Firetail Birdwatching Tours - Box Hill South, Victoria

JuggerKnob

Simon was fantastic and extremely knowledgable. Our personal tour took us to the Werribee Water Treatment plant and the Brisbane Ranges. I saw more birds in a day than I've seen in a year of bird watching.

Jeremy T.

Such an enjoyable and informative afternoon with Simon at Werribee. We had no idea of the diversity of bird-life and sheer size of the place. Simon was incredibly knowledgable and patient with my reduced mobility and went out of his way to make it an experience we will remember forever.

Raphael B.

Amazing. Outstanding. Perfection. Five-star quality. Unforgettable. There are many other adjectives I might use to describe our 5 days with Simon, but I think you get the idea. This was an experience that far surpassed our expectations.

In conceiving of our trip to Australia to see some tennis - that’s a great experience too - Jeff and I thought that doing some focused birding would be a great way to see new species and also get a flavor of the country’s flora and fauna. Given that we were already going to be in Melbourne for the tennis, we thought doing some birding in its surroundings made sense. Simon’s company painted a compelling picture of what that could entail and, after a little back and forth about our hopes and birding experience, he designed a program to give us a smorgasbord of Victoria’s habitats while giving us an opportunity to see a large number of birds.

To say Simon succeeded in satisfying our goals would be putting it mildly. In a little under 5 days, we saw over 200 species and a diversity of habitats that, if you had asked us before the trip, we would have told you could not be done. We visited the Yarra ranges, toured a number of hotspots in the gold rush region of Bendigo, had a great visit to Werribee’s water treatment ponds, and roamed the southern coast and Otway ranges before being dropped off at the airport for the next part of our trip. We birded city, state, and national parks, wetlands, water holes, mountain passes, RV weekend get-aways, and dense coastal scrub. We saw many regional specialties and even some unexpected gems - the Siberian sand plover was a treat to find. Every day was wonderful discovery.

As far as we were concerned, this was just what the doctor ordered. We like intensive birding, where you get up early and bird all day. We very rarely get tired when birding. Simon knew how to deliver this kind of tour, and did it effortlessly. But most importantly, the tour was always oriented towards making the clients (us) happy.

Conversations with him about the history of his company make clear that he is comfortable designing tours to fit many different appetites and desires. In addition to being an expert birder, he’s a mellow guy who is easy to spend time with and won’t impose his vision of what you should be doing. His descriptions of memorable moments during other tours he’s done showed how seriously he is committed to his clients driving the agenda. We thus have every confidence that others who go with Firetail will be fully satisfied like we were.

We’d like to close by highlighting one important learning from this trip: there is nothing like a local guide to take you around. Simon has spent several decades birding Victoria and knew spots that would have been quite difficult to locate on one’s own or if one was relying on a generalist guide. We went to some now-recognized hot spots that Simon effectively “discovered” (our words, not his) and perused specific locations that it would be impossible to find if one didn’t have a deep visceral personal knowledge of a place.

We were also touched by Simon’s commitment to helping out local businesses. We stayed exclusively in family-run motels (clean with basic amenities) and had our breakfasts, lunches, and dinners at non-chain restaurants and coffee shops. The impressive birding knowledge made us feel like “insiders” getting a true taste of the gamut of Victoria birding and the emphasis on local brought us closer to the places we spent time in.

The combination left us feeling intimately connected to Victoria and we were truly sad when the time came for us to say goodbye. We will be looking for a similar local orientation for guides in booking future trips.

In sum, there is no guide we’d rather have lead a birding trip in Victoria than Simon Starr. He has our unqualified recommendation and complete gratitude for an unforgettable introduction to the state of Victoria and to Australia. Thanks, Simon!

Dudley C.

Put simply, we both had the very best day with Simon on this tour. Whether you are a Twitcher, photographer or, like us, just lovers of nature, a day out with the informed and pleasant Simon will stay with you. On our trip to the Werribee Wetlands we managed to see 100 different species of shore birds, raptors and bush birds.. Simon knows the places to take you to get the best out of the day. A highlight for us was to watch the Brolgas dancing and touching beaks..simply magical. I will try to post a picture of these beautiful birds that Simon took and sent to us. Highly recommended.

Wendy D.

John and I loved out tour to WTP with Simon. He looked after our needs (including a toilet stop half way through the morning) and the birding was ethical. Best of all we had excellent views of the birds and Simon's knowledge of the tides and conditions meant we made the most of our time.

Maureen B.

Great day birding around Melbourne with Simon. 112 (!) species seen due to Simon's expertise and knowledge of where to be and when. Most all of them are lifers for us on our first trip to Australia. Highly recommended guide and a pleasure to spend the day with!

Cindy S.

A full day of birdwatching! I only had the pleasure of one day with Simon - but it was a full one at that. Over 100+ species in one day. The itinerary Simon put together was perfect - though I know not everyone would get through 12 hrs, but I did and it was a truly a magnificently full day. Pick up was at my doorstep 6:30 am before sunrise and drop off at 6:30 pm. We hit 3 main areas - first to the east to Dandenong Ranges National Park to catch the Superb Lyrebird singing in the morning. Then back through the city to the west to You Yangs Regional Park and the massive Werribee Water Treatment area. All these areas were so different and yielded great looks at a huge variety of birds and landscapes.

Simon was greatly knowledgeable and skilled identifying birds we heard and saw, but also sharing his momentary uncertainty and show of patience when waiting to see more definitive markings for an ID. He's also very quick with the scope setup to get eyes on birds which I much appreciated.

If/when I'm back in the area I'll be sure to spend time with Simon again. Was a pleasure sharing such a day!

Jen

Highly recommend!
Had a fabulous morning with Simon at the WTP. His knowledge, expertise and spotting skills were most impressive. We saw so many different species, a super fun day! Whether you're into bird photography like me or birding in general, this tour will not disappoint. Thank you Simon, looking forward to meeting up again. Maybe the "Plains Wanderer" tour might be next on the list!