Daybreak bids farewell to night. Local Barking Owls give their last calls above our camp as they head off to the seclusion of their daytime roost to sleep away the daylight hours. I climb out of my warm sleeping bag to wake tour guests in readiness for a date we have set with a one of natures most spectacular yet diminishing species. Many of the guests on this tour have traveled tens of thousands of kilometres for this once in a lifetime opportunity.

We are on Mornington Wildlife Sanctuary, in the Kimberley. This is a priceless piece of land - recently purchased by the Australian Wildlife Conservancy (AWC) to protect rare and threatened species. It covers 3,216 km2 of the upper catchment of the Fitzroy River in the heart of the Central Kimberley Bioregion of Western Australia, which is recognised as one of the world’s last true wilderness areas.

We stumble around in the piccanniny daylight grabbing a cup of coffee or tea excited by what the day may bring. It’s 6.15am – the dawn chorus is reaching its crescendo as I call guests to the bus ready to take us to an unnamed waterhole where one of Australia’s rarest birds, the Gouldian Finch, is said to drink. Special permission has been granted by Doctors Sara Legge and Steven Murphy - two special friends who manage Mornington Station. AWC now owns 13 sanctuaries covering 1.65 million acres – its aim is to acquire land to establish wildlife sanctuaries for the conservation of threatened species and ecosystems.

We bump along a lightly graded track off into the purple hills to a small crystal clear creek running through rocky outcrops dotted with Paperbarks and Eucalypts. Sara’s crumpled hand-drawn map is our only guide. We park the bus and quietly walk the 50 metres to the creek to find a waterhole bordered by Paperbarks, Pandanus Palms and hardy desert plants.

We huddle together, and silently wait - the crowns of the Paperbarks light up with a golden brown almost syrup colour as tens of Double-barred Finches begin arriving to quench their desert thirst. For a country gripped by drought, it’s wonderful that creatures like these can still find water to survive.

The brilliance of dawn’s arrival fades but as if to throw a last highlight of colour into sky, a lone Gouldian Finch appears high on a dead branch of the tallest Paperbark growing by the waters edge. No one talks - all are speechless, as we peer through binoculars at one of the planet’s rarest finches. For most of the guests, this will be the first and only glimpse they may ever have of a bird whose population in the wild is estimated to be as few as two thousand individuals.

More quickly appeared as if queuing to drink before the waterhole dried up. I then realized that many of the Gouldians now arriving were juveniles – wonderful news that means successful breeding over the last few months. One small branch, high in the warmth of the morning light held two adults and five young - no doubt they had left their nest in a hollow branch over the last few months.

After fifteen minutes, we decided to move away quietly toward the bus to allow the birds to come down and drink peacefully at the waters edge. Soon many more appeared - fifteen in total - all juveniles with light green plumage on their backs, and a single magnificent adult of the red phase shining like a beacon or precious jewel.

We felt privileged to visit such an isolated place and observe this magnificent little bird in its unique habitat as it quenched its thirst briefly before flying off. We learnt much from observing the Gouldian Finch this morning – most are accompanied by Long-tailed Finches flying in on the crowns of trees like the Gouldians; early morning just after sunrise is the best time to observe them; and a tall green tree with a few dead branches protruding from the top by a waterhole is where they will first land.

This information proved invaluable – put into practice - we spotted more Gouldians at three other locations on tour – all up we saw 11 of the 18 Australian finch species.

In the past, the species was trapped so heavily, it was on the threshold of extinction. Licensed trappers in Western Australia sold tens of thousands of Gouldians and other finches from the wild to aviculturists on the domestic and overseas market.

Many waterholes we watched during the nineteen day tour revealed habits of finches yet recorded - one small waterhole on the Gibb River Road was the drinking hole for Star Finch, Long-tailed Finch, Double-barred Finch, Masked Finch, Zebra Finch and surprisingly, Painted Firetails - well out of their known range according to the books.