2025 - the year in photos

Here is a small selection of photos that sum up the year. I guess I must be bored. There are many more than this of course, but this is a pictorial flavour of what I got up to in 2025. Being able to look back at this kind of thing is very important to me, and part of the reason I take photographs everywhere I go. 

January

Out to the Erg Chebbi for the first time in a over a decade

February

This is hands down my favourite photo of the year. My youngest child on Route 66

March

I celebrated a significant birthday in March. The family came down from Scotland, kids returned from university, and we gathered at my favourite restuarant in London, Noizé, for a fantastic get-togther. I am sure there must be photos of the family, but I reckon my Mum has them, so here instead is the wine which was also memorable.

April

April was spent at home in Wanstead, it is the most exciting month in the local birding calendar.

May

A long weekend trip to Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia was a huge amount of fun.

June

An unforgettable trip to the Atlantic Rainforest in Brazil. Whilst I have many far better photos of birds than this, this to me sums up the trip. Tanagers are fabulous, almost unreal in their variation.

July

Only one contender for a July memory really. Mrs L and I cycled from Newcastle to Fife and it was absolutely fantastic. Variety is the spice of life.

August

A lot of time was spent in Fife in August, with family visiting from the US, kids back from uni, and of course some rather epic seawatching. This is from Ruddon's Point.

September

A very quiet month at home with a lot of time on the patch.

October

A brilliant holiday with Mrs L in the Caribbean doing virtually nothing. Can't beat it.

November

Been there, got the T-shirt. Mick and I gave ourselves two days to find Spoon-billed Sandpiper, and a Swedish birder we met found it 20 minutes after we arrived, having spent the entire previous day looking without success.

December

Barolo in early December, looking down across the Las Serra or Fossati MGAs towards Muscatel. I spent Saturday morning birding, and Saturday evening eating and drinking.

2025 - it's a wrap

Well goodbye 2025, it's been a blast. So what happened? I guess a lot of time will have been spent at work but I tend not to focus on that; I am over my earlier naivety that this stage in my career might be easier. However....I also remember lots of fun trips and fun trips do not come for free. If I want one I have to do the other, there is no getting round it. Children at university is also distinctly not free. But oh the trips, there wasn't a single month I remained in Wanstead, even if at times I wanted to. Morocco in January, Texel in February for the Spectacled Eider, as well as Arizona and Nevada that I never actually wrote about as it was very much an emergency family trip. The Algarve and Jersey in March, the US Mid-Atlantic in May, Brazil in June, the cycle touring trip in July, Germany in August, and Latvia, Grenada & Trinidad in October. And then Thailand and Oregon in November, and wine-related trips to Italy in both November and December, none of which I have got to yet but which remain firmly in my future blogging plans. I'm exhausted even typing it out and I haven't even mentioned another five trips up to Fife, one of which was a seawatching extravaganza with Bridled Tern and Cory's Shearwater on the same day. I am actually not sure how I manage it, but equally it sustains me. Big thanks to my main travel buddy Mick who helps spur me on - we did five of these trips together. There was a period a few weeks ago where I had three weekends away in a row and which by the time the third one came around I had no desire to go on whatsoever. I enjoyed the weekend away a lot in the end, but the scheduling (which was entirely my own fault) was horrible. I look back now and am fine with it, but I do need to think things through a bit more. And of course all these trips require planning, something which I enjoy almost much as the actual trips themselves, but which takes a tremendous amount of time. It's lucky I don't have any other hobbies.....

Few places on this planet have the grandeur of the American west

Looking closer to home, for the first time in many years I did not add to my Wanstead patch list. I gave it somewhat of a good go, but didn't really try especially hard and as a result ended up a few species shy of where I might usually land. 112 is actually bang on my historical average, but I expect a bit better these days and no surprise that it's also my lowest year list since 2019. No Common Tern, no Woodcock, no Green Sandpiper, no Great Black-backed Gull, all generally annual. I also didn't think I had any UK ticks despite ample opportunity, but a Ross's Goose in Ayrshire has somehow added to the total. Maybe it was a good one? Anyway, I have totally and utterly lost interest in chasing rarities in the UK, give me Fife or Wanstead any day. The World? Well that's another thing altogether.

Morocco

For the second year in a row I saw 1000 birds - 750 of these were with Mick, a stat that was surprisingly easy to extract from eBird via a recreational spreadsheet. It was exactly 1000 this time as it happens, a Woodcock in Piedmont being the final one in early December - I don't expect to see anything else. In fact I barely expect to leave the house. Fingers crossed! Of these 260 were new, and so my somewhat puny world list has now surpassed 3000. Yay! Given how much I travel and how old I am this somehow seems lower than it should be, but equally I am not given to these three week guided trips to exotic locations that scoop up every single last species. I'll never be a Jon Hornbuckle, but what is certain is that I enjoy world birding almost more than anything else. It is that voyage of discovery element, and I find that works much better for me without being shown everything by guides. I mean I do some guided birding, the trip to Brazil for example, but largely I like to do everything by myself, I find it highly satisfying. As I get older maybe that will change, but for now let me do all the planning and logistics and see if I can work it out. 2026 is shaping up to be less intense as it stands, with several longer trips already booked with Mrs L that don't actually involve birds at all. Amazing! I'll undoubtedly add a few more shorter things in - I am big believer in quite how far you can go and how much you can see on really short trips.

The garden is looking great again this year

Did I mention I had other hobbies? I've done a ton of gardening and mainly kept things alive, and for a period over the spring and summer the garden looked great. It was such a nice summer weather-wise and we spent hours and hours outside, lots of al fresco meals made all the better by a distinct lack of wasps. I put a lot of effort in to my small tropical paradise and we reap the rewards. Is there anything better than a late evening meal in the garden after a long day of work, or that first glass of Rosé early on Sunday afternoon after a hard stint tidying things up? The garden looks terrible again now of course, but winter is not kind to my plants and so I just ignore it all until about April. Means I have more time to drink wine.

Wine: 560+ notes taken. That does not mean I have drunk 560 bottles of wine. Far from it (how far I don't know), but one mega-tasting session saw me write 120 notes. I still drink too much of course but that's on me. I have expanded my horizons a little and rather than being wholly infused with Burgundy there are now short periods devoted to Italy and South Africa. In fact I am drinking a South African Cinsault as I type this, made by a single-minded genius of a wine-maker called Lukas van Loggerenberg. It's called "Geronimo", is pretty fabulous, and is far better value than almost any French wine I can think of. Wine of the year? Well that was French of course. Yquem. It is peerless and I was lucky enough to taste two bottles, 2005 and 1975, neither of them mine. Good wine is for sharing, and I have many generous friends who feel the same way and who have enriched my life in London beyond measure. None are birders, I expect none even know that I write this but I rather like that I can have a number of different and parallel lives that hardly ever coincide other than here.

The perfect day. I guessed from the development of the Tetrapanax that this was in early May but in fact it was late April. It will be upon before you know it and I still have four bottle of the 2022 to go before I start on the 2023.

I was wondering about doing a month by month review of the year, choosing just one photo that summed up the month. I may yet do so, but in case I don't get around to it it just remains to say Happy New Year, keep visiting in the folorn hope I may have written something, and enjoy whatever it is that you're doing. My advice is to do things that make you happy, avoid things that make you unhappy, and ignore what anyone else thinks of any of it. 

Asa Wright Nature Centre, Trinidad

It has been a dream of mine for many years now to visit Asa Wright and sit on their veranda and watch Hummingbirds. In late October after years of waiting (dithering) it finally came true. Asa Wright had closed down as a goimg concern and subsequently reopened under new ownership in the time it took me; I remember reading with anguish that had it closed before I could get there, but thankfully it is back. It is perhaps a bit corporate and glossy now, something we discussed at length with our taxi driver who had known it before and felt it had lost its charm, but ultimately it is open, it is providing employment and enjoyment, and the birds are still there.

Mrs L and I took an early flight from Grenada to Trinidad on a Friday morning. When booking this half-term trip to Grenada it hadn't crossed my mind that this would be a possibility, but when I had been trying to sort out flights that got us back to London on the day we needed it had become apparent there were no flights from Grenada to London, and that we would have to go via somewhere else. One of those somewhere elses was Port of Spain to connect with the evening flight back to Gatwick. In theory that could give us the best part of the day on Trinidad if we so wished it. How far was Asa Wright from Piarco exactly? 40 minutes......

It is now even more ruiniously expensive to stay there than previously, but the concept of a day ticket still exists. And being corporate and glossy has its advantages as I was able to book via email, pay via a link, and they even organised a car to pick us up from the airport and deliver us back. There is a lot to be said for hassle free even if it goes against my natural instincts. 

The flight was running late, but the guy with our name on a board knew that and was there waiting for us. We enjoyed a very pleasant drive up the Arima Vallet to Asa Wright, eBirding the whole way of course, and having a bit of running commentary from the driver on how much he enjoyed coming up this way rather than just sitting in traffic in Port of Spain. We gradually left agriculture and all the rest of it behind, and started a long winding ascent into the northern range. Ruddy Ground Dove, Tropical Kingbird, Grey Kingbird and Tropical Mockingbird found their way onto my nascent Trinidad list along with the ubiquitous Cattle Egrets and Black Vultures.

Once at the main house - a mere 90 minutes late, frustrating when time is so limited - we were greeted with a cooling flannel and a rum punch, and led out onto the world-famous veranda which at that moment we had pretty much to ourselves. The only other person there was Mukesh, the head guide, on hand to tell us what we were seeing. It did not disappoint. I had spent a fair amount of time on the beach reading up about the likely species and had a check-list of targets printed out, and so with a rum in one hand, bins in the other, a camera, field guide, Mukesh and said list to one side, Mrs L and I sat on tall stools and marvelled at the scene playing out below us. Mrs L can cope with birdwatching like this. Small doses, no mad intensity, rush or burning panic, no crowds, no half-glimpses of little brown things, no rubbish dumps or swamps. Comfortable verandas, rum punch, afternoon tea, hummingbirds - all of these things work for her and ensure continued matriomonial harmony even when birds are involved. There were over a dozen hummingbird feeders set in a line (and usefully numbered) along with trays of fruit, and all around flowering plants, perches, and off to one side, a fruiting tree. There were birds everywhere, a blur of colour and movement, it was virtually impossible to stay on a single bird, and for a guy with a list of targets somewhat of a sensory overload. 

Long-billed Starthroat

White-chested Emerald

Gradually I started sorting things out. Bananaquits ruled supreme, followed closely by glorious Purple and Green Honeycreepers - they were simply everywhere and the vibrancy of the male Green Honeycreeper is extraordinary. White-chested Emeralds and Copper-rumped Hummingbirds were very common, and so were Brown Violetears. Long-billed Starthroat and White-necked Jacobin were the next most numerous, but there were only singles of Green Hermit and Blue-chinned Sapphire. I got lucky with a Little Hermit that visited just once about five minutes after we sat down. Mukesh was great, really helpful, you could tell he really liked birds and was in the perfect role. He got us onto a Grey-lined Hawk that flew over, helped us with which number feeder to focus on, and confirmed my various sightings as I gradually got a bit more confident with all of these new birds. The fruiting tree off to the right of the balcony was filled with Tanagers - Bay-headed, Silver-beaked and White-lined, and later on a Turquoise Tanager.

Brown Violetear

Copper-rumped Hummingbird

White-necked Jacobin

Long-billed Starthroat

What I would say is that it was pretty average for photography, or at least ad-hoc photography of the sort I now most often partake in. In my head the Asa Wright feeders were at eye level, I mean why would they not be? The reality is quite different and the feeders are well below the veranda. I think if you were staying and were really focussed on getting images you would likely find a spot down below and adjacent to the feeders where birds waited their turn (although hummingbirds are not very patient!) and do well. But for looking at the birds and getting great views it is wonderful.

Green Honeycreeper

Purple Honeycreeper

White-chested Emerald

We had a buffet lunch in the dining room, all part of the day rate, and then went on a short walk with Mukesh down the main trail. Even though only an hour this was excellent, the more so as it felt like a private tour with just Mrs L and I.  The main draw was of course the White-bearded Manakin lek, with well over a dozen males of these cute little birds jumping around, wing-clicking and squeaky trumpet calls. I think we saw one unimpressed female but that didn't stop this squadron of little guys giving it their all from various dancing arenas that they had cleared. Further on down the trail we finally saw the Bearded Bellbird that we had been hearing since we arrived, incredibly loud once close up - what a peculiar looking bird, one of those weird species that taxonomists basically gave up trying to classify and chucked into that catch-all bucket called Cotingidae. We also saw Rufous-browed Peppershrike, White-flanked Antwren, Cocoa Woodcreeper, Cocoa Thrush, White-necked Thrush and Green-backed Trogon; it was like being back in South America. One of my abiding memories from a holiday to Tobago over ten years ago when I hadn't really done any neotropical birding was leafing through the field guide seeing pages and pages of fantastic birds only to read the text and see "Trinidad only" - it really is an extension of the mainland when it comes to birds, and you don't have to go very far up in the Lesser Antilles at all before you lose the vast majority of these species.

White-bearded Manakin

Bearded Bellbird

Back on the veranda the corporate nature of Asa Wright was laid bare. A local business team-building day. Of all the places to come, and of all the days. Whilst I applaud the focus on nature that some bright spark in HR had come up with, and indeed a few of the group were actively looking at birds and had taken over my field guide, quite a number of the group simply had no interest, and sat on the veranda on their phones watching snapchat and tik-tok and so on. Just totally inappropriate in the setting but what can you do? The birds didn't mind, the feeders are set down a bit as previously mentioned, but I found it very distracting. Meanwhile Mukesh's shift had ended and he had been replaced by a lady whose name I failed to catch and who I cannot seem to find online, but she too was excellent, super-friendly, and really knew her stuff. In the time we had left I went for a walk by myself around the property buildings, finding nothing new particularly but at least I was away from the crowds. All the Green Hermits were hanging around the ginger plantation so I tried a few photos - here is where I miss my Canon gear... Other birds included Squirrel Cuckoo, Yellow Oriole, Golden-headed Manakin, Barred Antshrike, Orange-winged Amazon pairs on the afternoon commute, Violaceous Euphonia, Crested Oropendola and various Tanagers.

Barred Antshrike

Green Hermit

Green Hermit

We had afternoon tea on the veranda, another big plus in Mrs L's book, and pretty soon after that it was time to go. Another taxi arrived right on time and we were off down the valley back to the airport. 52 species in total, not a huge amount but of these a quarter were new, including amazing views of five Hummingbirds. It was a very quick visit, quite an expensive visit considering the taxi both ways, but it was supremely enjoyable and I am so glad we did it. I slept all the way to London, dreaming of hummingbirds and the colour green.

Grenada - October 2025

Grenada was all about doing nothing. Nada. I am not especially good at this, but I promised Mrs L I would make an effort and try not to get antsy. It was half term, we were both exhausted, surely I would just be able to flop about and do very little? Indeed Grenada was chosen specifically for that purpose, it is not an especially birdy island, there would be no particular call for me to charge off around the place. I figured one morning would be enough to mop up the endemics and that I could sit around and drink rum punch for the rest of the time. This worked out very well.

The Pitons on St Lucia, great views as we came in to land.

Our plane stopped off in St Lucia on the way for just over an hour, with most people getting off. I had last been here in 2013 for another relaxing holiday - in fact we had stayed right between those two peaks in the photo above. Nonetheless I was able to add three St Lucia ticks from the steps of the aircraft duing the change-over - Collared Dove, Eared Dove, and a distant Great Blue Heron flying across the skyline. 

Soon we were on our way again, arriving into Grenada late afternoon. Just enough time to make our way to Mount Cinnamon Beach Resort on the southern end of Grand Anse Beach for a pre-dinner drink. Rum punch of course. Ah, the Caribbean, it had been too long. It was warm, there were palm trees, the monotonous calming influence of the clap of the waves began to set in and Mrs L and I did a lot of happy sighing. 

Looking back up the beach

This will not be a day by day account as nothing happened, and anyway who wants to hear about someone else's holiday? But just os you can get the picture our routine went something like this. Awake before dawn we would sit on our balcony with a coffee and watch the day break. The hotel was on a steep slope and we were quite near the top and so had lovely views down the length of Grand Anse and across the bay to St George's. Being up the hill we were also close to the forest edge, and I saw a good number of birds from here. After the regular early morning squall we would mosy down the hill to the hotel veranda and have a long and leisurely breakfast. From here we would cross the road and walk through the gardens down to the beach, staking our claim to a couple of loungers or armchairs. I dozed. Mrs L read. From time to time we would go for a quick swim, or snorkel the artificial reef just off shore. At around midday the smell of grilling fish would usually get us to move the few feet to the beach restaurant, and the first drink of the day would probably appear - despite being on holiday I was extremely insistent that I did not start drinking in the morning, and in fact the whole holiday was one of admirable restraint on that front despite the abundance of rum and fruit. During the afternoon we might have another, but otherwise this proceeded exactly as the morning, dozing on the beach interspersed with swimming. At around half four we would slouch back up the hill and shower before walking to the next bay along to Quarantine Point and Morne Rouge Beach be able to watch the sun set, have a couple of drinks and do a lot more happy sighing. And then at dusk we would walk down Grand Anse Beach to find something to eat, with Umbrella's Beach Bar being the usual spot, though a big thumbs up to a chicken shack close by. Repeat five times. It was fantastic and I genuinely did relax.

The white posts in the sea mark the artificial reef. I got amazing views of Royal Terns and Brown Booby simply by smimming up to them.

Our balcony notched up a decent list of birds over the week. Antillean Crested Hummingbird and Green-throated Carib were both seen, along with Spectacled Thrush, Black-faced Grassquit, Tropical Mockingbird and Grey Kingbird. I saw Broad-winged Hawk a few times as well, but the best bird was probably a Summer Tanager which shot through and into the forest one morning. There was a Grenada Wren about half way to breakfast, and Lesser Antillean Bullfinch and Carib Grackle scoured our table for crumbs which I was happy to give them.

Mount Cinnamon gardens. Our room is one of the ones at the top on the left

Breakfast view

Spectacled Thrush at the hotel

View down Grand Anse Beach from our balcony

I did a fair amount of birding from my beach lounger. Magnificent Frigatebirds and Royal Terns were always present, and a Brown Booby liked to perch on one of the reef buoys. A small group of Semipalmated Plovers were usually at the far end, and the occasional Osprey, Brown Pelican and Little Blue Heron would do a fly-by. I also picked up Spotted Sandpiper, Great Blue Heron and Yellow-crowned Night Heron, as well as Caribbean Martin and Barn Swallow flying down the beach. Various Doves pottered around underneath the trees, and of course Bananaquits were a constant presence.

Map of the southern tip of Grenada. Everything is very close to many of the regular hotels on Grand Anse. It took about 40 minutes to walk between Mount Hartman and Lower Woburn along the wiggly road marked "Ruth Howard".

Mount Hartman Visitor Centre

The real draw of course is the presence of a small number of endemics on the island, including the critically endangered Grenada Dove. Our hotel was very close Mount Hartman, site of their main stronghold and where most people see them. One morning, I forget which, I took a cab over there after breakfast to wander the trails. The Mount Hartman Dove Sanctuary it is fair to say has seen better days, it was all rather sad. As expected the gate was open but the place was quite overgrown and in a bit of disrepair, and it was hard to say when the Visitor Centre might last have received a visitor. The trails start to the right behind the building, and it is said that the best way to see the Doves is to always turn left whenever it splits as this will take you right up the hill. That said I could already hear a Grenada Dove singing to the left of the Visitor Centre before I had even started into the dry forest, so that was half a tick. A busy Grenada Wren was one of the first birds I saw, and there were lots of Scaly-naped Pigeons around. I heard Grenada Dove in two more places along the trail, but only once did I get a glimpse of one scuttling along the ground and I was too slow with the camera and thus this trip report misses out any visuals of the star attraction. Hard work! I did just about get a photo of the Wren, and also the Grenada Flycatcher, Mount Hartman being the only place I saw it - so all three endemics in the same place. If you can spare a couple of hours away from the beach this is the spot where you will clean up and be back well in time for lunch. The trail, very steep in places, eventually spat me out at the top of the hill from where I had good views of the landscape and some Mangrove Cuckoos. 

Mount Hartman view

Grenada Dove habitat

Grenada Flycatcher

Grenada Wren

Seeing as I had so much time left I walked a couple of mile around the back of the hill to the next bay along where there was allegedly a tower hide near the village of Woburn. There was indeed a small tower, and from it I saw nothing at all. Just next to this was the shortest boardwalk ever built, all of about 20 feet, and from here I did see a few new things - American Moorhen, Lesser Yellowlegs, Turnstone and Green Heron, as well as some more Semipalmated Plovers. A group of Smooth-billed Ani responded to me making some off squeaking noises. I took a cab back to the hotel as it would have taken ages on foot.

Lesser Yellowlegs

The only other birding I did was about ten minutes up the beach from the hotel at a small park. Camerhogne Park itself doesn't have much going on, but there is a fenced off area immediately adjacent to it that had a few overgrown shallow pools, more persistent puddles really, and I was amazed to find Least Sandpiper, AGP, Pec Sand, Solitary Sand and Wilson's Snipe across two short visits.

Least Sandpipers

Wilson's Snipe

I ended up seeing 51 species. This hugely surpassed my expectatons, I thought I might get 30 if I was lucky as my experience in Barbados and St Lucia was that birds were pretty thin on the ground. Maybe I just tried a little harder, but it didn't really feel like it as for most of the time I was under a tree on the beach. But the birding does not end there. I managed to engineer a return to London via Trinidad, which gave us half a day to get up to Asa Wright, somewhere I have wanted to go for upwards of 20 years.