Lamington National Park shines bright on a grey morning

Morans Creek, O'Reilly.

On a cool and overcast morning last Friday, I headed down to Lamington National Park and walked two tracks in the Green Mountains section near O’Reilly’s.

The main purpose of my visit was to search for a particular fern I had been learning about, but my curious mind soon enough found other things to focus on as well.

Fairy bonnets (Coprinellus disseminatus), O'Reilly.

One of my favourite moments of the day occurred on the Python Rock track, when I took a closer look at a pool of rainwater that had collected inside a tree trunk. 

Tree pool, O'Reilly.

Nothing of note was in the water, but on the dappled green trunk adjacent to it, I found a gorgeous mossy prominent (Cascera muscosa).

Mossy prominent, O'Reilly.

The moth is just faintly visible in the tree trunk photo above, so if you wish to re-examine it, you can then check to see if your spotting was accurate using the image at the end of this post. 

As I didn’t find the fern I was looking for on the Python Rock track, I decided to walk to Morans Falls after and try my luck where the track criss-crossed various gullies.

I did indeed end up finding the fern at this location, and while I was becoming acquainted with it, the beating of wings above my head made me look up.

Brown cuckoo-dove, O'Reilly.

In the air above me, two brown cuckoo-doves (Macropygia phasianella) were fighting over access to a feed of brown beech (Pennantia cunninghamii) fruit.

By the time I walked back a few steps for a better photography angle, a victor had emerged between the two birds, and the loser was hurtling off into the forest. 

Other birds along this track included the brown gerygone (Gerygone mouki), wompoo fruit-dove (Ptilinopus magnificus) and Australian logrunner (Orthonyx temminckii).

Elkhorn (Platycerium bifurcatum), O'Reilly.

I’ve come to find that a weekday morning with less-than-perfect weather is the best time to enjoy some peace in our most heavily-visited National Parks, and I encountered no more than a dozen other walkers on the tracks.

For those planning on visiting the Green Mountains section of Lamington National Park anytime soon, however, keep in mind that extensive roadworks on the road up and down from the plateau may cause significant delays to your journey.

Moth location--did you find it?!