Arrive in Melbourne and check into your hotel.  Meet your fellow guests and your guide for dinner at the hotel to get to know each other and discuss the plans for the upcoming tour.

Accommodation: Melbourne Hotel (en suite rooms).
Meals included: D.

This morning we will head to the south-west of Melbourne and wend our way through the shorelines and various swamps of western Port Phillip Bay, where we’ll aim to pick up a few wetland, shoreline and grassland birds like Sharp-tailed, Curlew & Marsh Sandpipers, Red-necked Stint, Red-kneed Dotterel, Black-fronted Dotterel, Red-capped Plover, Pied Oystercatcher, Pacific Gull, Hoary-headed & Australasian Grebes, Australasian Gannet, Pied, Little Pied, Great & Little Black Cormorants, Australian Pelican, Crested, Fairy, Little, Whiskered & White-winged Black Terns, Cape Barren Goose, Australian Shelduck, Chestnut & Grey Teals, Pink-eared, Blue-billed & Hardhead Ducks, Australasian Shoveler, Buff-banded & Lewin’s Rails, Red-necked Avocet, Banded & Pied Stilts, Royal & Yellow-billed Spoonbills, Brolga, White-fronted Chat, Striated Fieldwren, Horsfield’s Bushlark, Brown Songlark, Australian Pipit, Superb Fairywren, Yellow-rumped Thornbill, Golden-headed Cisticola, Zebra Finch, Swamp Harrier, Wedge-tailed Eagle, White-bellied Sea-eagle and Black, Brown & Peregrine Falcons.

Accommodation: Geelong (en suite rooms).

Meals included: B, L, D.

We will explore the Great Ocean Road today and visit the heathlands, forest, shoreline and estuaries of the region.  Birds to be found throughout this area include Rufous Bristlebird, Hooded Plover, Southern Emu-wren, Brush Bronzewing, Satin Flycatcher, Yellow-tailed Black-cockatoo, Forest Raven, Olive Whistler, Grey Goshawk(white phase), Bassian Thrush, Satin Bowerbird, Crescent, Singing & Spiny-cheeked Honeyeaters, Eastern Spinebill, Rose & Scarlet Robins, Red-browed Finch, Chestnut-rumped Heathwren, Beautiful Firetail, Striated Fieldwren, Mistletoebird, Olive-backed Oriole, Gang-gang Cockatoo, Australian King-Parrot, Blue-winged Parrot, Shining Bronze-cuckoo, Grey Shrike-thrush, Striated Thornbill, White-browed Scrubwren, Sacred Kingfisher, Laughing Kookaburra, Spotted & Striated Pardalotes, Sooty Oystercatcher, Black-browed, White-capped & Yellow-nosed Albatrosses, Fluttering Shearwater, Black-faced Cormorant, Pacific & Kelp Gulls and Great Crested Tern. Mammals include Koala, Eastern Grey Kangaroo, Swamp Wallaby and Common Wombat.

Accommodation: Geelong (en suite rooms).

Meals included: B, L, D.

Moving north today, we will make our way towards the drier woodlands of central Victoria. Along the way there will be chances of Spotted Quail-thrush in dry, open woodland that we pass en route. In the predominately box- ironbark woodlands and mallee heath vegetation communities harbour a number of bird species that are not found closer to Melbourne and are typical of the mallee regions in the far north-west of the state. Birds to expect here include Crested Bellbird, Gilbert’s Whistler, Shy Heathwren, Purple-backed Fairy-Wren, Yellow-plumed, Tawny-crowned, Purple-gaped, Blue-faced, Singing, Yellow-tufted, Fuscous, Black-chinned, White-plumed, White-eared & White-fronted Honeyeaters, Brush & Common Bronzewing, Noisy Friarbird, Chestnut-rumped, Yellow, Buff-rumped & Inland Thornbills, Western Gerygone, Hooded, Scarlet & Red-capped Robins, Rainbow Bee-eater, Dusky, White-browed & Masked Woodswallows, Purple-crowned, Little & Musk Lorikeets, White-bellied Cuckoo-Shrike, Black-eared, Horsfield’s Bronze & Pallid Cuckoos, Red-rumped Parrot and Eastern Rosella. Also possible are Leaden & Restless Flycatchers, Speckled Warbler, Weebill, White-browed Babbler, Brown Treecreeper, Long-billed Corella, Brown Goshawk, Wedge-tailed & Little Eagles, Australian Hobby, Australian Raven, Jacky Winter, White-winged Chough, Rufous Songlark, Tree Martin & Diamond Firetail.

Accommodation: Hotel in Bendigo (en suite rooms) for 2 nights

Meals included: B L D both days

We will have another morning in some mallee habitats to clean up a few birds we may have missed before heading further north and to the open plains on very edge of the outback. The district supports a huge range of birds including White-backed Swallow, Black Falcon, Orange & Crimson Chats, Painted Honeyeater, Wedge-tailed Eagle, Greater Blue Bonnet, Southern Whiteface, Grey-crowned Babbler, Striped Honeyeater, Superb Parrot, Brown & Rufous Songlarks, Long-billed Corella, Australian, Baillon’s & Spotless Crakes, Freckled Duck, Plumed Whistling-duck, Red-kneed Dotterel, Black-tailed Native-hen, Diamond Firetail, Azure Kingfisher, Crimson Rosella (yellow form subsp flaveolus), Black, Pied, Spiny-cheeked & Singing Honeyeaters, Rainbow Bee-eater and Spotted Harrier, and we will endeavour to catch up with most of these whilst in the area. With local guide and legend Philip Maher at the helm for our second (?) evening, the main target after dark will be the enigmatic Plains Wanderer and depending on local conditions and/or how much rain has fallen in recent times there may be the chance of other specials like Australian Pratincole, Inland Dotterel, Little & Red-chested Button-quails, Stubble Quail and Banded Lapwing. Nocturnal birds feature as well, and we could pick up Eastern Barn Owl, Southern Boobook, Australian Owlet-nightjar and Tawny Frogmouth. Mammals here range from the mighty Red Kangaroo, Western Grey Kangaroo, Common Brushtail Possum and tiny Fat-tailed Dunnart.

Accommodation: Deniliquin (en suite rooms) for 2 nights

Meals included: B L D both days

Today we will head south of Deniliquin, stopping along the way we will have a look at some of the wetlands in the red gum forests of the Riverina and hope to connect with a few birds such as the rare Square-tailed Kite, Eastern Shrike-tit, Australasian Bittern and Black-backed Bittern, plus another chance of Superb Parrot. Further to the south-east we’ll enter Victoria again, and follow the Murray River toward the Chiltern area, looking for Apostlebird and Dollarbird along the way. In the afternoon we’ll look for Painted Honeyeater, Turquoise Parrot, White-throated & Western Gerygones, Speckled Warbler, Painted Button-quail, Black-chinned Honeyeater, White-winged Triller and Leaden Flycatcher, plus Spotted Quail-thrush if time allows.  At night we can look for Barking Owl and Australian Owlet-nightjar.

Accommodation: Chiltern (en suite rooms)

Meals included: B L D

This morning we’ll check out the Chiltern area one last time before heading toward the ranges east of Melbourne and slightly higher altitudes, where the habitat changes into tall mountain forests and dense fern gullies. En route we will explore some open woodland habitats, with the possibility of woodland birds like White-browed Babbler, White-bellied Cuckoo-shrike, Hooded Robin, Weebill, Buff-rumped Thornbill and Dollarbird.

Accommodation: Healesville (en suite rooms)

Meals included: B L D

Today is a day to explore the tall wet sclerophyll forests and cool temperate rainforests of the Yarra Ranges, and birds we can expect to see include the amazing Superb Lyrebird, as well as good chances of Olive Whistler, Pilotbird, Pink, Rose, Flame & Eastern Yellow Robins, Rufous Fantail, Satin Flycatcher, Crescent Honeyeater, Bassian Thrush, Brush Bronzewing, Striated Thornbill, Sahul Cicadabird, Brown Gerygone, Eastern Whipbird, Black-faced Monarch, Red-browed & White-throated Treecreepers, Large-billed Scrubwren, White-throated Needletail, Fan-tailed & Brush Cuckoos and Shining Bronze-cuckoo. Tonight, we can try for nocturnal birds like Sooty Owl, Powerful Owl, Australian Boobook and Tawny Frogmouth. Nocturnal mammals include the possibility of Greater Glider, Yellow-bellied Glider, Krefft’s (Sugar) Glider, Narrow-toed Feathertail Glider, Mountain Brushtail Possum and Common Ringtail Possum.

Accommodation: Healesville (en suite rooms) as for last night

Meals included: B L D

This morning we will check a few areas in the forest for any birds we might still be missing, before making our way back towards Melbourne. Along the way we will have another look for Spotted Quail-thrush if we still haven’t seen them, as well as stopping at a colony of Bell Miner, and a known site for day-roosting Powerful Owls. Nearby we will visit a huge encampment of Grey-headed Flying Foxes. We will arrive back in Melbourne in the late afternoon where the tour will conclude.

Accommodation: none

Meals included: B L