Spent a couple of hours yesterday morning birding with Del Richards
and David Johnston (David is the author of Bird Routes of Baradine & the
Pilliga and is currently visiting the Wet Tropics). The intention was
mostly to do a boat tour on the Mossman River with Peter Cooper. Peter
has recently commenced a birding/botany boat tour on this beautiful and
very impressive tropical river which runs through the town of Mossman in
N Qld - about 25 km S of Daintree and less than an hour's run north of
Cairns. This river is a much shorter, narrower river than the Daintree
with the advantage that it has all the habitats compressed into a couple
of km rather than spread out over about 20 km as happens in the Daintree
River. One can start with waders and terns at the river mouth (where
there is sometimes a Beach Stone-curlew), work through the mangrove
birds and end up with tropical rainforest birds, all within an easy
distance.
Birding was excellent for a July morning. Double-eyed Fig-Parrots were
flitting around everywhere as were very large numbers of White-rumped
Swiftlets. Numerous Azure Kingfishers and many Striated Herons about. A
young Great-billed Heron recently left the nest - the parents were
downstream a little way - though we did not see them, Peter has been
seeing them regularly. Several Little Kingfishers - probably some of the
best views I have ever had of this secretive species. Mangrove Robin -
we had at least 6 birds about 3-4 metres from us, a couple even whizzing
right past our faces to the other side of the river - this must surely
be one of the best spots to get this species. Quite a few Collared
Kingfishers perching in conspicuous places usually on the tops of dead
mangroves (the Collared K. in the NE tropics is quite different from the
birds I was used to in SE Qld - much bluer on the upperparts and almost
browny-blue on the wings). A few wintering Sacred Kingfishers in typical
very buff-breasted fresh winter plumage as we see them up here.
Plus many other tropical birds - Graceful, Yellow-spotted, Macleay's,
Dusky, Varied Honeyeaters, Helmeted Friarbirds, Spotted Catbird,
White-bellied Sea-Eagles, Ospreys (fishing), Yellow Orioles, Figbirds,
Large-billed Gerygones, Black Butcherbirds etc etc. Plus a colony of
Spectacled Fruit Bats.
And the tropical rainforest/river scenery is absolutely stunning - some
of the best the north-east can offer. One of the nice things about this
river other than the great birds was that we had the river to ourselves
- none of the tourist congestion which often occurs about the Daintree
further north! Another bonus was that Peter is an expert on mangroves so
those interested in botany can discuss this amazing eco-system with him
(this part of the tropics has one of the greatest concentrations of
mangrove species in Australia - 29 species along this river).
All in all a great morning. David got about 10 new birds, getting
fantastic views of the GB Heron, Little Kingfisher, Mangrove Robin,
Collared Kingfisher etc. My unbiased opinion is that the Mossman River
is destined to become one of THE birding sites in the Wet Tropics. It is
amazing in a way that we have just discovered the birding potential of
this river. We cross it many times through the year but have never had
time to explore it. For those people visiting the Wet Tropics, try it
for yourselves - Peter's contact details are Ph: (07) 4098 2066, Email:
Postal address: 9 Thomas St, Mossman Qld
4873. He leaves from Newell Beach, a few km north of Mossman town (the
Red-rumped and Barn Swallow spot).
Also interesting was the cabin cruiser moored way up the river, remote
from everywhere. This was Peter's "office" where he spends his day's off
and when he has no chores at home in Mossman. What a way to get away
from it all!!
And on the way home, we called on a local Julatten identity who had
recently found a nest of Grass Owls. He took us to it. It contained
5 half-grown owlets. The continuous hissing of the young as one near's
the nest is quite alarming. They began hissing loudly when we were 5
metres from the nest - an effective defence mechanism. Quite an amazing
experience!
Lloyd Nielsen,
Mt Molloy Nth Qld
Birding-Aus is on the Web at
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