We visit rainforests, open forest an wetlands in one day, including great mountain scenery and a good variety of native birds

We usually take time to watch bird behaviour, not just tick lists, and have witnessed such events as a male satin bowerbird decorating his bower and attracting the female into it, lyrebirds foraging in the leaf litter and occasionally displaying, fantails following other birds to acrobatically catch on the wing the insects disturbed by the others, and much more.

The birds near O'Reilly's guest house are well habituated to humans, so even those such as whip-birds that are usually very shy are often seen very close, affording excellent photo opportunities.

Also on the O'Reilly's property we walk through the canopy of the rainforest on a suspension bridge.

Guests are not only shown the birds but told about their ecology, behaviour, endemism to the region or Australia as a whole, and their relationships to birds of other continents

Guests are picked up from Brisbane and taken first to Eagleby Wetlands to explore lagoons, bushland and open grassy areas for a variety of birds. Some are almost always seen (e.g. superb fairy-wrens, Australian pelicans, golden-headed cisticolas, black swans), some very often (royal spoonbills, forest kingfishers) and others seasonally (dollarbirds, golden whistlers, scarlet myzomela) or less predictably because of nomadic movements (red-necked avocets, pink-eared ducks, mistletoe birds). We then proceed (often via a fruit bat colony) to O’Reilly’s Rainforest Retreat at Lamington National Park to have lunch and seek bowerbirds, logrunners, riflebirds and other endemic rainforest birds for at least a couple of hours before returning to Brisbane. Several species of wallaby may also be seen en route.

I do run other tours, especially a 3-day wildlife overview tour, where we take our guests through an overview of Australia’s major groups of wildlife, and the biogeographic history of Australia that has led to the similarities and differences from other world regions, while traveling to rainforests, eucalyptus forests, coastal woodlands, mangroves, freshwater wetlands, quiet sandy and rocky beaches and a couple of well-run wildlife parks (both run by the national parks department). Also a one-day wildlife tour and an 8-day outback tour. Maybe we could think about those after I get my current computer problems sorted out (and a chapter I’m currently writing for an international book)

Dr Ronda J Green, holds a PhD in zoology and conducts ecological research including bird dispersal of rainforest seeds.

We only allow very occasional use of recorded calls, as we do not wish to cause birds undue energy loss needlessly defending their territories. Likewise we don't allow flushing of birds for the purpose of adding to life-lists.

We record various details to citizen science apps such as ClimateWatch and Atlas of Living Australia and also send details of particular birds to researchers.

We do not carry disposable eating/drinking utensils, plastic bags or plastic water bottles. Organic waste products from the tours are recycled as mentioned below, and other waste items taken to recycling bins.

Observations relevant too my own research (which has conservation implications) are made during tours (what fruits birds are eating, where fruit-eating birds spend their time (and thus possibly dropping seeds) when not foraging

Guests are instructed on minimal impact observation and photography.

We conduct various conservation projects through Wildlife Queensland (I'm chair of the Scenic Rim branch) and individually.

Through Araucaria Ecotours we have

held a tree planting day as part of National Tree Day (July 2019) prepared holes for many of the 50 wildlife-supporting trees and shrubs waiting to the planted after frost season.
added information on local threatened species to our wildlife ecology centre
conducted workshops on starting and running wildlife tourism businesses to Australian and Indonesian groups, emphasising the importance of ecological sustainability, including biodiversity conservation
donated to the Australian Wildlife Conservancy and other conservation societies
conducted a workshop in our wildlife ecology centre for national parks, local government and local tourism businesses to discuss environmentally sustainable tourism
(probably others I don't recall right now)

Rhonda has written a 40-page booklet on Australian wildlife groups for our 3-day wildlife overview tourists, and sometimes use some of the bird pages from that for the birdwatching day tours. She intends on developing a booklet specifically on the birds for the day tours.

We always carry bird identification guides and a bird app, as well as books on other fauna and flora.

We show guests the information room at O'Reilly's Rainforest Retreat and sometimes speak with O'Reilly's staff, volunteer naturalists and national park rangers about the birds and other species in the rainforest.

Rhonda makes use of her own knowledge of bird behaviour and ecology from many years of research (much direct observation as well as exploring the literature).

In addition, we're involved in:

Wildlife booklet (which I'm currently re-writing as a publishable book) on the major wildlife groups of Australia, and how they came to be so different from other world regions (also explaining some similarities, especially between Australia and South America, and Australia and tropical Asia), with various notes on ecology and behaviour. This is given to our 3-day wildlife overview tour guests, and available for purchase by others
Our Scenic Rim Wildlife Ecology Centre, which we bring 3-day wildlife guests to, and which elaborates on the topics in the book, and also has a small theatre section and a small children's section with wildlife games
puzzles for 3-day wildlife guests to aid memory of what they learn from the book - intend doing similar for birdwatching day guests
page from wildlife book to be given to birding guests showing which Australian songbird families are unique to Australia or Australia and New Guinea, and which are also found in Asia, Africa and/or Europe
bird checklist given to birdwatching and general wildlife guests
on all tours we travel with a collection of natural history books (birds, reptiles, butterflies, beetles, rainforest plants etc.)
we call in at some nature information centres - including two at O'Reilly's Rainforest Retreat on the birdwatching day tours
we sometimes run special educational tours - e.g. in early 2019 we conducted a bird day for about 15 home-school primary-aged children, beginning with a game that soon had the children recognising most of the birds, playing bird calls which they enthusiastically imitated, and then taking them on a walk looking for the birds we had discussed and whatever others may turn up
we contribute to many workshops and conferences and give public talks on wildlife to natural history groups, Rotary, bushwalking groups, schools and others
on all our tours we go well beyond putting names to animals and plants, telling our guests about the ecology and behaviour of many of species we see

Yes. We run many conservation-oriented public workshops and other events both locally and in other regions.

We ran two Bio-blitzes on Tamborine Mountain, with local residents and experts from universities, museums etc. - one in spring and one in autumn - and found a number of species not only new to local records but new to science

As chair of the Scenic Rim branch of Wildlife Queensland Rhonda coordinated a survey of gliding possums of the Scenic Rim, and now in conjunction with the local council we are planning the establishment of wildlife corridors for the gliders as wells other wildlife. We recently ran a public workshop on corridors for various groups of wildlife.

We conduct fauna surveys for Council and other groups, and sometimes do free ones for small conservation groups.

Rhonda gives many pubic talks on wildlife and conservation issues, and communicate conservation messages through several Facebook pages.

Advanced Eco-Certification on all our tours (through Ecotourism Australia).

We have won three awards over the years/

Rhonda was nominated an ecotourism hero by Ecotourism Australia: https://www.ecotourism.org.au/news/everyday-ecotourism-heroes-ronda/

Rhonda's been elected chair of Wildlife Tourism Australia for several years.

She published a book on wildlife tourism, including conservation issues operators should be aware of as well as various other wildlife skills, people skills and notes on legislation etc. for business startups. https://www.amazon.com.au/Wildlife-Tourism-Operators-Job-seekers-Start-ups-ebook/dp/B00HE1SX1Q

She co-edited another book on wildlife tourism (https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9783319555737) and has been guest editor for international journals "Environments" and "Journal of Ecotourism" as well as reviewing papers for various others.

Rhonda has been asked to lecture on wildlife tourism at Griffith University (several times) and Uni of Qld, and was given a free four-day tour including accommodation and meals at Sukau Lodge, Sabah (named as one of the Unique Lodges of the World by National Geographic) in exchange for conducting some guide training while there (they had already been using a copy of her book on wildlife tourism). She have been informed that Aarunya Tours in Sri Lanka are also using it, and it apparently also being used in Indonesia and South Africa as well as Australia. I've also been sent to Fiji by the United Nations World Tourism Organisation to present a talk on the effects of climate change on wildlife tourism, and I've been working for several months with Prof Noel Scott on a lengthy report on sustainable wildlife tourism in Asia and the Pacific for UNWTO. I've also been asked to present on and join discussions on wildlife tourism as an invited speaker in both Indonesia and Japan.

Everything except our minibus is run on solar (info centre on home property, batteries for computers, spotlights etc.)

As chair of both Wildlife Tourism Australia and the Scenic Rim branch of Wildlife Queensland, I've organised and run various conferences, workshops, surveys and other events, always emphasising ecological sustainability. Our tour guests have occasionally joined in. I've also given many talks over the years, often with biodiversity conservation themes, to various groups of all ages.

We have conserved and revegetated rainforest on our 35-ha property, and had our property redefined on the title deed according to a Vegetation Conservation Covenant, which would make it difficult for anyone to clear it in the future

We do not use disposable utensils or cutlery for our guests, and any waste products get recycled as far as possible, any organic waste being used as appropriate for compost, mulch, chicken food, kindling for wood fire, etc.

Terra Incognita

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Australia | Araucaria Ecotours | Birdwatching day-tour with Araucaria Ecotours

Australia | Araucaria Ecotours | Birdwatching day-tour with Araucaria Ecotours

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