Introduction

This is a brief account of our recent mainly wildlife viewing trip to Australia. The first part is a list of all the species we saw with a brief summary of our sightings, it is not intended to be a concise list as notes taken during the trip were not that detailed and only sightings of particular interest were recorded. Once species had been identified subsequent sightings of the more common species were not necessarily noted.
The list follows the latest IOC listings so that some splits are not recognised by all authorities.

The second part is an illustrated diary giving an outline of the trip day by day, and is divided into 6 sections;
1 Victoria ; 5 days fully guided with Simon Starr of Firetail Birding

2 Tasmania; Mostly unguided with 2 nights in the NW at Mountain Wilderness Lodge and
   2 nights at Inala on Bruny Island only time with guide was a night drive on Bruny.

3 Queensland ; 2 days in Cairns followed by 7 nights at Cassowary House, local guides used on 2 days
   one for endemics on Mt Lewis and a Daintree River Trip and a second mainly for drier country birds around Mareeba and Jullaten.

4 Brisbane to Wollongong ; 2 nights at a campsite next to O'Reilley's Wildlife Lodge in the Lamington National Park then a 3 day journey down to Wollongong south of Sydney.

5 Wollongong Pelagic; all day pelagic with SOSSA on the Sandra K out of Wollongong

6 Blue Mountains and Capertee Valley; Travel from Wollongong to Katoomba in the Blue Mountains 3 nights there including one night in the Capertee Valley than travel back to Sydney for an overnight stay and a morning visit to the Harbour Bridge and Opera House before returning home

Finally some brief notes on the planning and logistics of the trip.

All photos unless marked otherwise taken by myself or Kay using either a Canon 7D or Canon SX50 with limited editing in Lightroom. Some have been heavily cropped and intended as record shots only.
As a birder who takes pictures when possible I found photography extremely challenging on this trip. The light was so variable, low light in the rainforest or early mornings or very bright light in the sunshine. Often the bird would be in shade with extremely bright light behind making controlling the backgrounds extremely difficult meaning much experimenting with settings and as anyone who has tried photographing birds will know they often do not hang around while you play around with the camera.

Link to Australian Gallery on FlickR  http://www.flickr.com/photos/djryves/ Australia

Just a quick note about using professional guides which at first glance seemed fairly expensive for an individual at around £250 /day but on consideration I found them value for money if you take in to account use of a 4-wheel drive vehicle which can take you places normal hire companies will not allow and food and refreshments during the day that leaves a modest days fee. I would have struggled to find many of the sites they took me and missed many of the bird they found, so would recommend their use especially if time is limited.