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WINTER
June, July and August, are the pick of our comfortable weather “human months”. This may account for the
heavy influx of tourists. It is also the stable “wildlife months” where there is
not much breeding and no migratory movement. Our raptors start to nest towards
the end of winter and the feeding
of their young adds to the heightened activities of spring.
Despite Daintree being well inside the tropics and being at sea-level
there are cold nights and most wildlife species will want to be in the sun the
moment it rises. So wildlife will not only break their cover at dawn but they
will sit in the best light known to man, the sun. Nocturnal species like the
Nankeen Night Heron above, on a
winter’s morning will be in the sun early, warming up, and as the sun rises
further and they have had their heat they will end up in the shade. This is
especially so of Nankeen Night Herons and Papuan Frogmouths.
Reptiles are easier to find and see at this time as they too
will stay in the sun for long periods. The 4 main reptiles seen during river
cruises are Saltwater Crocodiles, Eastern Water Dragons, Green Tree-snakes and ,
the hardest to find, Amethystine Pythons.
Mammals are active at night. Spectacled Flying-foxes
are fairly easy to find around the village, they will usually be heard first.
Bandicoots and rodents can usually be seen by simply taking a slow ride along
the sealed roads. Much harder to find are Swamp Wallabies but they can be found
on the same roads.
SPRING
Of all the times to visit, Spring is it!
September, October and
November.
The season is still comfortable for humans but late spring can sometimes be hot
or, cool if the rains come early. It is wildlife busy time. Busy breeding and
surviving. It is vocal! So vocal that if, sound recordists come, it will be at
this time. It is worth coming just for the dawn chorus with rainforest birds
emitting the most amazing sounds like the human tenor voice of the Wompoo
Fruit-dove, the haunting call of the Spotted Catbird and the methodical chopping
of the Large-tailed Nightjar. Spectacled Flying-foxes set up their maternity
camp near the village adding to the mixture of sounds.
There is the steady stream of migrating birds starting with
the Brown-backed Honeyeater and culminating with the most striking of Australia’s
kingfishers. The buff-breasted Paradise-Kingfishers tend to arrive late Oct or
early November. They too are very vocal early morning and that makes them easier
to find in their rainforest home. On rarer occasions Oriental Cuckoo’s find
their way to Northern Australia but are silent. If at all this is more likely in
December. Bird sightings are much more predictable because the locations of
nests are known and, without disturbing the birds, good views can be had with
binoculars. The stormbirds arrive. Thunderstorms are frequent down the east
coast of Australia at this time. Our 2 biggest cuckoos the Channel-billed and
the Common Koel are called stormbirds. Both the stormbirds have loud calls
and there is no doubt when they are around in fact on hearing a loud raucous
call look up and do not be surprised to see a string of Channel-billed Cuckoos
all in a line. Sometimes on looking up at the loud raucous calls you might fluke a
Helmeted Friarbird chasing a Common Koel away from the nest.
Orchids come into bloom on the edges of
the rainforest. Pencil Orchids are perhaps the most common. The white blooms can
often be seen growing on the larger trees by the side of the road. Daintree
Village has plenty of fruit trees and worth a look for birds.
SUMMER
December,
January and February. Crocodiles are much harder to see in the summer. Even
the tour boats may go for weeks at a time with out seeing one.
There are still terrific opportunities to see wildlife at
this time. There are plenty of active nests to be seen and the cuckoos remain
vocal. It is a hot season and at sometime in these three months the rains will
come. In the hot part of summer wildlife is very quiet in the middle of the day.
Good results are guaranteed with an early start. It goes from dark to light in
about 15 minutes and then the temperature rises sharply so being early is crucial.
The Flying-fox camp can suffer the most in the heat. These
big bats fan themselves to stay cool and will even leave their preferred
tree-top position to go lower in the trees and closer to their predators like
the Amethystine Python. The fanning wreaks a terrible cost in water and food
reserves and on dusk the whole camp will descend on the river for a drink on the
wing. This presents one of the most spectacular wildlife events of summer. The
event does not escape the notice of the opportunistic crocodiles who, with
lightning reflexes, can snatch a flying-fox on the wing when they come to drink.
It is rather extraordinary just how many experienced
naturalists and birdwatchers have yet to see a Black Bittern. These secretive
and shy birds arrive in summer and concentrate in the mainly fresh water areas
of the larger rivers like the Daintree on the east coast of Australia. Black
Bitterns have been recorded as far south as Victoria but the concentration is in
the north. Black Bitterns at this time are more abundant than Striated Herons!
The strike rate on the dawn river cruise is more than 95% and it is often
more than just one. Rather sadly the Little Kingfisher also becomes secretive
with breeding and sightings of them at this time are reduced.
The scientific name for our region is the
Wet Tropics and
for good reason. The tropics we know about but the wet is from 3
metres(10 feet) of rain per year. Two thirds of this rain will fall in February
and March. This rain is not just inconvenient. It can strand you in places you
do not want to be as your holiday and it’s associated costs erode both your
bank balance and your hard earned free time. Some operators do not even open the
door during this predictably wet time, us included
AUTUMN
March, April and May, despite the rain
some wildlife are quite
active and the bird migratory movement is underway once again. Oddly the adult
Buff-breasted Paradise-kingfishers leave before the juveniles. The dawn chorus
becomes quieter. Some birds leave not only northern Australia but the Southern
Hemisphere to arrive in places as far north as Siberia to do their breeding. Other species leave
southern Australia after breeding to escape the coming cold and even go further
north than Daintree. Still others come down from the mountains to sea-level also
to escape the coming chill of the higher altitudes. Rare sea-level sightings are
made of some Wet Tropics endemics like Bridled Honeyeater and Bower’s
Shrike-thrush which are normally only seen in the tablelands.
The baby crocodiles hatch. The young flying-foxes are on the
wing and can be easily identified by size when the camp flies out for their
nocturnal feeding. The most obvious of the new arrivals are the Rainbow
Bee-eaters. The valley has thousands of them and they sit out in the open for you
to see. In the Daintree Valley Wonga Beach is probably the best spot. Bee-eaters use open
perches like powerlines to work from as they perform the most amazing aerobatics
hawking insects on the wing. It is usual for them to return to the launching
spot when they take an insect. Another obvious return are the egrets, ibises and
spoonbills that can be seen in the fields when it is high tide in the estuary.
Briefly obvious are the Dollarbirds, that are passage migrants, in Daintree.
This is Australia’s only roller and the least colourful of the 11 found in the
old world. They too sit out on conspicuous perches. Least obvious are the
fantails and flycatchers in the rainforest, in fact they would almost go
un-noticed were it not for their calls.
After rain some of the thinner reptiles like the
common green tree-snake come out in the open to find heat. This can be a bitumen
sealed road during the night or a bare branch in the sun but over water gravity
being their
escape route from air-borne predators like Black Butcherbirds. Typically these
snakes will be easily see during boat trips.
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© copyright
2004 Chris Dahlberg
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