Back in beautiful Daintree at last!

After 3 months holiday - 6 weeks in South America and then six weeks driving into central Australia and back, it is great to be back in Daintree with the familiar lush green rainforest, warm winter's days and our local very special birds.
Highlights from Bolivia included a four day hike from the freezing cold Andes at 5,,000metres down into the sub-tropical Yungas at 2000m, just out of La Paz. Hard on the knees and much more difficult than we imagined but a fabulous experience and our first sighting of the Andean Cock-of-the-Rock, which was on life's 'wish list'.

El Choro Trek Bolivia 

Many birding highlights of Ecuador, but the day in the company of Mr Angel Paz at his farm, watching him interact with Antpittas, Cock-of-the-Rock, hummers, Toucanets etc was magic. An ex hunter who now has a refuge for wildlife, he provides opportunities to see many of the more difficult birds, and in a most delightful manner.

Toucan Barbet

Home for a day, packed the ute and then headed off camping to Central Australia. Great weather, great country and some great birds including this Western Bowerbird at Ormiston Gorge in the West Macdonnell Ranges.

Western Bowerbird

 Camping in the bush on the Plenty Highway between Boulia and Alice Springs. No caravans - yeah!!!

Back to Daintree, which is about as good as it gets in mid winter!
Busy here for the school holidays, particularly with day visitors from Cairns and Port Douglas. For those lucky enough to stay overnight in Daintree the birdlife is fantastic. There have been 5 different kingfishers on the Daintree River, seen from the early morning boat tours, plus favourites like Great-billed Heron and Papuan Frogmouth.
The Little Kingfisher feeds on the pond at Red Mill House each day and Spangled Drongo, Pacific Baza and Brown Cuckoo Dove frequent the yard.
Nice winter specials here in the lowlands include Brown Falcon, seen on the Mossman-Daintree Rd, Lewin's Honeyeater, Pacific Baza, Victoria's Riflebird and Black-faced Monarch.
Southern Cassowary seen on Cape Kimberly Rd, Wompoo Fruit-Dove nesting on Stewart Creek Rd and the first Pied Imperial Pigeons recently seen, presumably returning from PNG for the breeding season. Metallic Starling also returned and busy as can be.
It's nice to be home!!

The rainy season

After a comparatively dry 2012 (2830ml), this year's "wet" season is off to a good start. A monsoonal low on Cape York is bringing good rains to the Daintree (200ml+ in the past 4 days), filling the wetlands and flushing the Daintree River. No flooding yet but, the ground is now saturated so, continued heavy rains will cause local flooding.
Excellent for birding though, with Pale-vented Bushhen frolicking in drains along the side of the road, Red-necked Crake calling at night and both Little and Azure Kingfishers returning to their traditional spots (including Red Mill House pond) after the breeding season.

Azure Kingfisher (Russell Jones)

A visit to Maardja Boardwalk last week gave us two sightings of Little Kingfisher, and three separate sightings of Southern Cassowary were reported yesterday north of the Daintree River.
A large flock of Wandering Whistling Duck (40+) flying over Daintree Village each evening, and several hundred Magpie Goose are still in the area - roosting near Barratt Creek and feeding in the fields throughout the valley.

Magpie Goose (T.Forsyth)

The perils of the rainy season, unfortunately, are obvious. The Papuan Frogmouth nest we have been watching has had a large branch fall on it during the rain. We are not sure of the result.

Eclipse 2012 plus great birdwatching

What an amazing event the 2012 Total Solar Eclipse in Far North Queensland was! 

People came from far and wide, up to 50,000 extra people in the region we hear - from the seriously scientific to the seriously whacky, to the seriously obsessed. Some had been planning this for years and many had travelled half way around the world to see it.

The build-up to the event was full of anxiety as people jockeyed for positions to get the perfect view - the tropics in 'build-up' season is far from reliable weather-wise, and by being just after sunrise it didn't allow people to move to another location at the spur of the moment. So, lots of anxious moments when waking to cloud in the east that morning!

The Total Eclipse itself lasted for a little over two minutes and was amazing - if you think you have seen it all by viewing a partial eclipse before, you are seriously wrong!  The darkness, the drop in temperature, the shadows, that moment when you can take your silly glasses off and look directly at the sun, the sudden brightness when the sun emerges - it is like nothing else. Truly amazing. Even the biggest cynics (aka Andrew) were converted!

Red Mill House guests at the mouth of the Daintree River Nov 14 2012

Red Mill House guests all went with Sauce to the mouth of the Daintree River where we were on our own. We had great views of the moon coming over, but then as totality arrived a big black cloud came over  - - - - - -  it broke just long enough for us to ooh and aah and have a good look then clouded over again.

Those who were further inland got uninterrupted views. Phil Hart (who is staying at Red Mill House at the moment) was delighted to get the NASA Astronomy Photo of the Day with this wonderful image of the 'diamond ring' below.

http://philhart.com/content/solar-eclipse-queensland-14th-november-2012

It is not worth messing around with little cameras, there is just not enough time. Leave it to the experts!!

Phil Hart Total Solar Eclipse FNQ Nov 2012

Another classic image from Phil.

Phil Hart Total Solar Eclipse FNQ Nov 2012

Now to birds!! A number of Eclipse-followers are birders, so it has been busy in Daintree, with a wonderful couple of weeks of birding locally.
Yellow-breasted Boatbill, Pied Monarch, Buff-breasted Paradise Kingfisher and King Parrot in the rainforest.  Brown Quail, Red-backed Fairy-Wren, Tawny Grassbird, Little Eagle, Black-shouldered Kite in the fields. Cotton and Green Pygmy Goose and Magpie Goose, Bush Hen, Buff-banded Rail and Latham's Snipe on the Daintree River (or banks). Plus all our regulars of course! The only thing missing seems to be the Little Kingfisher.
The Cattle Egret are now well coloured in breeding plumage and will be heading off to breed in the Gulf soon.

Cattle Egret Nov 12

Springtime in Daintree

After a very dry and extremely pleasant few weeks, there has been some good showers here in the Wet Tropics over the last few days, refreshing the rainforest and greening everything up again. It was long overdue.

Birdlife has been fabulous with lots of nesting going on - Olive-backed Sunbirds are laying in some of the most inconvenient of places - hammocks, doorways etc. They are amazingly successful considering how trusting they are! We also have Yellow Oriole, Australian Figbird and Helmeted Friarbird nesting in the garden. Welcome Swallows and Mistletoebirds are feeding their young around town and, on the Daintree River, Wompoo Fruit Dove and Papuan Frogmouth are nesting while Double-eyed Fig-Parrots are madly feeding babies.

It is the season for Channel-billed Cuckoo (Storm Birds) and Australasian Koel to be seen, but particularly, heard. The Koels are always being chased noisily by the smaller birds as they parasitise the nests of the above-mentioned species. Fruit-eaters and usually quiet, the Koel can often be found in fruiting Alexandra Palms and several species of figs. A large bird with a bright red eye, the female has delightful markings, while the male is shiny and black.

Australian Koel - female (Fred Forsell)

Australian Koel - male (Fred Forsell)

Other good sightings in Daintree include Lovely Fairy-Wren on Stewart Creek Rd, Little Kingfisher on the pond at Red Mill House, Pacific Baza in Daintree Village and possibly the first sighting of Black Bittern this morning on the Daintree River.
Everyone is waiting anxiously for the first call of the Buff-breasted Paradise Kingfisher returning from New Guinea.

The new Daintree Birdwatching Bulletin

Following the crash of the one existing computer in this house which supported Windows XP, we no longer have access to the Dreamweaver programme from which the Daintree Birdwatching Bulletin was created and maintained.

So - - - this blog is now the new Daintree Birdwatching Bulletin, which means I have to be a bit more vigilant  about keeping it updated!

September is a fabulous time of year in Daintree - warm, sunny, not humid and very few mosquitoes. With a couple of notable exceptions (Buff-breasted Paradise Kingfisher and Black Bittern), all our summer migrants are here. Lots of nesting is going on making some birds like Great-billed Heron and Southern Cassowary more difficult to see, and others like Metallic Starling and Brown-backed Honeyeater are easier.

Good sightings of Little Kingfisher, Double-eyed Fig-Parrot and Pacific Baza in the garden at Red Mill House while Stewart Creek Rd has been handy for Lovely Fairy-Wren and Pied Monarch.

Very good sightings of Noisy Pitta on the track at the end of Cape Kimberly and there has been a very handsome, and somewhat 'friendly' sub-adult Southern Cassowary at Jindalba Boardwalk, as the following photos from Paul McLelland shows us.

Sub-adult Cassowary Jindalba Boardwalk

Sub-adult Cassowary Jindalba Boardwalk - a close look!

A male Cassowary with three chicks is also in the region of Jindalba, and also a large female. Most sightings seem have been early morning and it is has been difficult finding then during the day.

Other Daintree sightings include Topknot Pigeon, Yellow-breasted Boatbill, Victoria's Riflebird and Shining Flycatcher. Check out our weekly sightings list for more details Red Mill House Sightings page

New Year's resolution - blogging!!

Where does the time go?
My apologies for such a long absence - I was embarrassed to receive blog stats recently and see many people are looking at this blog, but that I have done nothing for such a long time. Thank you for your perseverance.

A New Year's resolution - to keep people informed and up to date this year about life and birding in the Daintree.

First things first though.
We have just returned from a wonderful month's holiday in Sri Lanka.
What a great destination for viewing wildlife and  to have the opportunity to meet such wonderful people who are happy to share their ancient, rich and diverse land with us. We took part in a private Birdwatching and Wildlife tour for 11 days, then spent another 2 1/2 weeks exploring the island by various means.
Many, many photos, but this is a favourite!!

Sri Lanka is experiencing a tourist boom, now that the conflicts are over and the rebuilding from the 2004 Tsunami is virtually complete. It is an easy and safe destination and very popular with northern Europeans at this time of year - why wouldn't it be? Wildlife tourism is also growing quickly, and we would recommend going sooner, rather than later, as there will probably be greater demand in the future, stretching the resources of the good nature guides and companies.
We travelled with, and would recommend Prasanjith Caldera from Walk with Jith, an excellent guide and organiser, who created the perfect tour for us, at a very good price. His other guides, Sam and Nandana, were also charming and knowledgeable and we enjoyed them all.
If you would like any more details, please just contact Andrew or Trish at Red Mill House.

So, back to Daintree - - and what a beautiful place at this time of year. To date, little rain and few mosquitoes, so everyone is happy.
The summer migrants are all here, with Pied Imperial Pigeon very common, flocks of Metallic Starlings feeding on forest fruits, Black Bittern on the Daintree River, and most spectacularly, the Buff-breasted Paradise Kingfisher which are nesting in the termite mounds nearby. We were fortunate to rescue one of these that had been hit by a car recently. He seemed okay, which is great.

A juvenile Great-billed Heron is being seen regularly on the Daintree River, and some visitors have been lucky enough to watch Mum feeding it. Lots of new Double-eyed Fig-Parrots around also. It really is a great time for birding in Daintree.
This is an older photo now, but a classic just the same - taken on the road to Cape Tribulation by guests from Red Mill House late last year.

Another New Year's Resolution is to take more time birding this year. So lots of reports to come!!

Red Mill House - Daintree Birdwatching

Welcome to the Red Mill House Daintree Birdwatching Blog!!!! Yet another source for spreading the word about our wonderful region and all it's attributes. Red Mill House is an award winning, AAA rated 4 Star Birdwatching Lodge situated in Daintree, Tropical North Queensland. Queensland's Wet Tropics area is a birdwatchers and wildlife enthusiasts paradise - over half of Australia's bird species have been recorded in the region. Red Mill House is an ideally located base from which to experience the bountiful range of flora and fauna and the World Heritage listed Daintree National Park and The Great Barrier Reef.

Check out the Red Mill House web site at

www.redmillhouse.com.au

The Daintree Birdwatching Bulletin Board site is an up to date information site listing all recent sightings, locations and birdwatching activities in the Daintree.