OUTBACK AUSTRALIA
Plains-wanderer & More

Fee $8175 (2008 fee). 22 days
From Melbourne. Limit: 10
Good accommodations plus four nights outfitted camping; easy terrain with much time on foot; warm to hot climate. Our staff travel agents can book your air travel for this tour. Contact us at (800) 728-4953 for more information.

In the Flinders Ranges by Rex Ellis

Our tour mixes a little camping with motel accommodation while venturing to some remote areas in Victoria, New South Wales, eastern South Australia, and southwestern Queensland to search for such interior specialties as Freckled Duck, Letter-winged Kite, Black and the rare and elusive Gray falcons, Malleefowl, Inland Dotterel, Bourke's Parrot, Ground Cuckoo-shrike, Chirruping Wedgebill, Cinnamon, Chestnut, and Chestnut-breasted quail-thrushes, Hall's and Chestnut-crowned babblers,  Redthroat, Banded, and Chestnut-breasted whitefaces, White-browed Treecreeper, Purple-gaped, Gray-fronted, and White-fronted honeyeaters, Orange Chat, Gibberbird (Desert Chat), and Spotted Bowerbird.  We’ll spend some time in the remote Gluepot Reserve in the vast malee region of South Australia, where we have a good chance of two of Australia’s most elusive species, the rare Red-lored Whistler and the critically endangered Black-eared Miner.

Synonymous with the remoteness of the Outback are the ten species of grasswrens found in scattered locations through central Australia.  The grasswrens are, paradoxically, the most characteristic but least known of the arid region's avifauna.  Our tour will search for five  species: Striated, the newly split Short-tailed, Gray (discovered only in 1967), Thick-billed, and Eyrean (discovered in 1875 and not seen again for nearly a century).  We saw all five on our inaugural trip in 2004.

In southern New South Wales we'll make a nocturnal foray for the very local Plains-wanderer, a true avian anomaly and the only member of its family.  It was thought to be related to the buttonquail, but recent genetic analysis has found it to be closer to the New World seedsnipes.  Also in this area we should encounter Stubble Quail, Little Buttonquail, Superb Parrot, Striped Honeyeater, and perhaps irruptive crakes like Australian and Black-tailed native-hens.

Because of the difficulty of reaching some of the areas we bird from towns, we’ll spend a few nights in surprisingly comfortable camping under a fabulous starscape, a real Outback experience with Rex Ellis, one of Australia’s famous bush travelers, doing the logistics.  We will travel by bus, accompanied by a 4-wheel-drive vehicle, and all camping equipment will be provided; this will allow us to be at birding sites early when activity is best, and we think you’ll find this little bit of adventure well worth the birding rewards!

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