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.

Summer season brings an array of specialties to Helsinki, including broad-billed sandpiper and common rosefinch in Viikki, red-breasted flycatcher in Haltiala and stakeouts of Blyth’s reed warbler and river warbler.

A highlight of a recent trip to Somiedo was Saliencia lakes. The incredible montane landscape offered great views of breeding water pipits, rufous-tailed rock-thrushes, Egyptian vultures and Alpine choughs.

Laguna de los Peces is a glacial lagoon surronded by prime montane scrub near Sanabria. Ortolan buntings, red-backed shrikes, bluethroats, Galán’s rock lizards and Seoane’s vipers live in a magical yellow and pink infinity.

Bird feeders at this hotel-restaurant in the middle of Finnish Lapland provide world-class photographic opportunities of Arctic specialties while enjoying a warm atmosphere and tasty food.

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.

September brought the opportunity to look for long-awaited species: dotterel and northern bald ibis. Bee-eaters, wheatears, flycatchers, honey-buzzards, and whinchats showed up everywhere.