Sunday, April 12, 2020

The Collateral Beauty of the North Queensland Blue Tiger Butterflies in our backyard over Easter



This Easter, the trees are alive with Blue Tiger Butterflies, well our backyard Melaleuca is anyway.
When I saw all of these beautiful butterflies in our quite old but remarkable paperbark tree, I started to see them everywhere throughout our garden, and even when I was out walking with Locky our dog in our neighbourhood. I found myself thinking about the collateral beauty in our lives that we all need to be focusing on now to get us through these difficult times. It just might help.  When we lose someone or something precious to us or just forget about our ego, and the need for commercialism in our lives, we can try to think of the beauty of the things we actually have but sometimes are difficult to actually see. That is the collateral beauty in our lives. 

Mr. HRK took these photos and I thought I would share them with you as this is quite a remarkable butterfly event. For a start, we haven't seen our tree flower like this for a couple of years, which is all out of sync. We have never seen such a migration of this butterfly to this extent before either. After a little bit of research, we discovered the Blue Tiger Butterfly is migrating North to a warmer climate for the Winter. We are obviously in their flight path though as they are settling in, at least whilst our tree is in flower. Breeding is during the warmer months, and is generally timed to coincide with the wet season when new growth on the host vines is available for the caterpillars to eat. Makes sense doesn't it?


 The caterpillars have evaded being eaten by the birds and other predators whilst down south, as the butterflies breed on a plant poisonous to birds but not to them, so the birds leave them alone. The main host plants for this butterfly are the Corky Milk Vine and the Mangrove Milk vine. The sap of the milky vines is toxic and the larvae feed on the toxic plants but are able to store the toxins in their systems making them unpalatable to their predators. Consequently  they often survive for months and are able to migrate to coastal North Queensland en masse. I wonder if they will make it to Cairns.

 Isn't nature amazing?



When I was gazing up at them yesterday, I could also hear a faint buzzing from our bees, which are also enjoying the nectar of the beautiful flowers. There is plenty for everybody however it is much easier to see the butterflies than it is to see the bees amongst all of the foliage. Our beehive isn't far from this tree at all.




Below is a photo of the Orchard Swallow Tail which is also gracing our garden at present. However it is more of a loner than it's tropical neighbour, the Blue Tiger. I suspect though that it's larvae is guilty of demolishing some of the leaves on our citrus tree and more ornamental plants. She is quite beautiful though isn't she?



Thanks for dropping by and I hope you enjoyed reading my amateurish but well meaning attempt to bring you an interesting story from our garden. I am mainly a food and travel writer, but sometimes a nice garden story presses the right buttons as well and I always learn something. I hope you have as well. If you have some extra information to add to this story, I would love to hear it.

I hope you can find the time to enjoy the collateral beauty around you today in these challenging Covid 19 times.

Warmest Easter wishes

Pauline

14 comments:

  1. Oh, those butterflies are so pretty. I’ve never seen that many butterflies in one place. Your garden must be full of flowers to attract them. 😊

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    1. Thanks Nil, we do have a lot of butterfly attracting plants, but this tree in flower seems to be the magnet for this butterfly.Take care, Pauline

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  2. Gosh...those butterflies!!! I don't think I have ever seen so many butterflies in a home garden. You have must done something RIGHT in your garden. Happy Easter, Pauline!

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  3. Thanks Angie, I think it has been due to good timing with this tree blooming at the time of the mass migration of this butterfly.Anyway, it has been quite spectacular. Best wishes, Pauline

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  4. We have noticed an abundance of butterflies in our garden too, but different varieties. Ours are Happy Wanderers and a black and white variety (we live in Central West NSW).They remind me of renewal and transformation and I love your thoughts on seeing collateral beauty.

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    1. Thanks Wendy it's so nice to hear from you and that you appreciated my introspective moment on collateral beauty. Cheers, Pauline

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  5. Pauline, our garden is full of hundreds of butterflies too and they look the same as yours....blue and black. I was standing out in the garden watching them yesterday and there was the odd orange one and a black and white one too but the majority were blue and black so I wonder if they are the same ones you have up there. I have never seen so many butterflies.

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    1. Chel they probably are the same Blue Tiger butterfly as I'm sure I was reading that the Corky Milk Vine, one of the host plants, grows well in Toowoomba so they are probably breeding there near you. It's all very interesting isn't it.Thanks so much for your interest in my "humble" ramblings.Cheers, Pauline.

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  6. oh that's absolutely wonderful pauline. how enlivening and heartwarming to see these beauties. they bring such joy, knowing that nature is still going on as normal... cheers
    sherry

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    1. Thanks Sherry, it helps to put things in perspective a little for me, knowing that nature can proceed as normal.

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  7. Wow, what a fantastic thing to experience and see. I love butterflies, but have never had such a visit in my garden. Thanks for sharing such beauty during these days...

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    1. Thanks Ron, I'm glad you enjoyed the story. If we had been away on holiday as planned we would have missed this event so it has it's advantages I suppose.

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  8. Wow, those butterflies are amazing! Such great pics - thanks for sharing :)

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  9. Thanks Tandy, beautiful butterflies always bring a smile don't they?

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