2025 Annual Summary
Unfortunately 2025 was a fairly quiet year for us on the birding front; health issues and weather combined to reduce our outings. It wasn’t a particularly good year for high tides either, with then coming either too late in the day or too low to be of much value. So, for the year in total there were only 137 species observed.
Our birding year started mid January with our annual visit to Lanzarote where we got a lot of the birds we expect to see there and nowhere else. We didn’t see any Houbara Bustards; however we did get very close views of a pair of Egyptian Vultures while we were walking in El Jable – they flew overhead very low down giving fantastic views.
In February a visit to Burton Mere Wetlands gave us a surprising pair of Avocet – well, surprising for the time of year. Another visit there in March also gave us Goosander, Egyptian Goose, Pintail and, of course, Marsh Harriers. I put up a new birdbox with a Wi-Fi camera but it wasn’t used at any point in the year despite some initial curiosity on the part of a pair of Blue Tits.
A visit to New Brighton and Hoylake for a high tide on 4th March gave us the usual Purple Sandpipers and the usual waders you would expect on the Wirral at high tide. We went to Marshside on 18 March and got very good views of a bog flock of Golden Plovers and a pair of Spoonbills and at Martin Mere on our way back we got Mediterranean Gull. The first Sand Martins of the year for us were spotted at Brockholes on 25 March.
In April we went down south; among other things, we visited Ham Wall and Shapwick Heath. We stopped off at Slimbridge and got great views of a pair of Cranes that flew right in front of us almost at head height. In April we also explored Leosowe a bit more but didn’t get the Whinchat and Ring Ousel we were looking for. Our hedgehogs seemed to appear while we were away so I set the camera traps up and they did show up for us but, as the month went by, they appeared less and less and then nothing! A bit of a mystery.
The first two weeks of May were incredibly hot and sunny with no rain to speak of until the 26th May. We lolled around lazily in the garden to take advantage f it but did at least see our first Swifts of the year. A Visit to Macclesfield Forest on 6th May got us Pied Flycatchers attending a nest box and a little flock of Mandarin Ducks. We also go the first House Martin of the year there.
In June we went on holiday to Nerja where we didn’t do any birdwatching – too hot!! – but did see a life-tick Gull-billed Tern from a beach bar. Back home a trip to Burton got us Spotted Redshank and breeding Spoonbill. They also have their first breeding Sand Martins – and they even use the Sand Martin bank that was made for them for the first time.
A July trip to Marbury Park on 2st July 2025 got us Garden Warbler again. At home we continue the battle with the Ring-necked Parakeets who make feeding smaller birds increasingly hard to achieve. We went to North Wales between the 24th and 26th July and we were right not to expect to see (m)any sea birds. However we got good views of a few Choughs at South Stack. We got the remnants of the Tern colony at Cemlyn Bay but, again, it was too late in the year.
August was a complete miss for us regarding birding. We had so many other things to do.
September was quiet for us also but atrip to Burton late in the month gave us a nice Water Rail; all the better for the fact that I discovered it before anyone else at the reserve – at least that day! A new feeder is my latest try in the Parakeet wars.
In October we had an overnight stay near RSPB Leighton Moss but again circumstances dictated that we couldn’t get out as much as we would have liked. We had to go to a funeral in Bristol and to decompress on the way home we stopped off at WWT Slimbridge where we got a Temminck’s Stint. In the garden birds seem to be fewer and fewer. I can’t tell if it is because there is still food in the wild or the combination of unfamiliar feeders, Parakeets and cats. We actually saw a neighbourhood cat catch and kill a juvenile Collared Dove in our back garden!
November we were back up the Wirral on the 6th getting about forty-two species one morning over the various sites we go to. The highlight of the year was undoubtedly the Lapland Bunting we got at Leosowe Lighthouse on 13th November. We also got Snow Buntings the same day – along Leosowe promenade.
December was also a bit quiet. We had a birding group morning on 2nd taking in Leosowe, Parkgate and Little Neston. The last day of term for the birding group was at Moore Nature Reserve where it was bucketing down with rain but eventually dried up a bit. We had our planning meeting at “Pesto at The Walton Arms” which turned out to be a good – and popular – choice.
In the end, the only life-tick of the year was the Lapland Bunting.
Bird Sightings UK 2025
| No | Species |
|---|---|
| 1 | Avocet |
| 2 | Barnacle Goose |
| 3 | Bar-tailed Godwit |
| 4 | Bearded Tit |
| 5 | Bittern |
| 6 | Black Guillemot |
| 7 | Black Swan |
| 8 | Blackbird |
| 9 | Blackcap |
| 10 | Black-headed Gull |
| 11 | Black-tailed Godwit |
| 12 | Blue Tit |
| 13 | Bullfinch |
| 14 | Buzzard |
| 15 | Canada Goose |
| 16 | Carrion Crow |
| 17 | Cattle Egret |
| 18 | Cetti's Warbler |
| 19 | Chaffinch |
| 20 | Chiffchaff |
| 21 | Chough |
| 22 | Coal Tit |
| 23 | Collared Dove |
| 24 | Common Sandpiper |
| 25 | Common Scoter |
| 26 | Common Tern |
| 27 | Coot |
| 28 | Cormorant |
| 29 | Crane |
| 30 | Curlew |
| 31 | Curlew Sandpiper |
| 32 | Dunlin |
| 33 | Dunnock |
| 34 | Egyptian Goose |
| 35 | Fieldfare |
| 36 | Gadwall |
| 37 | Garden Warbler |
| 38 | Goldcrest |
| 39 | Golden Plover |
| 40 | Goldeneye |
| 41 | Goldfinch |
| 42 | Goosander |
| 43 | Great Black-backed Gull |
| 44 | Great Crested Grebe |
| 45 | Great Spotted Woodpecker |
| 46 | Great Tit |
| 47 | Great White Egret |
| 48 | Green Sandpiper |
| 49 | Greenfinch |
| 50 | Greenshank |
| 51 | Grey Heron |
| 52 | Grey Wagtail |
| 53 | Greylag Goose |
| 54 | Herring Gull |
| 55 | House Martin |
| 56 | House Sparrow |
| 57 | Jackdaw |
| 58 | Jay |
| 59 | Kestrel |
| 60 | Kingfisher |
| 61 | Kittiwake |
| 62 | Knot |
| 63 | Lapland Bunting |
| 64 | Lapwing |
| 65 | Lesser Black-backed Gull |
| 66 | Linnet |
| 67 | Little Egret |
| 68 | Little Grebe |
| 69 | Little Ringed Plover |
| 70 | Long-tailed Tit |
| 71 | Magpie |
| 72 | Mallard |
| 73 | Mandarin Duck |
| 74 | Marsh Harrier |
| 75 | Marsh Tit |
| 76 | Meadow Pipit |
| 77 | Mediterranean Gull |
| 78 | Merlin |
| 79 | Mistle Thrush |
| 80 | Moorhen |
| 81 | Mute Swan |
| 82 | Nuthatch |
| 83 | Oystercatcher |
| 84 | Pheasant |
| 85 | Pied Flycatcher |
| 86 | Pied Wagtail |
| 87 | Pink-footed Goose |
| 88 | Pintail |
| 89 | Pochard |
| 90 | Purple Sandpiper |
| 91 | Raven |
| 92 | Red Kite |
| 93 | Red-breasted Merganser |
| 94 | Redshank |
| 95 | Redwing |
| 96 | Reed Bunting |
| 97 | Reed Warbler |
| 98 | Ringed Plover |
| 99 | Ring-necked Parakeet |
| 100 | Robin |
| 101 | Rock Dove / Feral Pigeon |
| 102 | Rook |
| 103 | Ruff |
| 104 | Sand Martin |
| 105 | Sanderling |
| 106 | Sandwich Tern |
| 107 | Shelduck |
| 108 | Shoveler |
| 109 | Skylark |
| 110 | Snipe |
| 111 | Snow Bunting |
| 112 | Song Thrush |
| 113 | Sparrowhawk |
| 114 | Spoonbill |
| 115 | Spotted Redshank |
| 116 | Starling |
| 117 | Stock Dove |
| 118 | Stonechat |
| 119 | Swallow |
| 120 | Swift |
| 121 | Teal |
| 122 | Temminck's Stint |
| 123 | Tree Sparrow |
| 124 | Treecreeper |
| 125 | Tufted Duck |
| 126 | Turnstone |
| 127 | Twite |
| 128 | Water Rail |
| 129 | Wheatear |
| 130 | Whimbrel |
| 131 | White-fronted Goose |
| 132 | Whitethroat |
| 133 | Whooper Swan |
| 134 | Wigeon |
| 135 | Willow Warbler |
| 136 | Woodpigeon |
| 137 | Wren |