Pardalote Holt: February comes and so do butterflies and birds.

The seasons in Australia are a bit fluid. In the temperate zone (down south) you have the traditional four seasons of Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter, whilst in the tropics of the north you have two, the wet and the dry seasons. In the sub-tropics, which on the east coast means from Cairns in the north to the northern end of New South Wales in the south it's all a bit hazy, but February is supposed to be the last month of summer and still within the confines of the wet season. Well, we in Guanaba on the foothills of Mount Tamborine (meaning the Hill of the Figs, nothing to do with the percussion instrument) had both. In other words it was quite hot and quite wet. Trust a Brit to begin with a piece on the weather!

A combination of the rains and a desire to leave the nesting swamphens undisturbed limited my gardening activities at the Holt to fussing over the chooks and just generally watching everything grow and grow. By the end of the month the grasses were beyond waist height and several species of vines were threatening to strangle a number of innocent shrubs. A perhaps unexpected effect of the vigorous profusion of vines was a large rise in butterfly numbers and during much of the month we were treated to large numbers of some rather beautiful butterflies flapping around from bush to vine. In particular the striking Blue Tigers were commonplace, as were the much larger, but very difficult to photograph Orchard Swallowtails.

Blue Tigers on a Monkey Tail Vine

Hard to capture the numbers, but at one point there were over 30 on this vine alone

Gorgeous insects

A pair of Meadow Argus mating on the driveway.

Caterpillar of the Black Crow beginning to go into chrysalis phase.

"Up we go!"

An elegant Black Crow butterfly.

An Evening Brown, very frustrating as they invariable close up when they land.

The elusive Orchard Swallowtail.

A small Blue

The female Common Eggfly resting on a tree fern frond.

Of course it was probably the increase in butterflies, caterpillars and bugs in general that fed the massive number jump of species this year. Up sixteen species on the same moth last year!

The wet weather certainly helped and a couple of times we had real downpours, which at the time weren't so popular with the birds!

The Rainbow Lorikeets were looking for the rainbow.

Sparky the King Parrot just sat it out.


But it was a good excuse for some blissful grooming.

and of course all the rain brought out more toadstools...

Creamy coloured toadstools erupting from the gum mulch.

I have planted various grevilleas so that they almost butt up against the back deck and they never fail to supply a succession of small birds for me to admire, but towards the end of the month I got a real treat. A movement caught my eye and this time it was the small and graceful Green Tree Snake.

Just one gorgeous little snake.

Well, with so much to see there was only so many photographs I could take, but I hope you enjoy them. Now onto the bird lists.

Regulars (seen at least 5 days in the week)

Bar-shouldered Dove

Bar-shouldered Dove

Bronzewing

The Common Bronzewing living up to his name.

Galah

The rare sight of a Galah trying to be serious.

King Parrot

A juvenile male King Parrot

Olive-backed Oriole

A juvenile Olive-backed Oriole

Pacific Black Duck
Peaceful Dove

Peaceful Doves having a good preen.

Plumed Whistling Duck

The extremely pretty Plumed Whistling Duck

Rainbow Lorikeet
Spangled Drongo

Sulphur Crested Cockatoo
Torresian Crow
Welcome Swallow

Welcome Swallows roosting in the garage.

White-throated Gerygone
White-throated Honeyeater

White-throated Honeyeater after nectar in the grevilleas.

Wood Duck

Mom Wood Duck takes a drink whilst the ducklings gossip.

Yellow-faced Honeyeater

A Yelloe-faced Honeyeater in another grevillea.

Common (Seen at least twice a week)
Australian Magpie
Black-faced Cuckoo Shrike
Brown Honeyeater

A Brown Honeyeater

Double-barred Finch

Double-barred Finch in the feeder.

Grey Shrike Thrush

A Grey Shrike Thrush hunting bugs by the deck.

Laughing Kookaburra
Leaden Flycatcher

An elusive, but pretty female Leaden Flycatcher.

Little Corella

Little Corellas at the feeder.

Noisy Friarbird
Noisy Miner
Pale Headed Rosella
Pied Currawong
Purple Swamphen
Striated Pardalote

"Chup-a-chup" the Striated Pardalote

Uncommon (Seen two to five times during the month)
Blue-faced Honeyeater
Brown Thornbill
Channel-billed Cuckoo
Cicadabird
Eastern Whipbird
Eastern Yellow Robin
Forest Kingfisher
Grey Butcherbird