While in Australia we decided a visit to the Daintree rainforest, north of Cairns, would be a good idea. I had wanted to drive up through the forest to Cape Tribulation to possibly see some Cassowaries but didn’t think we had the time. We decided to book an evening cruise on the River instead. I had hoped to have an opportunity to see the six different kinds of Kingfishers and possibly a Frogmouth or two. We made a day of it and leisurely drove up to the quaint village of Daintree. On our way, we made a few stops to see if we could identify some shore birds.
Once again, we were in the dreaded area of the Crocodile. I was completely oblivious to the fact that Deb was terrified (see previous posts) of these things. When we stopped at the mouth of the Daintree river to look for some birds one of the locals told us that a 20 foot crocodile usually hung out by the sand bar but they hadn’t seen it for a couple of days. I decided a jaunt over to the beach would be a good idea … and it was from a birding standpoint! Saw a couple of terns, an oystercatcher, and a couple of other shore birds. Deb was constantly watching for the croc … no sighting! Whew.
Here’s an osprey we caught at the shore … a different version than my normal one, so a new bird for me. Yes!
My previous bird post for Australia has images of the birds we saw … This reef egret was a little bit of a loner.
This guy was trying to sneak away so I only got a “Sasquatch-style” photo … but enough to identify him — an Eastern Curlew.
We drove up to Daintree and then poked around a couple of the roads there looking for birds. We didn’t have great success … there was the odd bird here and there. Just really enough to whet my appetite.
This stone curlew was always a pleasure to see.
This Metallic Starling was pretty cool.
Around 5pm we were at the pier waiting for our guide to show up and take us for our river cruise … I was excited to see the birds. I saw a couple as we were waiting:
This is a Forest Kingfisher … one of six! 
This is an olive-backed sunbird … beautiful!
Well… let’s just say that it was us and the tour guide and he wasn’t really a birdwatcher. He wanted to just cruise us up the river, look for a few “animals,” show us the bats and return.
I was pretty disappointed initially. While Deb did see the most rare of Kingfishers, the Little Kingfisher, I was constantly just missing whatever birds there were and about 45 minutes later it was too dark to spot birds anyway.
Here we are cruising up a narrow section between the shore and an island.
I did catch this little guy snooping around … a Brown -backed Honeyeater.
I also saw this “leaf bird.” Haha. From a distance, I would swear that yellow stem was a bill on an a nice orange bird.
And here was my problem … it just started getting too dark to identify any more birds.
As we cruised along, Dan, our tour guide, pointed out a crocodile cruising down the river … he wanted to know if we wanted to get closer … it was about 12 feet long. We said “Heck no!”
I kept asking myself why I was so disappointed … we were out on a boat in a river in Northern Australia doing something that few other people do … it was actually pretty amazing. I perked up and we saw an amazing display of these very large fruit bats leaving the roosting area for their nightly dinner.
It was a mass migration of thousands of bats. As we sat there, the only boat in the area, the bats would swoop down to the river and bounce in the water. They were collecting water in their fur so they could land and drink it. We had these bats flying overhead, bouncing on the water (right by the boat) all in the stillness and the quietness. I was happy that I had perked up and was just enjoying the moment. Check out this video of all the bats. And look at that sky! Wow!
I guess things sometimes don’t go they way you expect but they still turn out pretty nice. On the way back, we spotted a Nankeen Heron and a Radjah Shelduck … both new birds for me. A great way to end an excellent cruise on the river.
Stumbling Piper
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