Daintree Wildlife Bulletin:

24 Jul 08. The crocodile and the Crocodile Bird. In the same frame was a Great-billed Heron and a Saltwater Crocodile right at the end of this morning's trip. Up till that point I was going to make a feature of Great Egret eying off a Water Python. The water is cold now after the rain and now with the sun shining these big reptiles are more visible as they leave the water to gain heat from the sun. Other sightings of note were the early migrants, Channel-billed Cuckoos, Brush Cuckoo and Metallic Starlings.

22 Jul 08. Little Kingfisher, whilst we had good close up views of Azure and Sacred Kingfishers this morning it was the Little Kingfisher that stole the show. We have seen them on all our trips for July except for three.

21 Jul 08. Great-billed Heron, Victoria's Riflebird, Papuan Frogmouths, Nankeen Night Heron, Double-eyed Fig-Parrots, Channel-billed Cuckoo and Green Tree Snake were the most popular species in the drizzly conditions this morning.

19 Jul 08. Brown-backed Honeyeater. Normally the first of our migrants and arriving in August a Brown-backed Honeyeater was heard and seen this morning. Also White-eared Monarchs for only the third time this year living up to their reputation for being one of our more elusive species. Saltwater Crocodile, Channel-billed Cuckoos and the kingfishers; Laughing Kookaburra, Azure, Sacred, Forest and Little Kingfisher all seen.

18 Jul 08. Channel-billed Cuckoos again this morning but a fairly quiet time. Wompoo Fruit-Doves and Shining Flycatchers proved the most popular of the birds.

15 Jul 08. Hot stuff around the village.  Channel-billed Cuckoos and Pacific Bazas are being seen between Dagmar Street and the river. Today's haul from the dawn river trip was good too; Saltwater Crocodile, Great-billed Heron and Nankeen Night Herons head the list.

14 Jul 08. Eventful morning. The planets must be in line? It started off with Channel-billed Cuckoos, Azure Kingfisher, Shining Flycatchers, Papuan Frogmouths, Spectacled Flying-fox, Little Kingfisher, Amethystine Python, Green Tree Snake, Saltwater Crocodile, Little Kingfisher again, crocodile again and culminated with Pacific Bazas in the carpark.

13 Jul 08. Saltwater Crocodile, Green Tree Snake, Little Kingfisher and Papuan Frogmouths proved the best this morning.

12 Jul 08. Black Bittern. Early arrival? In transit? Never the less a Black Bittern was seen twice this morning. Other good birds were Little Kingfisher, Papuan Frogmouths, Double-eyed Fig-Parrots and a vocal White-eared Monarch.

11 Jul 08. Saltwater Crocodile, Great-billed Heron and other good birds in the list above. A little treat after the trip for those breakfasting at "Ellenor's Place" was a Spangled Drongo harassing a pair of Pacific Bazas in the trees across from the restaurant.

9 Jul 09. Kingfisher morning, as you expect on the lower tides in July;  Forest, Sacred, Azure and Little Kingfishers around the river and Laughing Kookaburras around the village.

8 Jul 08. Double tour this morning. July is our busiest month and we did a second trip for some wildlife photographers. Best birds this morning were: Great-billed Heron, Little Kingfisher, Papuan Frogmouth and a Cicadabird.

7 Jul 08. Early migratory movement: Clearly seen this morning was a Brush Cuckoo in a place where one is often seen during the summer. On 1 July, two Brown-backed Honeyeaters were seen and heard along with two Brush Cuckoos heard at Wonga Beach. The normal arrival time for these south bound migrants is early August.

6 Jul 08. Don't be put off by the drizzly weather. It brings out the snakes and a lot of birds will break their cover in the lower light. Best birds this morning were Great-billed Heron, Little Kingfisher and Papuan Frogmouths.

4 Jul 08. Kingfisher morning. Laughing Kookaburra, Sacred, Azure, Forest and Little Kingfisher were a highlight this morning for some American birdwatchers on the fourth of July.

2 Jul 08. Pied Monarch, Yellow-breasted Boatbill, Little Kingfisher, Papuan Frogmouths and a handful of Green Tree Snakes head up this morning's trip.

27 Jun 08. Saltwater Crocodile, Green Tree Snake, Great-billed Heron, Little Kingfisher, Papuan Frogmouth, Double-eyed Fig-Parrot (excavating a nest), Wompoo Fruit-Dove head up this morning's wildlife checklist.

24 Jun 08. Little-Bronze-Cuckoo (Gould's). Some birds breed here during our "winter" and one of them is the tiny Large-billed Gerygone (Australian warbler). There is an active nest near the Daintree Village with a Little Bronze-Cuckoo chick in it which is keeping the adult Gerygones very busy keeping food up to it.

22 Jun 08. Back to blustery conditions, for the next few days but if you get in early on the Daintree River at the village you can minimise the effect as we did this morning, yielding lots of good birds and snakes as the list above shows.

17 Jun 08. Weather woes. As disappointing as the weather can be, good results can be obtained with a little patience. This morning was a good example. Light rain persisted through most of our two hour tour this morning but we still got to see lots of Green Tree Snakes, Australian Swiflets, Great-billed Heron, Striated Heron, Papuan Frogmouths, flycatchers and three kingfisher species.

16 Jun 08. Kingfisher Morning. Laughing Kookaburra, Forest, Sacred, Azure and Little Kingfishers this morning.

14 Jun 08. Orbiting Hobby. Possibly common in some areas of Australia, we saw a perched Australian Hobby today, personally giving me the best view that I have ever had of this compact falcon. Not content with posing for the camera it then took off, gave a short orbiting flight and returned to the same branch.

12 Jun 08. Good birds this morning; Little Kingfishers, Little (Gould's) Bronze-Cuckoo, Papuan Frogmouths, Double-eyed Fig-Parrots, Wompoo Fruit-Doves and Peregrine Falcon.

8 Jun 08. Ravenous Raptors, spectacular aerial maneuvers by a White-bellied Sea-Eagle with prey in it's talons, as it dodged two Whistling Kites. With the un-seasonal, warmer and blustery conditions we have seen more raptors early as the table above shows. Strangely there have not been any snakes seen on the two previous days but there were plenty of Green Tree Snakes in the trees this morning.

7 Jun 08. Saltwater Crocodiles, Great-billed Heron, Papuan Frogmouths, Wompoo Fruit-Doves and Pacific Baza topped the list this morning.

6 Jun 08. Good birds this morning; Great-billed Heron, Little Kingfishers, Papuan Frogmouths and Swamp Harrier. Un-seasonal warm weather denied us reptiles even with the low tide.

5 Jun 08. Over-wintering birds. Sometimes our migrating birds don't migrate or perhaps only go so far. At present there is a Channel-billed Cuckoo at Daintree Village, a Brush Cuckoo and some Pied Imperial Pigeons at Wonga Beach.

30 May 08. Saltwater Crocodile, Green Tree Snakes, Great-billed Heron, Papuan Frogmouth, Wompoo Fruit-Doves, Nankeen Night Heron and Double-eyed Fig-Parrots head up a good wildlife checklist for this morning.

26 May 08. Sugar cane harvest. Soon the sugar cane harvest will start in the Daintree Valley and our wildlife will re-act to it. More raptors will be visible from the Captain Cook Highway from Port Douglas to Daintree Village.

24 May 08. Victoria's Riflebird, Great-billed Heron, Little Kingfisher, Double-eyed Fig-Parrots, Saltwater Crocodile, Green Tree Snake, Peregrine Falcon and Nankeen Kestrel were the best of a good wildlife list this morning.

21 May 08. Saltwater Crocodile, Green Tree Snake and for the birdwatchers, Pied Monarch, Little Kingfisher and Papuan Frogmouths. We are settling into our winter routine with another crisp calm morning with clear skies to follow.

19 May 08. Cool morning, at 16° C today, it is a good sign of more crisp calm mornings to come in the next few months. Combined with a low tide there are good rewards for photographing our smaller kingfishers and Shining Flycatchers as our visiting journalists did this morning. As the sun breaks through the mist there are other rewards with reptiles and rainforest birds. These conditions are a far cry from the windier conditions to be experienced later in the day.

15 May 08. Eventful morning. Saltwater Crocodile, Green tree Snakes, Little (Gould's) Bronze-Cuckoo, Double-eyed Fig-Parrots, Shining Flycatchers, Leaden Flycatchers, Spectacled Monarchs and Pied Monarch heard heads up a long list of Daintree Wildlife. See list above. ^

11 May 08. Saltwater Crocodile, Green Tree Snake, Shining Flycatchers, Large-billed Gerygones, Azure, Forest and Sacred Kingfishers kept the cameras busy in the calm sunny conditions this morning. Large-billed Gerygones are building a nest near the village and, as if in response, Little (Gould's) Bronze-Cuckoos are calling close-by.

9 May 08. Saltwater Crocodile, Green Tree Snakes, Pacific Baza, Little Kingfisher, Papuan Frogmouth and, in the one tree, male and female Leaden Flycatchers in the top and male and female Shining Flycatchers in the bottom with territorial squawks. Other kingfishers included Azures and Sacreds posing for our passenger's photographs.

8 May 08. Grey Fantails, were particularly active this morning on the edges of the rainforest giving lots of vocalisations and good views. Other good birds were Little Kingfisher, Pacific Baza and Papuan Frogmouth.

5 May 08. Papuan Frogmouths are keenly sought by visiting birdwatchers and photographers and despite the showery weather this morning they did not disappoint. Other good photographic opportunities were Azure Kingfishers and a very tame Green Tree Snake.

2 May 08. Peregrine Falcons, in the first part of the trip this morning our attention was drawn upwards by the call of a Peregrine Falcon. We saw two streaking away over the sky. Ten minutes later we saw an adult perched in a tree and just finishing feeding. This sort of vocalisation could have something to do with an adult training a juvenile. Not listed above was the poor sighting of an Amethystine Python. A bird party drew our attention to an elkhorn where two of us could see part of the snake in the top of it.

30 Apr 08. Osprey observed this morning at the top of the telecom tower in Douglas Street, where there used to be an Osprey nest, being harrassed by Spangled Drongos, Torresian Crows and Magpie Larks. It is likely that Ospreys will nest there again this year.

28 Apr 08. Saltwater Crocodile, Green Tree Snake, Eastern Water Dragon, Azure and Little Kingfisher were the best species today but the best interaction was two chattering adult male sunbirds at the top of a small shrub whilst a female sunbird (possibly a second) sat below preening in the sun.
 
27 Apr 08. Saltwater Crocodile, Green tree Snake, Great-billed Heron, Little Kingfisher, Papuan Frogmouth head up today's wildlife checklist.

24 Apr 08. Bird eats crocodile. As predicted a most eventful morning culminating in seeing a Great-billed Heron with a newly hatched Saltwater Crocodile in its bill. Other reptiles and Papuan Frogmouth, Double-eyed Fig-Parrots, Forest, Sacred, Azure and Little Kingfishers(3) were the best of the birds.

22 Apr 08. Great weather and tides coming up. Great tides for an early start that is, and it all translates to good wildlife spotting. Best this morning were; Green Tree Snake, Black Bittern, Sacred, Forest, Azure and Little Kingfishers.

21 Apr 08. Saltwater Crocodile. As the weather gets colder we see more reptiles. This morning an adult Saltwater Crocodile climbed up on the river bank as we watched, something they would not do a week or so ago. Interesting morning as the wildlife checklist shows.

20 Apr 08. In between seasons. Today a Buff-breasted Paradise-Kingfisher at Julatten and yesterday a Pied Imperial Pigeon at Wonga Beach. Both will leave shortly for New Guinea for the winter.

18 Apr 08. Southern birds arriving: Grey Fantails, Leaden Flycatchers and more Spectacled Monarch Flycatchers are showing up in the rainforest as the year rolls on.

16 Apr 08. Snakes alive. Green Tree Snakes were out in force this morning and just about where ever we went we would find one.  Good birds included Black Bitterns and Pacific Bazas.

15 Apr 08. Natures Top Gun. Halfway through this mornings trip with interesting species like Black Bitterns and Channel-billed Cuckoos we had a good look at a Peregrine Falcon tearing strips of it's prey. A little later we saw the Grey Goshawk from yesterday.

14 Apr 08. Grey Goshawk. Three Spangled Drongos harassed an immature Grey Goshawk along Barratt Creek this morning complete with vocalisations being copied by the drongos. Black Bitterns, Papuan Frogmouths and Green Tree Snakes were other interesting species seen.

9 Apr 08. Saltwater Crocodile, Great-billed Heron, Little Kingfisher, Black Bittern, Double-eyed Fig-Parrots and an influx of Rufous Fantails this morning.

8 Apr 08. Great-billed Herons, Little Kingfisher, Black Bittern, Pacific Baza and Green Tree Snake were the platform to our wildlife list this morning. The most interesting interaction was the Pacific Baza divebombing one of the Great-billed Herons.

7 Apr 08. Black Bitterns, Papuan Frogmouths, Green Tree Snake, Forest, Sacred, Azure and Little Kingfishers head up our wildlife list this morning.

5 Apr 08. White-bellied Sea-Eagle and Channel-billed Cuckoo. Interesting interaction this morning as the eagle chased the cuckoo around the big fig trees on the river flats. Hard to come up the connection except for the fact that the eagles are courting at present and probably don't want a big parasitic cuckoo anywhere near their nest. Other good wildlife sightings were an Amethystine Python maneuvering into a sunny patch, a Great-billed Heron poking around it's nesting tree, a timid Black Bittern in the bright sun and not far away a Gould's Bronze-Cuckoo sunbathing.

4 Apr 08. Amethystine Python, Black Bitterns and Papuan Frogmouths were the best this morning in glorious weather for this time of year.

3 Apr 08. Great-billed Heron, Black Bittern, Amethystine Python, Green Tree Snake and lots of Channel-billed Cuckoos were the most interesting wildlife species this morning.

1 Apr 08. Black Bittern, Little Kingfisher, Gould's Bronze-Cuckoo and Green Tree snake were the highlights this morning.

29 Mar 08. Saltwater Crocodiles, Green Tree Snakes, Papuan Frogmouths, Sacred, Forest, Azure and Little Kingfishers top today's list.

28 Mar 08. Saltwater Crocodile, Green Tree Snakes, Papuan Frogmouths, Azure Kingfishers and Shining Flycatchers head up this morning's Daintree Wildlife list.

26 Mar 08. Rose-crowned Fruit-Dove. Whilst we glimpsed other fruit-doves this morning we had a Rose-crowned Fruit-Dove sit for us for about 5 minutes in a little rainforest creek. Also we saw some Black Bitterns and a little crocodile eyeing off a Common Sandpiper across from the jetty.

24 Mar 08. Great-billed Heron. The wet dreary conditions that we sometimes have this time of year can be an asset when looking for some of our scarce species like Black Bitterns and Great-billed Herons. Sure enough, this morning we saw both in the wet dreary conditions.

22 Mar 08. Kingfisher morning. Laughing Kookaburra, Forest, Sacred, Azure and Little Kingfishers presented themselves this morning along with two Black Bitterns.

20 Mar 08. Great-billed Heron, Black Bitterns, Little Kingfisher, Double-eyed Fig-Parrots and Gould's Bronze-Cuckoo head up this morning's wildlife checklist on a flooded river in bright sunshine.

15 Mar 08. Wet Season update. We returned home yesterday by car. The last section involved driving through the wettest part of Australia; Tully, Innisfail and Babinda. We got through but only hours later the road was flooded over again. The Slaty-backed Gull is still at Cooktown, if you can get there.

18 Jan 08. Best birds this morning were; Great-billed Heron, Black Bitterns, Latham's Snipe and Double-eyed Fig-Parrots.

12 Jan 08. Black Bitterns were more plentiful this morning and we were pleasantly surprised with another Great-billed Heron which flew over the boat and then perched for a brief photographic session.

4 Jan 08. Great-billed Heron. Great start to the new year with good sightings of our most elusive bird - the Great-billed Heron. This was wonderful after sightings of some secretive Black Bitterns and colourful Wompoo Fruit-Doves.
 

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