The night sky in January and passes by the International Space Station

Best birds of 2025

Despite several periods of ill health and the demands of being in a rock band, I still managed a decent year total of 241 species in the UK. Yet again several expected birds eluded me: Common Redstart, Pied & Red-breasted Flycatchers, Little Auk, Bonxie and enough others that I could probably have reached 300 if I'd really gone for it! Apart from a three-day trip to Yorkshire in June, however, virtually all of the birds were seen in Norfolk and Suffolk, so I reckon that's quite a reasonable total...

January, Shorelark, Holkham

Short-eared Owl, Shingle Street

Red-necked Grebe, Whitlingham CP

February: Glaucous Gull, Holme

March: Lesser Whitefronts, Stiffkey

April: Ring Ouzels, Salthouse Heath

April: Long-eared Owl, North Norfolk common

May: Red-footed Falcon, Carlton Marsh

Black Tern, Ranworth Broad

June: Night Heron, Cley

Honey Buzzard, Hemblington Church

July: Black Stork, Boyton

September: Black-winged Kite, Hickling

Lesser Grey Shrike, Winterton

October: Turkistan Shrike, Dunwich Heath

Brown Shrike, Hollesley Common

November: American Golden Plover, Titchwell

December: Eastern Black Redstart, Cromer

Cromer Peregrine on a family walk

Linda's son Simon and daughter Emily, their partners, children and dogs met up in Cromer for a post-Christmas present exchange and lunch. Simon and Jo live a short walk from Cromer Lighthouse, so after lunch we took a walk through the woods to the cliffs. Cromer Church is visible at various points and even at a distance one of the resident Peregrines was easy to pick out... We also saw of Ravens from S & J's front room window!

Christmas supper!

A lovely evening spent with dear friends Sue, Margaret and Peter. As usual, the evening took place around the dinner table, with kiln-smoked Brancaster Salmon, Dauphinoise potatoes and asparagus (With some excellent wines, naturally!)

The Moon and Saturn...

...side by side in the southern sky.

Green-winged Teal at Buckenham RSPB

Third time lucky! I've had three goes at adding this species to my year list, dipping at Holkham and Lackford. When the pager announced last night that a drake was just up the road, I resolved to get dressed early and go for a look at first light. A careful scrutiny of the vast flock of Wigeon on the main pool (where RBA was reporting the bird) revealed very few Teal and certainly not the one I was looking for. I was just about to leave when Local birder Dave Edwards arrived, with the news that the teal had been - and probably still was - on the Mill Pool, not where RBA claimed.

A trudge eastwards and a careful search seemed to be fruitless, until Dave found the bird asleep under a distant bank. Other birds of note were 100+ Black-tailed Godwits, several Stonechats and a flock of Fieldfares.

Eastern Black Redstart: a real 'star from the East'!

The lure of this beautiful little chat was too powerful to ignore, so, after Linda and I had opened our presents and enjoyed a special breakfast, we headed north through the empty lanes to Sheringham. Within five minutes we were enjoying super views at close range: we didn't move - the bird came to us! Nice to bump into old acquaintance and super-birder Rob Holmes...

Happy Christmas!

Winnie-the-Pooh!

I have mentioned this a few years back, but with this year being the official centenary of W-t-P, I thought it was worth recalling: the first book Linda and I had published was a photographic  catalogue of all the Disney Winnie-the-Pooh plush toys. At the time we were the largest 'secondary market' sellers of these delightful collectables, selling them online from our website 'Tigger Trading' and at fairs all over the UK, from Exeter to Newcastle! We ran info sites for collectors which received millions of 'hits' from all over the world. It was great while it lasted and was our way into online commerce, from Tigger Trading to the Space Station, the Flightline and finally Spacerocks UK and Linda's Gems.