Exploring Pigeon Valley: The Gaudy Commodore
The riches of Pigeon Valley Nature Reserve explained by Glenwood resident and chair of the Friends of Pigeon Valley.
This is the 109th article in an ongoing series that highlights the riches of Pigeon Valley, the urban nature reserve in the heart of Glenwood. The focus of this article is on the butterfly, The Gaudy Commodore.
On the face of it, this name would suggest that Pigeon Valley is frequented by a retired naval officer of high rank, who persists in wearing not only full uniform but some colourful additions. It is instead the name of this beautifully detailed butterfly that let me approach it in the grassland of the reservoir. What is unusual about this group of butterflies is that there is a wet season and a dry season form. This is the wet season form; the dry season form is a brilliant blue marked by a row of red dots – one could imagine a naval uniform with a row of bright medals.
ALSO READ: Exploring Pigeon Valley: The Common Wild Fig
The wet season form is described in Steve Woodhall’s butterfly app as very active and out in the open – the winter season form is more reclusive. Perhaps I need to add that it is not that an individual butterfly changes its colours, like a chameleon. Rather, the colour form the butterfly develops depends on when in the seasons the pupa is formed, the pupa or chrysalis being the enclosed casing that the caterpillar makes of itself.
At present there is an explosion of butterfly activity – over the weekend, pulling out an alien creeper in a thorny thicket, I was frequently seeing butterflies, some of which would perch nearby in a companionable way.
Crispin Hemson chairs the Friends of Pigeon Valley, a group that undertakes clearing of alien plants, keeps records of bird and mammal sightings and alerts management to any problems.
The Friends have a monthly walk at 7.30am on the second Saturday of each month. Email: friendsofpigeonvalley1@gmail.com.
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