Coochiemudlo Island Willdife Walking Trip, South East Queensland, Australia - 1 Day

The birdwatching day-trip has been designed and usually led by a zoologist (Ronda) with several decades experience of research on bird ecology and behaviour in southeast Queensland and elsewhere in Australia. Our other main guide is Ronda’s son Darren, a keen amateur naturalist who has been exploring our forests for a lifetime and very knowledgable. While designed to maximise the number of species seen in a variety of habitats (from wetlands to rainforest) the focus is on birds as part of the ecosystem and how their behaviour reflects this, not on dashing from one bird to the next or finding obscure species for life-lists. Many of our guests do add substantially to their lifelists as well: it’s just not our major focus. We happily cater for novice birdwatchers, bird photographers and for general nature enthusiasts for whom birds are just part of the delight and fascination with wild areas. Although some of our guests request tours with no children (which we respect), we do encourage families on other days, and also lead child-focussed tours with various games included to help children (and their parents!) learn about our birds). We understand that not all bird-lovers are physically fit, and can easily adjust our tours to include as little walking as possible while still seeing many birds. We abide by environmental standards, which includes not only waste reduction, fuel efficiency etc. but also minimising our impact on the birds and other wildlife we find. Since our own research is on-going and we also add information to other databases, guests are very welcome to engage in a bit of citizen science along the way. Special interests can be catered for with advance notice. We have attended food safety courses and are even more strict than usual in hygiene since Covid-19, adopting social distancing, applying disinfectants to bus seats and handles between tours and always travel with hand sanitiser.