Flooding and plowing of rice paddies brings thousands of gulls to l’Albufera. Despite the intense winds, we connect with several common gulls, Caspian gulls, herring gull, little gull plus bonus ring-necked ducks.

On a legendary seawatching day with friends, while twitching Richard’s pipit and ring-billed gull, we connect with great skua, black-legged kittiwake and Castellón’s 4th red-throated loon and 10th velvet scoter.

April in Spain calls for the steppe. Little and great bustards are busy with their spectacular displays, a must-see show which ensures views of larks, shrikes or orchids in awesome green-and-red landscapes.

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.

A full-day stopover in Dubai can provide some goodies despite extreme heat. We connected with Indian rollers, purple sunbirds, shikras, white-cheeked terns, Socotra cormorants or sooty gull within the city.

A long drought is especially evident by June. Rufous-tailed rock thrush, tawny pipit, pin-tailed sandgrouse, stone martens, and Lataste’s vipers are some specialties found with friends and family.