Daintree River Wild Watch

03/07/2024

Recently we have been seeing a couple of yellow-billed spoonbills (Platalea flavipes) hanging around with the more usual royal spoonbills. This one was waiting near the jetty for me to grab a photo this morning. Definitely not a regular visitor on the Daintree River.

07/04/2024

https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/farnorth-breakfast/beauty-to-find-beyond-destruction-of-daintree-river-floods/103658356?fbclid=IwAR1yAlh4PgsCtH0xzaNaImkcevGpbE5aNXvyfIJfCeZcAgqgrP6QIP4GWmc_aem_AXDxWYTe81z4WO2YhxldAh3KFNYscOZuDWp31siv0sTHr1fP6EsS-F0qa-t2Gk0J_ZANzN4VYp4pzdmioe6UhAXR

Daintree locals are worried unprecedented floods have tested the resilience of one of the world's great tropical rivers.

09/01/2024

A bit of rain overnight and this morning has washed some of the flood mud off the leaves and left us with a rainbow over windy reach. At least 8 black bitterns, a great billed heron and a little kingfisher were welcome sights as well.

05/01/2024

It has been great to be back on the river the last couple of days. The river has definitely taken a beating, but already new shoots are showing through and some areas look like they have been completely untouched.
A surprise visitor for this time of year (normally more common in the cooler months), a Little Kingfisher sat beautifully for us on both our trips yesterday.

24/12/2023

White-bellied sea eagle (Icthyophaga leucogaster) soaring over the Daintree River on a misty morning.

21/12/2023

Well it has been a horrible week in the Daintree, with a cyclone followed by unprecedented flooding destroying homes, riparian vegetation, road infrastructure and the jetty and caravan park where we operate from. We will probably be off the water for a little while, time for cleaning up and regrouping, but we will be back as soon as possible.

I thought instead of posting more negative photos though (there are enough of those going around), I'd share some that I have taken previously. I'll try to do this a bit more over the next couple of weeks, a reminder of what we will be getting back to soon.

Comb-crested jacana (Irediparra gallinacea), with his comically large toes which allow them to "walk on water".

03/12/2023

Prawn for dinner for this Azure Kingfisher (Ceyx azureus)