Richmond Birdwing Butterfly

Well after last weeks little encounter I though I would like to find something light and beautiful to talk about and I had been wondering what to write until yesterday morning when I went outside to admire the gorgeous spring day and there was the season's first Richmond Birdwing Butterfly flying and swooping and obviously delighting in the mild sunny weather.

There are Birdwing recovery groups on the Sunshine Coast and in the Brisbane area helping to restore the habitat of this vulnerable butterfly but we have them breeding right here on our property.  Obviously somewhere in our bushland there is a very old Birdwing Butterfly vine (Pararistolochia praevenosa) and over the past few years we have also planted about seven of these vines to help preserve this species but at this stage our vines are still quite small.

This is a photo we took of the butterfly sitting on a white cedar that is near our house.

These are very large butterflies and they do not flutter like other butterflies but fly like birds, flapping their wings and swooping onto branches and flowers.

It is so very special to be able to go outside and see a species that is listed as vulnerable to extinction right in our own front yard.  At times I have seen three of these butterflies together all feeding from the flowers of our native frangipani (Hymenosporum Flavum) which is about 6 meters tall and at the moment is in full bloom.  A few years ago we were talking with someone who belongs to one of the Birdwing recovery groups and he said he had never seen one of these butterflies in the wild, we are fortunate indeed.

http://www.wildlife.org.au/wildlife/speciesprofile/insects/richmodnbirdwing.html


Ok, I couldn't go without showing you what we are having for morning tea this week, a lovely boiled fruit cake which has ground cinnamon, ginger and all spice added - a very old fashioned recipe but what a luscious cake! 

                                                                                 

The chickens are all doing well. : )