Mark Beevers’ Puppy

William is our Lab x Poodle, the latest addition to our family. My partner and I have acquired a lovely pup (hers really as she paid and I just had him foisted on me, but he loves me to bits and he’s cute).

During August this year I was delighted to lead a short, target tour to the West Usambara Mountains in northern Tanzania. The specific target was the mysterious Spotthroat, a member of one of the last remaining bird families that Dave Semler and Marsha Steffen hadn’t yet seen. This family Modulatricidae consists of 3 obscure African forest species and the decision was made to target the Spotthroat. I was fairly confident that we would see the bird (especially with the help of our experienced local guide), but I hardly expected that we would be able to get any images of this shy and retiring forest floor skulker. However during our very first morning we heard one calling, and with patience and luck, we not only obtained superb and extended views, but also the best images I have seen of this sought-after species. A certain highlight to my birding year!

Wow, wow, wow, can’t quite believe I’ve seen it. It’s an absolute stunner occurring on just a few remote islands off West Papua. We were treated to spectacular views of this most sought-after species. 

Lear’s Macaw, which I saw at Canudos on our Northeast Brazil Mega tour. These indigo birds were absolutely stunning against the red rock canyon where they roost and nest. 

 2022 was an incredible year for rare and special birds and the decision of “top bird of the year” was indeed a very tough one with candidates including Sri Lankan Spurfowl, Coral-billed Ground Cuckoo, Ferruginous Partridge, Flores Scops Owl, Mount Mutis Parrotfinch, Sombre Nightjar, nesting Grauer’s Broadbill, the magnificent Shoebill, Golden Bowerbird, Albert’s Lyrebird and Eastern Ground Parrot among many others. However, it was the roosting White-fronted Scops Owl in Kaeng Krachan National Park on my tailormade Thailand tour that ending up taking first prize. This is a species I thought I might never see in my life. It’s extremely localised and extremely rare and we were very fortunate to lay eyes on one in the mid-morning while returning to lunch after an already fabulous morning’s birding. Very special and extremely fortunate indeed!

My personal bird of the year was seen during a family trip to the UK. We visited friends in Yorkshire. Luckily our friends are birders too, so on our first afternoon together we headed over to RSPB Bempton Cliffs. Sadly, the long-staying Black-browed Albatross didn’t show up. Dip. We headed back home disappointed. While making tea we received news that the albatross is back on the cliffs. We raced there and I got to see albatross sailing majestically along the mighty cliffs in the fading light. Next morning I was there again, this time I got the full experience and had amazing views of this fantastic bird. The backdrop scenery of RSPB Bempton Cliffs is breathtaking, tens of thousands of seabirds flying out to sea and back to their breeding ledges. 

Fortunately, in 2022 I was able to return to a full schedule of tours and travel, making it all the more difficult to choose a top bird for the year, there were just too many. If I have to pick a unique and memorable sighting, my experience with a Buff-fronted Owl (who doesn’t like owls?) in Northern Peru comes to mind. The four extant species of Aegolius owls are relatively small, distinctive, and often strictly nocturnal. Each species is a treat to see, but the Buff-fronted Owl, although widespread in South America, can be a bit tricky to find. Claudia Cavazos and I traveled to a specific spot near Leimebamba in northern Peru in hopes to clamp eyes on this special species. Dusk came and went with nary a sound of our quarry and then the night stretched on towards midnight and while we found an impressive Stygian Owl (not a good omen for small owls) and a pair of Koepcke’s Screech-Owls, there was no sign of the hoped-for Buff-fronted. After a few fitful hours of sleep, it was back out at 4 am and this time it took less than a minute for the Buff-fronted Owl to call and make an appearance, the picture speaks for itself to illustrate just how incredible the sighting turned out to be… 

My best bird of 2022……it is always tricky to nail this down as there are always some great contenders. Wallcreeper in southern France early in the year, singing Bluethroats (white-spotted) singing in Netherlands and some outstanding birds on the Rockjumper tour in Tanzania in September including 3 Crowned Eagles displaying while we were having lunch. But my bird of the year is a bird I have seen before – the actual bird, as well as several others in various places, a Black-browed Albatross. We have had one summering on Bempton Cliffs in Yorkshire for the past couple of years and it is amazing. It shouldn’t be in the UK of course, it should be in the southern hemisphere so watching this huge, graceful elegant seabird wheeling around the cliffs with the Gannets and Kittiwakes is something that takes your breath away. It is majestic, beautiful, elegant all at the same time and to have such good views is a real privilege. I really hope it comes back again next year and I will go up there again. The supporting cast of a huge seabird colony of Atlantic Puffin, Razorbill, Guillemots and the only UK mainland Gannetry makes it a great place to visit anway. The Albatross is the icing on the cake. 

Red-breasted Goose, arguably the most stunning in this family. I was following 2 birds on twitter, hanging around with Barnacle Geese in the UK. I was booked to go to the UK in May 2022 to catch up with family and friends. I thought the Red-breasted Goose would have migrated back to Eastern Europe by then so did not pay it any more attention. When a birding friend of mine said that we were going to Norfolk for a few days birding, things fell into place. As I had no mobile coverage of what birds were around I was shocked when he said “let’s go get that Red-breasted Goose today!” To cut a long story short, we saw the goose well and a huge hole in my world list was filled. 

My bird of the year is Cundinimarca Antpitta, photographed at Sendero Herrera in the Eastern Andes of Colombia. Seeing this rare bird some 32 years after I discovered it was an emotional moment. Now that we have identified an accessible population, we are working with the American Bird Conservancy and Fundación Camaná to preserve some of this endangered species’ threatened habitat. Rare antpittas, spectacular hummingbirds and gorgeous tanagers are just some of the wonderful birds encountered in the Andes of Colombia, which are featured in multiple Rockjumper tours.

2022 was a busy year for me: 8 Rockjumper tours in a year is a good tally by any standards. Choosing a ‘top bird of the year’ is always tough, given the large number of candidate species, but I am going for Shoebill. This iconic species, placed in its own family, is most easily seen in Uganda where it remains a top tourist attraction, and not just amongst birders. Its most reliable site is not far from Entebbe, the main point of entry to Uganda, and there are many tour operators and skilled local boatmen who are more than willing to show it to you.

This year, I did two back-to-back tours to Uganda, and we had truly memorable encounters with Shoebills on both: posing at close range, fishing for lungfish, flying in slow motion over the papyrus, and feeding a two-week-old chick. It was a photographer’s dream, and Shoebill was voted bird of the trip on both tours.

Coming a close second was a much less imposing bird. In February, after our Kenya ABA tour, I went on a little scouting trip to Manda Island, off the northern Kenyan coast. Here I was thrilled to find several pairs of Black Boubous. As its name suggests, it’s all black in colour, although at close range it has a red eye. But it differs vocally from other all-black boubous and its range is tiny. It only inhabits areas of coastal scrub in extreme NE Kenya and SW Somalia, and was overlooked for more than a century after its discovery. Until only a few years ago, it was thought to be a black morph of the more widespread East Coast Boubou. Now reinstated as a full, highly localised species, Manda Island is effectively the only place in the world where you can see it.

For longer than I can remember, I have had one primary destination in mind…Antarctica. The scale and beauty of Antarctica are difficult to put into words and its birds, penguins and petrels mainly, have to endure unbelievable hardships in order to survive. As a seabird biologist, I have always been fascinated by the diversity of seabirds and their incredible life history traits; and this is perhaps no better exemplified than in the Emperor Penguin, Antarctica’s most iconic seabird and my Bird of the Year for 2022.

Contrary to popular belief, seeing an Emperor Penguin is by no means a guarantee on any cruise to Antarctica. The species breeds in several remote corners of the white continent, outside of the reach of most Antarctica Expeditions. On occasion, however, a stray individual is sometimes seen off the Antarctic Peninsula at sites such as the Antarctic Sound and Wilhelmina. Bay. Needless to say, every daylit hour on Rockjumper’s Antarctica Expedition for 2022 was spent scanning ice floes as we sailed through these remote areas. Studying each ice fragment delivered Gentoo, Adelie, and Chinstrap Penguins, Crab-eater and Weddell Seals, and South Polar Skuas but no sign of our Emperor. That was at least until one of our lucky clients appeared with a photo of an immature Emperor Penguin resting on the ice. We doubled-back and spent the next 3 hours scrutinizing every piece of ice, checking every shadow, and to no avail. Ultimately, our hearts sank as we knew we had to press on.

An attempt to leave Wilhelmina Bay into the Gerlache Straight was quickly abandoned due to 60-knot winds and rough seas. Thus, we returned to the sanctuary of the bay and continued deeper than we had gone before. Again, we checked the ice knowing that this could be a second chance for the Emperor. We scoured the dense pack ice and, just as we could go no further, we spotted a dark shape resting on the ice. At this distance it was still much too far to see but we signalled towards the captain to bring us closer and distant record shots confirmed the bird as an Emperor Penguin; separate from the one seen earlier in the day.

Pressure off, the Captain manoeuvred us closer until we were resting the ship against the same ice as where the Emperor was resting. We enjoyed the bird for some 2 hours before pressing on except that, as we pulled the ship away, two more Emperors bulleted from the water to join the first. We watched the three birds for a further 2 hours, saturating every possible viewing angle and taking more photographs to revisit the sighting than we probably should have. To accurately illustrate the rarity of the Emperor Penguin, the resident ornithologists on our vessel had done in excess of 60 cruises to Antarctica and not seen Emperors and we, therefore, considered ourselves exceptionally lucky.

It was great to be back to a nearly full year of guiding so there are lots of highlights to pick from this year, but my bird of the year 2022 has to be the Rufous-vented Ground Cuckoo we had on our Best of Panama tour. This was the first time I have seen a Neomorphus ground cuckoo on a Rockjumper tour and it was pretty exciting to find one on our own and (eventually) get the whole group on the bird.

On our final full day of the tour we were enjoying a mixed flock late morning with a pair of Brown-billed Scythebills putting on a show overhead. Suddenly there was some loud bill snapping and something raced across the trail. I actually thought it was a squirrel but a couple of the group members had also glimpsed it and were adamant it was a bird. Thinking ground cuckoo in the back of my head I wandered off the trail a bit and suddenly heard a Bicolored Antbird singing in the gulley below us. So there was an antswarm, this was getting more interesting! A Bicolored Antbird popped into view and I put my binoculars on it. To my shock there was a Rufous-vented Ground Cuckoo standing motionless but completely in the open in my binocular view!!! Sadly the cuckoo disappeared by the time the group all assembled so we made a plan for those who wanted to skip lunch and the three of us were successful in getting wonderful views of this very special bird over the next couple hours. However, the antswarm had moved off by the time the rest of the group rejoined. But the story was not quite over as we had time for a quick visit the last morning of the tour and as our luck would have it the antswarm was right up on the trail where we could all watch this grail bird crossing the trail.

The Eastern Bronze-naped Pigeon is ‘hand’s down’ my top bird for 2022!

I’ve spent many hours over the course of ten years, birding and exploring the Northeast coast of KwaZulu-Natal’s known forest patches where they occur but has proven to be a rather difficult pigeon to find!

The Eastern Bronze-naped Pigeon isn’t the most colourful bird and only has a few markings to assist in identification. It’s habits of loving the upper canopy of evergreen forests where it spends most of its time feeding, makes it an even trickier species to connect with.

Fortune was on my side a few weeks ago whilst birding around St. Lucia town, just South of the Eastern Shores in the iSimangaliso Wetland Park. A casual stroll along the fence line that separates the old IPhiva camp site and the beach, is where I stumbled upon the previously known ‘Delegorgues’ Pigeon!
The pigeon was perched in a leafless white stinkwood (Celtis africana) tree, surprisingly unperturbed by my presence! Snapping a couple of photographs as I got closer, I could see its rust coloured and dark green neck with its diagnostic white collar which made it a male. Interestingly, I also witnessed some feeding behaviour as it started pecking on the branches of the tree where spittlebug larvae had created pockets of foam!

It’s not every day that you get to see one of the World’s rarest birds. Often enough such birds are elusive, difficult to observe, and not very well known. Most of the World’s truly rarest birds (<100 total population) require herculean feats of determination and stamina to get near to, arriving to some remote, steep, mountain slope, or tiny island of habitat amidst a sea of agriculture, desert, or ocean. None of these stereotypes fit Brazil’s well-studied, brightly colored, and relatively noisy Cherry-throated Tanager. This cripplingly beautiful, flocking species is only known from two locations in mixed primary-secondary montane cloud forest of the small state of Espiritu Santo. The local name is incredible, if somewhat morbid. “Suira Apunhalada” translates to “Slit Throat Tanager”. The glowing, iridescent red throat is easily seen by birders lucky enough to get a glimpse. But getting that look is the hard part.

Cherry-throated Tanager is my bird of the year because it was completely unexpected, one of my most wanted birds on Earth, and we had easy walk-up and walk-away views of an individual attending a nest being supported by 5 of her closest family members. We saw 6 of the known extant 14 individuals left on the planet, and were able to do so at leisure in the middle of an absolutely stunning chunk of atlantic rainforest some 400kms miles from our intended route. How was all of this possible, you might ask? Simple: After having the most successful visit to Minas Gerais of any of us guides’ lives, including the ridiculous success of Brazilian Merganser being on the first stop of the tour, we decided to entertain the idea very early on. Word came down to us that a nest had been located some 4 days prior to our tour’s commencement date. Going over the logistics, we thought, “Well…longshot but if (a BIG IF) we get all the target endemics and hoped-for species on the regular route in record time, we could accelerate the tour and go for broke”. The absolutely unbelievable good fortune our group enjoyed the first week, fact that the bird was on a nest (guaranteed), plus the enthusiasm and high motivation of the group to go for the bird all had to conspire perfectly to even contemplate the change. For the above reasons, symbolism that Cherry-throated Tanager embodies for the conservation effort in Brazil, and many more I won’t elaborate on, this was far-and-away my Bird of the Year.

Starting in the UK three birds stand out and difficult to say which is the best as all three stand out for different reasons. First up a cracking male Turkestan Shrike that graced an RSPB reserve on the coast in Yorkshire called Bempton Cliffs, which is a famous seabird colony. Crippling views of the bird, which is only the 8th for the UK after which I visited the seabird colony where I had great views of the breeding seabirds including a summering Black-browed Albatross, a case of central Asia meeting the South Atlantic in Yorkshire.  Next up the totally unexpected pitching up of a Cape Gull, yep just like the ones you get in SA. Totally out of the blue and great views to boot and a first for the UK but really the most incongruous bird of the year was the Common Nighthawk, sat on a garden fence in a small Oxfordshire town for eight hours with hardly a blink of an eyelid. So three great birding experiences in the UK all for different reason except they were all lifers. My beloved local patch continues to be covered daily but to no avail this year unlike last when we had 11 county rarities one of which was a national rarity and the first for the county (White-spotted Bluethroat). But that was last year. 

Our quest for the endemic Masked Antpitta in Bolivia was highly memorable. Our flight to Riberalta got cancelled but we managed to get alternative transport, a grueling fourteen hour drive over land. On the first day of our target search, we located several territories by ear but none of these elusive forest-dwellers came in view. On our second day, we tried a different locality and bushwhacking tactics, connecting sweetly with this rare and highly range-restricted species – a true cracker! 

My bird of the year would have to be the Bearded Vulture. After reading so much about it before a trip to the Drakensberg, I was really hoping to see it. On the very last day of the trip, we managed to see the Bearded Vulture but from very far away, after a while we decided it was time to go and as we were leaving this individual flew overhead multiple times really close!  

My top Bird of 2022 would be the Drakensberg Rockjumper. Working for Rockjumper Birding Tours, I was eager to see the bird after which the company was named. This one presented itself on a trip up Sani Pass and it was not hard to see why it captured Adam Riley’s attention in 1998.  

For most people a cruise to Antarctica is the trip of a lifetime and for me it was no different. The opportunity to explore dramatic South Georgia and the icy continent of Antarctica itself was exhilarating in every way. The diverse penguin colonies entertained us royally while fur seals, elephant seals, sheathbills and skuas all vied for our attention. The pelagic birding was also fantastic, and I finally caught up with dream pelagic species like Antarctic, Atlantic and Kerguelen Petrels! These were birds I initially laid eyes on as a 7-year-old in my first field guide to the Birds of Southern Africa, and to finally see them in the seas where they occur was a dream come true as they are very rare vagrants to Southern African waters. There is however one species, the holy grail of Antarctica, that literally stands head and shoulders above all else. Most people know that seeing one is only a remote possibility, but our Antarctica itinerary was different to most trips that venture down to the area, and the incredible Emperor Penguin was a massive target. So much so that we ventured as far as we could go into the Weddell Sea with the hopes that the wind gods, sea gods, snow gods, ice gods etc. were all on our side. Joyously they were and at roughly 10:30pm, 20th November we stood at the top deck of the Ocean Diamond totally enthralled with what was unravelling before us. Not only were we adjacent to the famous island of Snow Hill in the Weddell Sea but most importantly we were revelling in a rare sighting. Not 1 or 2 but many Emperor Penguins! When most descended below it was around 11:30 pm and the count was up to 12 different individuals but others who stayed up a little later (past midnight) counted 26 in total! An incredible experience and one that every one of us will never forget. I feel extremely privileged to be able to do what I do and to share such moments with likeminded people is a true joy. Emperor Penguin without a shadow of a doubt is my number one bird for 2022!

Having not travelled internationally since we left India behind in the first week of 2020, we were all looking forward to experiencing a different country and a pile of new birds. Personally, 2022 marked a decade since I had left the United Kingdom behind for South America, and a journey that would ultimately see me joining Rockjumper. So, with no hint of nostalgia whatsoever, our first family trip for nearly 32 months would be to Britain. A thoroughly enjoyable few weeks of temperate birding resulted in lots of lifers for Meg and Kaily, and even a smattering for myself. Easily the highlight of the trip was an extraordinary morning at Titchwell RSPB Reserve in the company of Norfolk local and Rockjumper tour leader, Paul Varney.

Unusually calm conditions greeted us, the path side pools and lakes a glassy reflection. This wasn’t the type of weather that delivers much in the way of ‘interesting’ rarities from Siberia, but it was perfect for Europe’s only real contribution to family twitching, the monotypic Bearded Reedling. It used to be a tit, then it was a parrotbill – but has finally been recognised as a unique songbird in its own right – most closely related to larks! A truly remarkable species whose digestive system adapts to two completely different seasonal diets.

The most typical sighting of Bearded Reedling is a gold ball sized orangish blur as one darts from one reed thicket to the other, often expedited by strong winds. Given the benign weather conditions, we were hopeful of somewhat better views, but even the most optimistic amongst us didn’t anticipate seeing multiple flocks, each containing a good 5 to 6 individuals prancing about on reed heads! Indeed, two different males were considerate enough to sit looking into the early morning sun on just the right reed to ensure I could snap away without needing to worry about any post-processing! “

“Antarctica is experiencing the incredible” is what was voiced to me prior to leaving for our Rockjumper Birding Falkland Islands, South Georgia & Antarctica 2022 tour.  However, the emotions one feels experiencing the euphony of sound, sight and smell overlooking the largest King Penguin rookery at Gold Harbour, South Georgia left me utterly speechless.  Time stopped still as I took in the vastness of the space and the awe-inspiring scenic views of the King Penguin breading pairs and their chicks.  I was deeply sad when this incredible once in a lifetime adventure to Antarctica, South Georgia and Falklands Islands came to an end. Memories and new friendships a plenty and abundance of gratitude for this beautiful world we live in.