2025 review

Reflecting on the year almost over where I said a sad fairwell to my Father in law after the passing of my Mother in law back in November 2024. Following his passing I had the unenviable task of helping to sort out first the funeral then the double internment, followed by the very emotional role of clearing the family home. With all this ongoing my daughter in law fell ill and began a years course of ongoing treatment and I've found myself quickly filling the time I recovered from caring for my father in law with helping my son deal with things at his end, running around making sure my grandchildren don't miss out and generally helping tick over whilst my daughter in law deals with the battle ahead. Suzanne continues her pain management journey and despite more MRI scans we seem to be limited to trying to live with the pain rather than dealing with any root cause of the pain she suffers. So with all that in mind it has been a strange year for birding although when I have got out I've still enjoyed the hobby apart from dealing with any guilt feelings that I could be at home doing more to help my loved ones. Added to all this Dad and Jim have there own issues restricting them too so as a group we've found it more difficult to find the free days together resulting in more solo runs than in most years.

Allowing for the above I managed to add five new birds to my Life list with the Booted Eagle in Kent, Britains first breeding Zitting Cisticolas in Suffolk after dipping one in Kent, Black faced Bunting at Spurn and the Lesser crested Tern in Devon. I also managed to add Scops Owl with a visit to Swansea to lay to rest the Durham dip of 2017. I dipped just the one new bird and that was the Song Sparrow at Bempton and notably I saw my second ever Hudsonian Godwit too.

Scops Owl

Black-faced Bunting at Spurn

Hudsonian Godwit

My Life list stands at 455 but I expect to lose Hooded Crow and Green-winged Teal at some point when they're lumped. The bogey bird remains Tawney Pipit.

The pointless year list was 249 and not my worst despite having such limited time to enjoy the hobby. I found hours out rather than days out to keep things ticking over more so in the spring than this autumn.

I added Arctic Warbler and Dotterel to my Essex List (284) and added five to my Suffolk list (284) with the Cisticola, Black Stork, Tree Sparrow, Red-tailed Shrike and Brown Shrike. Kent (273) saw just one addition with the Booted Eagle. My local patch list grew with the addition of Green-winged Teal, Dunlin and Red-breasted Merganser. (169) and I added five to my Herts list (187) Pec Sand, Night-Heron, Baikal Teal, Black Redstart and Yellow-browed Warbler. The Norfolk list, London area list  and garden list didn't move.

Black Stork

Brown Shrike

Turkestan Shrike

Outside of Essex birding was limited to more local trips to Cambridgeshire (4) Suffolk (7) Herts (5) Kent (2) Surrey (2) Buckinghamshire, Norfolk (3) and longer runs to Yorkshire (Bempton and Spurn), Devon for the Lesser crested Tern twitch and just the one venture into Wales for the Scops Owl. (Just 28 days where I ventured out of Essex for birding)

The best bird in terms of its rarity would have to be the Booted Eagle I suppose although Britains first breeding Cisticola gives it a run. In terms of best bird to photograph I suppose that would be the Black Stork but I also enjoyed the Phalarope on the local reservoir, the Glossy Ibis on the local meadow and the time at Landguard with a Purple Sandpiper and Snow Buntings amongst others depicted below.

Snow Bunting

Grey Phalarope

Stonechat

Purple Sandpiper

Tree Sparrow

Gannet

Glossy Ibis

Spotted Sandpiper

Great Reed Warbler

Little Ringed Plover

Little Owl

Tundra Bean Goose

Long-billed Dowitcher

Glaucous Gull

So on reflection 2025 was a challenging year for me personally, thankful for the support I've had from the family and grateful for every moment I get with my grandchildren and for the satisfaction and enjoyment I still get from birding, long may that all continue.

So in 2025 the only real missed opportunities that were twitchable and within my limited travel range were Grey Headed Lapwing (Northumberland), Eastern Bonellis Warbler (Dungeness) and the Eastern Subalpine Warbler that spent three days in Filey and my only excuse for not getting any of these is that I was just too busy at the time to go for them.