Mt. Warning, Wollumbin NP
Hello everyone,
My wife and I have just returned from a short break to Mt. Warning (Wollumbin National Park) in northern New South Wales. This area is about a 12 hour, 1000 km drive from Wollongong. Mt. Warning is located near the town of Murwillumbah and is in what is known as the northern rivers region of New South Wales.
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c3.../MtWarning.jpg
We always stay in a cabin at the base of the mountains. For us, this place holds fond memories since we sometimes spent holidays here with our kids when they were young.
I think that this is one of the prettiest parts of New South Wales with rugged hills, subtropical rainforest and lovely nearby beaches. Cape Byron is only 45 minutes away. We always do lots of walking when we visit and climb the mountain at least once. In the past, birding was my main pursuit but on this trip I wanted to see and photograph the subtropical butterflies.
May is the final month of autumn in Australia and it was cool. It was particularly cool this year since our trip coincided with an unseasonal cold snap in southern Australia. Temperatures usually ranged from 10C-20C on most days although it was warmer yesterday with a high of 24C in the early afternoon. Because of the cool conditions, butterflies were active from about 10 in the morning until 2 in the afternoon. I did not see much outside of those hours. This region remains warm enough for at least a few species of butterflies to be active all through the winter.
Mt. Warning is the core of what once was an enormus shield volcano. According to the literature, this mountain was once about 2 kms in elevation and was surrounded by rainforest about 20 million years ago. As Australia drifted north, it moved off the hot spots in the crust, the volcano became extinct and erosion began to eat away at the mountain. Now, the volcanic plug of Mt. Warning is all that is left of the central core of the volcano. The outer rim is still visible in all directions from the summit.
Mt. Warning from the Uki area:
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c3...MtWarning3.jpg
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c3...MtWarning4.jpg
Mt. Warning from the Murwillumbah area:
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c3...tWarning1b.jpg
Mt. Warning from Tyalgum area in the late afternoon:
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c3...5MtWarning.jpg
My wife and I usually climbed the lower third of the mountain each morning for exercise. She would then take the car and drive back to the cabin while I slowly walked the 6 km and photographed butterflies along the way. I passed through lovely rainforest that often had dense patches of lantana in the understory.
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c3...habitat10a.jpg
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c3...ahabitat2a.jpg
Staghorn and birds nest ferns were numerous. These are great places to see Paradise Riflebirds, a bird-of-paradise that lives in southeastern Queensland and northeastern New South Wales. The birds probe the base of the fronds with their long, decurved bills.
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c3...abitatfern.jpg
I found a good variety of butterflies on my walks. Unfortunately, most of my photos are "record shots" (e.g., not very good). I rarely could move to a position where I was parallel with the butterflies but instead had to shoot upward and on an angle to the butterflies. They just rarely landed low enough for "proper" photos.
Another very instructive series
David: As always, I enjoyed the wide breadth of your "reporting" as you visit various parts of Australia. William
You are getting better with the T180
David: Your work is much improved. I've been using mine for a couple of months now and still need to work on it.... either that or need a new set of eyes. William
