Iridescence and Butterflies

Male Varied Eggfly - each wing at different angle to light source to demonstrate  iridescence

The first rains of the wet season have been and gone. The predicted follow up rains have not eventuated.
A few afternoons a week clouds build above the 40C+ heat on the plains, blacken and sweep around the horizon scattering lightning displays in their wake. Occasionally a storm erupts above us and wind swirls rain around the town.

Underwings of male Varied Eggfly 

Beside our house is a concrete-floored, iron-roofed structure. It is open on all four sides, in the dry season to hot winds and flying dust, in the wet season to wind and rain.  It provides shelter on hot afternoons to all manner of creatures.

Over the past few weeks every time I walk into the covered area a male Varied Eggfly butterfly almost crashes into me.  The iridescent blue flickering from his upper wings is visually confusing, stopping me in my tracks before it flutters away. 
These Eggflies take up residence around our yard after the first rains. Their numbers fluctuate with changing weather conditions yet they persist almost throughout the year.
On the hottest days a male perches upside down on the gutter just above where I enter the area. He slowly opens and closes his wings, rocking  his body forward and backward in concert with his wing movement. Perhaps this is a cooling method. I have seen females doing the same thing.
After a few encounters with this male I began to wonder if they really were accidental. The male is supposed to be a territorial animal.
The male is about seven and a half centimetres from wing tip to wing tip. The female a centimetre or so wider.
 Eggflies are spectacular creatures. The female is rich brown with burnt orange and white markings. She is more ornate than the male but lacks his iridescence.

Female Varied Eggfly

Iridescence in butterflies is an entrancing quality and has engaged the interest of scientists since Aristotle. Iridescence on a butterfly's wing occurs because of interference when light interacts at the boundary of two pigmented colours with highly contrasting refractive indices. This and diffraction from the wing scales produce iridescence when seen from certain angles. The male Varied Eggfly's upper wing is a velvety black with white splashes. Blue iridescence is seen fron certain angles around the boundary of the two colours.
I often see a male Eggfly seemingly "leading" a female into his territory, his wings flickering blue light in the sunshine. So I suppose the theory that particular iridescence is a mating signal in certain butterflies is true. The other theory, that iridesence can be a predator deterrent may also be true as I have not so far seen any of the numerous insectivorous birds around here hunting an Eggfly.

Make Room Birds, I am expanding my blog

Burrow on side of washout near Alick Creek
North West Queensland Australia
What animal lives in the burrow? What is skeleton of?

This blog will continue to celebrate the natural world, but I am expanding it to include the occasional  opinion piece, a form I have refused to indulge in so far. However the social, political and financial structures of the world are convulsing. I want to know what future will emerge, whether ordinary people will influence the outcome or if we will all be dragged along like thrown riders caught in the stirrups of a mob of bolting horses. 

A flood of responses sprang from yesterday's (Thursday 2nd February 2017) Facebook post by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's News Breakfast about a phone call. This was between Australia's Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull (from the conservative Liberal National Party - the LNP) and the United States President, Donald Trump (from the right wing Republican Party) and the subsequent tweet posted by the U.S. president.n
Many responses to the ABC's FB post were balanced and considered and contributed positively to the discussion from a number of points of view.  I cannot improve on these comments and recommend you scroll through them (ignoring the inevitable idiotic ones) to gain an overview of  the conversation generated by the post.
My following comments are not intended to upset or offend my many US friends (for whose friendship I am grateful). I understand how difficult it is for all of you irrespective of your political affiliations at this time. Nor am I criticising the US which has emerged in modern times from an internal base of horrific violence and oppression and is still struggling to come to terms with that.
We in Australia need to keep a balance in our engagement with world politics and not allow the current obsession with the US president's posturing to become our focus. Reacting to this person's tweets only feeds his megalomania.
When reading or watching articles about US politics we need to remember two things. Firstly our conservative government is no where near the extreme right of the US Republican Party. Whatever our personal political beliefs we are a democratic nation based on a belief in the common good. This is a great concept when it is deconstructed. It has not led us down the dangerous path of so-called 'individualism' that leads to mass murder on a regular scale in a gun-toting nation.
Australia's future in the world is dependent not only on what is happening domestically but also on what is happening on the rest of the planet. If we really care about our country, its people and our future we need to look for meaning beyond the verbal diarrhoea of just one tweeter. We must look to the rest of the world.
While many Australians have been focussing on crazy Twitter feeds European unity and peace is increasingly endangered. The barbarians are profiting from that and will grow fat on the corpses thrown up by the resulting chaos. The UK is positioning itself for a future that may change the lives of its population in unimaginable ways. Putin's Russia is providing a profitable market for arms dealers. The political systems in the nations of Africa change, mutate, distort with little comment in the day to day news.  China has ripped off one political mask and donned another - who purchases those armaments churning out of Chinese factories?  Indonesia, our nearest neighbour, has changed beyond belief in less than a generation, yet little analysis of this has been published. We are part of the countries of Asia and the Pacific yet seem unaware of their journeys along diverse paths. We see Middle Eastern countries only through the lens of war and upheaval. Has anyone tried to explain why citizens of those seven countries were placed on the US restricted list yet the nations that are the puppet masters of the US were delicately bypassed. Oh no, now I've gone back to all that.
Enjoy your weekend and enjoy at least one non-US president focussed article.
My apologies. A podcast of this blog is unavailable while I upgrade the hardware and software for podcasting.
 Follow the links to ABC News Breakfast on FB and scroll down to the post which shows a pic of both heads of state to read these comments.
#ABCNewsBreakfast

Some housekeeping. Google has suggested I turn on https in order to protect me and my visitors from malware and other attacks. Please let me know if you have any problems accessing, reading or responding to this blog because of this.

Black Fronted Dotterels Julia Creek North West Queensland

Black Fronted Dotterel Julia Creek

At the end of the rains in Julia Creek a Black Fronted Dotterel busied itself on the footpath and in the gutters beside the school.  It would dart around on the road, stop abruptly, bob its head and then dart off.  This repeated action made photographing this little wader extremely difficult. 

This attractive bird is found all over Australia except for the waterless region on the Northern Territory/South Australian border of Western Australia.  It prefers freshwater and nests close to water.  It is rarely seen in saline water regions. 

Black Fronted Dotterel & Juvenile

 

The bird has a black tipped red bill, a red eye ring in a black mask and a deep black “V” shaped breast band that meets the mask on the bird’s shoulders.  White underparts and chestnut wings and cap and pink legs make the bird easy to recognise.

On my last trip east I saw some Black Fronted Dotterels with their young on the bank of the lake at Richmond.  These birds were darting around in the scanty grass that grows on the edge of the lake. 

The black fronted dotterel is small, only 16 cm from bill tip to wing tip, and is probably often overlooked by the casual observer as it goes about its busy life.

Claire Wood

Just Claire Wood

Email:  JustClaireWood@gmail.com

Longlines In The Atmosphere

For more information about the Black Fronted Dotterel go to:

http://www.hbw.com/species/black-fronted-dotterel-elseyornis-melanops

http://www.birdsinbackyards.net/species/Elseyornis-melanops

Apostlebirds on the Byways of Queensland

Apostlebird with grasshopper Cloncurry Queensland

When I was a child I loved the name of apostlebirds, but thought they demeaned their name with their busy hectoring ways.   I mentioned this to my mother who suffered occasional severe bouts of anti-religious sentiment, understandable in one who had married into a self-satisfied strict catholic family.  She said, when you grow up, you’ll see just how well named they are.  And she was right.

In many of the public rest areas along the highways of Queensland flocks of apostlebirds have established themselves.  They are entertaining to watch, and seem never content to just sit and be in the moment like many other birds.  With their brown wings, so like capes slung over their slate grey feathers, their stubby beaks curved in disapproval, their bossy behaviour and their loyalty to the rest of their small flock, they could well be a reincarnation of that group of men from ancient Galilee.

I have heard southerners call the Apostlebird “Happy Families”, but that name we always used for the White Winged Chough.  This bird looks nothing like an apostlebird, but shares many of its endearing ways e.g. loyalty to flock, sharing food, nest building, etc.    

Apostlebird on Nest Cania Gorge Queensland

The Apostlebird (Struthidea cinerea) is 33 centimetres (13 inches) from bill tip to tail tip and is an eastern Australian bird.  It is found in most of Queensland (except the tip of Cape York and the far west) and New South Wales.  In Victoria it is listed as a threatened species.  Apostlebirds also inhabit a small area of the Northern Territory.

So when next you are bleary eyed from following the white line, pull into a rest area with shade trees, a bit of open space and water nearby and you will be sure to be entertained by these busy sociable creatures.  If it is the right time of the year you will witness their cooperative nest building - a worthy sight.

Claire Wood

Just Claire Wood

Email:  JustClaireWood@gmail.com

Longlines In The Atmosphere

A few websites that mention Apostle Birds:

 http://www.birdsinbackyards.net/species/Struthidea-cinerea

http://www.graemechapman.com.au/library/viewphotos.php?c=1

http://ibc.lynxeds.com/species/apostlebird-struthidea-cinerea

Intermediate Egret: Julia Creek, North West Queensland

Intermediate Egret Julia Creek Qld

A few weeks ago when category 5 Cyclone Marcia was bearing down on the Central Queensland coast, and all was still and dry in the west, I went to investigate a guttural croak from the other side of the bulrushes in the creek at the RV rest area at Julia Creek and disturbed an Intermediate Egret (Egreta intermedia).  

He flew up into a dead tree and I was able to see that he was in partial breeding plumage.  He seemed to be alone and I wondered whether there was, somewhere out of sight, a colony of these birds, or even a nest.  It seems unlikely, but on my return to the area I will do a little more investigating.  

Intermediate Egret Julia Creek Qld

 The long fine courtship plumes and the apple green facial skin during the breeding season enhance the graceful appearance of this normally quiet and placid bird.  The Intermediate egret is common in the east and north of Australia. 

Although all the reference maps show the bird is present in this area  I have only seen the occasional Intermediate Egret, usually standing on the edge of a bore drain, during my travels along the Flinders Highway.  Perhaps he had fled the extreme weather in the upper atmosphere further to the east  and ended up in Julia Creek, perhaps not.  Whatever the reason the bird was there, I hope that the permanent water at the RV rest area will encourage others to come and continue to entrance me.

Claire Wood

Email:  JustClaireWood@gmail.com

longlines, In The Atmosphere

http://www.birdsinbackyards.net/forum/Egrets-cattle-and-intermediate

Buff-breasted Paradise-Kingfisher Mackay Queensland Australia

By Jim Bendon (Flickr: buff breasted paradise kingfisher) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

I am back in Mackay for a week or so to while attempting to dispose of part of the detritus of a lifetime On Sunday I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to watch a buff breasted paradise kingfisher (Tanysiptera sylvia) feeding its young.  

The bird had burrowed a nest into a low termite mound on the side of a hill in rainforest above a creek.  They are fussy about where they place their nests, only choosing mounds where the termites are active and the mound is between 350 and 500 cm high, no higher, no lower.  

When it flew back to the nest with food for the nestlings, the calls of the birds inside the nest were like sounds in a kettle – their cries seemed to be amplified by the shape of the nest.  However, maybe they were muffled, and would have been deafening in the open – I would not know.

As my camera’s shutter sounds like a door being slammed whenever I use it I took no photos, just sat and enjoyed the 20 minutes or so I watched the bird as it brought food (which looked like crickets or small grasshoppers) to its young.  So I thank Wiki Commons for the use of the photo which accompanies this blog.

To call this bird buff breasted, or white tailed, gives no idea of the splendour of its colouring.  Its beak and feet are scarlet, its chest is golden-orange, it crown and back rich deep blue with black highlights, and the colour of the long white tail plumes is echoed on its rump.  Black eye stripes divide and emphasize the contrasting chest and crown colouring.

The bird spends the winters in Papua New Guinea (PNG) and migrates south each year from late October onwards to the rainforests of Northern Queensland.  Like many other birds the Paradise- Kingfisher forms “long term pair-bonds” and they usually return to the same area each year.  They return to PNG in late March/early April.

I am very grateful to those who made it possible for me to fulfil what has been a three year long wish and allowed me to sit alone in the tranquillity of a hide in the rainforest and be totally captivated by the antics of the bird. 

Claire Wood

Just Claire Wood 

Email:  JustClaireWood@gmail.com

longlines, In The Atmosphere

Good links to information about the bird:

http://www.publish.csiro.au/paper/ZO00090.htm
http://www-public.jcu.edu.au/discovernature/animals/birds/JCUDEV_005202

 Below is a link to a good You Tube video but the bird seems to have lost its long tailfeathers - maybe it was at the end of the nesting season.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJUyza2kFx0

Below is a link to a page with several pictures of the bird.
http://www.bushpea.com/bd/pg/all/b/buff-breasted%20paradise-kingfisher%2001.html