I initially took for another Pencil-blue appeared to show a yellow-ish upperwing… this was later ID’d on iNat as Large Trident-blue (Cyprotides pallescens), my fourth and last leplifer of the day. Before leaving, I eventually tracked down the Ogyris sp. who had been screaming around the treetops for the entire time and managed a couple of crappy record shots which were about the best I could hope for in the conditions.
A cool spot that one! It’s worth another visit soon I think. My approach of shoot first and ask questions later netted me a total of four lepticks (with the help of a few pals on iNat) for the day – astounding. A nice run down to the car didn’t entirely extinguish my legs either, so ‘twas a good day all round. Leps might start getting a bit thin on the ground now… the mornings are starting to get nice and cool. Frog season approaches 🙂
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