FROM WWW.BIRDQUEST.CO.UK
Mark Beaman lives in Lancashire with his partner Hilary and daughter Rachel, and is Managing Director of Birdquest. After graduating from Cambridge University he led an ornithological expedition to Nepal and then spent several years studying seabirds at Aberdeen University before creating Sunbird Holidays in 1978 for Executive Travel and subsequently going on to found Birdquest in 1981. Mark has travelled to every continent in search of birds and has a worldwide interest in every aspect of birding, but it is the farthest flung and most inaccessible reaches of the Palearctic region (where he has travelled more extensively, and seen more species, than any other ornithologist) that most excite his imagination. He is author of The Handbook of Bird Identification for Europe and the Western Palearctic (1998) and also author of Palearctic Birds: a Checklist of the Birds of Europe, North Africa and Asia north of the foothills of the Himalayas (1994).
Simon Harrap lives in Norfolk with his partner Anne and daughter Eleanor. He started birding as a schoolboy and, after gaining a degree in sociology, later interspersed periods of teaching with expeditions to the Middle East, the Indian Subcontinent and Southeast Asia. Simon joined Birdquest in 1987 and since then has travelled extensively in search of birds, building up a particularly high level of expertise in southern Africa, Madagascar, the Indian Subcontinent, Malaysia and the Philippines. He has served on the Oriental Region sub-committee for the International Ornithological Congress's 'English Names' project, producing a definitive list for the birds of the world, wrote Tits, Nuthatches and Treecreepers (1995, one of the best-received Helm monographs) and co-authored (with Nigel Redman) Birdwatching in Britain: a site by site guide (1987). An all-round naturalist, he wrote and illustrated (together with Anne) the acclaimed Orchids of Britain and Ireland: A Field and Site Guide (2005), and he is currently chairman of the Norfolk & Norwich Naturalists' Society.
Nigel Redman lives in Sussex with his partner Cheryle and daughter Emily. He joined the Birdquest team so long ago that he is virtually a founding member. After training as an accountant he worked for a spell in publishing before taking a year off to travel overland to Nepal. Later he became assistant bursar at an independent school before joining Birdquest in 1984. He was one of the founders of the Oriental Bird Club (and served two terms as Chairman), is co-author (with Simon Harrap) of Birdwatching in Britain: a site by site guide (1987), later republished in a revised edition as Where to Watch Birds in Britain (2003). Nigel's birding travels have taken him to many parts of the world but his main areas of interest are the Palearctic, sub-Saharan Africa and in particular the Oriental region, where very few people can claim to have such wide experience. Nigel has resumed a career in publishing and is now responsible for the Christopher Helm, Pica Press and Poyser imprints of A & C Black, but he still manages to escape twice a year to lead tours.