My local birding reached a new level in 2025. I connected with 276 species in Comunitat Valenciana including unexpected rarities, highlights of different seasons and countless hours shared in the field with friends.

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.

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.

Flocks of waterfowl in Merja de Fouwarate included American visitor ring-necked duck and blue-winged teal. We connect with Morocco goodies: Maghreb magpie, plain martin, African chaffinch, common bulbul…

A friends meeting in l’Albufera in the onset of winter resulted in good numbers of ducks and waders. Short-eared owl, black storks, several goldcrests and a cracking sociable lapwing were highlights of the day.

The dry forest of Ankarafantsika provided mega birds and mammals including Van Dam’s vanga, Madagascar fish eagle and jacana, white-breasted mesite, Schlegel’s asity, mongoose lemur or Coquerel’s sifaka.

Rainforest and vibrant town life merge in the village of Ranomafana: lemurs by the road, partridges in the outskirts and vangas in the village gardens bring nature into everyday life.

A fieldwork stay in this research station in the middle of Madagascar’s montane rainforest resulted in living among incredible endemics: sunbirds, vangas, tetrakas, cuckoo-rollers, lemurs, geckos, chameleons and more.

An unprecedented influx of juvenile red-footed falcons shifted their southbound migration through Western Europe. While autumn records are being broken, I managed to connect with one of these raptors in El Hondo.

Mauritius capital city turned out to bear good numbers of the endemic and endangered Mauritius flying fox. Curlew and Terek sandpipers or greater sand plovers occur in the city’s Terre Rouge bird sanctuary.

The transition between summer visitors and wintering birds brings numerous species that are only seen during fall passage in Alicante. Chats, warblers, raptors, waders and seabirds all oblige during autumn.

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.

Maasai Mara protects a massive pristine grassland and is home to millions of ungulates. A day in the National Reserve resulted in a vast list of mammals, raptors, lapwings, larks, cisticolas, cranes plus some surprises.

Maasai people strive to coexist with wildlife in a rapidly changing cultural and ethnic reality in Kenya. We interviewed communities in Mara North while bumping into ungulates, barbets, vultures, whydahs and more.

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.