AUSTRALIA: QUEENSLAND, The Daintree

On the Daintree River

Sept 23: My adventure in Australia continued on a foggy morning, with a pre-breakfast boat ride on the Daintree River.  Our group of a dozen participants filled the boat to capacity, under the very capable and charismatic local guide, Murray.  Barry and I went separately, with local guide “Sauce,” as in Worcester Sauce.  In fact, his last name is Worcester…  Australians have a great sense of humor!

Azure Kingfisher

The fog burned off quickly, revealing wonderful sightings on our two-hour excursion.  Amid a background din of continuously-calling Green (or Yellow) Orioles, we saw Forest, Azure and Sacred Kingfishers, and a brief glimpse of Little Kingfisher. Fringed with tropical rainforest, and agricultural clearings, the river serves as a corridor for mangrove species.  Several Nankeen Night-Herons were roosting half way up trees, while a Striated Heron skulked along the river bank. Our guides pointed out nests of Brown-backed Honeyeaters, untidy little structures that were hanging over the water.  A Pacific Koel, a parasitic cuckoo, caught our attention as it flew across the width of the river.  Australian Darter, and all the expected cormorants, Great, Little Black and Little Pied were diving for their meals. We were delighted to find a Green Tree Snake and a few basking Saltwater Crocodiles, the most feared of Australia’s fauna!

Saltwater Crocodile

Back at the Red Mill bed-and-breakfast, Trish and Andrew, our gracious hosts, served us a delicious breakfast on the balcony, fortifying us well before we headed off towards Cape Tribulation.

Licuala Palm

We took the short ferry ride across to Cape Kimberley and drove along the Cape Tribulation Road. Part of the Daintree National Park, the area encompasses lowland tropical rainforest with understory dominated by Licuala Palms and ferns. Leading into coastal mangroves, this region features the richest rainforest plant diversity in the country.

With patience, we were successful in tracking down a Noisy Pitta at Cape Kimberley. A skittish Emerald Dove was a little easier to see. We had good views of both Northern Fantail and a pair of Pied Monarchs. Honeyeaters, a large, diverse family of bird species in Australia, play an important role in dispersing fruit and pollen, and we added yet another species to our growing list, a Yellow-spotted Honeyeater.

Jindalba

We visited a few of several short boardwalks within Daintree National Park. The Jindalba (“foot of the mountain”) boardwalk led us through a lush, shady rainforest on an elevated walkway.  This is usually one of the better spots to find Southern Cassowary, Australia’s second largest bird after the Emu, but we came up empty-handed.  A female Victoria Riflebird, one of four Birds-of-Paradise found in Australia, was seen briefly. Macleay’s Honeyeater, Rufous Fantail, Grey Whistler, Large-billed Scrubwren, Spectacled Monarch and Little Shrike-Thrush all showed well. We could hear Superb Fruit Doves calling but had difficulty locating. As we ate our boxed lunches at some picnic tables, a Shining Bronzed Cuckoo flew into the stately fig tree above us.

Cassowary Crossing Sign

Driving to the next boardwalk, we laughed at the Australian sense of humor, as evident by some road signs.  One sign depicted a cassowary, and another below it showed a speed bump. Someone had written “before” on the cassowary sign, and “after” on the lower sign, altering the speed bump to make it look like a dead cassowary!  Despite the signs and prime habitat, we saw no Cassowarys, living or dead!

A short walk on the Marrja (“jungle” or “rainforest”) Botanical boardwalk took us through the mangroves just as the tide was coming in, where we saw Spotted Catbird, Shining Flycatcher, Mistletoebird and a vocal Black Butcherbird.

Varied Eggfly

Butterflies were very good in this region of coastal Queensland, and our to date we recorded Cairns Birdwing, Hamadryad, Clearwing Swallowtail, Ulysses Swallowtail (think blue morpho), Varied Eggfly, Scarlet Jezebel, White-banded Line Blue and Orange Bush Brown.

Northern Brown Bandicoot

On the grounds of the Red Mill B&B, we saw a Northern Brown Bandicoot, a small, rat-like marsupial, rounding out another beautiful day ‘Down Under.’
all photos © adrian binns