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.

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.

I finally managed to spot all nine owl species in Helsinki after two years: long-eared, short-eared, tawny, Ural, great gray, boreal, Eurasian pygmy owl, Eurasian eagle-owl and northern hawk-owl