Sunday, November 24, 2013

It's Birdwatching time in Daintree


Go early, go with a guide for safety and go often. It's birdwatching time in Daintree.
Daintree birdwatching guides are reporting frequent sightings of Great-billed Herons, Black Bitterns, Papuan Frogmouths and Buff-breasted Paradise-Kingfishers.

The Daintree Bird Walk starts again soon.






.

Thursday, October 10, 2013

Daintree River Birdwatching features in new Book


Best 100 birdwatching sites in Australia - Sue Taylor

Daintree River Cruise rates as # 24

Sue Taylor visited Daintree about 12 years ago as she was researching her first bird book - How Many Birds is That.









.


Wednesday, October 09, 2013

Daintree Birdwatching App


Port Douglas Daintree Birdwatching App
A NEW birdwatching chapter has been added to the 
Port Douglas Daintree Discovery Guide App.

Find all the details here....










.

Friday, September 27, 2013

Reservoir Road, Wonga Beach

Lovely Fairy-wrens.
Consistently calling halfway up Reservoir Road Wonga Beach on the left hand side. Reservoir Road is near the Caltex Servo  but on the other side of the main road about 300 metres toward Mossman.

Thursday, September 26, 2013

Sounds of Spring

The Daintree Valley is resonating to the melodious morning song of the Black Butcherbirds this Spring. It is punctuated by the calls of Brush Cuckoos and Little Bronze-cuckoos throughout the day and Bush Stone-curlews through the night.

Thursday, September 19, 2013

Cicadabird calling at Wonga Beach

There is a Cicadabird calling from near Marlin Drive and Janbal Street. Also calling early mornings Little Bronze-cuckoo and Brush Cuckoo.




.

Saturday, September 14, 2013

Pacific Baza at Wonga Beach

There is a vocal Pacific Baza near the intersection of Marlin Drive and Oleander Drive Wonga Beach. 
It is likely to be with others and may hang around for a few days.

Enjoy.





.

Thursday, August 15, 2013

Port Douglas Daintree Birdwatching App


Daintree does not have full mobile coverage and so this native app is exactly what you need to get visitor information during your visit here. It works on iPhone, iPad, iPod, Android phones and Android tablets. US$2.99 from the App Stores.

NEW Release for birdwatchers >







.

Saturday, July 27, 2013

Daintree Birdwatching App


Just released:
Daintree Birdwatching App for iPhone, iPad and Android phones and tablets.
It is in the Port Douglas & Daintree Discovery Guide available from the
 App Store and Google Play.
This App works in areas without mobile reception.



.

Friday, June 14, 2013

First signs of Spring


This morning at dawn I heard a Brush Cuckoo. The Brush Cuckoo is usually the second migratory bird species to arrive in early spring. It will be interesting to see if it stays around or continues on it's southerly journey. On the subject of migrating cuckoos, Pheasant Coucals are also being heard in the upper Daintree as they move away after being dis-lodged by the sugar cane harvest.

Keep an eye on the birds identified on the almost daily 







.

Tuesday, June 04, 2013

Daintree Bird Walk


Daintree Bird Walk
 has now been operating for 4 days.

Check out the website and see what birds have been identfied.










.

Friday, May 24, 2013

DAINTREE BIRD WALK


New, Chris Dahlberg starts the Daintree Bird Walk on 1 June 2013.


See Website: birdwalk.daintree.info 




.

Friday, April 19, 2013

Bruce Belcher Branches out into Birdwatching

One of the longest serving tour guides in Daintree is going to follow his dream of being a birdwatcher guide. If it is anything like what Bruce normally does he will be a good one. Bruce Belcher, a mate of mine for a quarter of century starts his operation on 1 May 2013. He plans to use the lower reaches of the Daintree with a birdwatching boat for a 2&1/2 hour early morning tour at a cost of $65.
This is really good news for visiting birdwatchers because the other birdwatching guides work upstream in the freshwater reaches and so the visitors will have the opportunity to do both parts on different days. Since dawn trips started on the Daintree more than 20 years ago the Daintree River has become world renowned for birdwatching.
Bruce is part of the digital revolution with his digital business card and mobile website:




.

Thursday, April 11, 2013

Crocodiles are in the food chain.




Crocodile hatchling emerges from the egg.

It is that time of the year again the crocodile hatchlings are out and about. Only weeks old these small crocodiles are an important food source for other animals, particularly birds. Their survival rate is about 1% which is common for any species that has a large clutch.

You can see these creatures on the Daintree River.

Best at low tide. See:
daintree.info/weather.html 















Image: http://latvijasdabasmuzejs.blogspot.com.au/2011_04_01_archive.html

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

The Spectacled Flying-fox


This astonishingly beautiful nectar and fruit-eating bat is the local "World Heritage" Daintree forester the Spectacled Flying-fox (Pteropus conspiculatus).
We are fortunate in Wonga Beach to have them set up Camp along a creek line running parallel to Marlin Drive. During winter the Spectacled Flying-foxes spread out into more numerous but smaller camps because their nectar diet is similarly widespread. (Rainforest trees produce less nectar in winter)
One of the most spectacular nature eco events in Cairns is the Spectacled Flying-fox "Flyout" which can be witnessed from the restaurant strip next to the lagoon at dusk as 20 000 bats take to the skies on their nightly rainforest forage for food.


.


Thursday, March 14, 2013

Crocodile canalabism.


Daintree River aboard Solar Whisper.
Captain and passengers witnessed a crocodile eating another crocodile last Wednesday. Called an unusual sighting because crocodiles don't eat much, do not eat often and are rarely seen eating anything. The digestion period is likely to be several weeks.




photo courtesy of the Cairns Post.

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Dollarbird in Wonga Beach

There is an immature Dollarbird hanging around Wonga Beach at present. It has been here for a week now and shows no sign of finishing it's migration further north.




Image of adult Dollarbird courtesy of nature pixels.org

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Early morning action at Wonga Beach


An early morning walk along the Wonga Beach foreshore this morning presented us with a Barn Owl being harassed by other birds. Just at the end of Calophyllum Close is where the action was and the other birds involved were Black Butcherbirds, a Spangled Drongo and some un-seen Helmeted Friarbirds.







Image courtesy of True Wild Life

Thursday, January 17, 2013

Radjah Shelduck in Wonga Beach Creek.


Spotted in a creek off Oleander Drive just down from the Caltex Servo were two Radjah Shelducks. These north Australia ducks are not that common near the coast.




.

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

A Cuckoo sort of day.


Where ever I went today there was a cuckoo. 
It started off at dawn with the Eastern Koel, not long after the Channel-billed Cuckoos and then Brush Cuckoos and Little Bronze-cuckoo (Gould's).
This was not over a few minutes it went on all day long!


Enjoy your birdwatching in Daintree.


.

Friday, January 11, 2013

White-throated Needletails over Wonga Beach


White-throated Needletails are rarely seen Summer visitors down the eastern half of mainland Australia. They breed in the Himilayas and virtually live on the wing following their insect food supply which may be pushed along by a weather front as is happening today at Wonga. Probably the largest of all the swifts and certainly the fastest which you will see if you can catch up with them. Often heard before seen.





.

Wednesday, January 09, 2013

Spotted Whistling Ducks on the Daintree River


Spotted Whistling Ducks have been seen on the Daintree River with Ian "Sauce" Worcester (mobile) on his dawn river trip. The sightings of these ducks in Australia is not common especially this far south. 







.

Thursday, January 03, 2013

Crested Hawk (old name) now called Pacific Baza


Again this morning along the southern part of Marlin Drive Wonga Beach.
Identify by call "ee chew, ee chew"
Birdwatching time in Daintree just before the rains.

Photo: Martin A. Hansen

Wednesday, January 02, 2013

Pacific Baza Alert - Wonga Beach

Heard this morning a Pacific Baza in the southern part of Marlin Drive behind the houses from Lifu Close north.

Good Luck.

.