STARTING SOON:
Bookings are now open for our next Wangat Bird Language Retreat
2025 Annual Workshop Retreat
15 – 18th October, 2026
Location: Wangat Lodge – 20 minutes west of Dungog, NSW
It’s on again at Wangat Lodge – the birthplace of Australia’s only homegrown bird language and nature connection retreats. The October 2026 event will be our 7th bird language retreat at the Lodge and a continuation of our deepening connection to the beautiful forests and birdlife surrounding Wangat.
Even though October 2026 seems like it’s lightyears away, I’m mindful that the 2024 and 2025 retreats booked out 6 months ahead, so I wanted to get the new dates up well in advance to give people an opportunity to make a booking early to avoid missing out.
This retreat is a unique opportunity to dramatically expand the scope and detail of what you are capable of noticing in nature, to truly see what is really there and experience wild environments in a state of relaxed baseline. Andrew will show you how to deeply listen and interpret the different voices that songbirds use to communicate about their inner and outer worlds. Armed with this powerful new knowledge your relationship to the forest (or even your urban backyard) will transform in profound and enduring ways.
The retreat may only be 4 days / 3 night long, but it will create changes in your sensory awareness systems that will last a lifetime.
Wangat Lodge offers a range of cottages, small dorms and bell-tent accommodation options, as well as a huge open-air deck, comfy lodge meeting area, a big fire circle teaching space and beautiful bird-filled forest leading down to the Chichester River.
As always, Wangat’s renown kitchen wizards will be preparing delicious meals for us over the duration of the retreat, meaning you get to enjoy your time learning, reading, swimming and paying attention to the language of birds.
As with all my retreats, the group size is strictly limited to foster a close-knit community experience and ensure everyone has the opportunity to find quiet personal space as they need it.
For a more detailed exploration of what bird language is and how learning to pay attention to birds will attune your senses to create a deeper sense of ‘being present’ in nature, read on below:
“The hardest thing of all to see is what is really there” – JA Baker (The Peregrine)
What will this workshop do for me? (Good question!)
For the vast majority of the human journey as a species we have been highly attuned to the natural world around us. Every one of our bodily senses operated at their upper limit as we paid the closest attention to the weather, animal behaviour, insect hatchings, flowering and fruiting events, seasonal indicators, each other and of course, birds. Birds taught us how to avoid predators, and for some people they still do. This wasn’t a hobby. This wasn’t about keeping a personal best list of species. This was, quite literally about staying alive.
Fast forward to the present and most of us have forgotten how to pay attention to nature. We no longer hear the complex voices of birds, nor are we curious about their meaning or aware of the impact that not paying attention has on our brains.
But we should, for although most of us no longer fear being torn apart by massive carnivores, our brains and sensory systems still yearn for the ancient connections of the old ways. And over the last two decades an array of scientific evidence across multiple disciplines has demonstrated how important nature connectedness is for maintaining optimum human health and wellbeing.
Learning bird language can, quite literally, extend your life, reduce stress, improve brain functioning, aid in wound healing, extend attention span, relieve tension, mitigate eco-grief, elevate your sense of vitality and purpose, as well as bring you deep, genuine joy through deepening your connection to the land we live on. Oh, and you’ll make new (feathered and non-feathered) friends along the way!
This retreat introduces you to a practical understanding and experience of bird language, which is to say, all the various ways in which birds communicate to each other about their social lives, food resources, nesting, predators, the seasons and pretty much everything else in the landscape.
Through engaging presentations, outdoor teaching sessions and personal time spent paying attention to the forest, you will develop and expand your personal nature-observation and sensory awareness skills. The experiences and learning offered at this retreat will reprogram your brain to an older way of being in the world. Once learned, you will never experience nature the same again.
Through active listening to the many voices of birds you will learn simple but reliable listening skills for tracking the movement of predators across the landscape and notice the subtle changes in seasonal transitions.
Presented by bird language specialist, wildlife naturalist and writer Andrew Turbill (aka, andrewthebirdguy), this is a retreat for anyone interested in going deeper in their personal relationship to birds and wild nature. After decades of doing his “dirt time” of patient watching, listening and learning, Andrew has gleaned powerful insights into how birds offer us a special opportunity for really paying attention to the world around us. His teaching approach is centred around a love for the Earth and developing a ‘curious mind’ for opening pathways of new learning. These are critical skills on our journey to moving from “nature tourist” to “nature sentinel”.
Likewise, it is a wonderful way to connect and have fun with others who value nature and learning. We will spend the time together in a small community atmosphere, sharing adventures, meals, stories, and the learning journey together.
The skills and insights acquired in this workshop will fundamentally change the way you interact with birds and the natural world and can be readily applied in an urban-based natural setting as effectively as in wilderness. Every birdsong will become an invitation to listen, look around and learn. Every squawk will remind you we’re not alone in this world. Your friends will be amazed as you suddenly break off mid-sentence at work, dash outside and seemingly by magic “discover” a python resting in a nearby tree…or watch a falcon scoot across the skyline.
Come join us to learn the magic of bird language!
Previous retreats have booked out, so we advise getting in early to secure a spot.
Wangat Lodge Bird Language & Nature Connection Retreat
October 2026:
Starting: 4pm, Thurs 15th
Finishing: 2pm, Sun 18th
NOTE: Bird Language 2025 will be limited to 40 tickets. The first 18 *early bird* tickets sold will receive a $100 discount.
Cost –
Early Bird booking: $899 Standard booking: $999
Requirements
- You should be comfortable being in nature, including sitting on your own in the forest for up to an hour at a time. Some short walks on forest tracks required.
- No previous birding experience needed (truly, as long as you can tell a kookaburra from a kitchen sink you’ll be fine!). This retreat isn’t a “birdwatching event” and most our previous participants weren’t serious “bird watchers”, though they all left as self-confessed bird-nerds.
- There is no minimum age however all attendees must be able to sit quietly and pay attention for extended periods in both the teaching space and the forest. Please contact either Dan or I to discuss bringing a child under 12 yrs old.
Further info
Contact Andrew at info@andrewthebirdguy.com
