We’ll start things off after breakfast with a few target waterbirds at Herdsman Lake before heading north through the wheatbelt. Herdsman lake has always provided the goods - Freckled Ducks, Hardheads and Pink-eared Ducks chasing each other around in a frenzy. Glossy Ibis completing the Australian Ibis trio, Australasian and Hoary-headed Grebes. Western Gerygones in the paperbarks and Little Grassbirds singing from the reeds. It’s always a beautiful and productive place to start a trip and get the species count rolling. We will then pop into a few other local wetlands, perhaps for Oriental Honey-Buzzard before hitting the freeway north. Hopefully, piles of Emu and a few Spotted Harrier willline the paddocks on the side of the road and a quick stop on some drenched salt lakes will have us chancing on Australian Shelducks and a feeding flock of Red-necked Avocet.
Eventually we’ll reach the edge of the Great Western Woodlands in the Mount Gibson area where we will find White-fronted Honeyeaters, Spiny-cheeked Honeyeaters‍ and ‍Pink Cockatoos moving through the open canopy in the afternoon. On the ground, Southern Whiteface and ‍Red-capped Robins are a welcome addition to the dull colour palette. Up the road in the Mulga we’ll look for Slaty-backed Thornbills to cap off our first day. We’ll settle into a pub meal at the Paynes Find roadhouse with a list full of birds on our first day.
Overnight: Paynes Find (LD)

Returning to the Mount Gibson area we’ll search for some targets we couldn’t nail on the first day and are easier to find in the morning. White-backed Swallows, Southern Scrub-Robins‍ and Brown-headed Honeyeaters in the Mallee areas and in a more open woodland habitat - Gilbert’s Whistler, Chestnut-rumped Thornbills, Inland Thornbills‍, ‍Weebills and Redthroat. White-browed Babblers and a handful of beautiful Mulga Parrots might just cap things off. Another target for this morning, Copperback Quail-thrush can be found well in this area and will take some time before we continue north and set ourselves up for our first Grasswren the following day. Little Crows and Whistling Kites will provide some extra padding for the day list out of the car window as we move through open country.
Overnight: Sandstone (BLD)

A day that starts with what we think can be one of the more difficult Grasswrens to see well. It may take some time to get onto Sandhill Grasswrens depending on conditions but they often show quite well at these locations. We’ll go looking for bits and pieces on the road back to our accommodation. White-browed Treecreeper, Crested Bellbirds and Black-eared Cuckoo. Grey-crowned Babblers bouncing Mulga to Mulga in front of us and usually a massive Wedge-tailed Eagle sat stoically in a big old dead tree. Slaty-backed Thornbills are another important target for this area along with Little Crows, Western Bowerbird and Mulga Parrots. Hopefully having seen this list of semi-arid specialists, we’ll head north and settle in around Cue.
Overnight: Cue (BLD)

Cue is an interesting birding locale. The salt lakes butting up against bare stoney plains are perfect spots for Banded Whiteface. They are what we will target first. While looking for these we will be in the correct habitat for Bourke’s Parrot, Masked Lapwing, Hooded Robin and Masked Woodswallow. We will spend the majority of the morning in this habitat. As we move west, we will keep our eyes peeled for Black-breasted Buzzards soaring above us. Depending on the time of year, we’ll look for flowering Eremophila and hope that joining the Pied and White-fronted Honeyeaters are some Black Honeyeaters. Towards the Murchison area, we’ll also keep our eyes out for Crimson Chats and Red-backed Kingfishers. Australian Bustards can be seen as we move further along the plains and as we get towards the evening, we should hear Pallid and Horsfield’s Bronze-Cuckoo and there is always a chance Black-eared Cuckoos are around too.
Overnight: Wooleen Station (BLD)