time to get the garden moth list started...

ended our leaders' meet up with a lazy wander around @rspb.bsky.social Arne reserve, with soaring Ospreys, a showy Dartford Warbler and snoring sows #WildlifeTravelling

a roasting day on the Purbeck heaths, catching up with @wildlifetraveller.bsky.social leaders a whole suite of rare Purbeck inverts, Hobby and Woodlark and Dartford Warblers, lovely Lesser Water Plantain, overly friendly pigs, screaming Sika Deer, and my most wanted plant... Mousetail at long last

What a time to be alive!! #FliesofBritainandIreland coming out SOON @dipteristsforum.bsky.social @teamdiptera.bsky.social @dipterists.bsky.social

in a moment of idleness during a 24 hour layover yesterday, I found this tool for analysing @inaturalist.bsky.social records & discovered that seven of my records are the sole occurrence for that species amongst the 250million+ inat records which signifies nothing, but made me smile #NotARealJob

Lot of wonderful photos from @wildlifetraveller.bsky.social holidays now available at www.flickr.com/photos/wildl..., including mine from the joy-filled Cyprus Christmas 2025 trip and some amazing bird images from @wildlifeprecey.bsky.social in Bhutan… Ideal to banish the winter blues!

well worth the early start this morning we had Tharpaling Monastery and it's famous Himalayan Monals all to ourselves. #Bhutan has been mind-blowing: stunning scenery, friendly people, good food, easy travel and AMAZING wildlife

all the #oof used up for today, with a hyperactive group of Fire-tailed Myzornis (Myzornises?) at Latong La, Bhutan well, that's the colour scheme for the spare room sorted! #NotARealJob #BirdsArentReal

Bhutan is full of exciting, exotic, near mythical birds: Himalayan Monal, Beautiful Nuthatch, Fire-tailed Myzornis, Ibisbill, Ward's Trogon... but the bird I most wanted to see was this one, White-crested Laughingthrush, a feature of childhood nature books and zoo visits #DreamBird #JobDone

glad I packed my shorts...

another couple for the Redstart fans White-throated Redstart (hiding his white throat) and Plumbeous Redstart (minus any red at all) Bumthang, Bhutan

consider that gob well and truly smacked the first thing my guide did when I arrived in Bhutan, was manage my expectations. Spring is the time for pheasants: maybe we will find Blood Pheasant, Kalij perhaps, but for the others... no chance. a male Satyr Tragopan ambling calmly across the road wow

well there's a thing I never thought I'd see: not one but two Critically Endangered White-bellied Herons, of which perhaps no more than 60 birds exist, and even that is thought to be an optimistic count Bhutan is probably the best last hope for this stately bird #VisitBhutan #BhutanBirdTours

and at last the temperatures rose high enough to get some butterflies on the wing #WildlifeTravelling in #Bhutan #ButterfliesOfBhutan #VisitBhutan with @langurecotravelsbhutan and @tourismbhutan

Bhutan day 4: travelled down from Trongsa into the foothills, spending time with this characterful crew along the way jst in case it hasn't become immediately obvious, we will definitely be bringing a group to #Bhutan. Get your name on the list for spring 2027: you won't regret it! #VisitBhutan

and I'm not the only one stalking these Bhutan roadsides... came round the corner this morning to see a pack of Dhole, who quickly put some distance between us and the same stretch of road had some very fresh Tiger pug marks #MammalWatching and #WildlifeTravelling in #Bhutan

a wing-flicking Wallcreeper, just before lunch road verges are a bit different in Bhutan! #VisitBhutan #WildlifeTravelling in #Bhutan

a covey of 14 Blood Pheasants along the old Pele La road #WildlifeTravelling in #Bhutan

as the sun sets for the last time in 2025, it turns out a Wallcreeper just before lunch was my 1010th bird of the year, including 152 lifers there have been some crackers, from Emperor Penguin to Ibisbill and 2spp of Helmetcrest, with a party of Red-headed Bullfinch as bird number 1000

Today's journey took us to Phobjikha Valley, home to Hodgson's Wagtail, Royle's Pika, swarms of Plain Mountain-Finches and at least 150 Black-necked Cranes Fingers crossed for closer crane encounters tomorrow... #WildlifeTravelling in #Bhutan #VisitBhutan #BhutanBirdingTours

today we drove east, from Thimphu, the capital, to Bhutan's largest protected wetland, the Phobjikha Valley, via two passes over 3,000m asl, some good looking redstarts and a couple of exciting Himalayan finches #VisitBhutan #BhutanBirdingTours

five minutes from the airport... a bird I first looked for 25 years ago, unsuccessfully, on the Kosi River with @birdingdad.bsky.social something tells me I'm going to enjoy Bhutan!

Headed to the Himalayas for New Year, I had a spare day to spend in transit in Delhi spent it in a jetlagged blur of little brown jobs, masses of waterbirds and ten lifers around Sultanpur National Park, thanks to Sanjay from Asian Adventures

Screamers, done Northern Screamer, my third and final member of the #Anhimidae doing what screamers do best, on the outskirts of Barranquilla. only 28 years after I last looked for it, whilst backpacking in Venezuela

a brightly coloured morning in the dry coastal forests of Los Flamencos expecting things to take on more of a rosy hue this afternoon... #WildlifeTravelling in #Colombia

major oof-age up in the clouds of Los Nevados, with a friendly Buffy Helmetcrest smiles all round #WildlifeTravelling in #Colombia

while the hummers buzzed about, some more sedated visitors entertained us at the feeders #WildlifeTravelling at Hacienda El Bosque

we spent this morning at the dairy farm turned ecotourism hotspot, Hacienda El Bosque, where birds are now the major economic driver yet more wonderful hummers, including those with the longest (Sword-billed Hummingbird) and shortest (Purple-backed Thornbill) bills #WildlifeTravelling in #Colombia

up to the Sumapaz paramo this morning, south of Bogotá and 3500m asl Green-bearded Helmetcrest was the star of the show, along with Apolinar's Wren (both endemic to #Colombia) and some spectacular scenery well worth the early start #WildlifeTravelling

back to the US for a three-tick road trip (Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Clapper Rail & King Rail, coincidentally on "No Kings" day) from AOC's Queens down to Trumpian Virginia Beach & back, via Monarchs aplenty on Cape May, some fun late-summer flowers & a random suburban colony of Collared Doves #NoKings

a poser of a Connecticut Warbler in Madison Square Park this afternoon was the 18th warbler of my long weekend in New York, followed by a stonking Yellow-breasted Chat in Verizon Plaza, my "most-wanted" for this visit. #UrbanBirding gets no better

an Arctic Warbler in New York is just... 🤯😵‍💫 I made do with a bright Dickcissel on Governor's Island ebird.org/checklist/S2...

Next spring, in addition to our regular orchid-focussed itinerary, @jameslowenwild.bsky.social and @wildlifeprecey.bsky.social are looking forward to spending a week enjoying Cyprus's amazing bird life. wildlife-travel.co.uk/europe/cypru...

our 2026 holiday brochure is ready to download from our website. Have a read, and let's start making plans for the year ahead! wildlife-travel.co.uk/our-holidays...

vast numbers of 7-spot Ladybirds on the move along the Essex coast this afternoon at least 150 per minute flying north just on this one section of footpath, constant since midday, vegetation full & occasional biters... it's like the 80s all over again #InsectMigration #TheGoodOldDays

idling the weekend away on some muggy Essex sea walls A couple of new plants, and don't think I've ever seen so many Gatekeepers or Marbled Whites #WildFlowerHour

blue skies restored today, as we headed up to the top of Karwendel for our final morning in the #BavarianAlps turf studded with colourful alpine flowers; mountain butterflies included Dewy Ringlet, Alpine Grizzled Skipper; and an Alpine Chamois spotted from Germany's second highest cable car

fueled by apfelstrudel, we wandered the fen meadows of Pulvermoos a mess of Dactylorhiza genes stretched from the creamy Dactylorhiza incarnata subsp ochroleuca to the elegant Dactylorhiza traunsteineri, with Musk Orchids amongst them today's dose of lousewort came in the form of King of the Moor

a flash of pink caught my eye amongst the municipal plantings in the centre of Mittenwald... not what I expected amongst the Dasiphora & Cotoneaster, a spike of Red Helleborine, just in time for #WildflowerHour #UrbanPlants don't get much better than that! #WildlifeTravelling in the #BavarianAlps

an exciting day up the Wankberg, with some great high mountain butterflies, Long-beaked Lousewort (any day with a new Pedicularis is a good day in my book) and a thunder storm #WildlifeTravelling in the #BavarianAlps

a hot day out in the vastness of Murnauer Moos plenty of butterflies on the wing, with Dusky Large Blue, Geranium Argus & Large Heath amongst the stars Siberian Iris was plant of the day, and singing Common Rosefinch & Marsh Warbler kept the birders happy #WildlifeTravelling in the #BavarianAlps

a day of cheeky choughs, spectacular views and architectural flowers up the Zugspitze and then a circuit of the Eibsee #WildlifeTravelling in the #BavarianAlps

a room with a view the imposing sight of Karwendel, looming over the Alpine town of Mittenwald, home for the next week #WildlifeTravelling in the #BavarianAlps Servus!

a trio of gruesome Aristolochias at Munich Botanic Gardens nachste halt, Mittenwald... #WildlifeTravelling in the #BavarianAlps

just some of the orchid highlights of a week's worth of #WildlifeTravelling in the #Cevennes and #GrandsCausses, just in time for #WildFlowerHour with @tomforward.bsky.social and @wildlifeprecey.bsky.social

one last #MothBreakfast before we head home from the #Cevennes a crisp Spurge Hawk-moth, friendly Arctia tigrina, giant Four-spotted Footman and an ostentation of Giant Peacocks set us up nicely for a day on the rails. #WildlifeTravelling with @wildlifeprecey.bsky.social & @tomforward.bsky.social

a few more Cretan endemics from the last few days Zelkova abelicea from the White Mountains Centaurea redempta Dianthus xylorrhizus, for some reason restricted to just one or two hills in western Crete Ovaliptila lindergi, a cave cricket found in a handful of caves along the north coast #Crete

a relaxed day on #Crete, with Red-rumped Swallows and Red-footed Falcons, and a ridiculously range-restricted, critically endangered tree: Salix kaptarae, seemingly endemic to just two sites in Crete, with a population of fewer than 50 individuals

today's visit to Elafonissi coincided with some ace "vismig" migration: tired Roller & Collared Flycatcher on the rocks, 2 Nightjars, 4 Golden Orioles "in-off", Turtle Doves, 6 Purple Herons & more + Colchicum rechingeri, it's only European outposts being a handful of western Crete beaches #Crete