On day one of my North Queensland birding tour with FNQ Nature Tours I was picked up at my hotel in Cairns at 6:30 AM and met my fellow travelers: three Aussies from Melbourne and two Kiwis and our local guide James.
About forty minutes later we arrived at the banks of the Daintree River.
While we were sure to see crocodiles, our main focus was on the avian life.
We departed from the dock and headed across the Daintree and went up a creek in search of Australia’s smallest kingfisher, the appropriately named little kingfisher.
On the way there, our guide pointed out a small salty resting on the bank.
We peered down every small tributary and every low hanging branch. While everyone had their bins focused on the tributary on the port side, I peered over to the starboard and there it was, perched on a limb over the creek.
After getting more looks at the little kingfisher, we headed back to the Daintree to see bigger crocs.
The king of the crocs on this stretch of the river is a large male with three teeth named “Scarface”.
After getting looks at “Scarface”, we headed up another small creek to get a look at a resting female.
Our most interesting sight of the morning, and one our guide had never seen, was an interloping male carrying a bloated feral pig across the Daintree.
Feral pigs, as in parts of the United States, are a major problem in Australia. They eat and destroy crops and destroy native habitats. The open season for hunting pigs is year round. It is assumed this is how a feral pig made it into the river and into the jaws of a hungry male salty.
Corvid Sketcher 