It was the day after Carl and I had spent a pleasant day hunting migrants on the North Norfolk coast that Carl heard a yellow-browed warbler. From his bed. He had hoped to find one for me – he being a bird-finder of genius – but this one showed up 24 hours too late. So it goes.

Yellow-browed warblers nest in Siberia and travel south for the winter; a few pay an accidental visit to the Britain most years. I have never seen one. Let alone heard one. So I admired Carl’s immense birding skills and countered gamely: I once heard an African broadbill from my tent – from my sleeping-bag if not an actual bed — in Zambia. It was particularly gratifying because I’d missed one just a few days earlier.

Carl countered my counter with a dideric cuckoo he had heard from a tent in Namibia: this is an African species that says its own name: di-di-dideric! And that set me off, my mind once again drifting back to the Luangwa Valley in Zambia.

I remembered the days when I refused to leave my bed until I had identified ten species of birds, their songs and calls filtering through the wicker wall of my hut on the banks of the Luangwa River. I would wake at about five-thirty and start listening. It usually went something like this.

yes ground hornbill cape turtle dove yes i wonder where the big pride will be today Heuglin’s robin African pied wagtail wow listen to that lion African fish eagle yes I think the elephants were in camp again last night emerald spotted wood dove that Pel’s fishing owl we saw in the spotlight last night was exceptional black-collared barbet surely that’s a leopard just a hint of a roar ah yes African scops owl shall we take the riverside walk this morning greenshank brown-hooded kingfisher thats 10 oh buggerit time to get up yes time to start another luangwa day yes

• Carl runs https://www.wildlifetoursandeducation.co.uk/
• Next year I’ll be co-leading a trip to the Luangwa Valley with my old friend Chris Breen of Wildlife Worldwide. It’s now confirmed; still a couple of free places:

https://www.wildlifeworldwide.com/group-tours/walking-safari-in-heart-of-zambia