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Some of Johns Tours:

South Africa and Lesotho:
27 Oct - Nov 21, 2000

Wakkerstroom - A weekend par Excellence

A Birdwatchers Calendar for Wakkerstroom

Larking about in the Northern Cape Province

Some December birding at Wakkerstroom

Kenya Nov/Dec 2001

Beautiful Just Birding:  is a bird guiding service owned and operated by me - John McAllister.  It started off as a part-time operation offering birders short, local, guided  trips to search for the local specials - notably Rudd’s and Botha’s Larks and Yellow-breasted Pipits - and other endemic birds in the Wakkerstroom area. 

While still offering the short trips referred to above it gradually developed into a service offering guided trips into KwaZulu-Natal as well.  Now it is a full-time operation offering birders personalised guided trips throughout South Africa.  While the emphasis is on guiding I am happy to offer advice and assistance with birder friendly accommodation on these trips.  I also offer assistance with developing itineraries designed to maximise your South African birding experience.  This service  is offered to visiting overseas birders without any obligation to them.

A recent exciting development has been a tie-up with Sarus Bird Tours, enabling me to offer fully inclusive birding trips to Kenya and Tanzania.  I hope to be able to extend this service to other exciting birding destinations in the not too distant future.

Who is John McAllister?

For the past 20 years or so I have been involved directly and indirectly in the conservation of South Africa’s birds and bird habitats.  During this time I gained an intimate knowledge of the country’s wonderful bird life.  I drew up annotated check lists for each major Nature Reserve controlled by the then Transvaal Provincial Administration’s Department of Nature and Environmental Conservation.  I was the Transvaal co-ordinator and a major contributor to TOP BIRDING SPOTS IN SOUTHERN AFRICA edited by Hugh Chittenden.  My favourite group of birds has to be South Africa’s larks.  While I enjoy the challenge of guiding hard-core listers - and my list of “satisfied customers” includes many of these - I love imparting my knowledge and love of birds to those new to the wonderful pastime of birding.  I am a member of the American Birding Association, African Bird Club and BirdLife South Africa.

South Africa

Generally I do not have planned trips for South Africa as I prefer to cater for tailor-made trips for people who all know each other.  I find that these generally work wonderfully well with an absolute minimum of friction resulting from some of the group wanting to watch Red Larks and the others wanting to look for Springbok and Gemsbok. These are our usual priorities

1.   Seeing the highest number of bird species possible in the time available as they have not birded in Africa before;

2.   Seeing the beauty of our South African scenery; and

3.   Seeing a variety of mammals, but not at the expense of visiting great birding spots.