Bright snow and northern lights lit up Helsinki over winter. Different owls, woodpeckers, crossbills and other northbound specialties show up randomly over cold breezes, turning outings harsh but rewarding.

A fieldwork-birdwatching day in El Hondo Natural Park provided awesome encounters with local winter goodies. Pallid harrier and several greater spotted eagles obliged, but a self-found red-breasted flycatcher stood out.

Ría de Santoña in New Year’s provides cracking winter specialties: brant geese, horned grebes, loons and waders. Mega red-breasted geese and redpolls are bonus additions to an awesome short trip.

A Cape gull from Southern Africa and a laughing gull from the Americas have shown up in Northern Spain. We enjoyed awesome birding while twitching these stunners on a roadtrip.

A quick stopover in Kuwait provided WP specialties using public transport: white-tailed and spur-winged lapwings, isabelline and masked shrikes, white-throated kingfisher, clamorous reed warbler and more.

A morning visit to Lake Kerkini looking for lesser white-fronted geese and tundra swans resulted in three Greek rarities: a Siberian chiffchaff, three little bustards, and an Oriental turtle dove.

Two days birding l’Albufera finished with terrific sunsets. Highlights included a mega greater yellowlegs, wintering jack snipes, a common scoter, the local sacred ibis, and numerous waders and waterfowl.

An intense full day watching birds in Alicante delivers a great final count for our party of three. Different migrant birds seen include four different Eurasian hobbies, definitely the top species of the day.

Kongsfjordfjellet in early June provides incredible landscapes and wonderful Arctic species: horned lark, long-tailed jaeger, red-throated pipit, Lapland longspur, long-tailed duck, red-necked phalaropes and ruffs.