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.

Our only city visited in India provided hornbills and hundreds of kites. Nearby Ranganathittu Bird Sanctuary hosts pelicans, eagles, herons and ibises. Mysore blends culture and vibrant city life with some great birding.

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 recent visit to the coastal lagoon of Merja Zerga, a stopover of the East Atlantic Flyway and home to slender-billed curlews before their extinction, yielded some of the critically endangered and WP’s last marsh owls.

Short days and bad weather make birding challenging in Helsinki during autumn. However, flocks of geese, waxwings, thrushes, cranes and raptors plus the chance of connecting with vagrant passerines are truly magical.

A fantastic weekend in Delta de l’Ebre with friends resulted in many bonus species including mega white-tailed lapwing, pectoral sandpipers, buff-breasted sandpipers, Pacific golden plover or western reef heron.

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 University of Helsinki course on conservation brings me to Saimaa, the largest lake in the European Union. We find the endemic Saimaa ringed seal and learn how it is perceived by local communities.