I've just recently returned from a few days away up in Queensland. I had the absolute pleasure & joy of staying on beautiful Keswick Island, a place I've been wanting to visit ever since I spotted an article about it in an Australian Geographic Magazine last year ...... it's a haven to the most spectacular number of butterflies I have ever seen. And not only butterflies! All sorts of interesting insects, birds, seaside critters and tropical plants. To my delight, the butterflies were there at the time of my visit & I have collected much photo & video reference for my future paintings .... so now I'm very excited to begin sketching & painting! The butterflies that appear and in such great numbers at various times are called Blue Tiger (Tirumala hamata) butterflies. There are also the Big Greasy (Cressida cressida) butterflies with their see-through upper wings, which are just stunning! Another wee character I was thrilled to come across was the Great Carpenter Bee (Xylocopa), which is Australias largest native bee! I tried my best to film this busy buzzy fellow (a male), which was pretty tricky as he was very, very busy.....and managed to get a pretty good pic and some fairly ok sort of in focus footage. See pics and videos below if you like! This island paradise is definitely worth a visit. See these links for more info https://www.facebook.com/KeswickIsland/ http://www.keswickisland.com.au/ |
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