The Royal NP

[moloch05]

Hello everyone,

This has been a busy year for me at work and I have not been out much. I have only been up to Royal National Park a couple of times this summer. One of those trips was on Good Friday. The weather was mild and sunny so I decided to go on a bush walk up at Royal. I love the coastline and heath habitat so I usually spend most of the time in this habitat. The heath always has flowers with peak flowering in the spring and then to a lesser extent again in the autumn.

I usually drive to Garie Beach and then follow the beach to the start of the Coastal Track. This track follows the line of the cliffs for a number of kilometers. I usually walk a circuit of 12km or more..

Garie Beach. Wollongong is visible in the distance (centre, left).

Heath habitat. Members of family Proteaceae are abundant here on sandy soil. I love their large, colourful and often oddly shaped flowers.

Banksia (Proteaceae) of several species are numerous. Autumn is season when several of these flower the most profusely.

Heathleaf Banksia

Old Man Banskia:

Coast Banksia:

Closeup of a Banksia serrata flower head.

Mountain Devil, another lovely member of proteaceae.

Most of the proteaceae produce abundant nectar. These are loved by the various honeyeaters. The most common along the cliffs is the New Holland Honeyeater.

Eagle Rock. I prefer to think of it as a striking snake.

The day was great for reptiles. The cooler conditions meant that many were out basking. In hot weather, they don't need to do this so they are harder to see.

While walking along a track, I saw something odd on a Banksia flower. When I had a closer look, I found it to be a Common Scalyfoot (Pygopus lepidopodus). This one had pollen on its face so it had obviously been poking around in the Banksia flower. I suppose that it had been searching for insects that were attracted to the flower rather than nectar or pollen. I don't recall reading of this behaviour among the pygopodids.

Autumn is the season when the little reptile kids are out in big numbers. Most seem to be frantically searching for food in preparation for the cool winter months. This is a juvenile Jacky Lizard (Amphibolurus muricatus).

Juvenile Copper-tailed Skink (Ctenotus taeniolatus).

Juvenile White's Skink (Liopholis whitii):

I was very pleased to see 3 snakes. Two of these were the large and nicely marked elapids known as Red-bellied Blacksnakes (Pseudechis porphyriacus). I saw this one basking a few meters off the trail. Unfortunately, I had to photograph into the sun so the lovely red markings don't show very well.

I was happy to see several male Bird-of-Paradise Flies (Callipappus australis), members of family Margarodidae. These are absolutely incredible insects. Unfortunately, I was only able to take a couple of shots before it flew and neither photo is well focused. The males have long white plumes and in flight, they appear to be a floating seed.

I did not see females yesterday but did encounter a few a couple of years ago. They are flightless and look completely different to the males. Their pattern resembles the droppings of a bird. I did not know what they were at the time and thought that they might have been lampyrid larvae.

I only saw a few butterflies since this is unfortunately the end of the season for most species. Those that I saw were shy and mostly tattered.

Spotted Brown (Heteronympha paradelpha). Members of this genus seem to be the most prevalent in the autumn. They are sensitive to the pre-flash so I often must rely on natural light for photos of these.

Female Wonder Brown (Heteronympha mirifica). The males of this species look very different and are patterned more like the Spotted Brown above.

Female Orchard Swallowtail (Papilio aegeus):

Tailed Emperor (Polyura pyrrhus) -- highly cropped shots of one sitting several meters up in a tree.

Regards,
David

 

[Fiamma]

Absolutely beautiful!!!.... male Bird-of-Paradise Flies and Copper-tailed Skink I have never seen before. How cute is that skink.

Thanks for sharing David

 

[AUSGECKO]

Awesome pics as always David, that Bird-of-paradise fly is interesting, I've never seen anything like it.

 

[chewbacca]

amazing pics

 

[GeckPhotographer]

Very nice pic. Don't think you can discount nectar too fast documented behaviour or not. As you probably know some gecko species particularly Strophurus are noted licking sap and nectar. Apart from the lack of legs lessening the climbing I cannot see it as such a leap for this not so distantly related species to participate in this activity. Of course searching for insects among the flowers is no less likely, I just think it is a very interesting thing to be noted.
I need to do some more coastal herping, i'd like to get some nice pics of Pygopus lepidopodus and I never see, to see them anywhere I go.

 

[abnrmal91]

Awesome pics. I went deep sea fishing just of the coast there on Saturday I wish the weather had been as nice as the Friday. I can definetly say the ocean wasn't as calm as it looks in the pics.

 

[moloch05]

Thanks very much, everyone, for the feedback.

GeckPhotographer,
You could be right about the Pygopus. I probably should have sat there for awhile and watched the animal to see what it was up to.


Regards,
David

I also visited Royal once in January. On that trip, I found three of these very strange leps that totally confused me. When I was close enough to one to take photos, I realized that the insect had clubbed antennae. I assumed that it must be a butterfly for this reason but it was completely unlike anything that I have seen in the field guides. Also, the lep held its wings in a manner that was more typical of a moth than a butterfly. It was territorial and I watched two males in combat before they separated and flew off in opposite directions along the trail. I saw a single larger female. All were along a cliff top above the ocean. The habitat was heath on sandy soil.

When I returned home, I searched the net for awhile and finally found the identity. This is one of the Sun-Moths and I think probably Synemon magnifica (Castniidae), a species known from Royal NP. The lower wing is bright orange on both surfaces. The moth often elevated and lowered the wings to "flash" the brilliant colour. It was a lovely sight.

males (I think):

female (I think):

... the orange under surface can be seen a bit in this photo:

Low clouds arrived in the late morning so I was not able to take many habitat shots. The track that I walked and where I observed the Sun-moth follows the cliffs along the ocean.

Butterflies were scarce. I saw a single Blue Triangle ("Bluebottle") and Common Grass Blues but nothing else. I did see other animals including this stunning scarab. It was large and flying around mallee trees, a dwarf shrubby Eucalyptus sp.

These Bulldog Ants were impressive due to their large size and big mandibles. I have been stung by them before and they definitely get one's attention when this happens.

I stopped at this creek and found a couple of interesting animals.

The most impressive was this Heath Monitor (Varanus rosenbergi). This species is less common than the similar Lace Monitor (V. varius) that also lives in Royal.

I also saw many Eastern Water Skinks (Eulamprus quoyii):

On the return walk to the car, I found a single male Jacky Lizard (Amphibolurus muricatus) in a grassy area. This was a strange place for it. I suppose it might have been hunting grasshoppers. I usually see them on sandstone blocks.

Royal NP has a wonderful collection of plants.

Old-man Banksia (Banksia serrata) were flowering. Proteaceae.

Geebung (Persoonia sp.). Proteaceae

Mountain Devil (Lambertia formosa). Proteaceae.

Melaleuca sp.

Regards,
David

 

[jordanmulder]

hmm that heath monitor was a nice find!