Birder? Twitcher? Bird lover? Our Dawn Discovery Tour is for you.

Come and experience the awe inspiring dawn chorus of birds in the Sanctuary, a wonderful way to start your day in Apollo Bay. It’s a special experience to visit the Sanctuary at dawn, as the sun rises over the Southern Ocean and the dawn chorus of birds heralds the start of the day.

On a Dawn Discovery Tour you get a full 90-minutes to be guided through the Sanctuary and soak up the atmosphere. The tour also includes a delicious breakfast and coffee or glass of bubbles at Emu Cafe.

For Nature Guide Nicole Tielemans, the abundance of birds is one of the things she loves most about guiding the Dawn Discovery tours at Wildlife Wonders.

“From the moment we leave the door we start hearing all the birds,” says Nicole. “We commonly see Gang-gang Cockatoos, a flock of Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos and even Rufous Fantails on our tours.”

“The other day I spotted a Brown Falcon cruising over the grasslands which overlook the Southern Ocean, and that’s a place where we also regularly see a white morph Grey Goshawk that nests here.”

“I’ve also noticed Eastern Yellow Robin and White Earned Honeyeater nests in our forest, and I love how the Yellow Robins dart away and start vocalizing to try to distract our attention away from their nests”.

Nicole and the other Nature Guides were thrilled to spot a pair of Blue-winged Parrots at Wildlife Wonders. These vulnerable birds migrate north from Tasmania annually, before returning south for the breeding season. They were listed as vulnerable in March 2023 after a significant decline in their population was observed.

“It was such a thrill to spot them here at Wildlife Wonders,” says Nicole.

Come and join this wonderful Dawn Discovery tour experience for yourself, it’s a magical way to start your day.