Jones Creek Road (ish)

 These snaps come from a drive with Jeff along Jones Creek Road and related carriageways North of the Prince Highway a few km West of Genoa.  Some words and precise names to follow.

As we drove Jeff had mentioned seeing some monstrous spotty March Flies.  As soon as we stopped some rolled up.  Here is one trying to drill through Jeff's boot.  According to iNaturalist AI the species is Triclista gluttata.

At our next stop there were hordes of butterflies - Imperial Hairstreak Jalmenus evgoras - fluttering around the low shrubs.  Many of them were a tad battered, but this one shows the tails nicely.

This one shows a clump of pupae as well as several imagos. Some of the attendant ants are also there.

Geitoneura klugii - Marbled Xenica

A Skipper of some species.  According to the AI, Splendid Skipper Trapezites symmomus

A nice Goanna - about 1.2 m long.  Jeff commented that nearly all the Goannas around this are are about this size: perhaps they are all from nests that survived the fire, and the bigger adults mostly were killed?  Note the tongue in this first image.

As well as enjoying the colours, check the size of the claws!

We had three target species of which the Turquoise Parrot was obliging.

After that first (Julian Alps-rule: even if a photo-op isn't "perfect" grab in case the opportunity is about to vanish, as happened when we camped at Bled and the chocolate-box lid view was soon replaced by 8/8 cloud) image we followed a sandy track to get a clearer image.  Going against all the rules the bird was still in position when we shifted to get a better view.