Mr. Pickering and I had been keen to get out leping, and decided we would try Moggill Conservation Park. Stu kindly picked me up and we rolled out, arriving on site at about 0945. The habitat along the track looked wuite interesting – some lowland rainforest and SEVT elements. Almost immediately we saw Purple Crow and then a beautiful Jezebel Nymph (Mynes geoffryi) – my first lifer for the day.
We continued down the track for a bit and reached a little creek – lep action was subdued by the cloud cover but there were a few little critters buzzing around here – the seemingly ubiquitous Large Grass Yellow and Wide-brand Grass Dart and some common Odes. Stu spotted an Elodina having a feed on some bottlebrush but views weren’t good enough to clinch an ID. We headed down along the creek and found another though, which I was happy to tick as Striated Pearl-white once Stu had sent me his underwing shots!
I’m not sure if a bushcare group is active in this area, but the lack of weeds along the track was pretty refreshing, and there were some interesting plants coming up in the understorey – Carissa ovata and Acronychia laevis were both flowering here, along with some other beasts I didn’t recognise. Carissa seems to germinate pretty easily – I’ve got about 15 seedlings at home in the planters, and I’ve put several in the ground around the orchid house. There was a real rainforest / SEVT vibe in some sections along the track – I’ll have to return with GUDA some day. Capparis sarmentosa was pleasant to encounter in the wild as always, and Chris Wiley was kind enough to ID an unknown fruiter for me – LIFER.
While looking at the plants I found this fantastic Harlequin Bug tending xir eggs and a teneral Southern Whitetip (Episynlestes albicauda) drifting around the ferns.
A nice pool in the creek had a Speckled Line-blue sitting by it. I was crouching down to photograph it when I heard those magic words from behind me: “what’s this?” quickly followed by “holy FUCK it’s a lifer!”. Stu was beside himself with glee and I slowly turned around to come face-to-face with a freshly emerged Orange-tipped Pea-blue. I was stunned. The field guide fails to do this species justice. I snapped away at it, babbling to Stu about how magnificent it was. Suddenly, it opened its wings. Things will never be the same.
Eventually I regained the ability to walk and we moved further south along the trail. Crossing the creek which had been running parallel to the path I noticed a little dark Hesperid. It turned out to be a male White-brand Grass-skipper – another lifer! Fantastic stuff, my third Toxidia. A Leafwing was also drinking from the rocks here. After the creek crossing the habitat changed to more open sclerophyll. It was packed full of Swallowtails – we saw Orchard, Dainty, Clearwing and Macleay’s in quick succession, possibly feeding on the abundant Lantana camara.
Also feeding on the Lantana was a swarm of Brown Cuckoo Doves. I miss these guys. We saw at least 6 and flushed an Emerald Dove also. Bird wise the track was really good! We weren’t trying and racked up 30+ species through the middle of the day, including all three local Monarch’s and Little Shrike Thrush. Many year ticks were enjoyed. On the way back to the car we were completely boggled by some Hypocysta behaving in a way I’ve never seen before. Males (presumably) were exclusively patrolling 2-3m above the ground, settling on vegetation and basking with their wings below their abdomens, completely flat. The behaviour was so different from the usual Ringtail giss that I thought they could be Orange-streaked. Prolonged discussions on their ID continued into the next week but I am now happy that they were just Brown Ringlets – great pain! Apparently the kink in the line below the upper eyespot in the underwing is a good feature for Brown. The search for OSRI continues.
That was about it for the weekend really – J and I visited Roger and Bev for lunch on Sunday and found out that they’ve sold their house, which was a bittersweet revelation. I’m happy for them but sad at the same time – I have a lot of excellent memories from that place. They’ll be moving south sometime this year to be closer to their kids. Upon getting home I spent the rest of the arvo packing for my upcoming work trip to Hell. C’est la vie!