Looking back on 2025

January:

The year began with a cold short break up on the Yorkshire coast in Filey.  It was odd to be at a silent Bempton but there were still a few Guillemots already visiting the ledges.  The moors were treacherous following recent snow but the cold weather did mean that Whitby Abbey was deserted and the glorious light lent itself to some photo opportunities.

Whitby Abbey

Whitby Abbey

Whitby Abbey

Fulmar

Bempton

I stayed local the rest of a generally dreary month but managed to bump into Short-eared Owls, Cranes, Egrets and Geese while out and about.

Cattle Egrets

Cranes and Pinkfeet

February:

The month began with Japan.  Oh my.  It was like visiting three different countries in the winter from the cold Honshu with snow up in the hills to the British winter weather of Kyushu and the Scandinavian deep snow and bitter cold of Hokkaido.  Everyday was seemed to contain an Attenborough Moment.

Mount Fuji

Imagine 12,000 Cranes arriving against a dawn sky, Japanese Macaques enjoying their thermal baths, Red-crowned Cranes breath in the morning chill on their river roost before heading off to the dancing fields, the mighty Blakiston’s Fish Owl descending to catch his dinner on a steaming thermal stream and 800 White-tailed and Steller’s Sea-Eagles circling your boat waiting for fish to be flung into the icy waters.

White-naped Cranes 

Hooded & White-naped Cranes

Blakiston’s Fish Owl 

Japanese Macaques

Red-crowned Cranes

Red-crowned Cranes

Steller’s Sea-Eagle

White-tailed and Steller’s Sea-Eagles 

Steller’s Sea-Eagle 

White-tailed Sea-Eagle 

And this was just the ‘big stuff’.  There were bobbing Brown Dippers, clownish Harlequins, enormous Sea Otters, so many Buntings, snoozing Ural Owls, rafts of Baikal Teal and furtive Mandarins.  To this add a culture unlike anything in the west and it was a trip I will never forget.  I can’t quite believe that I am heading back in just a few weeks.

Japanese Murrelets

Japanese Serow

White's Thrush

Sea Otter

Ural Owls

Back home the Broads seemed quite happy to give up their Cranes to me nowadays and the Goshawks were excellent in Brecks on a fine late February day.  The Woodlarks there were enjoying the day and back in the Suffolk Sandlings, they and the Dartford Warblers were also already putting in a show.

Dartford Warblers

March:

The Oriole trip to the Forest of Dean and Somerset Levels was a great success once again although it actually started with a day out along the Norfolk Coast before I picked up the van which gave me the chance to catch up with seven Lesser White-fronted Geese, Glossy Ibis and the Pallid Harrier!

Lesser White-fronted Geese

Eristalinus aeneus

Hen Harrier

Once in the Forest of Dean we spent out time at regular spots picking up Dipper, Hawfinch, Mandarins and Firecrest although Goshawks were tricky with the weather and we only heard one.

Hawfinch

The Cathedral

Down on the Levels  we found a flock of 250 Cattle Egrets and saw many Great Egrets too and heard so many booming Bitterns but we never saw one break cover.  Two Glossy Ibis and Cranes completed the long legged herony things! A drake Ring-necked Duck made it three trips on the trot down here.

Cattle Egrets

Glossy Ibis

Next I headed off to Cyprus with Bradders and Max for a few days exploration.  It was crisp spring weather (with snow up in the Troodos) but migration was well under way and after securing the three island endemics (Warbler, Wheatear and Scops Owl) we settled down to enjoy whatever we could find which included various Chats and Larks, Great Spotted Cuckoos, Black Francolins, Crakes, Waders and some new Gulls too while the spring botany was truly amazing and the best I had ever seen.

Black Francolin

The amazing mosaics at Paphos

Hoopoe

Baillon's Crake

Cyprus Pied Wheatear

Caspian Stonechat

Great Spotted Cuckoo

Cyprus Warbler

Ophrys kotschyi 

Ophrys sphegodes taurica

Ophrys umbilicata flavomarginata

Ophyrs bommuelleri

Ranunculus asiaticus

Ranunculus asiaticus

The last few days of March took me back to the south-west for my Brother’s 50^th bash.  We were based on the Somerset – Devon border to start with that gave me the chance to revisit the Levels as well as Labrador Bay where one particular male Cirl Bunting put on a fine performance.  

Cirl Bunting 

Cirl Bunting at the digs

Afterwards we moved down to the end of Cornwall for a few days and somehow contrived to see the wintering Booted Eagle, Lizard Choughs, a horse paddock Hoopoe and my first UK Ring-billed Gull for many years.

Booted Eagle

Hoopoe

Choughs - the sward is seriously slopey, not my picture!

April - May:

The Kittiwakes were in full breeding mode in Lowestoft by early April and the cacophony is such a part of living here.  It still amazes me that a 1000 birds are nesting less than a mile from my house and yet I rarely see one! On the 16^th a Black Redstart graced the garden for 15 minutes which was a surprise addition.

Black Redstart

Lesvos beckoned and two superb weeks were had as usual – the first as ‘me’ and the second for Oriole.  All the hoped for migrants and residents were found including early Olive Tree warblers and Rufous-tailed Scrub Robins. Rollers eluded us the first week but we kept tripping over them in the second and all five Flycatchers were also seen this time.   I think we ended up with five Barred Warblers too. 

Raptors were the best ever in spring with Black Kite, Booted Eagle, Lesser Spotted Eagles, Red-footed Falcons and more Levant Sparrowhawks than I have ever seen.  I will never tire of the island.

Roller - ACV

Ladybird Spider

Great Snipe - Paul Wood

Lesser Grey Shrike - Jim Willet

Cretzschmar's Bunting - Jim Willet

European Bee-eater - Jim Willett

Red-breasted Flycatcher

Squacco Heron

Spur-winged Lapwing

Barred Warbler

Kruper's Nuthatch

Pygmy Cormorants

Masked Shrike

Black-headed Bunting

Long-eared Owl

Red-footed Falcons

Dalmatian Pelican

Red-backed Shrike

I came home and the very next day I was down at Carlton Marshes under two miles away and watching five sleepy Red-footed Falcons wake up in their chosen tree and over the next few days I got to watch at least six or seven performing over the marshes as they actively hunted dragonflies with the throng of Hobbies that had also gathered.  I wonder where they went after they decided to move on? 

Red-footed Falcon

Red-footed Falcons

Red-footed Falcon

From here I headed for the Outer Hebrides for ten days of the most magical weather imaginable largely on the Uists.  It may have precluded us getting any Skua passage but when you are seeing Eagles, Short-eared Owls, Hen Harriers and a host of breeding plumaged Arctic waders every day it really did not matter.

Hen Harrier and Oystercatcher - Chris Darby

White-tailed Eagles

Golden Eagle

Corncrakes posed on lawns and Red-necked Phalaropes hazily spun and the vistas were full of the songs of Skylarks, Sedge Warblers, kipping Snipe, Curlews and Redshanks. I could not imagine that such clean, vast silver sand beaches and almost tropical turquoise seas could exist in the UK.

Ruff

Sanderlings and Turnstones

Glaucous Gull

Moss Carder Bee

Corncrake

Ringed Plover

Back down south a Spoonbill flew over my house the very next day and the rest of the month was spent mothing and enjoying the daytime spring insects on the wing. There were Nightingales to see and heathland birds going about their business.

Buff and White Ermines

iron Prominent

Nightingale

Tree Lupins on Pakefield Beach

Privet Hawkmoth

Small Red-eyed Damselfly

Scarce Chaser

Spoonbill over my house!

Woodlark

June:

The first half of the month was spent way out east in Sabah on Borneo for Bird’s Wildlife & Nature.  A trip I never imagined I would be making and the contrasts between the bio-diverse jungles and forests and barren Palm Oil plantation wastelands in between was upsetting and unusually for someone who is always staring out of the window hoping for something new, I simply closed my eyes and waited till we got to where we were going.  It was heartbreaking.

Mount Kinabalu

However, the wildlife was simply astonishing although the jungle birds, as expected, were hard work at times but we got our rewards for the effort put in.  We saw all eight Hornbills and so many endemics too with various Barbets, Broadbills, Spiderhunters, five Pittas, Buller’s Pheasant, Bornean Crested Firebacks, some very cool Woodpeckers and Kingfishers and the very odd Bornean Bristlehead.

Storm's Stork

Rhinoceros Hornbill

Stork-billed Kingfisher

Rufous-backed Dwarf Kingfisher

Black-crowned Pitta

Black and Yellow Broadbill

White-bellied Woodpecker

Bornean Bristlehead

Buller's Pheasant

Wood Partridge

Bornean Banded Pitta

Bornean Crested Fireback

Yellow-naped Barbet

Large Frogmouth

White-crowned Hornbill

And of course it was not just about the birds with Orangutans, Tarsiers, Slow Loris, Gibbons, Saltwater Crocs, Tree Shrews, at least 11 different Squirrels, giant Rafflesia, gaudy Dragonflies and some very funky Moths and Butterflies.  I can’t wait to go back.

Long-tailed Macaque

Bornean Orangutans

Gomantong Caves 

Neurothemis fluctuans

Rafflesia keithii

Red Giant Flying Squirrel

Western Tarsier

Philippine Slow Loris

Common Tree Shrew

Plutodes argentilauta

Back home I stayed local and enjoyed some very continental Dragonflying at Carlton Marshes were there had been an emergence of Lesser and Vagrant Emperors and Red-veined Darters amongst the hoard of ‘normal’ species such as Green-eyed Hawkers, Scarce Chasers and Demoiselles.  Bittern showed well there too as they moved to and fro on feeding flights.

Bittern

Greater Bladderwort

Vagrant Emperor - Kevin Durrant

Down on the coast at Benacre the Little Tern colony was in full swing and I spent a lovely evening down there watching hundreds of them feeding along the beach before returning to their nests.  I am not sure I have ever seen so many before.

Little Terns 

July:

Mull was my next destination and although the weather was somewhat inclement and wildlife watching difficult at times, we still had a fabulous time amongst the Otters, Hen Harriers, Auks, Golden and Sea Eagles and Seals.  The views were amazing and I loved our visit to Staffa, Lunga and Iona.  Hopefully the weather this year will be better and the insects will be able to join the party.

Staffa

Puffin

Razorbill

Puffin

Staffa

Highland Darter

White-tailed Eagle

White-tailed Eagle

White-tailed Eagle

White-tailed Eagle

Otter

From Mull it was straight down to the New Forest where amazingly the weather was almost too hot for the insects but we succeeded in finding almost all of the dragonflies and butterflies although we may have actually spent some of our time in Wiltshire and Dorset!  Birding was tricky with the heat and most species were keeping their heads down but in the forest we did get lovely views of Firecrests and Spotted Flycatchers.

Broad Scarlet

Spotted Flycatcher

Grayling

Golden Ringed Dragonfly

Beautiful Demoiselle

Silver-washed Fritillary

Chalkhill Blue

Dark Green Fritillary

I literally drove straight (although the route was anything but)  to the Global Bird Fair in Rutland for a superb weekend helping out on the Bird’s Wildlife and Nature stand. It was the first time that I had ever properly felt part of the event – even when I was there representing the RSPB.

Mid-July and August:

From mid-July and through August I had no work but I actually did not mind.  It had been a full on first half of the year and the chance to catch up at home was appreciated.  I took myself out for local walks, mothed whenever I could and munched figs from my own tree for the first time.  Brief twitches took me for a Roseate Tern at Ness Point, to Walberswick for the ‘oh no they are definitely not breeding’ Zitting Cisticolas and spent more time looking at the beach flora before a Greenish Warbler down at Ness Point lured me but despite this little gem there were no other migrants in tow.

Anania verbascalis

Argyritaenia ljunugiana

Banded General

Dot Moth

Musk Mallow

Oiceoptoma thoracicum - one of the best things I saw all year!

Brown Argus

Dusky Sallow

Eriothrix rufomaculata

Fen raft Spider at last!

Lesser Common Rustic and I don't care what you say!

Lychnis

Painted Lady

Pale Prominent

Pebble Hook Tip

Phasia hemiptera

Platytes alpinella

Ruby Tiger

Wall Brown

Roseate Tern on 24th July at Ness Point - Andrew Easton

Clifden Nonpareil

Volucella zonaria

Dark Spinach

Red Underwing

 

Canary Shouldered Thorn

Orange Swift

Frosted Orange

Small Marbled

Marbled Green and Marbled Beauty

Ni Moth

Purple Bar

Red Underwing

Straw Underwing

Willow Emerald

Yellow-horned poppy

Sea Pea

Homegrown Figs

Greenish Warbler through the eyelet of a giant buoy

September:

On the last day of August we escaped to Lesvos for ten days.  It was earlier than we would normally visit but I had a busy autumn ahead of me.  It was too early for the raptor passage but I did get some surprises with a couple of Levant Sparrowhawks including my first juvenile.  There were plenty of Shrikes, chats and that sought of thing and down at the pans the Dalmatian Pelicans were always a joy to watch.  My best find was an Oystercatcher with a huge white neck collar which suggests that it is of the Siberian ‘longipes’ race and managed some photos of the Curlews that confirmed that they are of the eastern ‘orientalis’ race.  Sometimes the familiar can still deliver surprises.  It was just good to have a chill out for a few days.

Siberian ‘longipes’ race Oystercatcher

Levant Sparrowhawk

Eleonora's Falcon

Violet Dropwing

Woodchat Shrike

Masked Shrike

Kruper's Nuthatch

'Orientalis' Curlew

Eastern Willow Emerald

Freyer's Grayling

Dalmatian Pelican

European Bee-eaters

Red-backed Shrike

Hoopoe

Whiskered Tern - unusual in autumn

Black Stork

Slender-billed Gull

Short-toed Eagle

Lesser Grey Shrike

Almost full lunar eclipse threw the scope

And the camera at the same time

The day after I got back I was on my way to Norfolk for Oriole again and had time to go early doors and drop in at Hickling on the way up for a bit of filthy twitching.  The Black-winged Kite had reappeared here in the same trees as summer 2023 and amazingly was still sat there as the sun came up on a beautiful autumnal morning full of Beardies, Egrets, Bittern and Cranes.  This was my first one in the UK and I think my only tick of 2025?  After it had warmed up a little it had a couple of short flights before settling back into the trees again.  It flew shortly after I left and was not seen for nearly three and half months! 

Black-winged Kite

The few days in Norfolk went well with some quality waders including two Red-necked Phalaropes (self-found at last!), Pectoral Sandpiper, Curlew Sandpipers and the vast clouds of swirling Knot and Barwits at Snettisham.  We saw well over 100 Spoonbills and all the Egrets, five Ospreys at Titchwell in one morning and the first returning Pink-footed Geese which is always a special moment.

Many Spoonbills!

Red-necked Phalaropes 

Osprey

Spoonbill

Snettisham waders

Snettisham waders

Colletes halophilus

the first Pinkies

One day off (with a local twitch for a female Ruddy Duck at Leathes Ham in town!) then Mallorca which was billed as a migration special but the weather was so blisteringly hot (almost 40c) that little was moving.  This did not meant that we had a poor trip as it there was still plenty to see, it was just that anything moving south was not going to stop over on the way.  Regardless of species status it was good to see both Spotted and Mediterranean Flycatchers along with flocks of Hoopoes, Thekla’s Larks, chattering Balearic Warblers, Audouin’s Gulls and Scopoli’s Shearwaters and I think that the highlight for many was our visits to Dragonera and Cabrerra where the funky blue Lilford’s Wall Lizards kept an eye on the tourists! Black, Griffon and Egyptian Vultures kept our eyes up too and there were many superb day flying Moths and a few Butterflies to keep us interested.

Ruddy Duck - possibly one of the rarest birds I saw in the UK in 2025

Thekla's Lark

Mediterranean Flycatcher

Audouin's Gull

Balearic Woodchat Shrike

Hummingbird Hawkmoth

Crimson Speckled

Balearic Warbler

Black Vulture

Western Swamphen

Cabrerra Lilford's Wall Lizard

Scopili's Shearwater

Striped Grayling

Two days showing around Galen and Bonnie when we got back took us to Abberton Reservoir where Spoonbills and a host of wildfowl obliged before a visit to the Brecks the next day where amazingly we saw two Goshawks but it took me all day to actually see a robin!

Spoonbills

There was no rest as it was then up to Norfolk again for my mother-in-law’s secret 80^th birthday celebration in a big house that had been rented for the whole Wallace clan in Sheringham. I was a good boy and only snuck out for an hour here and there but as a reward on the way home I did call in at Winterton Dunes and walk down for the superb Shrike duo of a male Red-backed and a very tame adult Lesser Grey.  I think the latter would have landed on your head if it thought it would have been a good vantage point.

Red-backed Shrike

Lesser Grey Shrike

Lesser Grey Shrike

October:

Estonia next for a bespoke tour for York RSPB group with Tarvo at the helm once again.  It was to become the ornithological highlight of my year and quite possibly one of the most memorable experiences I have ever had birding.  It was all about migration and our visit coincided with the first big push of Barnacle, White-fronted and Tundra Bean Geese of the year along with hundreds of Cranes and Long-tailed Ducks and above all else, passerines.

White-fronted and Tundra Bean Geese

Common Cranes

Long-tailed Ducks

At Sorve on the 5^th we were treated to a large movement of Long-tailed Tits but the following morning we had just three hours before we had to leave the island and in that time, myself and Tarvo counted over 40,000 birds heading south.  It was simply the most breathtaking, frenetic, almost desperate movement of birds I had ever seen.  Wave after wave of Tits and Finches.  With the Finnish chaps counting from the tower inland a little way between us we had the largest Great Tit count ever (over 40k just for them).  Tits and Crests were literally landing at our feet and the crew were rescuing ones that bumped into the café windows and cars and after some r&r in a warm hand most we able to get on their way and attempt the sea crossing to Latvia.

Great Grey Shrike

Northern Long-tailed Tits

Northern Long-tailed Tits

Northern Long-tailed Tit

Goldcrests resting

Tit Head

Northern Long-tailed Tits migration

On top of all this wonderful migration was saw Ural and Pygmy Owls, my first Nutcrackers for over 30 years, Black, Grey-headed and White-backed Woodpeckers, Hazel Grouse and even a vagrant crested Lark.  A Ringed Seal from the ferry back to the mainland was a fine parting gift.  The food and accommodation were superb and I can’t recommend enough any of the trips that Oriole run out here.

Pygmy Owl

White-tailed Eagle 

I came home buzzing and it even got me twitching the next morning down to Dunwich to see a rather smart adult male Turkestan Shrike that had been around for nearly a week before we did some quality leaf mining in the woods.  That afternoon I even went to see yet another Red-footed Falcon in Great Yarmouth on the back of going out shopping!

Turkestan Shrike

I tried to replicate my Estonia autumn but although I went out hunting I failed to find anything local of any note whatsoever but there was always solace in some mothing.

Four Spotted Footman - Antony Wren

Grey Pine Carpet - Antony Wren

Merveille de Jour - Antony Wren

Pink-barred Sallow - Antony Wren

Satellite - Antony Wren

I spend two whole weeks in October guiding in Norfolk which certainly had its moments.  We saw Glossy Ibises and the expected Cattle Egret flocks and plenty of raptor action.  Pink-feet were in en masse and a highlight of the start and end of each day back at our Briarfields base.  The easterlies should have delivered more than they did but we did catch up with Dusky and Barred Warblers, several Yellow-browed and an elusive Hume’s Warbler along with Firecrests and even a Shorelark.

Glossy Ibis

Weasel

Shorelark

A last gasp Wall Brown on 30th October

A bedraggled Long-eared Owl was popular but I was actually more pleased to watch a glorious red Tawny Owl at roost as it has been a while since I had seen one.   We had Otters, Cranes and Bitterns in the Broads and whizzing Little Auks off Weybourne where Long-tailed Ducks and Scoter bobbed.  The Starling roost at Burnham Overy Marshes was spectacular during a fiery sunset and I even got see the glowing green tail of Comet Lemmon on the 28^th.  A Grey Phalarope spun circles at Cley and Jack Snipe bobbed around the edges.

Starlings

Tawny Owl

Long-eared Owl

Common Cranes

Comet Lemmon on the night I saw it - Antony Wren

Between these two weeks back in Lowestoft I had a day out in the south of the county were the Brown Shrike at Hollesley obliged on the only dry and sunny day that week and it was great to catch up with a few old friends from Suffolk and the old home county.  Back up the coast the first White-fronted Geese arrived on cue at North Warren as I scanned the Barnacle flocks and fine stag Red Deer strode around.

Brown Shrike

Back in Lowestoft on the 25^th a couple of Firecrests were showing incredibly well in the small pines in ASDA car park and down at Ness Point I found nine Black Redstarts. The following day three Whooper Swans flew over the house calling and I had at least 35 Cranes in one field between Thurne and Potter Heigham – my biggest single flock to date.

Black Redstart

Firecrest

Garden Whooper Swans!

November:

A week at home but autumn still had something to give with a Pallas’s Warbler in the middle of Lowestoft in a couple of Sycamores along with Crests, Tits and a silvery acredula Willow Warbler.  I missed the yellow-browed warbler also present!  A Long-eared Owl then showed well down at the North Denes late afternoon where I got back a YBW and found a Dartford Warbler.

Pallas’s Warbler - Andrew Easton

Two new November garden moths: The Streak

and a December Moth

The main event in November was South Africa with a tour of the Western Cape for Oriole Birding. It was a whole new world of wonder and almost half of what I saw was new to me.  I saw my first ever ratite with enormous Ostriches that of course looked even bigger in the wild as they wandered up and down beaches with their young, Verreaux’s Eagle soared overhead in search of Hyrax and Paradise Flycatchers swished ridiculous tails only to be outdone by Cape Sugarbirds.

Cape Sugarbird

Common Ostriches

Malachite Sunbird

Verreaux's Eagle

Greater Double Collared Sunbird

African Penguins snoozed on a silvery beach with African Black Oystercatchers and incongruously Egyptian Geese for company, Larks, Pipits and sneaky Warblers inhabited the dry and dusty Karoo while the rolling farmland held stately Blue Crane families, stalking Secretarybirds and Denham’s Bustards.  The remnant forest gave us Narina Trogon, funky Flycatchers, various Cuckoos and gleaming Sunbirds and the rocky hills the much sought after Ground Woodpecker. 

Cape Clapper Lark - remarkable song flight!

Windblown Chestnut-banded Plover

Black Korhaan

Ground Woodpecker

Narina Trogon

Blue Cranes

Bar-chested Apalis

Secretarybird - oh my 

African Penguin

African Penguin and African Black Oystercatchers

Spotted Eagle Owl

There were umpteen different antelopes with the Hemsbok and Bontebok winning on looks and the Kirstenbosch flora was simply out of this world and most was completely alien to me.

Proteas

Kirstenbosch and Table Mountain and a Cape Sugarbird

Hemsbok

Bontebok

But I suspect that for most of us the successful pelagic out of De Hoek was the highlight and although it was apparently ‘very quiet’ we got to be amongst four different Albatrosses and a variety of Petrels from the dinky Pintado to the two might Giants.  The weather was kind to us that day and we knew just how lucky we were to get the 32 miles offshore and experience such wonders.

Atlantic Yellow-nosed Albatrosses

Two Shy with a Black-browed Albatross

Shy Albatross

Southern Giant Petrel

White-chinned Petrel

Spectacled Petrel - Neil Colgate

Once again I only had a week upon my return before an exploratory trip to Oman with the Birds and the two Stinkies. (you will have to read the blog).  It was a trip of two halves with a few days in the dry north around Muscat and the Al Hajar mountains where we heard Omani Owl and saw a fantastic array of desert birds like Hume’s and Red-tailed Wheatears and our first Chestnut-bellied and Lichtenstein’s Sandgrouse.  Lappet-faced Vultures blotted out the sun with their vastness and eagles were everywhere.  Down on the coast we scanned flocks of mixed Sand Plovers and Gulls and watched Eastern Black Redstarts singing high in the mountains.

Hume's Wheatear

Lappet-faced Vultures

Crested and Lesser Crested Terns

Eastern Black Redstart

Indian Roller

Great Spotted Eagle

The first 11 Sociable Lapwings

The bulk of the trip was down south in Salalah – a vert different world in many respects with a true comingling of the regions with birds of European, Arabian, African and Asian origins often within the same view.  There was water here too and such springs drew the birds like a magnet – be it passerines in the foothills that gave us Arabian Golden-winged Grosbeaks, Yemen Serins and close views of Warblers, White-eyes and Sunbirds to a shallow spread of puddles in the desert attended by 1500 Sandgrouse of three species with some obliging Lichtenstein’s nearby.  We saw a Black Heron shadowing for his fish and a Desert Owl with glowing eyes on a crag while Arabian Eagle Owls glared at us in a local park

Arabian Green Bee-eater

Blue-cheeked Bee-eater

Abyssinian White-eyes

Arabian Sunbird

African Paradise Flycatcher

Daurian Shrike

Bruce's Green Pigeon

Arabian Golden-winged Grosbeak

Bay-backed Shrike

Sandgrouse!

Lichtenstein's Sandgrouse

The vast pivot fields took our Sociable Lapwing tally up to 85 and a single White-tailed Lapwing added a touch of elegant class and hundreds of Steppe Eagles circled a desert landfill at dusk. Abdim’s Storks were completely urbanised and the coastal Khawrs were full of terns, waders and gulls that had grown accustomed to the locals love of beach time (especially in their big SUVs) and allowed the most ridiculous of close approaches.  Amongst them we found Pheasant-tailed Jacanas and Small Pratincoles and Citrine Wagtails scurried around us with Little Stints.  The dragonflies were superb too with a mix of the familiar and new and there were some classy Butterflies to.

Pallas's Gull and friends

Small Pratincole

Small Pratincole

Sociable and White-tailed Lapwing

Sociable Lapwings - 44 of 71 seen that day!

Hoopoe Lark

An interesting Kentish Plover

Blue Pansy

Orange-winged Dropwing

Pearl Charaxes

Phantom Flutterer

A boat trip out of Mirbat on our last full day got us in amongst the Persian and Flesh-footed Shearwaters, evil eyed Masked Boobies and flocks of shimmering red-necked Phalaropes while Turtle hunted jellyfish in the harbour. I rejoiced on getting back off the boast as I had successfully gone all year without being sick on a boat once.  I will never be comfortable at sea but was very proud of myself for having enjoyed all my voyages.

Socotra Cormorant

Masked Booby

Olive Ridley Turtle

It was time to head home for Christmas…

And there you have it.  2025 was quite a year of travel both home and abroad.  I am sure someone will bemoan my 28 plane journeys but now is my time to see the world, share my knowledge and hopefully help ecotourism in the countries that I am lucky enough to visit. 

I saw things I could only have dreamed of and still have to pinch myself that all of this is really happening.  I am not even sure how many birds I saw in 2025 but it looks likely to be over the 1000 species again of which I think about half were new to me. Add to that a huge list of amazing mammals including Orangutans, Sea Otters, Gibbons, nine Antelopes, Fur Seals, Tarsiers, Slow Loris, Spinner Dolphins and Blandford's Fox and and even bigger selection of dragonflies, butterflies and reptiles and I will have to start finding some new storage space in my already overstuffed head.

There are still places on some of my adventures in 2026 so if you fancy joining me please have a squint at my website www.blueeyedbirder.com 

Let the journey continue...