Fascination Renewed

Birds were my entry point into the natural world. I remember being fascinated by birds as a child, and spending countless hours both in the field looking for them, and at home flicking through the bird guide and excitedly ticking each species off as a 'lifer'. This passion has lasted almost my whole life, and will continue to. However, over the past year or so, I have garnered an interest in the broader natural world at quite a surprising rate. I have allowed my inner child to resurface and be engulfed by fascination once more; fascination renewed.

One cannot pinpoint exactly why one is interested in one thing over another thing. For me, what rapidly caught my eye were butterflies. During 2022, I started using iNaturalist to document my sightings of anything moving, big or small (mostly small), that wasn't a bird. It's a fantastic platform that allows anyone in the world to upload photos of any living thing. The algorithm will make a 'guess' as to what the organism in the photo is based on appearance and colour. If it can't narrow down to species, it will give its best guess at the genus of the organism (or, if that fails, the superfamily or order). The observation is then confirmed or corrected by other iNaturalist users who are experts in the given domain. My first iNaturalist observation was on 31st January 2022, of a Green-blotched Moth (Cosmodes elegans) in the bathroom of the shared house I was living in (this was in Woolgoolga, New South Wales). I simply took a photo of it with my phone and uploaded it to iNaturalist. (Strictly speaking, my oldest photo on iNaturalist is that of a Fiery Skimmer (Orthetrum villosovittatum) which I took on 8th January 2022, also in Woolgoolga; but only uploaded it to iNaturalist over a month later).

Green-blotched Moth (Cosmodes elegans)

A few days later, I spotted another, more impressive moth - an incredibly beautiful specimen on the kitchen fly-screen window. The intricacy and beauty of this moth blew me away, and I was thrilled to learn, thanks to iNaturalist, that it could be narrowed down to species: the exotic-sounding and mysterious Dysgonia constricta. This species doesn't even have a common name (something absolutely unheard of in birds), only a scientific name, which enthralled and fascinated me even further.

Dysgonia constricta

Over the next few months, whilst out birding, I would start paying more and more attention to the smaller, crawlier inhabitants of the Earth. During the first three-quarters or so of 2022, I would still be very much focused on birds, and my eBird records and photos were still the most important thing. The iNaturalist observations were an exciting bonus to the day's birding, but a day's birding it remained first and foremost. Many of my early iNaturalist observations were done at a relatively remote patch of rocky eucalpytus woodland on the slopes of the Great Diving Range - a place called Arthur's Gap, located in Sherwood Nature Reserve, inland west of Woolgoolga. I remember even being inclined to photograph the huge horseflies that pestered me during these outings; thanks to iNaturalist, I now know these are called Triclista guttata (again, no common name), and I also know this species is a member of Long-tongue Horse Flies (Subfamily Pangoniinae). My first proper butterfly observation and photograph (if we disregard moths for a moment) was of a Brown Ringlet (Hypocysta metirius), to the south of Arthur's Gap on Swans Road, in the vicinity of Ulidarra National Park, on February 18th 2022.

Triclista guttata

Brown Ringlet (Hypocysta metirius)

I am now jumping ahead a little, but I would like to cut to the chase: my aim with this blog is to record, describe and publish my butterfly sightings from Australia (and around the world, when that happens). I aim to write short and sweet blog posts regularly about each major excursion that I undertake in search of these beautiful and peaceful creatures, and perhaps venture into some philosophical musings as to why I find them so endearing and interesting. Think of these blog entries as poetically-rendered trip reports with photos and insights into my psyche as it relates to nature.

At the time of writing it is February 2023, and I am now living in Cairns. Yes, much has happened and evolved over the last 12 months when it comes to my butterfly identification skills, knowledge and level of interest (it has only increased, and keeps increasing). Therefore, in the first few posts following this one, I will report on the the times I have spent searching for and photographing different species of butterfly within these past twelve months. I will include only the best photos in large format, mostly of butterflies but on occasion also other interesting organisms like spiders, reptiles, and, of course, my old love - birds. And the road goes on and on.

Welcome to The Butterfly Waltz, a blog all about the joy of butterflying. Join me as I explore the wonderful world of the Order Lepidoptera: the butterflies and moths. Happy reading, and I look forward to seeing you in the next post where we will pick up the story where it left off...

G Thomas Doerig

10 February 2023

Cairns